Rebecca Dru opens Bitter and Sweet Chocolates, The Annual TASTY WORDS™ Valentine's Inspired stories

Thursday was a HUGE day for me as it was the first time in 24 years I sang live. I was invited by Wendy Hammers, the creator of TASTY WORDS™, to participate in her show as the musical guest.

Wendy had been "encouraging" me for MONTHS to sing and I finally took her up on the offer. This show was filled with stories about love and the pursuit of it, just in time for Valentine's Day; a great collection of bitter, bad date stories and romantic tales of joyful and requited love.

She had a terrific line up of writers:

Romie Angelich - Being Mrs Peter Moor

Ken Bank - Velcro Boys
Barra Grant - An Irish Hebraic Love Story
Judith Allen - The Captain (A Love Story)

Dave Kessler - True Stories of Dave Kessler, The Dating Daredevil

Wendy Hammers - Jewish Girl Eats Bacon and Finds God
Dylan Brody - True Romance
with musical guest Rebecca Dru

I loaded my gear in the morning. I'm so glad I bought a new mic. I had picked up a HEIL PR 30 at WLA Music and I love it...it's really responsive to my voice. I just didn't want to start back with a Shure SM 58....it's too abrupt. Once set up, I did the sound check with Marjorie Lewis who stopped by to listen...and dance...had a bite with her...relaxed at home with my dogs until it was time to go. I passed by my husband with a big kiss on my way out as he had just returned from an LA PHIL rehearsal...and on my way I went.

You have to understand...I was never going to sing live again...outside my home..so this was a big moment for me...either I was going to love it or not....and baby..I am BACK!! I took those 24 years...and enjoyed my life...my family..and filled it with love...and it made a difference. I'm not doing this for any other reason then for the pure pleasure of it...and let me tell you I had a blast! I did two songs....ANOTHER ONE OF YOU , I wrote with Susan Santiago, which is about meeting someone who's already in a relationship and wishing he/she had a clone. The other was a love song I wrote for my husband. It's the first song in the 25 years we've been together that I've written for him. I started working on a list of why I loved him and realized...I don't need it...I love him JUST BECAUSE. I collaborated on it with a wonderful lyricist out of New York, Carole Blake. Just to side track...I met Carole via my cousin Susan on Facebook. I haven't seen her since I was 3 (and I'm 51 now). I had never worked with someone I didn't know before...but Carole is fantastic! She connected with me on the sentiment of the song. I already had the chorus and the bridge and the line in the verse, " I love the way you...." and she finished it. Now the fun part is she just got married tonight and had been looking for a love song for her wedding.... THIS was her love song that she used for the first dance!

I'm thrilled....I'm relishing in this first performance...I was pleased.... and now I'm getting ready for the next one at The Santa Monica Playhouse on April 8th...where I"ll be doing more songs...new songs...songs that are pertinent to my life now. I'm excited!

Salon de Rebecca Dru

Friday night I had a group of people over to hear the first selection of songs Susan Santiago and I have completed. I wanted to make it VERY casual in that it's been a long time since I've done this and I wanted to be very relaxed and make it fun for myself. I even kept on my beach garb..my torn off sleeved T and shorts...no shoes. I figured I'd change when we went out to dinner afterwards. I had drinks...but no food.....and that's MAJOR for me being that I love to cook..and people expect treats from me...but I really thought I'd run through the songs and we'd be off for Indian. WRONG! I guess I didn't expect the level of comfort I had nor the patter than ran out of my mouth. I also had invited some other talented people who performed some of their original material and it became an evening of entertainment. My poor friend, Diane, was gnawing at her fingers she was sooo hungry. What I thought would take under 30 minutes to play..ended up taking about two hours....and will become a regular affair. Another friend said she loved the idea of bringing back the "Salon" of the 30's.

The songs went over very well. I'm so pleased with the response and have started working on the next 5 songs. Susan's left me with a stack of lyric as she returns to teaching at the High School. I'm aiming to finish this next group soon and have another salon at the end of September.

I'd like to invite a few more people to this one. I'm hoping my friend, the comedienne can make it as well as my friend who does interpretive signing. She's wonderful to watch...and if I can get Phillip, the angel who lives next door to play for her while she signs, I think it'll be incredible to watch. We all have different talents...what a wonderful way to spend and evening sharing that with each other.

And yes....next time I will have food.....lots of food.

I'M BACK....

I'm back....after a 10 year hiatus. I'm writing songs again (as opposed to instrumentals) and I'm even thinking about singing live again....how I used to love getting up on stage...I lived for it. Now, my nerves are getting the best of me. I know all the components that go into performing...the do's and don'ts...how to grab my audience...but it's been so long..I could get up on that stage and open my mouth and nothing comes out (I remember that occurring the first time I got up on stage) ....my vibrato, uncontrollable...my nerves shot to hell; It's like starting all over again. I also want to build up a new repertoire. My songs from the 70's need a dance band..and my 80's songs still get requests after all these years.... and I do love the songs in Italian I did in the 90's....but I need something new. I just want to sit at a piano and play....simply for the love of it.