Yaya & CMA Awards!
What a night! Being nominated for song of the year more than once in a songwriter’s life is a big freakin’ deal. I wore a purple dress instead of my usual black to celebrate the occassion.
Deana & Matraca
There were so many bittersweet moments. Deana brought her mother and it made us all think of Deana’s father, the late great Fred Carter, one of the greatest guitar players of his time. Fred was so proud of Deana, and he was most proud of her songwriting.
It made the night that much more special. Deana became very emotional when Kenny and Grace sang You and Tequila. She told me she’d never seen a major artist sing one of her songs. I was stunned. It truly brought a sweet new light to the evening. Kenny and Grace’s stripped down acoustic version sounded incredible, but they were on the stage behind us and we had to look at their backsides the whole time! grrr… Grace makes me want to go back to the gym. She is in amazing shape and what a beauty… and all that talent..bah!
Earlier this week we had an even sweeter event take place. Jeff’s first son Jaime and wifeDorian had a baby! I am to be called the yaya… stepgrandma sounds icky. I’ve been in the family for 20 years now so I guess I need some kind of grandname. The baby’s name is Declan James Hanna. A good strong celtic name – Grandpa is happy bout that. The kids are in heaven! I knew Jaime’s wife when she was just a girl. Her father, Harry Stinson, has played on our records and wrote hits with me…for years! What an amazing thing. Big hippie family, ideed. It will be fun to see what Declan has in mind for himself in the coming years.
Yaya
Now off to rest. Too many parties this week for a yaya…
Love the song You and Tequila, you should get Deana to sit in with the ladies on a wine women and song set…
What a wonderful week for you, I’m so happy for you. I was wondering when I will be able to see the video that you did with my old roommate Jack Spencer. Jack is also a writer and singer, I have the masters of some stuff I produced with him and Sonny Landreth back in the days when we all lived is Colorado. That’s also when I met Jeff, his “friend” worked for me at my bar in Estes Park.
I sure hope you travel up here to Minnesota soon. Last time you were here we met, I am also a friend of Steve Conn.
Take care and continued good luck.
Rick
Incredible blog post, I await updates of your stuff.
That’s really great for you Matraca you seem to be having a great life. I don’t know if you’ll ever even see this but I had two questions about your music itself. One, I saw on iTunes Lying to the Moon and Speed of Grace and also noticed that “Easy To Tell” was included on Lying to the Moon (which it isn’t on the physical copy I own) and recall hearing that was suppose to be on Bittersweet Surrender, well as for my question, do you think that the Bittersweet Surrender CD will ever be released co the public? My second question, is you said you had started writing for the next album is there any idea as to when it will be released? Just so you know your albums are amazing (Sunday Morning to Saturday Night is my second favorite CD ever)
Gator
Thank you for coming to the Kent (OH) Stage last night. It was an incredible surprise to get to see and listen to you. You are very talented. Please come back to the Akron/Canton area again for a full show sometime.
Was at the Opry Oct. 27 for your appearance– it was great! Look forward to seeing you perform again. It’s well worth the drive from Central Alabama.