You can't make old friends
Texas always pulling on my heart strings
It feels weird to write about anything other than the tragedy that has occurred in the Texas Hill Country. I was just there a couple weeks ago, on the beautiful Guadalupe river, the same one that flooded and caused so much unspeakable devastation in Kerr County.
Heaven or the Hill Country
Last week, I got to go to one of my favorite places on planet earth for a long weekend. We were celebrating my boyfriend’s mom’s retirement in Gruene, TX. A tiny town in the Texas Hill Country, nestled between Austin and San Antonio, right on the Guadalupe River. I absolutely love it there. Few natural areas touch my soul as deeply as the landscape of Central Texas. The rivers, the trees, the gentle hills. The green. Tex Mex, BBQ, and margaritas. And more than that, it’s the music, the people, the old bars and dancehalls. It’s a feeling that I get nowhere else.
I’m working on something to help raise money for the relief efforts in the area. If I can get it all organized, it will launch Monday. No promises, but I’m trying. I plan to devote next week’s Substack to talking about it all. In the meantime, if you want to donate, very reliable sources on the ground tell me this is the best place:
The Community Foundation Kerr Country Flood Relief
but for now, a bit of a lighter note…
You Can’t Make Old Friends
For the last two+ years, I’ve been pretty much non-stop touring. It’s been go mode. Which I love! But, it has meant that any travel I did usually revolved around playing shows. This summer, since my solo tour wrapped up at the end of May, I’ve been making a point of traveling for fun. I’ve been calling it my “First Adult Summer” where I get to make plans and go on trips.
So, I got to spend Fourth of July weekend in DFW with my family and my oldest friends in the world, and it was amazing. The first night, I flew in to Dallas and hung with my mom. We had a girls night where we went to dinner, and then we sat on her back porch and I played her all the demos I have for my new record.
When I played her my new songs she said “You’ve gone country!”. She likes the new ones. It’s become a little bit of a tradition for us that I show her my demos before I make the record. With Time Ain’t Accidental, I played her some of the demos and explained that a few of the songs were inspired by experiences I had with being on dating apps in LA and she said, “You gotta stay on those, it’s working”. ha!
The next day we went to Kaboomtown in Addison, TX with my dad and my aunt. Kaboomtown is the largest fireworks display in all of DFW and according to the American Pyrotechnics Association (I just learned that is a thing) it is one of the top ten "must see" Fourth of July events in the nation. My parents and my Aunt go every year, and I haven’t been since 2018 or so. I actually forgot how mind blowing this fireworks display is! We had fun.
Then on Friday, I drove my dad’s massive truck out to Cedar Creek Lake, about 50 miles southeast of Dallas, for the annual fourth of July weekend that some of my oldest friends in the world host every year. I missed it last year, so it meant a lot to get to go this year.
The whole weekend felt so connected and sweet and loving, and I feel really lucky to have friends that I’ve known since I was a kid. What a blessing! How rare! And somehow, I grow to love these people even more with each passing year. As time has gone on, I’ve come to appreciate more and more how important it is to have your day ones.
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