Claudia, I'm not too sure where to begin, only because "Thank You" doesn't seem to due justice to what I have felt since seeing you in your Joni Mitchell Tribute concert. I was anticipating a wonderful musical show due to how much I've enjoyed hearing the band members separately. But that night, experiencing you all together, plus the addition of your guests, left me floored beyond words. Thanks to my mom, a child of the '60's, a self-proclaimed "flower child" and civil rights activist, I grew up listening to and singing wonderful music of that era, including Joni Mitchell. Mom walked down the isle to Clouds. As the family story goes, when she took a walk-through of the church where she was to be married, she heard what turned out to be the building's custodian on his lunch break, strumming out Clouds and hired him on the spot to perform during the ceremony. As a child, long car rides always included sing-a-longs and that was when my brother, Andy and I learned Circle Game. The funny thing is, since we always sang it a cappella, I never heard the musical introduction until the day he sung it at my youngest son's Dedication so I didn't recognize it until I heard his first word. The tears of childhood memories mixed with a mother's pride flowed then just as they did the night of your performance, once again, for the child I was and the parent that I am.
Thank you for sharing your gift with us. Thank you for bringing me to a wonderful place of musical comfort that night. Thank you for allowing me to bring a piece of you home with me in the form of "Makin' Lemonade". If it means anything to you, playing your cd at least twice through while I was loading and unloading my dishwasher this morning made an extremely mundane task rather exciting!! Always, Wendy
