Late fall 2018

I confess I am a lazy blogger! OK, enough of that. What have I been up to?

Southwest Regional Folk Alliance (SWRFA) Conference in September. Put a hotel full of singer-songwriters together for four days in Austin and it's a helluva lot of fun. I played several wonderful showcases, met and hung with so many wonderful people, learned a lot and generally had a blast. On my Video page you can see the set I did for David Hakan's very fun Gypsy Wagon Studios showcase room - and yes, all of the informal showcases take place in actual hotel rooms that have been made over into tiny performance spaces.   also played an amazing showcase in Ken Gaines' Anderson Fair room, with my new friends from Houston, Grifters and Shills and the incredibly talented Amanda Pascali.  I loved playing for Uncle Calvin's  in the North Texas Venues room, and for the friendliest real live cowboys I've ever met in the Western Music Association room. Thank you all - Joyce Wilson of Uncle Calvin's in Dallas, David Hakan of Gypsy Wagon Studios, Jim Jones from the Western Music Association and Ken Gaines from Anderson Fair. 

The Dripping Springs Songwriters Festival was honestly one of the best music gatherings I've ever been a part of. Thirty singer-songwriters playing round robin sets over three days in several different venues in the historic district of Dripping Springs, for amazing, respectful listening audiences. What a treat! I made several new good friends, and everyone there astounded me. Laurie & Jim Halfpenny and Dave Niemeyer are amazing organizers and hosts, and I'm so thrilled that they chose me this year. I've never been treated better as a performing songwriter in my life. I hated for it to end, but hope I'll be able to return in future years. I know I've made some deep, wonderful connections with fellow songwriters through this festival, and I am so grateful for that. (And I will never forget going to get my fabulous new fake fingerpicking nails with Melody Guy, who camped out in my Wimberley home for a couple days prior to the start!)

On Election Day evening, I was a guest on the KWVH-FM 94.1 wimberleyvalleyradio.org's "Women Who Rock TX" radio show, with guest host Penny Jo Pullus (who I immediately just loved). Two hours of talking about music, influences and my songs went by so quickly. KWVH is turning into a treasure for Austin area songwriters and musicians - they really support us all.

So what's up now? Well, I've recorded a few tunes over the past few months that I hope to release in an EP very soon, prior to traveling to Montreal, Canada - land of my Thibodeau ancestors - in February for Folk Alliance International! After FAI, I'll be embarking on a crowdsourcing campaign for my next CD, which I hope to record in the Spring of 2019. 

I'm writing new songs weekly - I'm in a songwriting group that makes me do this - so new material is in abundance. 

I'm lining up some east coast dates in March and making some fun plans for next summer that include traveling far afield to perform. Stay tuned!

As always, if you stumble across this and want to drop me a line, feel free to do so at claudia@claudiagibson.com.  I'm always happy to talk music, songs and boring stuff like favorite picks and guitars. ;-)

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