The True and Glorious History of King Basil

Simon and Garfunkel - April, Come She Will. Featuring Allegra! on Vocals.

Two summers ago my life was thrown into sudden chaos. Some of that was very unpleasant. Some of it was very much like a blessing. Either way, I was once again tossed into the wind without a moment to catch my breath and take in what was happening to me. So, of course, I decided to read some books and make gardens. SO sensible always!

Honestly, it’s what I needed: I was also heavily in development with CircleSing! projects and building my website; caring for my daughter just returning from school after so many huge ups and downs, and struggling just as I was to know what to do next. Not to mention still healing after some thirteen odd years of gluten poisoning I was unaware of until recently - I didn’t know I had developed Celiac’s Disease in all that time. It’s taken five whole years to come back from all the damage I’d done.    

I read Circe. I felt I had become one with Circe; cast out alone to an island to fend for myself; feeling abandoned, and finding magic in my quest to circumvent all the sadness and shock and anxiety about my future.

Enter King Basil

In my wild throwing of seeds for everyone for every reason, a lone seed had sprouted a tiny little sprout in a tiny little amount of dirt left over in an unused pot. I couldn’t tell what it was but I started to believe it was basil. I grew SO much basil that year.  So, I planted it properly and waited to see what happened. He grew so quickly after that and it wasn’t long before I understood this wasn’t basil but it also wasn’t anything else I recognized in my garden….

He continued to grow quickly and so sturdy. Still it took me a moment to recognize: He was a Sunflower! King Basil! A magnificent, singular Sunflower most probably grown from bird seed. shhh! I’m not supposed to do that but the truth is I still care for a whole flock of sparrows out there lol! And he became the main character in one of the most wonderful summer love stories in all my life. Our wild love affair was perfect in every way. Except the sparrows ate all the seeds before I could get even one. Ate them right out of his middle!

Throughout the summer, I grew my gardens and took many, many pictures with plans to tell the stories through song. I knew, exactly, the first story I wanted to tell and the first song I wanted to use. There was a problem tho - in all the illness and trauma there was something I’d lost in my voice. 

It was really bothering me. Pretty much, I came out of the womb singing for my own enjoyment. Honestly, I do like the sound of my own voice -that is, I DID like it but I haven’t been loving it for a while. I can still wail and moan ok, so yeah - I’ve been singing a lot of rock and blues to entertain myself. As long as I’m really loud it comes out as something I like which is really great cuz I can always use that to sing to large groups of people to catch attention…but I’d lost my light little lilt. I love that voice too. It’s the voice I use to sing to babies.

Weirdly enough, when I have a baby to sing to, it comes back…I’ve just never had full control over it anymore for a long time, and that was frustrating. It was holding me back from recording this audio. I began to realize how much of my singing came from training now.  It was always there but I’d had years of training and all kinds of ways I’d used it to practice every day. I didn’t even think of it as practice; it’s just this thing I’ve always done - spend time with my voice.

I wasn’t doing that anymore. I had to go back to “class”, set a time every day and really do the work. I kept trying but I’ve been struggling…to find space for it which is so weird. I tried to remember how I used to just do it. How I felt then; but I’m new now. There has to be a new way back.  Turns out it's as easy as desire - and a lil bit less stress over survival. Stressing about survival stole my voice, really; it kept me from singing (I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - I read that again too).

Why am I telling you this? Well, because I’ve been working really hard at developing that routine and it’s coming swimmingly but I was still missing a register. The register and tone I would use to sing this song. SO - I asked Allegra to sing it for me because it’s really important to me to make these videos and tell these stories; and for some reason, really important that I started with this one. And it’s already October 7th hello?! 🙂 Wait - there’s more! A lot of people assume I taught Allegra to sing but no way! I was just one tool in her toolbelt; she is one hundred percent self-taught. I didn’t realize how alike we sounded until I’d heard her in this way. She doesn’t usually sing this low and she has a style that I don’t employ at all usually but I think she’s heard me sing THIS so many times …

At any rate - after a day of work with kidlets and a practice sesh right after, I sat down to make this video(after weeks of struggle finding a free editor I could actually use; choosing from my 1000 pictures and deciding what I wanted to do with them). Playing it over and over, I began to sing with her. Something about the similarity helped me find my own voice! It’s just there now, accessible. I’m so thrilled. Truly, she’s always been my muse and truly, I never see it coming.

Between this and reliving The True and Glorious History of King Basil, I really did bring my own self to tears. I don’t expect it to do that for you. For you, it’s just this lil tidbit of a vid, and a preview of what’s to come as I continue on my way.

One thing I love about music is (when it hits, you feel no pain) becoming so intimate with it; it’s in my head and in my body and in my mouth and I can roll around in a piece of music over and over until it’s smeared all over me and I can’t make the distinction between the music and myself. After a time it becomes part of me; always ready to express itself at the drop of a hat when it’s called forth by life. It lives inside of me waiting for its time to shine.

When I make these videos, it’s one more way to be intimate with the music; and we get to know each other so well. I love that. I hope you like them too.