{"id":878,"date":"2013-11-07T14:12:45","date_gmt":"2013-11-07T20:12:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/?p=878"},"modified":"2013-11-07T14:14:58","modified_gmt":"2013-11-07T20:14:58","slug":"wendy-colonnas-musical-personal-resurrection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2013\/11\/07\/wendy-colonnas-musical-personal-resurrection\/","title":{"rendered":"WENDY COLONNA’S MUSICAL AND PERSONAL ‘RESURRECTION’"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brad Goins<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wendy Colonna, one of the best known musicians of our area and of Austin as well, just came within a hair\u2019s breadth of giving up music altogether.\u00a0She was in the midst of a long, grueling tour, and discovered, as she never had before, what a toll touring can take on the body.<\/p>\n

Colonna got a fungal lung infection that weakened her severely. Then, she says, \u201cmy immune system crashed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet she continued to perform and follow the demanding schedule without a break. \u201cI was touring heavily. I went to Europe [to perform].\u201d<\/p>\n

The illness just got worse. Her weakened immune system left her prey to a series of infections. \u201cIt was scary as all get out \u2026 I coughed the whole show. I had to sleep sitting up.\u201d\"Wendy<\/a><\/p>\n

In November, 2010, Colonna called it quits. \u201cBecause touring was my primary income,\u201d she writes in her new book True Stories. Lyrics., \u201cit was a scary prospect to take a break from music to heal, but after several visits to the hospital, I had no choice. I basically walked away from my career and the music because I couldn\u2019t physically do it anymore. And I was broke.\u201d
\nBoth the physical and mental aspects of the situation eventually brought Colonna to the point that she seriously questioned her future in music. \u201cI wasn\u2019t sure I wanted to stay in music,\u201d she says. \u201cIt almost killed me.\u201d She writes: \u201cPerhaps the resistance, debt, struggle and more were just not adding up to a sustainable life.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was thinking, she says, that \u201cI know there\u2019s something else\u201d \u2014 something more than the harsh demands of the big tour.<\/p>\n

\u2018An Amazing Second Chance\u2019<\/strong>
\nColonna was at one of those crossroads where people make big, life-altering decisions. \u201cIt was a pivotal moment,\u201d she says. \u201cI told the universe or God or whatever, \u2018You are in charge. I\u2019m not driving anymore. I\u2019m going to stop being willful.\u2019\u201d
\nShe began to regain her health. She started seeing a nutritionist and training for a half marathon. And she experienced a flurry of new song-writing and performing opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I surrendered, opportunities showed up. To me, it was a resurrection \u2026 I was given an amazing second chance.\u201d
\nDuring a trip to Belgium, she found herself participating in a \u201cmagical\u201d project: a spontaneous recording made with a new band that \u201chappened very quickly\u201d and came together in a highly gratifying manner. (The record, an EP titled Barefoot in Belgium, has been called a \u201creturn to a grassroots approach to making music.\u201d)<\/p>\n

She continued to ask herself questions about just what she should be doing with music and whether those actions should differ from the ones she\u2019d taken in the past. \u201cWhat is the music doing?\u201d she wondered. She eventually \u201crealized music is a refuge; a place where people go for permission.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Phoenix\u00a0And The Bee<\/strong>
\nBecause Colonna saw her new, thoughtful, approach to music and living as a kind of \u201cresurrection,\u201d it makes sense that she would say her big new CD, Nectar, is her \u201cphoenix story, in a way.\u201d\"WendyColonna_Nectar\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Nectar, she says, is also about \u201cauthentic relationships, and doing it [in this case, music] for the right reason.\u201d Such musical relationships might include those between song writers, between musicians and producers, between performers. There can even be relationships between songs and people; in True Stories. Lyrics., Colonna describes songs as \u201cunique entities who are born of me [that] evolve as they make relationships with others.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CD\u2019s \u201ccollection of songs,\u201d says Colonna, \u201cis really human, forgiving of being human, vulnerable. [The songs are about] being OK with being human.\u201d All of this is in sync with Colonna\u2019s aforementioned realization that music is a place for refuge and permission. Of Nectar, she writes, \u201cI had grieved a lot over the previous few years and realized there was strength in the vulnerability, in the scars. It was OK to be exposed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colonna has said Nectar is \u201cmy dark record\u201d \u2026 \u201cI had a few songs waiting in the wings that were more melancholy than the upbeat stuff on Right Where I Belong and We Are One, and they needed a place.\u201d But she adds that Nectar is also \u201cdeep and sweet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nectar is so multi-genre that it wouldn\u2019t make much sense to try to pigeonhole it as having a particular type of sound. Colonna suggests that it could be described as \u201csouthern soul,\u201d and more specifically, that it falls \u201cunder the big umbrella of Americana.\u201d By Americana, I think she means the many forms of music that have been popular in the various regions of the U.S. down through the years; in other words, \u201croots music\u201d in a broader sense than the term is usually used.
\nNectar, she says, is \u201ca beautiful, amazing record. It\u2019s probably the best I\u2019ve ever done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colonna drew the prominent bee on the CD\u2019s cover, as well as the wild flowers. These are the very flowers you can see in Louisiana right now. (The brown box around the bee and the monochromic colors of the flowers give the cover a nice collage and experimental art look.)<\/p>\n

These art works depict \u201cwhat makes me what I am,\u201d says Colonna, who has an academic background in bees.<\/p>\n

Notes On Nectar<\/strong>
\nAs this record covers all the big aspects of life, it\u2019s little surprise that it has a place for childhood. Colonna says the song \u201cThe Water\u2019s Fine\u201d is about innocence. And there\u2019s something of childhood in the record\u2019s third song, \u201cShelter And Be Kind,\u201d where Colonna salutes her personal roots with the lines \u201cI am a great-granddaughter of the Mermentau. \/ My granny was 3\/4 French and 1\/4 Choctaw.\u201d<\/p>\n

But you can hear the melancholy side make its appearance in the song with the lyrics \u201cTry to remember that the sun doesn\u2019t always shine\u201d \u2014 words that were said to Colonna by her grandmother. And there\u2019s a bit more melancholy from Colonna\u2019s past in this song; there are, for instance, words about the time her father, a tank driver in World War II, had his teeth kicked out by Gen. Patton. (Colonna swears the story\u2019s true.)<\/p>\n

On a musical note, listen for the psychedelic keyboard solos in this song. They\u2019re a treat. There\u2019s also distinctive instrumentation in the fourth cut, \u201cThe Water\u2019s Fine,\u201d which features a strummed ukulele. The song sounds like a 1920s pop song. The leisurely \u201cDance with the Moon\u201d also sounds like a popular tune from a decade before rock \u2018n\u2019 roll. In the background, a musical saw plays quietly; it sounds a bit like a Theremin.<\/p>\n

Lines from the song reflect Colonna\u2019s new intention of letting things go as they go in preference of trying to impose her will:
\n\u201cI watch the fireflies dancing in the field behind the store.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are not fighting, in the way I was before.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t detect the vein of melancholy in the lyrics of the songs of Nectar, you\u2019ll hear it clearly in the sadly lyrical, off-kilter, major-and-minor-key piano solos of \u201cWhen Love Comes My Way.\u201d The melancholy is present in both music and lyric in the song \u201cMother Forgive Us,\u201d a leisurely folk ballad with the lines \u201cOh, Mother, please forgive us when we know what we know and we still do.\u201d<\/p>\n

When I write \u201cmelancholy,\u201d I don\u2019t, of course, mean that the music is funereal or anything of that sort. It\u2019s usually quiet and lyrical, occasionally in a sort of wistful way. The CD has enough upbeat pop and folk tunes to keep the mix lively.<\/p>\n

\u2018Unfold Your Myth\u2019<\/strong>
\nNectar has quite a bit more going on than most popular music recordings. In contrast, Colonna\u2019s future is simple. She\u2019s promoting her new work.\u00a0\"WENDY<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAll I do is promote this record \u2026\u201d she says, \u201c[while I] eat and sleep and [am] walking.\u201d<\/p>\n

As she started this project in January, she\u2019s devoted a full nine months to it thus far.<\/p>\n

And why is she promoting it in Southwest Louisiana \u2014 even to the point that she had her CD release party at Luna Live back on Oct. 25. \u201cI wanted to cover the home bases\u201d first, she says. Home, for Colonna, is Lake Charles.<\/p>\n

After this initial, regional, tour, the CD will be promoted on an extended international tour. If you want to see where Colonna will be playing, or get a copy of Nectar, visit her site at wendycolonna.com.<\/p>\n

Colonna prefaces her book with an imperative from the great mystical poet Rumi: \u201cUnfold your myth.\u201d Each of us does this. Some of us work hard at it; some don\u2019t. Colonna seems to be working pretty hard. It\u2019ll be interesting to see what forms her myth takes in coming years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brad Goins Wendy Colonna, one of the best known musicians of our area and of Austin as well, just came within a hair\u2019s breadth of giving up music altogether.\u00a0She was in the midst of a long, grueling tour, and discovered, as she never had before, what a toll touring can take on the body. [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":879,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4],"yoast_head":"\nWENDY COLONNA'S MUSICAL AND PERSONAL 'RESURRECTION' - BestOfSwla<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2013\/11\/07\/wendy-colonnas-musical-personal-resurrection\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WENDY COLONNA'S MUSICAL AND PERSONAL 'RESURRECTION' - BestOfSwla\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Brad Goins Wendy Colonna, one of the best known musicians of our area and of Austin as well, just came within a hair\u2019s breadth of giving up music altogether.\u00a0She was in the midst of a long, grueling tour, and discovered, as she never had before, what a toll touring can take on the body. 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