The Making of a Super Hero

We are on the homestretch now, finishing up the overdubs on my new CD for Delta Groove records, Super Hero. It is slated for a mid June 2009 release. This is my ninth international release and my first for Los Angeles based Delta Groove. It is a very raw, emotional project since I am still a bit raw and emotional from my struggle with cancer less than a year ago. Making this CD is a true triumph and victory for me and I am so grateful for this chance.

I produced “Super Hero” with my guitarist, 26 year-old Bay Area virtuoso Laura Chavez. Laura and I co-penned six of the fourteen songs on it, and we feel pretty proud of the results. We had my eldest son Evan Caleb playing drums on most of the tracks except for the two that feature percussionist Stephen Hodges of Mavis Staples and Tom Waits fame. My long time friends, guitarist Dave Gonzales of the Paladins/Hacienda Brothers and sax player Jonny Viau, lent their talents to the recordings as well as my label mates, the scorching guitarist Kid Ramos and harmonicat and stellar crooner Mitch Kashmar. Paul Loranger played bass on the entire recording and it also features Greg Rutledge on piano. Its been really fun recording this CD at Joey Altruda’s studio on Melrose. I have known Joey for twenty years plus, since my early days in Hollywood when he was known as Tupelo Joe and then later from the King King club where he often played with his swingin combo, Jump with Joey. He and engineer Donnie Whitbeck have been incredible to us and done great work on Super Hero. We recorded live to two-inch tape in this classic studio where George Burns, Gracie Allen, Eddie Cantor and Bing Crosby recorded their radio shows. It has been incredible to be in such a magical space.

Last year at this time, I didn’t even know if I would still be alive, much less making another recording! The title; “I’m a Super Hero” is the name of one of my songs. It was the first song I wrote after my Whipple surgery for pancreatic cancer on April 18, 2008. I was so fragile when I came home from the hospital and could barely open my mouth to speak audibly, much less sing. I had 150 stitches in my belly after an intense, eleven-hour surgery that removed parts of at least five of my organs. Frustrated at my inability to sing normally, I held my guitar and strummed it daily. I believe in the healing power of music and I knew the guitar vibrations would be good for my traumatized body in addition to helping me stay focused on music. Eventually, I was able to muster up the strength to sing just a little and I wrote “Super Hero” as a folk song. My voice was so vulnerable and fragile that it was hard at first to project, but I’m proud to say that I am back and belting like my old self again. Super Hero has been revamped as a funky song and it’s a fitting name for this recording that represents victory over the biggest hurdle in my life. I just hope that everyone likes it as much as we have enjoyed making it.

On March 20, we will embark on a four- week tour of Europe and Scandinavia. I am so happy to be alive that I took every single gig that came my way, once I started feeling better. I am so grateful to be working when so many are losing their jobs but I admit, I am a bit tired. I have scarcely had any time to rest and am looking forward to a few days off once the cd is complete.

We performed my stage play, The Toughest Girl Alive at the Diversionary Theater at the end of January in San Diego. It was sold out on all four nights! Thank you San Diego! People came from as far away as New Jersey and Seattle to see the play and everyone seemed to really like it. Many of you wrote to me and told me how inspired you were by the stories of my early childhood and life journey, thus far. The play was adapted to the stage and directed by San Diego Ballet director and acclaimed choreographer, Javier Velasco. We are hoping that the Toughest Girl will be picked up by other theaters and included in their season. Please wish us luck!

On a somber note, I lost two more beautiful friends this month. My friend Lux Interior of the Cramps left us at age 52, from a heart disorder. Lux was an amazing performer and he looked great in stiletto heels. He was brilliant, quirky and sexy. I appeared in the Cramps video The Ultra Twist many years ago and opened for the Cramps several times through the years. He leaves his beautiful wife, Cramps guitarist Poison Ivy.

I also lost my dear friend, Otis Owens. Otis lost his life in an accident on an icy highway in Texas on his way home to San Diego. Otis was a devoted father to his beautiful grown daughter, Olivia and was a true friend to anyone who ever asked for help. We met twenty years ago through our mutual friend, Country Dick Montana. Otis went on to become clean and sober and shared his wisdom and heart with anyone who needed a friend. His company, Otis delivers, was a fitting name for a man you could always count on. We will honor him and my other recently departed friend, Lorna Doone at Brick by Brick in San Diego this weekend.

Thanks so much to all of you for your kind support, emails and friendship. I am so lucky to be here and I am grateful for every morning I wake up alive. I send you positive energy and white healing light. May you transcend all of your life challenges and stay in the moment, as much as possible. May you realize that your strength is inside you and always there for you, as long as you are willing to tap into it. You can overcome anything that life throws at you and you can be stronger for it. I know it’s hard to believe that when you are suffering, but take it from me, you don’t have to be a Super Hero to overcome adversity. You just have to think like one.

Big Love and Stay Tough,

Candye


Candye Kane band shows

2/20 San Diego/ Tio Leos
2/21 San Diego/ Brick by Brick/ Otis Owens and Lorna Doone Hamilton Tribute show/www.brickbybrick.com
2/22 San Diego/ Dizzys with Sue Palmer/ Janell Rock posthumous CD release party
2/24 San Diego/ Hillcrest Mardi Gras Celebration 7 pm.
2/25 Leucadia, Ca/ The Calypso Cafe
2/27 Solana Beach/ Belly Up Tavern happy hour 5:30-8:00
Encinitas private party/ 8:00 – 10 pm
2/28 Dana Point/ The Renaissance
3/8 candye solo/Oakland ca benefit/ http://tehiyah.org/twonights.pdf
3/20 leave for Europe for Amsterdam
3/22 Stockholm, Sweden/ The Akkurat
3/23 travel day to helsinki
3/24 and 25 Helsinki, Finland/ Storyville
3/27 Umea, Sweden
3/28 Linkoping, Sweden/Great Jazz Festival
3/29 back to a’dam
3/30-31 off
4/1 travel to Vienna
4/2 Vienna, Austria/ Reigen live
4/3,4 and 5 Hornslet, Denmark/ www.Djursbluesland.dk festival
4/6 back to amsterdam
4/7 drive to basel
4/8 Basel, Switzerland/ Grand Casino
4/9 go to paris
4/10 Paris, France/ Euro Disney/ Billy Bobs
4/13 – 18 Paris, France/ Le Meridien Hotel
4/19 Purmerend, Holland/ Private party/jazzenzo.nl
4/20 and 21 UBM workshops/ Holland
4/22 home from Europe
5/1 Bakersfield, Ca/ Double Tree Hotel Club Odyssey
5/9 San Jose, Ca/ Metro Fountain Blues Festival
5/22 Dallas, Tx/ Pearl at Commerce
5/23 Austin, Texas/ the Continental Club
5/29 Kansas City/ Knuckleheads
5/30 Eureka Arkansas/ Blues festival
6/2 Lincoln, Nebraska/The Zoo Bar
6/4 Omaha, Nebraska/Murphys
6/5 Navarre, Mn/ Narrows Saloon
6/6 Chicago, Ill/ Fitzgeralds
6/12 Oklahoma City, OK/ Bricktown Blues Festival
6/26 Cloverdale, Ca/ Downtown Cloverdale concerts
6/27 Point Arena, Ca/ Arena Theater
6/28 San Francisco, CA/Biscuits and Blues
8/15 White Mountain, New Hampshire/ Blues Festival Dani Wilde
8/18 – 9/13 United by Music Tour/ www.unitedbymusic.eu


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