Healin' Time Says Lisa, "Art and I have been through some really tough times this past year, both together and separately. "Healin' Time" was written from me to Art, to let him know I'm here for the long haul, no matter what goes on in our lives and around us, just like I know he is for me. "Broken Without You (Briana's Song)" I wrote to my daughter, who is 24 and just moved 1400 miles away to start a new life of her own - it just broke my heart. So I sat down and wrote what I felt. If we have done our jobs as parents, our children will desire to move out on their own, and have their own lives, but that doesn't change how hard it is for us as parents to let go. "Sands of Lubbock" is a song that I wrote sort of not really knowing why I was writing it. It just flowed out of me. I was born in Lubbock, Texas but moved away when I was pretty young. I have very few memories of the place, and yet have always felt this draw to go back there and get to know my real hometown. The line in the song, "...you can't run from who you are and what you're always gonna be, and the sands of Lubbock, Texas are blowin' straight through me...", well, I guess that's just how I feel. No matter where I've been I've always known just who I am and where I come from, even though I don't know the town well, in my mind, it's an unpretentious place, where all are welcome and made to feel at home. A down home, nobody-is-a-stranger kind of place. I feel a sense of pride to be from Lubbock. My mom always used to tell me stories of her life in Lubbock, and our family when I was younger. So, I guess, even though I don't know it well, it still feels like my home and my family. The song "Mama's Prayers" is a song I wrote in April of 2009 to sing at my church for my mom on Mother's Day. My mom was very sick with cancer, but we had no idea that she would pass on just one month after Mother's Day. I sang that song for her at church and at her funeral. I always knew my mom prayed for me. I was somewhat of a wild child in my teens and early twenties, and I know for certain, that without my mama's prayers covering me, I would not be who I am today. Who I am is someone she was proud of. "Long Gone" is one that Art wrote after a fight we had. That's all I'm gonna say about that, except that, the fight was worth it since he got a great song from it. "Mother of Pearl" written by Art, came about because Art and I were out listening to one of our favorite local bands (Lloyd Bonham Band) who are friends of ours and the bass player instead of cursing would say "mother of pearl" every time he felt the need to swear, and about the fourth time I turned to Art and said - 'wow, that's a song - 'mother of pearl'. I had intended to go home and write a song inspired by it, but went to bed and Art stayed up and wrote the song. So I have to tell everyone how he stole my idea for a song. It really is a great song, though. We have very different writing styles, so it's nice to see what he comes up with in contradiction to what I might have written." The interview with Lisa can be seen at: http://alvarezgalloso.wordpress.com/2010/11/06/art-and-lisa-release-healin-time Previous notes: It was a Sunday afternoon... downstairs in the coolness of Arkey Blues Silver Dollar in Bandera, Texas. Art was not really playing much music at the time, but had decided to join in the weekly jam session and relax a bit. Then it happened. This girl, this beautiful lady walked up and said "Hey, do you know ‘You're the Reason God Made Oklahoma’, and would you sing it with me?" Well, that was the beginning of Art and Lisa. Art Crawford was born in Texas, but raised in Oklahoma to the sounds of red dirt music before we even knew there was such a thing. Although, deeply rooted in gospel, when he went to college he was introduced to the sounds of Woody Guthrie, Bob Childers, Jimmy Lafave and so many others that have influenced the direction of his music. When Art moved to Bandera in 1994, he did not know there was a music scene there. But, one day while doing laundry he wandered across highway 16 onto the front porch of a place called "The Forge", an actual blacksmith forge that just happened to sell beer and was the gathering place for local and out of town musicians to gather. So the next trip he made to Oklahoma to visit his family he brought his guitar back with him. While he wasn’t a "regular", he did start showing up from time to time and the passion of the songs forgotten began to resurface. Lisa Beck (maiden name Alexander) was born in Lubbock, Texas and mostly raised in the San Antonio area. She had a passion for music early on as she grew up listening to the sweet harmonies of her mom and aunt, who in their early teen years had performed in an all girls quartet in Lubbock, Texas. Her uncle played guitar and mom played a little piano. When she turned fifteen her uncle gave her a classical guitar , showed her three chords and told her that was all she needed to play any country song. While she loved the country music of George Jones, Emmy Lou Harris, Dolly Parton, Kris Kristofferson, etc., she also loved the perfect harmonies of Simon and Garfunkel. She spent lots of her spare time following her mom around the house and singing three part harmony with mom and younger sister Carol. She married and moved to Atlanta where she played for twelve years in a little country gospel band, all the while longing to go back home to Texas where her family and heart was. When she divorced after 18 years of marriage she did just that. She had visited Bandera only once before a few years earlier and knew it was the perfect place for a homegrown Texas girl to make a new start of her life.