For the past seven years, the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival has been a late-summer pilgrimage for our family — soaking in the music, the community, the particular magic of Lyons in August. This year, I finally brought some songs to the table.

I finally got the momentum pointed in the right direction and submitted two original songs to the Songwriter Showcase, with the big reaching dream of being chosen as one of the 10 finalists that get to showcase a few songs from the main stage.  I've watched this showcase/competition eagerly each of the past seven years, imagining myself up on that stage.  It is always an amazingly creative and talented group of musicians…Wish me luck.  

The two songs couldn't be more different from each other. Doot Doodle-ooo came out of my work as a hospice nurse, written after a patient whose jaw had locked up left me with a refrain I couldn't shake. Papa's Pliers was written to honor my father-in-law's retirement from a seventh-generation family farm outside Sioux Falls — a song seed I'd been carrying for fifteen years before the right moment arrived to plant it.

Both songs feel true to me. That's about all I can ask.  I just posted them to the top of my music page.

And yes, that's a #3 tarp run lottery ticket in the photo. If you know, you know. I'll say this: even if I somehow end up on that Folks Fest stage as a finalist, I guarantee I will still be sprinting for position on Friday morning. Some things are non-negotiable.

Fingers crossed. More to come.