The Kitchen Musician ~ August, 2013

Hello Friends,

Come into the kitchen. I have a moving story to tell you about a modern medical miracle, and how it has connected two strangers. I take my tea with honey. How about you?


Index
  News:
  This Month’s Music: My Mother’s Face
  Upcoming Shows
  Featured Non-Profit: Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Tom Smith
Photo: © 2012 Dan Tappan


News

I am continuing my holiday at our family cabin on Peabody Hill in Jaffrey, NH. It is such a gift to escape from civilization, and the busy-ness of my day job. The peace here inspired this little poem.

Outside my cabin door a wood thush calls
A feathered soloist
Allegro as the morning stalls
Behind a glowing mist

The flames inside my fireplace
For it was plied with pine
Accompany her masterpiece
With warm staccato sounds

I wonder in my busy day
How many times this happens
A song is sung. A drum is played
But I choose not to listen


© 2013 Tom Smith


This Month’s Music
My Mother’s Face


Click the image above to play the video.
My Mother’s Face
© 2013 Tom Smith, with thanks to Mally Smith
Lyrics in the comments section below.

In May, my daughter Mally Smith shared a web link to a press conference at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. At this press conference, Mally’s friend Marinda Snow Righter spoke about her mother Cheryl Denelli-Righter and helped to introduced Carmen Tarleton. Carmen is the recipient of a face transplant by donation from Marinda’s mother after her untimely death. I was deeply moved by Marinda’s words – and the remarkable story of how these women became united.

For three months I struggled to put this wonderful story into music. Thanks to the peace here on Peabody Hill and to several phone calls and emails with my daughter Mally, it came together quickly once it started to spill out. Mally was very helpful – telling me some details about her friend Marinda, Marinda’s relationship with her mother, and providing helpful feedback through several versions of this song.

I did not know Marinda’s mother, but listening to Marinda describe her love for life, her resilience after losing her husband to a drunk driver when Marinda was only two years old, and the love she and Marinda shared, I am certain that we would have been good friends. Carmen Tarleton is inspirational – with a big heart and strong spirit. Following the attack by her ex-husband who beat her with a baseball bat and burned most of her body with industrial strength lye, she was horribly disfigured – but alive and fighting to rebuild her life.

Let’s hear them tell their story. Please do take the full eighteen minutes to view the video below. It will touch your heart – and leave you with admiration for the face transplant team at Brigham and Women’s hospital. For details about this video, see The Verge.

The photo below is Marinda and Carmen at the press conference, the day after they first met.

[Update: Aug 11, 2013] Click to hear Melissa Block’s interview with Marinda and Carmen on NPR’s “All Things Considered”.

Wishing you and your loved ones summer days full of water play, ice cream cones, music and dance.

Play on!

~ Tom

(If so inclined, I invite you to leave a comment by scrolling to the end of this page.)


Upcoming Shows

I am taking a break from public performance this summer, but I have several great shows coming up in the fall.

Sunday, Sept. 22, 2013, 2:00 pm: Concord, MA
With The Chanticleers at The Olde Manse. Mostly traditional music with Kate Chadbourne, Pat Kenneally, Robert Phillips, Linda Abrams and Oen Kennedy. Free.

Friday, Oct. 11, 2013, 8:00 pm: Framingham, MA
Opening for David Mallett at Amazing Things Arts Center. David is one of the great songwriters of our time. It is an honor to open for him at this wonderful venue.

Saturday, Oct. 12, 2013, 7:30 pm: Rockport, MA
I am a great admirer of James Keelaghan’s music, so I jumped at the chance to open for him at this great Rockport venue. Noted music critic Dave Marsh calls James Keelaghan “Canada’s finest singer songwriter.” It doesn’t get any better than this.

Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013, 8:00 pm: Rochester, NY
Returning to Songwriters in the Round at Tango Cafe, hosted by Brian Coughlin. Joining us are my good friends Steve Gretz and Leslie Lee. Great venue, great music, great company!

Sunday, Oct. 20, 2013, 7:00 pm: Rochester, NY
This is an old fashioned music gettogether, hosted by my good friends Steve Gretz and Leslie Lee. I will do the feature set this evening.

Sunday, Nov. 3, 2013: Concord, MA
I am featuring at this long-standing open mike, hosted by the remarkable Ellen Schmidt. I will be joined by my daughter Mally Smith, and Mally will be accompanied by very special guest, violist Laurence Scudder.

Click to view details for all upcoming shows.


Featured Non-Profit: Brigham and Women’s Hospital

“Recognized internationally for its excellence in patient care, its outstanding reputation in biomedical research, and its commitment to educating and training physicians, research scientists and other health care professionals, Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) is a 793-bed teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School located in the heart of Boston’s renowned Longwood Medical Area. Along with its modern inpatient facilities, BWH boasts extensive outpatient services and clinics, neighborhood primary care health centers, state-of-the art diagnostic and treatment technologies and research laboratories.”

With this month’s story originating from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, I invite you to contribute to their good works.

What do you think?

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8 Comments
  • Tom
    August 4, 2013

    My Mother’s Face
    © 2013 Tom Smith
    with thanks to Mally Smith

    My mother’s face
    Would watch me when I was a little girl
    She would kiss my cuts and scrapes,
    Then send me off to navigate my brand new world

    My mother’s face
    Saw an adolescent needed time and space
    Though I was acting bolder
    I still kept her at my shoulder just in case

       For I knew that I was wrapped in love
       When I was in the presence of

    My mother’s face
    Could almost hide when she was feeling sad
    She tried hard not to show
    That It wasn’t easy going without Dad

    My mother’s face
    How I long to kiss that freckle on her chin
    To give back all that she gave to me
    I’d take her in my arms like she did when

       I knew that I was wrapped in love
       For I was in the presence of

    My mother’s face
    Still looks at me beyond her final breath
    She played life just like an instrument
    So why should she be different in death

    My mother’s face
    She gave it to a stranger’s tragedy
    Now we can learn to live again
    This stranger with a freckled chin, and me

       For we know that we are wrapped in love
       We are in the presence of

    My mother’s face.
    My mother’s face.

  • Brian Geraghty
    August 5, 2013

    Thank you so much for this Tom. Marinda and I can’t stop crying as we drive down Highway 101. Marinda says its a healing cry and the most beautiful thing she’s ever heard. Thank you so much again, so so touching.

  • Marianferg@aol.com
    August 5, 2013

    Fabulous! A real to. Smith song. Thank you, mally, for,the inspiration.

  • Nancy Roberts
    August 6, 2013

    I take my tea with honey, too, a few miles from Jaffrey. This is such an inspiring story and a beautiful song. Thank you for working it through and sharing it.

  • Deb Goss
    August 6, 2013

    Extraordinary. The story…the song…mothers. Almost didn’t think I could listen, but glad I did, of course. Never imagined I’d know someone this close to such a miracle.
    The first anniversary of my Mom’s passing is fast approaching and today is the day we lost my Dad. Both of them lost their fathers young and their mothers carried on. All of their faces surround me here in photo and in memory.
    PS – i got my new knee at Brigham & Women’s this summer – indeed a fine place.

  • Susan Noble
    August 6, 2013

    Just the words “My mother’s face” by them selves are poignant. Perhaps it is because for most of us her face is the first one we see when we come into this world…I don’t know, but but those three words tightened my throat and brought tears to my eyes before you’d sung any more of the song. What a beautiful tribute to a mother, a daughter, a stranger, and the love that bound them all. Beautifully executed.

  • cooper
    August 6, 2013

    wow

    you continue to astound me!

  • Hank Mixsell
    September 1, 2013

    Tom,
    I can’t stop crying! Once again you have done what you do so well – tell a story in song – only this time you have surpassed yourself in richness of verse, simplicity of melody, and depth of understanding. The world should hear your interpretation of this amazing moment in life. Bless you, Tom, and bless Mally for bringing you this gift.