Carolyn was invited by a local luminary to sing for a benefit being held on October 25th for The Jacksonville Center for the Arts. Here is a description of the event and of the highly accomplished musicians with whom she is singing.

A couple of afternoons ago, Colleen Redman and her husband Joe paid us a visit. Colleen is a local writer, poet and journalist. (Her literary web site is here.) She came to interview Carolyn for The Floyd Press. We talked briefly on the phone the night before to make arrangements. I hung up the phone and said, “This is a meeting that was destined to happen. I can’t wait!” And, indeed, we all had a really nice time together. Paul and Joe walked all over our homestead and discussed many interesting and useful things. Colleen and Carolyn and I also discussed something interesting which was Carolyn and the path that has led her to this point in her life and her singing.

As the afternoon shadows drew longer, it seemed like a good idea for Carolyn to sing a little so that Colleen could get a feel for what her singing is like. Carolyn sang several pieces accapella right out there next to the cow pasture under the spreading chestnut tree. Colleen’s nifty little camera also takes video and she captured this brief bit of the end of Carolyn singing O cessate di piargami by A. Scarlatti.

The words (as translated from the Italian by me, mind you) are:

Either leave off tormenting me
or leave me to die.

Eyes, ungrateful, pitiless.
You, more like ice or marble

So cold and deaf to my torture.

Somehow seeing Carolyn sing in this setting with her simple intimate gesture at the end of the video touches my heart every time I watch it. I thank Colleen for capturing this moment and thank Carolyn for being such a noble daughter blessed with deep feeling and a rich, rich voice.

Colleen’s article will appear in The Floyd Press next week. I really look forward to reading it and will provide a link to it once Colleen puts it up on her blog. Again, the link to the video Colleen took of Carolyn singing is here.

From the beautiful mountains of southwest Virginia,
Leslie

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