In 2012 I was pregnant with my fourth and final baby Emma. I have really rough pregnancies. I suffer with hyperemesis gravidarum. For the first 4 to 5 months of each pregnancy I was bedridden by nausea and vomiting. Often I would throw up up to 12 times in a day. I had to go to the hospital several times a week for IV fluids to maintain hydration. My hair would fall out and my throat would bleed. I didn’t have that “pregnant glow” that I hear about!
My parents came to visit from Missouri when I hit the 6 month mark of this pregnancy. I was beginning to feel better. I was only throwing up a few times a week and I was able to be out and about more, but I was still week and nauseas pretty often. We always like to play with my Dad when he visits and we were invited to play at an open mic blues club so we decided to work up a quick cover. I suggested Summertime because although it was written for an opera it works so well as a blues song. Plus, I would be performing very pregnant and I felt a lullaby would look right. We arranged it in about 20 minutes with Dad playing guitar and Josh echoing on harmonica. The audience loved it!
My dad is an excellent guitar player. Growing up he was always in a rock band. He would have rehearsals in our garage and yard parties in the summer. We had speaker cabinets with doilies on them in our living room that my mom tried to disguise as end tables. I loved listening to my dad play. I fondly remember him propping his amp against the open second story living room window and blasting The Star Spangled Banner a la Jimmy Hendrix early in the morning on the 4th of July. He was a consummate rocker.
Local rock bands have a hard time supporting growing families and mortgages. My Dad was a hard worker so he was willing to do a late night gig and then get up early to drive a concrete mixer all day, but by the time he was 35 he needed a new career. He went back to school and became a pharmacist in 1994, a year before I graduated from high school. All my memories from childhood are of Dad the rocker. Now he’s Dad the pharmacist!
We recorded this in our basement with Josh’s mac after playing it live. It was the fastest recording we’ve ever done, just one or two takes each, and I think it’s one of my favorites!