Lindsay Smith: News/Journal

I really didn't think I was going to make it this month, but here it is, just under the wire, posted at 11:55 p.m. on August 31st! Thanks to my drummer boy for filming me.

I'm thinking of playing a gig soon. I'm also starting a new band. Whether I actually can do that, my job, my housewife/mom duties, and still maintain my sanity is an open question. Still, stay tuned; I think some stuff will start to be happenin' up in here.

For those of you who are new to the Song of the Month Club, welcome! The challenge: to write a song for each month of the year, using that month as both title and jumping-off point.

I'm getting this one in just under the wire!

July

This video features a glimpse of what my musical life looks like now: kids banging on the bongos, husband trying to trade drum solos with Vivi (who of course would not do it when the camera was rolling; she's actually got really good rhythm for a one-year-old), and friends gamely agreeing to help me out with my Song of the Month. Enjoy!

Junebug (song for June)

Sometimes I miss the instant gratification of playing live shows, when I could write a song, play it the next night, and get an instant read on whether it was going anywhere. I don't necessarily miss the spotlight; it's just the creative process I miss right now. I've gone back and forth on the whole rock star thing, but I have always, always wanted to be a songwriter. So when my friend Allen Rein started posting song videos on Facebook and calling it Song of the Month Club, I thought it was a great idea! Admittedly, it has taken me a while to get on board, but hey, why not start with May? May is a perfectly good place to start. The rules, as laid out by Allen:

The challenge: to write a song for each month of the year, using that month as both title and jumping-off point.

So here goes, with one caveat: I may change the names of the songs after I write them. I really love naming my songs, and I will not deny myself that pleasure.

It's Your Day (song for May)

I'm holding myself to this, so check back next month!

The CD is finally as done as it can possibly be! It's available for sale on CD Baby, there are actual, physical CD's in my basement, and that feels good.

As fate would have it, the actual completion of the CD project (which ran a tad late) coincided with the completion of the baby project (which ran a tad early), leading to the ridiculous scenario of me on the phone with the CD duplication house while my water was breaking saying, "The proof looks good! Go ahead and run the project! I'm on my way to the hospital to have a baby, so I may be difficult to reach for the next few days, and I would like to have the CD's shipped to my home address rather than the work address I gave you previously. Thank you."

By the end of that day, I had a baby girl named Vivian Van Wyck Rinehart, and the CD's arrived just as we brought her home from the hospital. I tend to have a searching, worrying nature, but for the moment, I feel utterly complete.

You know, I've never really liked babies. I've always figured I would put up with having a baby for the eventual joy of having a kid. Now that she's here, though, I am utterly charmed by my tiny little girl, and I completely understand why irritatingly smiley older women say things like, "Don't you wish they could stay so precious forever?" I don't wish that, but I do understand the sentiment. She is so warm and soft and utterly perfect just the way she is.

She's going to be a fun one, my girl, I can tell. She spent nine months doing gymnastics or martial arts or something in the womb, so I am unsurprised when people tell me she's unusually strong and mobile for a newborn. Her first message to the world was an attempt to come out butt first. Revolution! Joni Minstrel would be proud.

Obviously, there are some things that won't happen with the CD; a full band CD release party isn't exactly practical at the moment, and the time I'll have to spend lovingly sending off copies to be reviewed and/or played on the radio will be very limited. But that's OK because you know what? This one's for me and for you, the music lovers, the ones who honestly don't care what genre this stuff fits into as long as the sounds we're hearing please our ears and the songs say things we want to hear. If you true fans out there buy copies, I'll be able to pay for the pressing, and that's all I want.

I've spent the last nine months trying to prepare for being a mom, only to find out that it happens instantly. No other baby's cry sounds like Vivian's. Nothing comes higher on the priority list than keeping her fed, changed, and happy. Having my life revolve around an infant feels much more normal than I thought it would, and we are happy.

Viva la Vivian!

Ah, spring in Georgia, how I love thee! Soon your pollen count will rise, and your humidity will descend upon us like a plague, but for these few weeks in March and April, there is nowhere in the world I would rather be than here with you!

Let me count the ways:

Birds in sky? Check!
Buds on trees? Check!
Spring in step? Check!
Song in heart? Check!

All I'm missing is a bluebird on my shoulder.

The new CD is really almost here, and it's very exciting! Everything relating to the music is done; I'm just finalizing artwork now. I may not make my target release date of April 15th, but I do think I'll have it for you by the end of April.

In other news, as you may have noticed, I have a new web site for you to look at. I hope you like the new design. For my part, it is much easier to update than the old site was, which means I may actually go back to writing these journal entries once a month or so instead of letting half a year go by between each entry. (Whether you think that's a good thing depends on whether you ever read The Goober Diaries in the first place, I suppose.)

It's Renaissance Festival season again, but Joni Minstrel will be taking a leave of absence this year, appearing only opening weekend (April 18-19). I'll sneak in some new CD's if I have them by then and some preorder forms if I don't, so mark your calendars if you haven't decided yet which weekend will be GARF weekend for you this year!

Oh, and the reason for this leave of absence? I'm having a baby in June. No, seriously! I never thought I would be saying that, but it's true; I'm going to be a mom. Derik and I are both very excited, and it brings me back to my springtime theme because pregnancy certainly feels appropriate at a time when all the animals are perking up and all the trees are starting to bloom. I've certainly never felt more like a member of the animal kingdom than I do right now! Pregnancy has its downsides (don't get me started), but it's also pretty amazing. There's a little girl in there growing herself out of nothing more than two tiny bits of Derik and me, and I'm not doing anything more than providing a space for her to do it in. How does she know how to make herself? How does her body already know what it's going to look like? How does she already know who she's going to be? It's crazy, man. Crazy and beautiful and, let's face it, a little gross.

I'm glad I decided to call my album Beautiful Life. It totally fits.

The new Lindsay Smith album, Beautiful Life, is almost here! Final mixes are done, and we're on to the mastering stage. Featuring Lindsay's most personal and compelling work to date, Beautiful Life will hit stores in April. Want to get your copy sooner? Watch this space for information on how to pre-order!