Blair Kilpatrick's Blog
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Jun.16.2008
Sauce Piquante appears tomorrow at Ashkenaz in Berkeley, starting at 8:30. If you've never visited the renowned world music club, perhaps this would be a good time.
And if you enter the "accordion joke" contest (deadline is tonight! ) you might even get the chance to come as our...
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Jun.09.2008
I never set out to write a book.
I already had enough to do, trying to balance my unlikely new passion for Cajun-Creole music with the demands I faced as a psychologist, wife and mother. Writing was an early dream, one I'd left behind. Or so I thought. But then it slipped back into my llfe, just...
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Jun.08.2008
I've decided to launch a monthly contest over at my new "Accordion Dreams" blog. Send me your best accordion joke by Monday, June 16. Produce the best entry, and you'll be our guest at the Sauce Piquante show at Ashkenaz in Berkeley on June 17. Or, if you prefer, I'll send you a copy...
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Jun.07.2008
Yes, it's June, National Accordion Awareness Month. Another wonderful San Francisco invention!
I feel duty-bound to note that it's the piano accordion, and not the Cajun accordion, that's been designated San Francisco's official instrument. A minor oversight. Good thing I live in Berkeley :-) ...
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Jun.06.2008
Another exciting "first" that leaves me a little breathless: the very first book signing for "Accordion Dreams" is in the works! Even though the book isn't out until January.
I just heard from the my publisher that they've been contacted by a local independent bookseller about...
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Jun.03.2008
Red Room author Doreen Orion's "Queen of the Road" is officially out today!
Congratulations, Doreen! Happy book launch!
I've been corresponding with Doreen since we met in the pre-Red Room days on an online writer's forum. She's been incredibly warm and generous in sharing tips and...
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May.24.2008
What can I say? Even though there are--what, a few billion?--books on Amazon, it's a thrill to stumble on one's own among the pack! And with an honest-to-gosh ISBN number, too!
"Accordion Dreams: A Journey into Cajun and Creole Music" isn't coming out until January. I had no idea it...
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May.12.2008
Sauce Piquante, my Cajun-Creole band, has a busy weekend coming up. Two festivals--and one of them with an interesting literary tie-in.
On Saturday May 17, we will be appearing for the third year in a row at Campbell's Boogie on the Bayou Festival. Once again, we'll be on the Main Stage, at...
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Apr.16.2008
Sauce Piquante, my Cajun-Creole band, is scheduled to play this Thursday, April 17, at the Lake Merritt Dance Center in Oakland. I hadn't yet checked out this up-and-coming Cajun-Zydeco hot spot, where a rotating series of bands started appearing a few months ago. So my fiddler-husband and I...
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Mar.07.2008
Hello, Red Room!
It's nice to "go live" and to be officially among you all!
I'm feeling at loose ends, now that my music memoir "Accordion Dreams" is officially in production at the publisher. I know this is just a brief lull, since I'll be getting copyedits back in two weeks. ...
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Feb.16.2008
At last! The final version of "Accordion Dreams" (manuscript, photos and all) is safely in the hands of my publisher.
Such a relief. And a few days before my deadline, too.
Now I guess I wait, while it passes into the hands of the copyeditor.
I feel at loose ends. No surprise there...
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A lyrical, deeply felt, and beautifully rendered memoir of a mid-life love affair with Cajun music that ultimately transforms a psychologist’s life, while enriching those of its readers.
”
—Doreen Orion, psychiatrist and author of "Queen of the Road"
About Blair
I am the author of a music memoir ("Accordion Dreams: A Journey into Cajun and Creole Music, University Press of Mississippi, January 2009) and the accordionist/vocalist in Cajun-Creole band Sauce Piquante. I live with my fiddler-husband Steve in the San...
Connections
Causes Blair Kilpatrick Supports
Louisiana Folk Roots, National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, Habitat for Humanity/Musician's Village New Orleans, Doctors Without Borders