como yo

It’s been quite a month. The day my last missive went out, I got an email from my friend Evan, who had been living with cancer for 18 months. The email was to be sent out by his family in the event of his death. I had been holding my breath for about two weeks, but honestly, it was more like two months. It was also Evan’s 35th birthday. He truly committed to every bit, even the morbid ones. I love him so much and feel so grateful to have known him for the 14 years that I did. I feel this loss so profoundly, on several levels, especially because Evan was such a huge supporter of my work, and because he taught me how to really, truly make art in a very brave and unapologetic way. I feel so lucky that I got to see him one more time in April, when I went to LA to play a special house show for him.

A fun thing I got to do at the end of last month was sing backup for one of my favorite musical projects, Y La Bamba. We headlined Empty Bottle and Do Division, and I learned 16 songs to prepare - the majority in Spanish! It was challenging, but I loved it. Luz is an incredible writer with an innate talent for harmonic structure, particularly in vocal and guitar parts. Shout out to my gemela, Mercedes, for being my partner in backing vocalist crime.

I also want to mention that I was on The Great American Folk Show! Thank you to Prairie Public and NPR Podcasts for having me. You can listen to the episode I’m on at the link below, and a fun thing is that it includes the demo version of “Where You Ride.”