Happy Holidays and Beyond!

It's Monday night December 15, 2008 and I am delayed at Newark airport on my way home to Maine from Los Angeles. The Refugees just spent eight great days rehearsing and writing new material for our show. We are extremely happy that we have five songs to add to our repertoire! Three are selections from our individual catalogues and two are brand new-written by the three of us. I'll tell you, it feels almost criminal to have this much fun and feel so good about what we do! Are we allowed? Apparently so!

OK so catching you up since last time—Wendy arrived safely (I'd like to say "soundly" but well, you have to know Wendy…) back from her sojourns to Australia and Israel. She barely got off the plane when Deb and I picked her up in Los Angeles (I flew out the day before) and whisked her off to Phoenix, by car, for the Far West Regional Folk Alliance Conference. We arrived at the Conference, sang a few songs and hung out with friends, expanding our reach (we hope). On the backside of the weekend, we played a small house concert with Kenny Edwards (who just seems to get better and better). All in all-- a good time. And we'd like to thank our friend Renee Bodie for her relentless and ongoing endorsements of the Refugees.

After a few badly needed weeks at home, the Refugees met in Lexington, Kentucky for an appearance on the venerable "Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour" with host Michael Jonathan at the Kentucky Theatre. Originally, it was a double bill with Todd Snider, but Todd got ill right before the taping, so it was "An Evening with The Refugees". Fortunately for us, this particular performance was not only being taped for syndicated radio, but also for the PBS TV series of Woodsongs. So, with due respect to Todd, we lucked out! Michael and the folks (all volunteers) at Woodsongs were just as nice and accommodating as they could be and we had a really great time! I believe the radio portion is going to air in February and the TV show some time in the spring. Check www.woodsongs.com for more info.

Home again for a couple of weeks—where we all took advantage of the time in various ways. Of course, Deb is inundated with the demands of her two young, active and growing sons the minute she walks back in through the door. Her ever-supportive husband, Ken, after all, can only do so much! (Boy, and I will repeat this often—what a cook!) Not to mention that Deb is a full-time professor. Wendy has a 19 year-old son, Abe (who is super smart and wildly talented musically) but is well, 19. He presents her with various circumstances to ponder and consider at all times. Along with mothering, Wendy is never not doing, writing, producing, editing, and/or thinking about music. Me, I come home to Jack, my dog and my "little red school" house in Maine. The first thing I do (after hugging on my dog and opening any interesting mail) is find the first opportunity to see my granddaughter Tobey. Luckily (at least so far), I live across the street so at the drop of a hat—I'm there! I try to spend a little time each day with her—though that's not always possible. Believe it or not I do work-whether it's catching up on Refugees biz, or working on some facet of my own music. ANYWAY! Time goes by fast for the three of us and suddenly we find ourselves somewhere together! This last time, I flew out to Los Angeles for a weeklong put aside to rehearse and write new material for the Refugees. Which we did! So exciting! We also performed two small concerts—one in Tehachapi, California, about 90 minutes north and east of LA. We didn't know what to expect—we knew Tehachapi was a small town-- once noted for its women's prison. When we arrived, it was exactly five o'clock in the afternoon on a Friday night and every place of business was already closed! Except—Mama Hillybean's—where we were to play. Mama Hillybean's is a warm, cute, inviting coffeehouse/restaurant/music venue. We were welcomed immediately with smiles, helping hands and hot cider. Recording our performance was Peter Cutler (who originally asked us to do a show here) for a future Folkscene radio show and we were honored to have Roz Larman come all the way from Los Angeles to see us. Roz is Folkscene originator -along with her beloved late husband Howard. The place filled up nicely and the audience was wonderfully appreciative and supportive. And personally, I want to point out that the food was terrific! We hope to return to Tehachapi this summer! Next night—last Saturday—we made a second stop to Kulak's Woodshed in North Hollywood for a live webcast and video shoot. We played two hours non-stop to a small but passionate in-house audience. We appreciate Paul Kulak's commitment to bringing musicians to his small venue and offering musicians a place to shoot a three-camera (all volunteer) video –and getting it to take home that night.

Now we have the Holidays to be with our families and catch up once again with our personal lives. We'll be meeting in January, this time in New York City for some shows in New York, Philly, NJ, Maine plus radio and TV stops across the northeast. (Wendy and Deborah better bring some very warm clothes!) And this just in: We will be appearing on West Virginia Public Broadcasting's Mountain Stage (with Larry Groce) on Sunday January 18. We co-bill with the great Leo Kottke and The Duhks--www.mountainstage.org Go to our website for details on all upcoming shows. January is going to be a very exciting month—our CD "UNBOUND" is being released to retail on January 20! We are very excited!

Finally, we wish you all a Holiday Season full of love and laughter!
And may 2009 be a year of peace and prosperity for us all!

Take good care and as always—thank you!

Love,
Cindy, Deborah and Wendy

Refugees on the move

Hello Friends! Cindy Bullens, here. This is the very first Refugees blog! I am excited about keeping you up to date on all our doings--the road, the writing, the folks along the way, the new album, any and all developments as we go merrily along. If you are just tuning in-the Refugees are: Cindy Bullens, Deborah Holland and Wendy Waldman. You have to know, first of all, that we all are having a blast being The Refugees! We have been together now, for a year and a half--and we are really starting to roll. Our first CD "Unbound" --only available online and at our concerts--is getting some good airplay on Folk Radio around the country (and Europe, Canada and Australia) and we have sold over 1000 CDs since our "soft" release in July. We have been getting some wonderful support from our peers and from others around the music scene--including Bob Lefsetz (of the Lefsetz Letter blog), who came to see us a couple of weeks ago at the Renee Bodie sponsored concert series at Thousand Oaks Library near Los Angeles. We performed our first international show last week in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, at the Calgary Folk Club. Packed house and a great audience! And wonderful folks who brought us there. And those Canadian Rockies ain't bad either! We are thrilled to be going back in August 2009 for the Canmore Folk Festival. Of course that was just our latest adventure! In our year and a half together The Refugees have performed in eighteen states across the country (many of them 2 or 3 times)--with more added before the end of the year. We've performed for 7 people in Cleveland to 8,000 at the Wheatland Music Festival in Michigan. We opened two dates for our friend Bonnie Raitt in Maine and New Hampshire--wow! that was so exciting! So from small house concerts to the main stage --since May 2007, we've done it all. And we appreciate every single venue and audience-large and small! By the end of 2008, we will have performed 70 concerts! We are booking now into the fall of 2009 and it's looks like next year is going to be even busier!
Of course, the three Refugees have their very seperate lives when "off the field" (ok, I am a sports nut--very unlike my co-horts)--and when I have permission (ha!)--I will share some of those adventures too. Just a taste--Wendy, our dear Wendy--went from Calgary (with us) to Brisbane, Australia (for a four day songwriters retreat) to Tel Aviv, Israel (where she is meeting the folks for whom she is scoring an animated film-and Mietek, the Polish artist she's producing)--in one fell swoop!
She's in Israel now-hopefully alive. Deborah, meantime--went home from Calgary, as she always does, to her family of husband Ken (thank God for Ken) and two sons, 14 and 7 and her full time professorship at Cal State University-Los Angeles. Me, I come home to Maine--yes friends--the "great state" of Maine to the changing colors, my dog Jack, my little red 1805 schoolhouse, and my daughter, son-in-law, and 18 month old granddaughter across the street. Next week we are all headed to Phoenix (another state crossed off) for the Far-West Folk Alliance conference and a house concert (Wendy arrives back in LA from Tel Aviv the day before we head to Phoenix)--then all back to LA for new publicity photos. Things are definitely heating up for The Refugees--and we are loving it!
Check out our website www.therefugeesmusic.com--we will be adding a few features soon: The Refugees Recommends-our recommendations of restaurants etc from our travels, and The Refugees Radio Hour (maybe 10 minutes)-our little live broadcasts from around the country with one special guest per show. Our "Unbound" CD is available on our website, and on CDBaby. We thank you all for your enthusiasm and support! We hope to meet you along the road!