Georgia on my mind! and my new home...

Georgia is on my mind! I pulled in very early yesterday morning and played the Wednesday night show last night. I still have Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to go, so if you’re around south Georgia, you should come out! Thursday’s show will be on the patio from 6 – 10pm, and Friday and Saturday shows will be inside from 8:30pm – 12:30am.

If you are my friend on Facebook, chances are that you already know that I have once again moved – this time into a 2007 Toyota Tundra, pulling a 25 foot travel trailer! Amazingly enough, monthly payments on a truck, travel trailer, and insurance are less than HALF of what I was paying for rent before! Gas – that’s a different story… ; ) But this move is one that I’ve been contemplating for a very long time, and I’m so glad that I finally had the motivation necessary to move forward with buying it! The story behind my motivation is a long one, but I’d like to share at least part of it with you.

I played a gig on Saturday, September 4 at the cigar bar (Music City Cigars & Lounge) in Nashville on Broadway. This has become sort of my “home” gig. Around midnight, a man came in and sat down to listen. Through the next couple of hours, my interaction with him revealed that he was from UK. I told him about my friend Gary (who was English), and how Gary had passed away 3 years ago on September 10. After I shared that story with him, he shared that he was a funeral director in England. A year ago, he did a funeral for a man who was not only his age, but literally born on the same day as he was. The man had been killed instantly in a car crash. Burying a man his exact age shook him up to the point that it really hit him that his time could be over at any point – we never know. Right then, he decided to take a year off his job to do what he’d always wanted to do. He has been traveling the world and has been in 11 different countries in the last 10 months. This year has been a very difficult year for me personally, and as I shared some of my story, he encouraged me to “live like I were dying”. Although I have always been extremely conservative financially, I decided that although after 6 years of no car payments had been wonderful, it was time. I bought the truck Friday, and the trailer Monday. It is quite a financial undertaking, but not nearly as much so as the house I had been renting for the last 2 ½ years, and I will still be able to try to work through the medical debt that I accrued earlier this year.

Making a decision this big is TERRIFYING for me! But I know that it was the right one. The venue I’m playing now is a marina with campground hookups, so it couldn’t be more convenient. I was able to come let my Sierra (my dog) out on my break! Having her as a constant traveling companion is a HUGE benefit for me and her, and I love having her with me all the time. It was so nice to be able to set up my gear before the show tonight, then run over to the trailer to take a quick shower before performing! In addition to that, I have my own space, my own freedom, something that belongs to me – and NOT a SUITCASE on board!! The plan now is to live in this at least all the time I am on the road and to maintain a rented room in Nashville for the interim until I figure out a different long-term plan.

I will be back in Nashville next week. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I have a CT scan scheduled next week to explore some cysts on my kidneys. I’d really rather NOT accrue any more significant medical debt, so your prayers are appreciated!

The end of this month, I will be back in Virginia. I am VERY excited to be playing the Newport News Fall Folklife Festival on October 3, just 2 days after my birthday, so hopefully I’ll be older and wiser for the performance… ; ) I also have shows scheduled at several other venues – see the calendar below for details.

I had the extreme pleasure to see 2 concerts at the Bridgestone arena in Nashville in the last month – the first was Ray Lamontagne and David Gray (any of my show-going fans probably know I’m a HUUUGE fan of Ray!) and the second was last weekend to see George Strait and Reba McEntire. Both concerts were amazing, and really inspired me! I have begun to write again, and am hoping to have some new material ready by the end of the month when I come to Virginia.

I plan to begin blogging a lot more often, so be sure to check that out – it’s at www.karismithmusic.blogspot.com if you’d like to read or follow it. I also have a borrowed video camera, so I’m hoping to get some new songs recorded to check out on YouTube! To see what videos I have posted already, check out www.youtube.com/musickari and add my channel. If you’re not following me on Twitter, the link is www.twitter.com/karismithmusic.

Thanks AS ALWAYS for your continued support!

My best –

Kari