Hello, World, Tali here… I have not used this blog in a while… and I mostly always used this blog for the sole purpose of listing gigs and events! (That was before the handy “gig tab” existed, ha! So… now… I have an urge to actually use this blog regularly, as a blog, starting… today! 🙂

To re-cap my musical highlights since I last blogged, I’ll list my 2018 musical highlights below, and as for 2019, well… 2019 was an unusual year so far… which I can’t seem to just write “Musical Highlights” without wanting to tell you more about my life… So 2019… there were a few personal hurdles and physical body things… so… personally, 2019 has been filled with a bit of quiet persistence and less gigs for me so far than in typical years… so… in regards to musical highlights, 2019 has included: MORE added music teaching! Amping up my music teaching hours, gratefully! Including adding back into my life: music teaching at the Rock & Roll Daycare! (Personally, among my top favorite things in life, is having a good delightful story to tell after a day of work, recanting what a child said or did that made me laugh in a day. Gotta cherish those one-liners!) 😀

I digress… 2019… I’ll be transparent… For the first 5 months of the year, I was pregnant, and hardly felt like performing… so, I didn’t peform much. I did perform at a student recital, backing up my students, and a few jam sessions here and there, but, overall, I just found it hard to plan shows when ya can’t predict when the pregnancy nausea is going to be around… So, in lieu of many performances from January – May 2019, I instead began drawing often (an old hobby of mine), yet, with a new-to-me theme: baby- and pregnancy themed comics. I didn’t plan it that way, it just happened… Sadly (this is a sensitive topic, but)… our baby didn’t make it… we lost our baby, Cassie, suddenly at 7 months pregnant, in May 2019. Drawing comics about babies is just one of the many little gifts she gave me in her short existance… To say the summer was a time to recover is not exactly the right words I want to use, since grief can’t exactly be planned or put in a little box, and, as musicians/singers, we’re whole people, we can’t just be robots and perform as if we have no other aspects to ourselves, so, in any case, besides doing a little busking in NYC and peforming for the kids at the daycare, I didn’t push myself to peform if I didn’t want to, and, in August I actually had one more heath scare (emergency surgery for a ruptured ovarian cyst – which I didn’t even know was a thing. And, surgery often leaves you with the instruction to rest your voice, so, I did, for 2 weeks.)

In any case, the urge and wearwithall to perform returned as I figured it would and Sept./Oct./Nov. has had some musical highlights so far: We had a Concertwindow show featuring Deb Picard: Vocals/Guitar; me on harmony vocals and mandolin; and Alex Oster joined us for a song. Deb released a CD this year (go check it out) 🙂 October: had me performing for a private party and doing some harmony vocals and mandolin on a friend’s recording project, and now November musical highlights have included: another recording session for a friend’s upcoming EP, doing some harmonies for my friends the Crazy Little Ukes at he CatBird Cafe, and a few more gigs coming up before Nov. is over.

I guess in ending this post about 2019 so far, I would like to say that I have a deeper sense of how we never know what anyone else is experiencing simply by the expression on their face or the way they carry themselves. As a voice teacher I typically ask: “How’s your voice feel today?” in a voice lesson, and as a teacher it is my hope to set an atmosphere where students can feel expressed – even if it’s to let me know a hardship they’ve experienced.

Hope you enjoy this blog and the content on this website. Please write to natalivoiceteach@gmail.com for further requests for (music & creativity tips) blog/website content! 😀 I plan to add more! – Tali

2018, Musical Highlights (in reverse chronological order…):

1/1/19: Release day: Answers Enough Music Video (see home page of this website), filmed in Sept. 2018

12/17/18 – Loretta’s Last Call – Tali Freed & The Mandoiln (Tali/Alex duo) as part of open mic

12/10/18 – Improv Asylum grad show. From Nov. 2017 – Dec.2018 Tali joined a Comedy Improv class… with a final performance at Improv Asylum

12/11/18 – Concertwindow show featuring Zack Niman (Vocals/Uke/Guitar), Tali singing harmonies/violin/mando, Alex also joining in on guitar

11/30/18 – Guitar Stop student recital Arts At The Armory Cafe – Tali backing up her students!

11/29/18 – Acoustic Strip Down night Tali/Alex duo participating; Thunder Road, Somerville, MA https://www.facebook.com/events/2225404834158760/

11/20/18 – Tali Freed & The Mandoiln (Tali/Alex duo) concertwindow show

11/2/18 – Tali Freed & The Mandoiln (Tali/Alex duo), Dover Art walk, Washington Mills, Dover, NH

10/25/18 – Tali backing up (harmonies/violin) for Reda Bres show at The Be Bob, Boston, MA

10/23/18 – Tali Freed & The Mandoiln (Tali/Alex duo) concertwindow show

10/19/18 – Tali singing harmonies for Yani Batteau & The Rodeo CD release, Burren Backroom, Davis Square, Somerville, MA https://www.facebook.com/events/324494361646359/

10/4/18 – Acoustic Ceiling live radio show performance: Tali Freed & The Mandolin and AKA Marvin https://m.facebook.com/AKAMarvinmusic/?tsid=0.2164692541028408&source=resulthttps://m.facebook.com/WMFO-Acoustic-Ceiling-270052423411707/

9/18/18 – Tali Freed & The Mandoiln (Tali/Alex duo) concertwindow show

9/15/18 – Private block party performance: Tali solo & Tali/Alex duo

8/28/18 – Tali Freed & The Mandoiln (Tali/Alex duo) concertwindow show

8/12/18 – Tali singing harmonies for Yani Batteau CD release party, Club Passim, Cambridge, MA

7/26/18 – Tali solo concertwindow show

7/4/18 – private party / Alex & Tali CD “It’s True” release party

6/3/18 – Janet Conncerny & Tali Freed and the Mandolin – Be Bop, Boston, MA

5/24/18 -Tali Freed & The Mandoiln (Tali/Alex duo) concertwindow show

5/12/18 – Tali singing harmonies for Jeff Jam Dance Party, Burren Backroom, Somerville, MA

5/10/18 – Squawk Coffeehouse – Alex/Tali duo

4/22/18 – Tali backing up (vocals/violin) Janet Connerney show at The Be Bop, Boston, MA

4/19/18 – Tali Freed & The Mandoiln (Tali/Alex duo) concertwindow show

April – Tali singing harmonies for Jeff Jam Dance Party, Burren, Somerville, MA

3/29/18 – Tali Freed & The Mandoiln (Tali/Alex duo) concertwindow show

3/10/18 – Tali singing harmonies for Jeff Jam Dance Party, Burren, Somerville, MA

3/4/18 – Dark Horse Tavern – Singer/Songwriter night – Tali/Alex duo https://www.facebook.com/events/2084259455142166/

02/8/18 – Tali Freed & The Mandoiln (Tali/Alex duo) concertwindow show