The Kitchen Musician ~ Sept. 2015

A new song written for a very special person this month ~ my greatest fan. Come into the kitchen. I’ll introduce her to you.


Index
  News:
  This Month’s Music: “Quietly Sung”
  Upcoming Shows
  Featured Non-Profit: National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization


Tom and Sean Smith at Club Passim.
Photo: Phil Knudsen


News

I have a busy show schedule this month. I am especially charged up to appear in Dedham at the Motherbrook Arts and Community Center in concert with Seth Connelly on Saturday, Sept 26th at 8:00 pm. More details below and also at this link. Seth and I will be doing two full sets. Any show with Seth at my side is a memorable one! I can’t wait to share this evening with you. Bring a friend!


This Month’s Music
Quietly Sung


Quietly Sung
© 2015 Tom Smith
Lyrics in comments below

On last Thanksgiving weekend, my mother, Carmen Smith died. Thanksgiving was a favorite holiday of hers, as it is mine. Her sons, daughters-in-law, and most of grandchildren and great-grandchildren were with her that weekend. We sang her favorite songs, told stories, laughed loudly and cried quietly. She would have been 89 years old this month.

Tommy and CarmenMy mother was born in Tacoma, WA in 1926. She left an abusive household at age thirteen to live on her own – working in a boarding house and also taking care of a local physician’s children while attending a Catholic high school in Spokane, WA. She met Tommy Smith, an Army Air Corp private at a skating rink in 1942 shortly before he shipped out to the South Pacific where he spent the next three years during World War II. Communicating exclusively by mail, she agreed to marry him when he returned in the spring of 1945, provided she could finish high school first. She graduated with honors. Then at eighteen years of age she crossed the continental United States alone via train to join her betrothed in Scranton, PA. She found the coal mining town of Scranton to be a very strange place. I recall her telling me how her new mother-in-law laughed at her confusion to see people shoveling black rocks into their stoves.

Smith-familyMy mother raised four boys. Her greatest pain was losing her first born, Terry when he was eighteen years old to a car crash on Christmas Day in 1965. Studying on her own from books, she received her nursing license and put in a twenty-five year career at the local state mental health hospital where she worked the night shift so she could take care of her sons and home during the day. After her retirement, she volunteered to take care of numerous poor and elderly men and women in the last months of their lives.

Mom “walked lightly” on this earth. Through all of the pain and difficult economic times, she kept her positive outlook, was quick to laugh, and spent her entire life in the service of others. She had a positive word for and about everyone she met. Considered the “Mother Teresa of Northeastern Pennsylvania”, she was the personal assistant for a great many priests in her local Catholic parish. At her funeral mass, three of the four living heads of her parish insisted upon sharing the celebrant duties – almost coming to blows to decide who would deliver the eulogy.

Two months ago I was preparing her house for sale when the nucleus of this song came to me. It was a moving experience to handle all of the common objects that made up her daily life – her sewing kit, her baking pans, her boxes of memory cards and photos, her rosary, and so much more.

Mom-and-the-boys

Tom, Dale and Guy with our mother Carmen

I am so fortunate to have had this wonderful woman as my model for how to live my life. She has “shown that success is not gathering more, and courage does not always roar”.*

Sing on!

– Tom

   * From this poem by Mary Anne Radmacher

      Courage doesn’t always roar.
      Sometimes courage is the quiet voice
      at the end of the day, saying,
      “I will try again tomorrow.”

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


Upcoming Shows

Thursday, Sept 17, 2015 at 7:00 pm, Worcester, MA
Sea-faring Songs at Nick Noble’s The Folk Rivival Show on WICN 90.5FM Worcester. Also streamed live at WICN.org.

Sunday, Sept 20, 2015 at 2:00 pm, Concord, MA
The Chanticleers joyfully return to the Old Manse in historic Concord, MA. Kate Chadbourne, Oen Kennedy, Pat Kenneally, Robert Phillipps, Linda Abrams and I perform traditional Irish/English/American and original music with guitar, harp, flute, banjo, boudhran, harmonica, and other instruments. Weather permitting.

Monday, Sept 21, 2015 at 7:00 pm, Portsmouth, NH
WSCA Writers in the Round at WSCA 106.1 FM, also streamed live at WSCA.org.

Saturday, Sept 26, 2015 at 8:00 pm, Dedham, MA
In concert with my hugely talented friend Seth Connelly at Mother Brook Arts and Community Center, 123 High Street, Dedham, MA 02026. This is going to be a good one! Please join us.

Sunday, Sept 27, 2015 at 2:00 pm, Concord, MA
I am pleased to play a small part in this gathering at The Old Manse to remember Jake Kensinger, hosted by Ellen Schmidt. We will perform songs that Jake sang and songs and spoken word inspired by Jake’s life as a musician and patron of the arts. Bring your voice – there will be many opportunities to sing along. If weather does not permit, we will move this event to another location indoors. Please watch my website or Facebook for last minute details.

Saturday, October 24, 2015 at 8:00 pm, Rochester, NY
Brian Coughlin’s “Songwriters in the Round” series, with my good friends Leslie Lee and Steve Gretz in the Rochester, NY area. Call Brian at 585-235-5263 for location and to reserve a space. We did this each of the last two years and both dates were very memorable.

Sunday, October 25, 2015 at 7:00 pm, Rochester, NY
Old Time Music Night at Greece Baptist Church, with my good friends Leslie Lee and Steve Gretz

Click to view details for all upcoming shows.


Featured Non-profit: National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization

Hospice-LogoThe mission of NHPCO is “To lead and mobilize social change for improved care at the end of life.” Their vision: “A world where individuals and families facing serious illness, death, and grief will experience the best that humankind can offer.” My family experienced how this organization lives their mission at the end of my mother’s life – and also the ends of life for several other family members and friends. The National Hospice Foundation is the fundraising arm of NHPCO. Please join me in supporting their good work.

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17 Comments
  • Tom
    September 13, 2015

    Quietly Sung
    © 2015 Tom Smith (ASCAP)
    “Courage does not always roar” – from a poem by Mary Anne Radmacher

    How many miles have you sewn with that needle and thread?
    How many church fairs have sold your zucchini bread?
    How many abandoned old people have you put to bed?
    A life that you strummed
    Like a song to your son
    Quietly sung

       Quietly sung, Quietly sung
       A life that you strummed
       Like a song to your son
       Quietly sung

    How many times have I left you alone at that door?
    Expecting that when I returned you’d feed body and soul
    It’s strange how a mother is never supposed to grow old
    A life that you strummed
    Like a song to your son
    Quietly sung

    [BRIDGE]
    Success is not gathering more
    Courage does not always roar

       (It can be) Quietly sung, Quietly sung
       This life that you strum
       Like a song to your son
       Quietly sung

  • Deborah Goss
    September 13, 2015

    I knew I was taking a big chance by listening to this and sure enough I’m in tears! Your Mom’s remarkable life story is actually the 3rd one I’ve heard this summer about a Mom who was hugely challenged by a dysfunctional family of origin, by WWII and the depression, but who raised fine families despite the losses and sadness. And my Mom too…though her family was ‘functional’ in most senses, she came from a big family who lost their father in childhood and a sister during their 20’s. She sewed. And she sang. etc… Bless you for commemorating those you’ve known with such marvelous musical praise!

    • Tom
      September 13, 2015

      Thank you for the kind words, Deb. It seems commonplace to say they were of “the greatest generation” – but I believe that may be so. What remarkable time to live one’s life. I was very fortunate to have such a role model.

  • Oen Kennedy
    September 13, 2015

    Hi Tom. I heard this song today live at the Blackthorn Public House in Easton for the first time and it was with tears pouring down my face, literally from the first stanza onward. It isn’t simply the familiarity of your imagery (which hearing deepened my feeling of kinship with you) or the lovely melody, or even the poetry (which is really fine) or even the combination of great lyrics with well matched guitar on a subject near and dear to my heart. It is also your voice and your bearing. Kindness, compassion, and honesty are in every note and inflection of your voice and gaze from your eyes. I really feel total trust in you…as much as anyone I’ve ever known. Your songs touch me deeply and I feel really fortunate to be in a time and place where you are also, sharing your songs. Bless you Tom Smith and thank you.

    • Tom
      September 13, 2015

      Oen, my brother… thank you deeply. You are a musician like no other – someone who carries me away with every song, every chord, every note and every word. I have so much admiration for you, both musically and personally, that your kind words make my heart sing all the louder, all the stronger, all the truer. I know that you too lost your mother recently. Carry on my friend. – and love to you.

    • Anne Sandstrom
      September 15, 2015

      What a beautiful tribute, Tom. And I thought of you. Oen, too and your mom. If there’s a hereafter, I’m sure they’re both looking down with pride and two remarkable sons.

  • Elaine
    September 13, 2015

    Dear Tom,
    Was just thinking of you today and have been thinking of your mother since the September calendar page first got turned. In my 50’s while studying for my nursing degree, I had to give a talk about the person who most influenced me in my life. Of course it was Carmen. So I described her and her smile, how she always had a big hug waiting for me. I believe that she inspired me to become a nurse. I ended my talk by saying-“I hope everyone has an Aunt Carmen in their life”. (Amen!) I can only imagine what a difficult time this has been for you and Dale and Guy. Thank you for your words and your song. 🙂 Love to all, Elaine

    • Tom
      September 13, 2015

      Hello dear cousin! Yes, I know that you also meant a great deal to mom. She looked forward to those many letters, cards and photos from Kansas – and spoke to me often of them and your phone calls. We were both blessed. – Tom

      • Elaine
        January 12, 2016

        Blessed indeed. How I miss her still…
        Elaine

  • Hank Mixsell
    September 14, 2015

    Thank you, Tom, for expressing – with deep emotion – so simply, precisely, and universally the gratitude and love we all have had for our mothers. You’ve said and sung it all.
    Hank

    • Tom
      May 9, 2021

      Thank you, Hank!

  • Pat K.
    September 14, 2015

    Thank you for sharing this song and your Mom’s story. She was a remarkable woman. And I’m sure you made her very proud.

    • Tom
      May 9, 2021

      She was a very special person. My greatest inspiration.

  • cosy sheridan
    October 16, 2015

    Thank you for this lovely tribute to your mother Tom. How loving and kind and beautiful.

    Thank you, too, for the quote from Mary Ann Radmacher’s poem.

    cosy

    • Tom
      May 9, 2021

      Thank you, Cosy! We carry on!

  • Barbara Steele
    December 22, 2015

    Tom,
    I don’t know how I missed this post but never saw it until today. I loved the old photos of your mom and dad and family. She was an incredible woman with such strength. Your song moved me to tears. Your line about coming home and Carmen feeding both body and soul was well put…I remember how she cooked and baked whenever anyone was coming home…I still use her recipe for bread…But her feeding of the soul was what I will remember even more…ever supportive and loving…One thing she wrote to me during a tough time ended with “Life is just One Big Adjustment!” She handled all her adjustments with grace and supported us “younguns” through ours with finesse. She is missed but her strength and love live on through you and Dale and Guy and your families. Many hugs to you all.

    • Tom
      December 22, 2015

      Yes Barbara. Everyone who spent time in her presence is better for it. Thank you for the kind words… and the hugs. 🙂