Artsy Mamas

As a child I played a Wurlitzer spinet piano I kept in my bedroom. It had belonged to my Great Grandmother Vie who used to play for her church. She gave it to me after moving into a retirement home when I was about ten. I also received another piano soon after, a grand piano, from my mother’s dad, grandpa Roland Robinson, who was great grandma Vie’s step son. Grandpa Robinson could never remember my name and referred to me as Peggy Sue or Sue Ellen or something like that, but after asking what instrument I was most interested in, he sent me his grand piano. Grandpa Roland was always sending us instruments such as guitars and harps and my mother would paint the harps he made in his harp shop as she was a professional free lance artist.

Early on I would sit alone for hours picking apart sheet music from church or classical books that my grandparents had given me with the pianos. Taking lessons was challenging, I found it difficult to grasp music theory being right brained. Still I enjoyed playing the beautiful classical melodies and practicing scales. I would also pass time in the bathtub composing musical pieces in my mind.

I also wanted to be a singer like Julie Andrews. I consistently performed and sang solos in elementary through high school. Later I began forming bands, singing and playing instruments as well as writing and performing my own songs. Becoming a songwriter was truly exciting and fulfilling. As I crafted my skills I learned how to record the music I was making. I was drawn to recording. The first time I recorded myself was with a friend in the elementary school bathroom. We created a silly scenario about an alien invasion. I can remember thinking how Cool! We were creating a whole new reality we could add to and listen to over and over. My passion for recording would lead me to recording my own songs and the music and compositions of other writers and speakers.

In 1998 while visiting briefly in Virginia Beach Florida, my writing took on a new focus. While staying in a rented cottage block from the, I began composing a song called “Within You.” At the time I was going through personal spiritual awakening. The song “Within You” was one of my first songs that I felt wrote itself through me, in a matter minutes. The song is about God within us and the power to create according to our thoughts and actions. Previously, unconscious to this idea, I now realized the importance of the lyrics I wrote and sang and how they impact my life and the world around me. With this new take on things, my writing took on new direction and remains on course.

Carolyn Bolich Sledge THE WOMAN.

I used to wonder when I would actually become a woman. I had been married, divorced and had many experiences as an adult but I can say I actually felt like a woman when I gave birth to my first child Eve in 2000. The Pregnancy was an unexpected event like most everything else that has happened to me in Tennessee. I moved to Nashville Tennessee, Music City USA to make it big, and boy did I! Within the four months I met my soul mate Richard Bolich. From the first moment we met we were inseparable and remain so.Rich took an immediate interest in my music and songwriting and hired me to write music for $1,000 dollars a month. He began learning the music recording equipment and came with me to shows to run the sound. Later he picked up the bass guitar and began to learn how to play. Before long we began playing, writing and recording together in our studio in Franklin Tennessee, Stu Stu Studio’s.

I have long had a strong desire to tour the world and share my music positively effecting change. I’ve been told I’m from the Pleiades and I am here to hold the light. I can say that may be true but as far as being a woman I have learned to appreciate the process, something you have to do when you have three children a husband a house a recording studio and you want to share your music with the world. It has taken me years to gain all this wisdom and especially patience (after all I am an Aries). This year Rich and I formed a band called THE GARDEN PARTY. We got the idea for the name of the band after a conversation with our neighbor who said she could not find a political affiliation. Since we are both gardeners she said “hey, why don’t we just call our self’s The Garden Party?” It stuck. But THE GARDEN PARTY is not political. It’s about a state of mind and a way of being in the world, in the GARDEN. The music is fun, positive and meaningful. I love being on stage with Rich. I love being with him always, so having him perform with me is great too! We just have a blast.

In 2008 as we began putting the pieces together for our GARDEN PARTY HOUSE CONCERT TOUR, we began to ponder the gas prices we would incur traveling around in HARVEY THE RV “GARDEN PARTY HOUSE CONCERT TOUR BUS”. This led to thoughts on alternative fuels and possibly converting HARVEY over to bio-diesel. Rich is a graduated engineer and holds three patents for his inventions. To make a long story short, he and a partner came across some technology that will allow most cars to run on hydrogen in a safe manner ( effectively one ¼ cup of reusable water every two hundred miles)No gasoline, no more dependence. This technology has been well researched and tested. Just in the last few months there has become are an ever increasing amount of people on the internet using this technology. You can go to U-Tube and type in Hydrogen Tap for more information on this freeing concept. This is not new technology it is just new to the people technology.

Being a homeschooling mommy musician comes about as natural as breathing. Life is a stage. We are all on stage.

I enjoy homeschooling my children. Life is the teacher, silence is also the teacher. I enjoy being with my family and I spend as much time with them as they can stand! The children have been my greatest teachers, reminding me of limitless possibilities. I could never express my total gratitude for the gifts they share.

You can keep up with Carolyn Sledge and THE GARDEN PARTY music with these links

www.myspace/carolynsledge

www.myspace/thegardenpartyband