Last time I wrote here, I blogged from an aperitivo sidewalk cafe in Florence, Italy, while my 9-year-old sipped a Shirley Temple and ate crisps, and I lounged with an Aperol Spritz and visions of moving to Europe (again). I filled a sketchbook with ink and watercolor architectural drawings and rode high-speed trains and savored espresso and pommes frites while my little one recited fun facts about popes of yore and the Path of Illumination. 

But to catch you up ... here he is on the red carpet at the Venice Film Festival.

And here's my 6-year-old, who WHILE ON VACATION IN VENICE, somehow managed to self-tape an audition, do a Zoom callback at MIDNIGHT Italian time, WITH AN AUSTRALIAN ACCENT, and book a big role in a feature film. He spent the next six weeks filming.

Life has been weird and wonderful, and finally, after months of being a stage mom and homeschooling, I got to get back to my own music career a couple of weeks ago, playing in New York City with someone you might have heard of: Elvis Costello. Here are some photos from other people's cameras - I believe these are by Wilma Wilkie.

Art:

I've got ONE original watercolor of Churchill Downs available. It's large for watercolor - 18x24" - and it's listed on my Etsy shop.

Much love to everyone. I spent an hour at a coffee shop this morning, and I wrote a bit. And it was lovely. I should do that more.

As always, here are ways you can support an indie artist like me: 

• FREE ways to support an indie artist: Follow me on all the social media: TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook. Follow me on Spotify.
• Share my posts or music or art.
• Very cheap ways to support an indie artist: Buy me a coffee, Join my Patreon page, Tip Jars!

Before i had kids, before blogging felt a monumental task, back when i slept on couches, rented rooms of my house, worked in Nashville 3-4 days a week … oh, just writing about it makes me wonder what circles I was spinning in … anyway, the BEFORE me would be just oh-so-proud at the current me, and that alone feels like a win. 

I’ve had all kinds of ups and downs, more trials than I care to ever talk about, and more people doubting me than I would ever have imagined. And they mostly doubted the same thing: that my life would become boring after children.

So I think today, having followed my brilliant almost-10-year-old’s path through Florence, Italy, chasing Machiavelli’s shadow and searching for Galileo’s finger, feels like a win.

I’m in Italy this week … it’s a work trip, but more about that later. And it’s also a work trip for GRAHAM, who will be 10 in a few weeks, and who has a film premiering at the Venice Film Festival soon. 

We decided to make a homeschool field trip out of it, given that we’d been studying the Ancient ROman Empire and the Renaissance and art and science.

I’ve always wanted to be one of those obnoxious families (okay, they are only obnoxious because we are all envious!) who travels the world with their children, working remotely, gigging at night, painting during the day, homeschooling and teaching my kids that the world is so much bigger than they could ever imagine.

Today was one of those beautiful days where my dreams were realized, and we did the simplest things. Dinner was some cheese and veggies we picked up from a wee supermarket in the middle of Florence.  We popped into the Galileo Museum after a friend noticed I was in dear Firenze and suggested it. Graham marveled at Archimedean Screws and Astrolabes and stumbled upon the third finger of Galileo’s right hand (for real: it’s in this museum … just … why?!), and told me all about Machiavelli and Cosimo and Lorenzo and Michaelangelo and of course, his favorite: da Vinci.

We didn’t even begin the day with plans. We stumbled out of our apartment in city centre, and popped around the corner to the Piazza Santa Trinita seeking a croissant and espresso … and stumbled upon the Florence Urban Sketchers, plopped down, sketching the column of Justice and the Santa Trinita Church. And of course i had my sketchbook on me, and Graham wanted to draw on Procreate on his iPad … so we joined them, met tons of locals, plenty more travelers who were also artists, and we were still for two hours just sketching and chatting and LOOKING. 

I’m going to finish up some of my sketches, but for now just wanted to write and say hello and ponder the possibility of worldschooling full-time and express my gratitude … for what? My gratitude for gumption. I’m so grateful I’m able to just DO these things and figure out The How later. I’m still working my butt off at a zillion jobs, and do look for a new record to come as soon as my record label gives me the green light … but for now: shall we look for an art show? I’m hoping to find a way to get my sketches and bigger pieces an audience and pave the way for even more exciting future.

It’s cliche to talk about how you do the big things after you almost die … but also, some things are cliche because they are true. Take the trip: you’ve never promised a tomorrow.

Galileo’s Middle Finger

Graham’s drawing of a palazzo

My sketch of St. Trinita

Lots of artists drawing the world around them … urban sketching in Florence

Sitting at a coffeeshop (masked) in Louisville with my laptop for the first time in literally years, and whoah does it feel good/strange to be here writing. It has frustrated me that people seem to have given up on COVID precautions and just resigned themselves to, "Oh, but my family will probably be fine if we get it." While I understand that on some level, that phrase just feels wildly selfish to me, and it's been devastating to my faith in humanity. I like to think that people are generally good. That we care about each other. That if our neighbor needed help, we could gather all forces and swoop in. The past 2.5 years have shown me otherwise. 

We care about people as long as they are not disabled, immuno-compromised, or old.

And so I sit here, masked, trying to hammer out emails, writing, accounting, thank you notes, blogs, posts, responses, tiktoks, reels, lists, etc ... but I'm nervous to even post this blog, knowing full well the eye rolls I'll get in the comments. (Thank you for refraining - thank you for just letting me whinge into the ether.)

My UK tour was a total success, and I am SHOCKED that I cam back healthy. I masked except when singing, and despite several exposures, I escaped unscathed. It was glorious to sing to people again. 

I recognize that dichotomy between wanting to stick to all COVID precautions and also wanting to perform again in public. 

I also know that I will never perform again as I used to. I've become very picky about what jobs I accept. I need to only accept gigs that are either a) great for my career or b) pay a lot of money. There is no room for in between, especially not in a country where one hospital stay could bankrupt any family.

It's been a while since I blogged, and I miss this space. I miss the wee community I built. I never get more than a few thousand views, but it's nice to know someone is reading. And let's face it: if a few thousand people turned up to hear me sing, that would be INCREDIBLE. So thank you for reading my words.

Releasing new music has been great ... I'm looking to plan another UK tour for 2023, and I'm ready to go ahead and get that on the calendar. If I missed your town this time, please get in touch. No town is too small ... I adore London, but I prefer being the main event in a small town, rather than being one of a thousand events in London. 

I'm also trying to plan an album release, but my record label seems to not be prioritizing me. I get it. I'm no Jack Harlow, but I also can't shake this need to create and release and repeat. 

So look out for an album release and, I hope, an art show to sell some of the paintings and illustrations I've been working on. I'm opening up some house-portrait commissions. If you'd like to order one, please get in touch. Sizing and prices are here.

Here are some of the quick sketches from my UK tour. It was fun to keep a sketchbook rather than a journal this time:

 My new single came out at midnight - i didn't set my alarm to wake and midnight and check the iTunes charts, which meant by the time I saw the charts it was at #180. I'll never know how high it started, but I don't care ... because honestly i didn't expect to break onto the charts at all. I pushed the pre-save campaign on this one, but i didn't ask people to buy the iTunes song. Bandcamp is more of a help to artists, but it's still pretty cool that enough of y'all (I assume it was y'all?) bought the song that I squeezed into the charts at all!

Unexpected victories making me feel great - thanks.

If you haven't heard the song, here are all the streaming ways to hear it: https://onerpm.link/211160667299
Here's a BandCamp download if you prefer. https://brigidkaelin.bandcamp.com/track/kentucky-with-you
Here's the official YouTube Music Video: 

Today I delivered Matzoh Ball Soup to a dear friend with COVID and after that porch drop-off, Graham and I stopped by the secret graveyard where my ancestors are buried. We talked about genealogy and Russian armies and the persecution of Jewish people and all kinds of history. Hands-on schooling is the best schooling. 

Thanks for the love and support! I'm so thrilled to be back to doing what I love. The last time I was on tour, my dad was dying, but he joined me for 3 weeks of shows in Scotland. Since then I've had cancer treatment myself and somehow managed to survive a pandemic (so far), so believe me when I say I take nothing for granted.

Here are my tour dates:

If you'd like to sponsor any leg of our tour, you can venmo me a donation @brigidkaelin or:

• buy us a gallon of gas!
• buy us a dram of whisky!
• buy us a full English Breakfast!
• buy us a dinner!
• buy us hotel rooms!
• 
  
• FREE ways to support an indie artist: Follow me on all the social media: TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook. Follow me on Spotify.
• Share my posts or music or art.
• Very cheap ways to support an indie artist: Buy me a coffee, Join my Patreon page, Tip Jars!

 TL;DR I'm off to England on April 26! Buy me a dram or litre of petrol here. New song out on April 22! Please pre-save by clicking here. (it's free).

I am so excited to release a new song just in time for Derby. It's called "Kentucky With You," and it's already been licensed for a statewide advertising campaign that I can't tell you about yet. But I'm releasing the song into the wild on April 22. (Patreon members have access to a sneak peak of the song NOW.) 

PLEASE help by clicking this PRE-SAVE link - it's free!  

If you've got a $0.99 and an iPhone, you can open iTunes on your phone, search "Kentucky With You" and pre-order my song. 

Steve Cooley and I are ready to play a 3-week run of shows in the UK. Covid is making this tour extra expensive, so if you'd like to sponsor any leg of our tour, tiers include:

• buy us a gallon of gas!
• buy us a dram of whisky!
• buy us a full English Breakfast!
• buy us a dinner!
• buy us hotel rooms!

I'm happy to do shoutouts on social media - or if you buy us a whisky, feel free to name your scotch and we'll post tasting notes.

Also, there are still some prints available of my Churchill Downs watercolor print, both on Etsy and RedBubble.

That's all! Thank you for the love.

• FREE ways to support an indie artist: Follow me on all the social media: TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook. Follow me on Spotify.
• Share my posts or music or art.
• Very cheap ways to support an indie artist: Buy me a coffee, Join my Patreon page, Tip Jars!

Some of you may be wondering why I'm spending so much time creating visual art instead of music. The answer is two-fold, but they are tied to the same thing: it's rehabilitation.

• If you're a patron, pop over to my Patreon post to find a discount code for you to my Etsy Shop.

  
• FREE ways to support an indie artist: Follow me on all the social media: TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook. Follow me on Spotify.
• Share my posts or music or art.
• Very cheap ways to support an indie artist: Buy me a coffee, Join my Patreon page, Tip Jars!

 :::sheepishly types:::

Remember me?

Argh it's been so long, but I wanted to check in. I'm doing ok. I'm living in that post-cancer-treatment world, though even if all goes perfectly, I'll still be in hormone therapy for nine more years. If you know anyone with cancer, you know that "scanxiety" never goes away. Labwork and "let's just do an ultrasound to make sure" scans lead to the wildest feelings. I didn't even think I was nervous about a result a few weeks ago, until I saw the caller ID and I almost threw up with fear. It turned out to be fine, but it reminded me that cancer is a trauma. 

My kids are amazing. We've been homeschooling for a variety of reasons, but a huge one is that I feel like they've just experienced too much over the past few years -- caring for three cancer patients, seeing two of them die. Toss in a global pandemic, and I just want them to relax and have space to be children. We've already completed their official curriculum because they're whip-smart, so we spend our time together going down rabbit holes, writing, playing music, checking out our limit of books at the library pretty much weekly. (Did you know the Louisville limit is 50 books per library card?)

My Patreon page is keeping me going - both financially and mentally. Knowing that there are people out there like you who understand that $1/month to an artist is important ... that art is important ... well, it just makes me not want to give up. That's a good thing because I've come to realize I cannot exist without creating. Whether or not anyone else pays attention doesn't really matter -- i just have to create.

I've gotten into TikTok, entirely because, as a business, I needed to find younger and new fans. It's been good, but I'm trying to balance content creation with art creation. They are different, but I enjoy them both.

I've been constantly trying to think of new income streams, since CD sales aren't a thing, and live gigs aren't a thing. I love brainstorming business stuff, and i've got notebooks full of ideas ... but I really dislike implementation. 

And I've been painting. I'll leave you with a painting I did for a Patreon member. It reminds me of happy pre-pandemic times.

Hope you're well! I would like to write more and spend more time on the ol' blog in general. Thanks for being here.

ways to support & fun links: brigidkaelin.com/links

I'M #1 ON ITUNES SINGER/SONGWRITER CHART!!!!!

How to support!

Find me on TikTok :)

I made a video over on TikTok -- a site I'd avoided for so long because it confused me, but now I realize I should have been on TikTok all along. It's the perfect outlet for me because video is my favorite medium. I've taken thousands of hours of footage since I left my career as a TV producer in 2001, but I never had a good outlet for it. YouTube wasn't right because I like short videos, and Facebook is annoying when you inundate your page with video. TikTok allows me the perfect short way to throw up video content. Anyway if you're on TikTok, give me a follow, please: www.tiktok.com/@brigidkaelin

Here's my story, which I think you can watch without actually joining TikTok: 

@brigidkaelin

My cancer diagnosis took almost a YEAR. ##icouldbebrown ##breastcancerbadass ##feelitonthefirst ##breastcancer ##cancerjourney

♬ Inspiration - WavebeatsMusic

The most important things I've learned over the past year are: 

1) Be your own advocate. 

2) Don't back down. 

3) SHARE YOUR STORY, if you're able to handle the public forum.

Tell me ... have you scheduled a mammogram or similar since hear a story like mine? Odds are, you have. Sharing our stories saves lives. 

Love one another.

At high noon on Rosh Hashanah nine years ago, I became a mother, kissing my newborn’s enormous head with wonder. It was the ultimate new beginning — a new year, a new identity, a new routine, a new life.

Shortly after noon on Rosh Hashanah three years ago, I became motherless, kissing my mom’s cold forehead, and entering a new chapter as the matriarch of my family.

Last year on Rosh Hashanah, I sat under a mulberry tree, the same place where I’d scattered my mother’s ashes just weeks before. My phone rang and I heard words that would change my life more than the birth of my son or the death of my mother: You have cancer.  READ MORE HERE...