Just returned from playing the Peace & Love Festival in Santiago, CHILE! Peace & Love is normally a Swedish Festival, and this was the first time they took it on the road. I met a lot of nice Swedish people and bands like Mando Diao, Miss Li, and Elias and the Whizzkids (check em out!). Despite some mishaps, (ie: my purse/credit card/phone being stolen at the festival, prompting the mantra: I am not my phone, I am not my credit card), the show went great! Those people are in love with music in the best way and hungry for it. Got great reviews... can't read spanish, but am told it says that "With her loop pedal singing, Cat Martino accomplished what John Lennon attempted to do in "Tomorrow Never Knows" by sounding like monks singing from the mountaintops". Not bad, I'll take it. (links below)

Difuentes Correa (A band from Santiago) gave us a BBQ party and lots more singing all night long went down. And then off to San Alfonso for a few days...

Oh lovely desert terrain where I climbed the Andes mountains and dove into and drank from my palms a fresh water spring, ate apricots fallen from the trees and creamy avocados, faced my fears of tarantulas and seafood, voice lost = quiet listening, sat on a rooftop veranda and played my guitar to the glittering stars...

http://www.lamusica.emol.com/detalle/index.asp?idnoticia=287816
http://www.zona.cl/fotoBlog/despliegue.asp?idnoticia={FBB9C5B3-C794-454D-853F-74599137305A}&idSubseccion={5CD99ABF-55C5-4575-B880-ADC74639A8DC}&idSeccion={8AAE2AE1-C925-49FC-8F94-B326C78BE341}fotorama

PATTI SMITH LIVE AT THE STONE PONY

She who carries the flame
In the palm of her heart
Come radiate out!
What eyes cannot see only Seer can detect
By wading in the waters within the dark belly of the ocean.
With firey fingers she sings into the Wind
And redirects the rays of the moon back into our waves.
We hear your echo calling directly
We feel you beating the pulse behind the ribs of our cage
And awaken that which has been sleeping
A most deceptive slumber, a long and restless waiting
Has been interrupted by the Ravensong
Making us all Nocturnal birds whose wing-spirit
Can be fulfilled in the sacred of this night.
She breaks through the foggy spit, dirt, and complicated wires of technological numbness
Like a Knife that knows it was born to cut to the center of what is
Wailing her muscular minor moan
then retreats in quiet gathering while we wait, and listen to her
soft, sweet lullaby, knowing this only ripens the range of fruit offered at this feast.
She draws distant sounds of spinning Carousel music and children's laughter,
Bends through broken glass to resurrect the ghosts of those who still dance eerily on the boardwalk, shadows trailing in the florescent fallen Sun.
Until once more her tongues are twisting and coiled round the currents
She swings the catapult and slaps Us with her energetic thrust
Flanked by Brothers biting and burning the grit, and shining bright silvery manes
Together they collect and reflect the chaos of twilight
To unearth the wild of beasts that cannot be tamed.
She, who sorts through the myth of separation to howl unity of all souls
By splitting the Vine and pouring transfusion
Into One collective Vein,
Which breathes into our muscles, that stand up stronger in this moment
'gainst the bone
to taste the blood
for which One can set sail into these boundless Oceans of Freedom
so that we too can know our own possibility to sing truths
While this veil of lies is lifted,
We remember the Real opening and our own Power to dig, transmute, and transcend!
What will you do with this gift, how will you honor the deliverance of such said sermon?
Oh God, I give you my gratitude and pray you grant me the will to dive down to the bottom of these salty seas,
To find I can move utterly free there,
and swim up to the top to sing mine own song on the shores of salvation.

Just until the new website is done!
xx

Here's a document of the proof that I/we are MAKING A RECORD, and to show you clips of my musical accomplices and how we do at LAKEHOUSE STUDIOS a.k.a HEAVEN'S DRIVE IN, in PA and elsewheres. I'll also KIT about LIVE SHOW moments ON THE ROAD, and all the great peops I meet. I made this foremost for an excuse to be 'productive' whilst feeding my junkfood/latenite TV/Americana ADDICTION. XO LUV CAT

www.catmartinomusic.blogspot.com

What can I say, the relentless shining LA sun could never beat these cold puddles of NYC rain for me (um, i think). What a whirlind of a month. Driving back into LA after a month of putting miles on our rental van, Danny and I gave each other the twilight zone look, as in - I can't believe we're back here again, scattered and tattered, like Rocky in the 13th round, with bloodied face and black and blued eyes, but still standing I tell you!!! But we did what we said we would do, take over this country saloon style! (perhaps, at times I took that too literally, but who cares if I've learned a little more about when it's time for Maker's Mark, and when it's clearly a Stoli nite). All in all, traveling with Mark Gardener and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club was the time of my life. It was a blast to be the woman representin. I loved making music with everyone and watching all those boys go breaking hearts...

Myspace is strange and sweet. It is a shameless sharing of thoughts ideas music, etc., equally mixed in with the perversely twisted innocence of being called off the gym bench or asked to the prom, and discovering masterbation. In conclusion, I hope the fever and swollen glands go down soon so I can stop this tomfoolery and get a life. BUT WAIT, I want to remind anyone who is actually reading this that MORE GOOD STUFF IS COMING! I have been in a stripped down twangy stage that is equally contradicted by my complusion to make specially freaked out original vocal pieces. Some of you who have witnessed know what I am talking about, others, stay tuned. so, at the end of the day, what will it be? Earthy folk soul mamma or Rock n' Roll spaced out hard-core Diva? Why must we choose? I hate how we must brand ourselves in some fuckin box. I will find a way out it, around it, stomp on it, and offer the world my range at all costs.

The west coast gigs with Mark Gardener (from Ride) and Goldrush were a blast. O.K., I'm home and sick and broke now, but it was all worth it, right? I like the idea of bringin back the "revue", in the sense that we did one set all together, but each of us got to play some of our own songs, and we all played on everyone's songs. They had me open up with my original version of "Love Song" which was rocking good fun. I did disappoint the boys by leaving my white snakeskin boots in NYC, but I think I re-encouraged them by finding that polka-dotted dress in the Silverlake thrift store. I love you Mark, Joe, Robin & Danny, and the desert wind-mill drives that satisfy my soul! But come on now, with these folks, we all know THE REAL GIG DON'T START TIL AFTER THE GIG. 2 A.M. once again, a room full of folks singin in harmony, this is what really gives me hope for life. I hold up my heart and let it soak in all the sound and love, because soon I'll be back in NYC singin alone. "The Night they Drove Old Dixie Down" never sounded or felt better. I loved the cast of characters never-ending in Danny's living room (ie: endless drunken girls, steel-toed boys, and rantings by Anton)...Everyone always told me about the slick LA and I thought I would hate it, never even wanted to go. Thank you for never letting me see all that. San Fransisco and San Diego too, I love all my soul singin sistas old and new - Linda, Tammy, Lisa, and Araby*** Then it was great meeting up with my honey, jack P., and doing a duo show opening for Keren Ann at Tangiers. It's been a long time since jack and i could play together bc of our different schedules and it felt like home again - miss and love you baby.