JoDan Music 01: Too Many Rabbits

That’s all good, I’m very seldom bored, but you know the saying: if you chase two rabbits, you won’t catch either one. Well, throughout my life, I have nonchalantly meandered after a whole family of rabbits.

When I was a small child, my father bought a soft white doe, a female rabbit, and had her bred. He put her in a wire cage and soon there were seven tiny pink kits. Daddy warned both my sister and me against touching them. “If you do,” he said, “the mother rabbit might abandon them, not have anything more to do with them and they would die.”

I didn’t get that at all. I don’t know about my sister, but I couldn’t help myself. I touched them; I picked them up and cuddled them.

I’ve since learned that 9 out of 10 times, the mother will care for the baby after it has been handled, but this was not the 10th out of 10 times because all the baby rabbits died.

I grew up wanting to be a performer and a writer, but instead, I got married very young, later got divorced, and had to figure out how to support myself and my two children. After some research, I chose Information Technology, took some college courses, and spent twenty-five-plus years in that field. The money was good, but inside, there was always that voice that said I was on the wrong path. I told myself that someday I would get myself on the right one, and I finally did.

All the while, I was writing songs, chronicling my life with them. I now have so many that most will go the way of the dead rabbits, but I loved writing them, singing them, harmonizing them, and creating the melodies. And I hope my husband Dan and I can keep the best ones alive as well as the new ones we’ve written together and share them with as many of you as possible.

Dan is more of a heavy metal guy while I am a lighter rock and country rock girl. Before the pandemic, we were playing together as a twosome, but he was also playing with a heavy metal group and recording with them, as well as doing sound engineering and other work in the music field. So, he didn’t have a lot of free time.

I had already completed my album “Winds of Change,” but I see now that I had given up on ever recording any more of my music.

About a month or two before the pandemic began, I started a more solitary project, writing a book. It kept me busy and entertained all through the time we were secluded and gave me a creative outlet. I guess I didn’t stop to realize that my husband needed a creative outlet as well when his engineering and other work in the music field completely dried up.

Between one and two years later, I completed the book and had just started sending out query letters when another rabbit popped up.

Dan became excited about one of my songs and wanted to produce it. That was “Along for the Ride,” which we recorded at Fast Horse Studio here in Austin TX. Dan followed that with a frenzy of personal songwriting. Now, I’m happy to say that we are continuing to record and produce our music and will be distributing the songs to streaming platforms as we go.