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UPDATE: 12/22/05

Hello everybody!

I hope you are having a happy holiday and looking forward to a new year of peace, good health, prosperity, love and multiple ear-gasms for all.

For my Chanukah present, PLEASE go to blueswax.com and sign up for the free largest online blues publication. They are having nominations for artist of the year and record of the year and I DESPERATELY need you to vote. Once you sign up, look for the banner that says "blues wax awards - nominate your favorite artist and album." You have until January 8th to vote! I have been overlooked by the WC Handy Awards, year after year even though I have been touring and making records since 1992. It would be great to get some acknowledgement from the blues community the way I always have, from my fans and friends like YOU!

I continue to get love and respect from the gay community. White trash girl has been named cd of the year by the queer music heritage radio show (see below). And of course, I won Best Blues CD of the year (again) at the San Diego Music Awards, in November which was very sweet. Of course, there are so many people who don't win and don't even get a nomination. i want to acknowledge my friends, Sue Palmer, Michelle Lundeen and Nathan James who were all nominated in my category and are all winners in my book!

We had a great tour in Europe, although it was freezing cold and I was sick the whole time. Played some wonderful shows; the rhythm riot in England where I got to see my old buddy Roy Gaines and Little Rachel; played a party in Sliedrecht, Holland and featured some special needs kids onstage with us; played wonderful clubs in Germany, France and Switzerland. Then we got back just in time to celebrate my son Tommys 17th birthday! For those of you who remember, his first appearance in a nightclub was at the Music Machine in West L.A. when he was just three days old, supporting his dad at a Paladins Concert. Time flies, doesn't it?

Each time I go to Europe, I think "This could be my last time here" so I try to enjoy every scenic moment. Most of those moments are spent driving in a van but the time we get onstage and with our fans are tremendous. At the show In Belgium, I met a beautiful young lady who has been suffering from anorexia. We both cried and hugged as she told me that my song The Toughest Girl Alive gave her the strength to go on and fight her illness. Moments like that make all the frustration worth it.

I feel very blessed to have been able to play music one more year. White Trash Girl is my best selling CD yet, thanks to ALL OF YOU. Diva La Grande is out in Europe and will be released here in the states in January. Thank you sooo much for your continued musical support. Times are tough and many people are broke and feeling the pinch. I am consistently overwhelmed by the love I get from working people who fork out an hours wages to come and see me live. I cant tell you how much my survival depends on YOU and the DJs who help me by playing my record! BIG JUICY KISSES TO ALL OF YOU.

A special thanks goes out to NANCY EDWARDS, BILL WAX, CHIP EAGLE, KATRIN AND GRIT AND THOMAS AT RUF RECORDS, KEVIN HELLMAN, IRA AT INTUNE, TINA AND STEVE AT PIEDMONT TALENT, MICHAEL MUSIOL, BON ROSE FINE, SERIOUS BOB, GIGI GRECO, JD DOYLE and all the DJ's, journalists, promoters and club owners who keep us working!

Love & kisses, yer favorite white trash diva,
Candye Kane

UPDATE: 12/4/05

Being in Europe on tour is rad but being here and being sick sucks! I have been sick the whole damn time. I think I caught it on the plane on the way to Zurich. There was a sneezing sniffling coughing lady in my row and it doesn't help that it's freezing here. There is snow everywhere. I am taking some weird meds a Belgian doctor/fan gave me. They get me through the show but I couldn't smoke weed in Holland at all. It sucked. My stupid heater doesn't work in this room here in Germany so I am wearing my big heavy coat while doing email...stupid.

I have been on tour in Europe now for three weeks and have read three books; Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast, Nabokov’s Lolita (again) and Penn Jillette's Sock. I am such a fucking intellectual. I don’t usually read fiction but all three books were great. A moveable feast was all about Paris in the 30's..(my favorite era) with Gertrude and Alice, Picasso and Sylvia Beach all hanging out together. What a cool group that must have been to hang with. I didn't read Hemingway for years because I thought he was a macho misogynist but then I read this great memoir called "Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation" about her Paris bookstore, Shakespeare and Company. Sylvia was an amazing lesbian ex pat who made a literature home for all the other Americans in europe during the pre-world war II days. She was incredible. I had forgotten how creepy Nabakov's Lolita was. It's weird to read the story of him getting aroused over a nine year old. Pretty scary stuff even if it is written in brilliant prose. As for Penn Jillette's Sock, this book is hilarious. It's the story of a sock monkey named Dickie who becomes a detective and solves a crime. Penn is a hard core atheist and the book is drenched with his opinions about faith (faith is inherently evil) and self help/positive affirmations (a waste of time.) I disagree with a lot of Penn's rhetoric but he is a witty and brilliant writer and the book is awesome and a quick read. He is a good friend too even though he is extremely opinionated.

Have had some great shows out here. Played a fabulous rockabilly festival in England, the Rhythm Riot with my buddy from Italy, Perry, on piano. Perry is here on myspace and he played great. I bought some cool 45's for my jukebox...Guitar Slim, Roy Orbison, Wynonnie Harris. I look forward to getting home to hear them.

Played some wonderful shows in Holland, especially the private party in Sliedrecht which featured some special needs kids who performed in bands. I invited a couple of the girls up onstage with me and it was really gratifying to see their huge smiles and hear them sing "Eat it all Night Long!" on the big stage!

I hate being gone sometimes because I miss so much at home. My son Tommy is 17 today. I bought him an ipod nano and I am so pissed because they didn't ship it in time!!! So now he gets nothing in time for his birthday! It's bad enough I'm not there but now no present either! No matter how hard I try, it's hard to run your life from across an ocean.

Anyway, sickness aside, its been a great tour and fun to see my friends here in Europe like Willy and Joris. I was upset to hear that George Bush made that speech where he said "The United States will accept nothing less than victory." Can someone please define "victory" for me? I thought victory was when the Red Sox finally won. Can't understand what Bush's victory is really about. As much as I hate that man, and despise seeing his smirky face on the news, I can't WAIT to come back home and be in my own bed, in my own house, in my own city by my own beach in my own country, the USA, flawed though it may be.

Guess I better bury myself in another book! Five more days to go!

UPDATE: 11/13/05

The Lord was a woman from Mexico City

My fiance surprised me with a trip to Mexico City for my birthday. I didn't know where we were going until the very last possible minute. It was so much fun. I have long been a fan of Frida Kahlo (way before the Salma Hayek movie) and it was amazing to finally get to visit her house and her town, Coyoacan. I saw the house where she and Diego Rivera lived together, connected by a little bridge. I dream of such a house where I can have my own space and my lover can have a private space connected by a bridge. How civilized! I also visited the pyramids in Teotihuacan. It was awesome. I can't help but wonder how the Egyptians, the Aztecs and the Mayans had the same ideas about contacting the Gods on two separate continents before the information age. I know there is a theory that aliens were in contact with them but that seems pretty crazy. Still, it is perplexing to ponder how they shared the same theories and built the same elaborate monuments without ever meeting one another. It was sad to revisit how the Spaniards destroyed the temples atop the pyramids in their attempt to convert the indigenous peoples to Christianity. I witnessed the same weirdness when I visited Jerusalem and saw the Jewish tomb of King David, beneath the room where they had the Christian last supper and the Arab mosque built atop it. It really is tragic how religions don't respect each other and just build their own monuments to their faith right on top of someone elses, destroying the sacred places of others in the process.

We visited the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe also and witnessed people crawling to the shrine on their knees. I almost got a tattoo of our lady many years ago and so it was super cool to finally visit the shrine. But again, I felt so sorry for the native Mexicanos whose own historic faith was annihilated by the Spanish Christians in their zeal to convert everyone in sight. The Pyramids and their history speak of a faith that was at one with nature, worshipping the moon and the sun and the rain Gods. Now these people live in abject poverty, many of them barely surviving, and at the same time, worship at a gold plated altar and give their money to a church that hides child molesters and turns away from their suffering. It just doesn't seem right.

Religion has caused so much misery throughout the ages. I know it is a deeply personal thing and I also know that faith has brought comfort to people when they really need it, but visiting those pyramids and the holy shrine really made me re-examine my feelings about religion and religious institutions, once again. Religion has always divided, more than it has united and continues to do so today. Fanatics exist in every branch of religion, even in our own Oval Office and they continue to twist and distort religious doctrine to fit their own purposes. Have we really made any progress at all since the Spaniards conquered Mexico and stole their beautiful culture, only to replace it with Christian idealogies?

I wrote my song "The Lord Was a Woman", from my cd Diva La Grande, many years ago just to introduce the idea that God (if she exists) could be female. I was sick of hearing about this all male, grudge holding, score keeping God who was vindictive and punitive. A God who turned his back on the suffering of the poor and the innocent. When Country Dick recorded the song "Are you drinking with me Jesus?" he inspired me to write my own song about the subject. After visiting Mexico City, I am still more convinced than ever that the traditional, historic ideas about religion are continually manipulated by men to serve their own economic and selfish purposes. Any religion that tramples on other peoples faith and sacred feelings is a distorted sham.

I don't really believe anymore in the God of traditional religion. In fact, now more than ever, I believe God is the love inside of each one of us. The conscience that makes us do the right thing. The power we have inside us to overcome individual suffering and obstacles. The energy inside us that gives us purpose. The warmth inside us that we feel when something beautiful happens like a sunset, or a sunrise, or an act of kindness that we give someone else. We each have the power to change our own destinies and make this planet as good as we can, while we are here on earth. Any person who hurts someone else in the name of some so called religion is as far away from the concept of God as they can get.

That's what I got out of my birthday trip to beautiful Mexico City.

UPDATE: 8/31/05

Candye Kane on touring, day jobs, Blues Societies, Kenny Neal and God.

Having a great tour out here on the East Coast. Played the Big Bull Falls blues festival in Wausau, Wisconsin (try saying that ten times fast) with Marcia ball, Guitar Shorty and Joe Bonamassa. It was a beautiful day and a wonderful crowd of fun, wild people who love the blues. Played a great show in Kansas City with the Rockabilly band, the Rumblejetts and had a fabulous female singer, Little Rachel sit in. I will be playing with her again in November at the Rhythm Riot in Camber, UK. She’s hot and fiery and a fine singer in the growling and crooning style of Janis Martin or Wanda Jackson. Also,had a wild show in Navarre, Minnesota right outside Minneapolis. The people know how to party up there. The Northfield Roadhouse near Ann Arbor was another fun show and some of myspace buddies showed up! HOORAY. Today I did a radio show here in Rochester, NY at 96.5 WCMF.FM with the Weaze. He’s a legendary DJ up in these parts and used to be a friend of Sam Kinison whom I also met and partied with once upon a time. I sang "Whole Lotta Love" on the air at 8 in the morning!!! accompanied by guitar powerhouse Alex Skolnick, an amazingly gorgeous guitarist from the band Testament. It was a lot of fun. I might go sit in tonight if I can ever get offline.

Here’s a few topics I have been talking to people about...

Day jobs

I get asked frequently whether I play music full time or whether I still have supplemental income like Tupperware. I am currently not doing Tupperware parties as I have been on the road so much of late, but they were a lot of fun. I’d take out my vintage apron collection and show people how to keep unconventional items fresh with pastel colored plastic ware. Tupperware aside, I have often worked extra jobs in the winter months when its hard to drive across the ice and snow in the Midwest and Europe. After being stranded in blizzards in Lincoln, Nebraska, Lillehammer, Norway and Oklahoma city, I mostly stay in the northwest for January, February and March. I have worked as a secretary and a typist, switchboard operator, waitress, cashier at Savons, service cashier at auto dealerships, and of course, stripper in between gigs. I would take anything for just a few weeks before Christmas, Chanukah or my sons' birthday's. I felt guilty sometimes taking a job, only to have to leave it when the summer came back and I could resume touring, but that’s survival. That’s what all parents have to do. Lots of musicians get spoiled and find it hard to dress down or take orders. They don’t realize that real people have to deal with office politics and bullshit every day. That’s what makes it so remarkable when working people find the time to volunteer for ...

Blues societies

I am always amazed at the dedication, hard work and genuine love for this music from the volunteers; people who have families and jobs and still choose to support the blues scene.

They make flyers, they fetch food, they empty trash cans, help out the lost, drive the golf carts and are generally cheerful and competent. And sometimes I have been amazed at how the festival or show becomes all about them and their in-fighting and less about the actual artists who are playing there. I have played festivals where there are two blues society tents because they have split off from each other. I always think that is very sad because there are only a few of us in this small blues community and we have to support each other. If we splinter off from like minded people, we will never be as strong. There is strength in numbers. When people spend all their time squabbling, nothing gets done properly. The group is rendered ineffective. I wonder if blues societies could adopt a sort of by laws that keeps their objectives clear and concise. I mean obviously in any group, there will always be dissention. It happens in bands, in political groups, in families. We all have our preferences and prejudices. We all love different types of blues and different things about different artists. It’s human nature to disagree.

I try to join all the blues societies in the towns I play, even when they don’t support my show. Even in my own home town of San Diego where I have won best blues band five years in a row, I have NEVER been invited to play a show that was hosted by the blues society to my knowledge, (except a benefit once in awhile). Even so, I still join the society because I believe in what they are doing in the community. So, I get NOTHING for joining really but the newsletter and the feeling that I am helping out a little. I am a card carrying member of nine different blues societies in nine different states. I always had to seek them out and sign up. No one ever came to me and said "Hi, How about joining up? "I’ll bet they would get a lot of artists to sign up for the society if they just asked! I just played the Hudson River blues fest in NYC and never saw a blues society sign up sheet. The festival was incredible though with a stunning view of the empire state building on pier 54 in the city. It is totally free so it was packed with a beautiful diverse crowd of smiling faces. Black, white, old, young, gay, straight, it was awesome. The sun came out just as my set started. I played with Hubert Sumlin from the original Muddy Waters band (incredible grooves as always), Corey Harris, (what a fox) Guitar Shorty (love him and his great band and he’s mentioned in the Bob Dylan book Chronicle) and

Kenny Neal.

Kenny’s home is in Baton Rouge and he was going to L.A. to stay for awhile during the hurricane. He has had some really bad luck lately. His dad just died of bone cancer and he lost his brother and his sister was murdered by her lover, all in one month. If you know him, or are a fan, please reach out to this sweet guy and tell him you’re thinking of him. He just got married so I know he is loved but I really sensed his pain when he told me what was happening in his life. We have only met once so I really think he was hurting to share his personal grief with me. (info@kennyneal.net) I told him that bad things happen to good people. Look at the horrors that occur worldwide to innocent people. it has nothing to do with

God.

There is an excellent book by the same title "When Bad Things Happen to Good People" by Harold Kushner. I suggest this book to anyone dealing with the loss of a loved one. Kushner lost his nine year old son to cancer, I think. His book points out that when a plane goes down, everyone equally and passionately prays to be saved. When there are survivors, it doesn’t mean that God heard their prayers and not the ones of the people that perished. Yet, people always say "Thank God I lived." I think this is extremely selfish for the people who have lost someone in the same tragedy. What were all their prayers? Chopped liver? God invented the sky not the airplanes that fly in them. God invented humanity not the guns we carry. Things happen at random. Things happen in nature. Things happen that we cannot explain or understand.

God, if she does exist, doesn’t pick and choose or answer prayers like a short order cook. If she did she would save the city of New Orleans and the people who perished in the Tsunami and the World Trade Center victims. God is inside each one of us. We are the only ones who can change things, one person at a time.

That’s my opinion.

Candye Kane with a day off, finally in Rochester,NY.

UPDATE: 7/19/05

Howdy everybody! I have a show in L.A. this Friday!!! This is my first show in the L.A. area in…forever. Please come down to Cozy’s on Ventura Blvd around 10 pm and rock out with us. I am proud to announce my new bassist, Gil T, formerly of Top Jimmy and the Rhythm Pigs fame. Gil has also played with WC Clark and Guy Forsyth among hundreds of others. He’s been my friend for years back when we used to party at the Cathay De Grande in Hollywood and I’m thrilled to finally be able to play with him. Friday will be our first real show together. On another note, my former bassist Oliver Steinberg can be seen in the new Owen Wilson movie, The Wedding Crashers with his band, Klezmer Juice. It’s a silly movie but fun catching a glimpse of Oliver in the opening scenes. My old buddy Dwight Yoakum is also in the movie. He used to party at the Cathay with Gil T and I along with all the other Hollywood punks.

I just came home from Austin where I played an incredible show for the Antone’s 30th anniversary week. I shared the stage with legends Lou Ann Barton, Angela Strehli, Marcia Ball, Sue Foley, Cindy Cashdollar, Eve Monsees, Sarah Brown, Carolyn Wonderland and Ruthie Foster. It was an incredible week of music. I saw Hubert Sumlin, Calvin Jones, Pinetop Perkins and Tommy Shannon. I was so proud to be a part of Austin music history.

Keep your calendars marked for my September show with the Fat Bottom Burlesque Revue Show at Tio Leos in San Diego. (We are hoping to book an L.A area show that weekend as well and are open to suggestions for venues.) Pittsburgh Diva and Burning Man celebrity Phatmandee will join us onstage for a night of zaftig abundance. Star of stage and screen, Leonard Nimoy (yes, that Leonard Nimoy) has taken photos of the Big Bottom girls and will be shooting some photos of me as well. His new book Shekhina is a lovely erotic portrait of Jewish women. Check out his pix of the big bottom girls in this months issue of Juxtapose magazine, Time Magazine and also at leonardnimoyphotography.com

You can sample my new CD "White Trash Girl" at myspace.com/candyekaneband I really love myspace and have made a lot of new friends there. There’s also a great review for my new CD in Blues Revue magazine, the one with Mark Hummel on the cover. I am sandwiched between great reviews for my two favorite pianists, Marcia Ball and Sue Palmer!

I want to thank all of you for your support and for the letter writing campaign to the radio stations and to Howard Stern and Conan. Conan has had my friend Big Sandy on twice and Howard has had my friends, Annie Sprinkle and Ducky Doolittle, so why not me? Hopefully, I will be next. Thanks again for making White Trash Girl my best selling CD yet. You can order it at a live show or at amazon.com. My DVD from the Ohnefilter TV show in Germany is also available at live shows and on Amazon.

Thanks again for all your love and support!

Your favorite white trash diva,
Candye

UPDATE: 6/16/05

Hi everybody! White trash girl is available in stores and online at amazon.com now! Please order it! We get credit for the sales when you order them from Barnes and Noble, Amazon or any other chain store. I love when you buy em’ at the show because I get a bit more money but in the long run its better to have it look like people are buying it in stores. We only sold 135 cds the first week, so we desperately need some help! You can download samples of the new cd at myspace.com/candyekaneband and then go out and buy it!! I am sure you’ll love what you hear.

I am on tour now in the Midwest with my new baby boy band. I’ve known these kids since they were in grade school so it’s fun to see them bitten by the blues bug and out here on the road. They are my son Evans best friends and are having a great time. The other day Isaiah, who has a long beard and looks like the American Taliban, decided to run naked through a cemetery and have the boys film him like the sasquatch/ big foot footage. It was broad daylight and this kid stripped and ran through the grass like a wild man. It was pretty funny. They give me a lot of energy and make me feel young.

I have written a story called "Blues Survivor" about my time on the road with the Blues Caravan. Hopefully they will print it in Blues Revue or Blueswax.com

I also wanted to ask you to please go to Howardstern.com and write to him. Tell him he should have me on his show. I have submitted stuff to him before with no luck. Maybe the fans can help me get on. You know he would dig my breast piano playing and I would love to mess with him and his concept of big women and what equals sexy.

Finally, I will be back in L.A. at Cozy’s in Sherman Oaks in July. Please come out and support this show so it won’t be as long before I play in L.A. again!

Hope you’re having a fabulous summer so far!

Love from your favorite white trash diva,
Candye Kane

UPDATE: 5/27/05

Howdy everybody! The Blues Caravan is over!!! We had some amazing shows in Scandinavia and Europe and made some wonderful friendships along the way. Check out some silly pictures we took in Trondheim that they printed in the paper at www.adressa.no It was in the April 30th morning edition. There were three huge pictures of Ana Popovic, Sue Foley and I. My San Diego buddy Earl Thomas played in Bergen, Norway with me along with Gary Primich, who blows some mean harp on my new CD, White Trash Girl. I sat in with both of them and we had a wonderful time.

There is also a great review for my new cd in MOJO magazine. www.mojo4music.com It's the one with T Rex on the cover. I hope some of you were able to pick up the latest issue of Blue Suede News. Yours truly was on the cover. Check out www.bluesuedenews.com There is also a review coming out in the next Blues Revue magazine of my new CD. I'm excited! I am also on Itunes now in the Blues section. Check out my new CD there. It will officially be released in the states on June 7th!

I have been home for a couple of weeks now, getting caught up on bills, dry cleaning, yard work, and friend and family visits but I'm gearing up for my next midwest and east coast run. I will be hopefully coming to your town this summer. I have some great "white trash girl" t shirts for sale that I hope you guys will love.

Some other highlights of the Blues Caravan tour were meeting a beautiful female blues guitarist from Finland, Erya Luitenen and also meeting a great Swedish all girl blues band, Little Jenny and the Blue Beans. I saw Lee Rocker and Buzz in Trondheim as well as Louisiana Red and the great Jolly Jumper and Moe from Norway, playing alongside amazing greek musicians. I felt so blessed to be around all this talent. Hanging out with Bob Brozman was an incredible highlight in Copenhagen. I love Bob and I hope to record a cd with him someday. We had a darling 17 year old girl from England, Holly Kinnear sit in with us and also the smokin' Eve Monsees from Austin. I am writing an article about the Blues Caravan called "Blues survivor." Keep your eyes peeled for it on www.blueswax.com

Sue Foley and I will be reliving the Blues Caravan on July 13th when we take the stage at Antone's in Austin to celebrate their anniversary. We will be joined by many wonderful female musicians including Sarah Brown, Carolyn Wonderland and Cindy Cashdollar, and many more. Come on down and party with us Texas style!

I am constantly amazed at the love and affection I receive from all of you wonderful fans and friends. Thanks so much for allowing me into your hearts and CD players. What an incredible tour. Preston Hubbard was over in Europe with the Tony Vega band and we had a great time hanging out with them. He just recently relocated to St. Louis. Texas will miss him! We also made friends with Ian Hunter (Mott the Hoople) and his incredible band of New Yorkers and Brits. We especially loved Martin, his charming and funny Scottish tour manager.

Hope to see you soon!!
With a lotta juicy love,
your favorite white trash diva,
Candye Kane

UPDATE: 4/12/05

Hello Everybody!

The second leg of the Blues Caravan is over and we are now embarking on the third and final caravan. It’s been a lot of fun traveling with this group and getting to know all these new people. The last one took us to Spain, Italy, Belgium, England and France. I am happy that it will be over though. I have had just 14 days home since January and I am ready to have some down time! But no rest for the weary, I leave tomorrow for the tour of Scandinavia and will be out until May 7th.

On the homefront, I just sang a duet with blues great Floyd Dixon on his new CD that will be out in the next few months. The song was a Floyd original with a country flavor called "Love’s the key." It was a lot of fun singing with Floyd. I also sing back up on another number. Check out the photo page for a picture of he and I. I asked him how many recordings he had made and he said "about 275." I am sure he was telling the truth.

Sue Palmer has a new CD out, called "In the Green Room" and she was smart enough to put me on two songs this time. Go to www.suepalmer.com to order, or come to my show. I should have some available. I think this is her best CD yet and I love the standard I sang on, "I’m confessin’." I told Sue I didn’t want to sing that song and we almost changed it at the last minute. I’m glad I did it her way because it sounds killer.

My record company, RUF keeps changing the release date of White Trash Girl. It is already out in Europe and was supposed to be out in the states in mid April. The CD got pushed back, first to mid May and now to mid June. However, you can order it NOW online. I have a few copies and will sell them online and at live shows while supplies last. I also have some beautiful new White Trash t-shirts that are an exact replica or the CD art. Order them at my website. They are super cute. We had two great CD release parties at Café Boogaloo in Hermosa Beach and Tio Leo’s in San Diego. My parents came down and celebrated their 40 year wedding anniversary. It was a great night for everyone who was there.

I am also on the cover of Blue Suede News this month. Check it out at www.Bluesuedenews.com. There are stories in this issue about my very first electric guitarist, Jerry Sikorski as well as my old friend Colin Winski. It’s a really nice article and a great magazine!

Many people have asked me about my health concerns. I had a scare late last fall when I found a small lump in my armpit. I am pleased to say that the lump is now gone. I changed my deodorant and cut back on the caffeinated beverages and it disappeared!! I am very lucky and relieved. I apologize again to those people who were affected by my cancellation of my European tour with BB and the Bluesshacks. It was a tough decision but I think it was the right one.

On a sad note, I got some news that my friend George Wild Child Butler passed on last month. George wrote the song I perform and recorded on "Whole Lotta Love," Put it all in there. George was a great showman and a wonderful man. We toured together in the Night of the Blues revue show in Holland. I have been a fan of George’s ever since his record "Funky Butt Lover." Check out my picture with George on the photo page. He was a real country boy and he leaves behind his sweet wife, Elaine.

I am excited about my upcoming tours in the Midwest and East Coast. We have some exciting Blues Festivals on our calendar including the Hudson River Blues and BBQ fest in New York, The Sunbanks Blues fest in Grand Coulee, Washington and many, many more. Come out and support live music. We need you now more than ever! Thanks again for all your love and support. Hope to see you soon!!

Candye Kane

UPDATE: 2/17/05

High everybody. I have been so busy, it’s unbelievable. I am exhausted. I spent the whole month of January on tour with the Blues Caravan featuring Canadian Sue Foley and Serbian Ana Popovic. We played some amazing shows together and really had a great time. I especially enjoyed Berlin, Hamburg and all the Holland shows. We get along really well which is a surprise. Take three in control divas and put them in a bus in a snowstorm for 75 shows and watch the sparks fly. Who will shine? Who will fold? Who will get their period? Who will break down and cry? Who will get drunk and cheat on their boyfriend? Who will throw a tantrum and have to be coaxed back to the stage? Find out on the next blues survivor. We really are blues survivors and it’s intense. I brought along Lisa Otey from Tucson to play piano for the first leg and it was a lot of fun having her around. The rhythm section is drummer Billy Mclelland and bassist Mike Griot from Brooklyn and South Orange New Jersey. They both play in Michael Hill’s Blues Mob. It’s a great band but its hard work. We do an opening number altogether, then Sue plays a 45 minute set, then Ana, then me, then another finale with the three of us. I end up exhausted before I even get onstage for my set. Maybe I’m getting too old for this business. When I got home, I had two days at home and then had to take off for a tour of the northwest. My band has all gone on hiatus since I am working so much with the blues caravan. They have gone back to school and on extended vacations. So I used a pick up band on the northwest tour with Victor Crain on guitar, Rick Reed on bass and Sly Hearns on drums.

The highlight of the tour was staying in Gig Harbor at the Wurlitzer Manor. There is an estate totally built around one of the last theater organs in the world. It is amazing. It has all moving parts. It sounds incredible and is incredible to witness. Go to www. Wurlitzermanor.com They have vacation homes for rent there with breathtaking views of gig harbor. It’s so beautiful. Tacoma was a great show because Adam Bratman, Nicole Fournier and Mitch Woods sat in. I am a huge Mitch Woods fan now. He is awesome and cute too. Nicole is also a real powerhouse. I really enjoyed meeting them both. I hope to get to play with them again.

The weirdest place I have been in the last few months is Dubai. It was really an amazing place. I had so much trepidation about going there after I saw their website. It said that no Israeli nationals were allowed in Dubai. I had to wonder whom they were trying to keep out. Was it just Jews? I was scared that during wartime it could be a dangerous place for Americans. I felt a little ashamed when people asked where I was from. I wanted to say Canada like Sue, and at one point, I did let a shopkeeper think I was also from Canada. I didn’t wear my Mogen David (I was too scared) while I was there and I tried to be respectful of their Islamic culture. I wore my long sleeved blue duster when I shopped at the Mall even though the day was steamy. Dubai was amazingly modern. I counted at least 60 skyscrapers being built all at once. The construction goes on around the clock. We stayed at the Jumeira Beach Hilton. It was really a nice hotel right on the beach with a big warm swimming pool. There were camels on the beach and this was fitting with my expectations. After I got over the initial uneasiness with the red and white-checkered sheik head garb that makes them look like suicide bombers, I was actually very relaxed. There was something exotic and intriguing about the Arab women wearing the Chador. Some of the chadors are beautiful and adorned with lovely trim and see through over jackets. There is something erotic and beautiful about covering yourself in public and revealing yourself at home, just for your husband. When I was in the public bathroom, each one equipped with a small hose to cleanse yourself (because of course women are unclean) these women would take off their chadors for a moment and be beautifully dressed underneath in Armani and Prada. Their eyes are especially captivating and each one of the younger women seems to have the artistic talent of a make up artist. In my blue duster, I became a bit less obvious and I enjoyed getting some smiles and even greetings from some of the Muslim women. The men will not look you in the eye. They avert their gaze and stare instead at the ground or the area above your eyes. Sue Foley and I went shopping in the Gold Souk which is the area where they sell jewelry and I bought a few different beaded outfits, some pillow cases and a lovely silver bracelet and ring set with garnets, peridot and amethyst. Sue bought a muslim head covering and I bought one too and we walked around trying to blend in. Sue looked really beautiful in hers with her delicate features and her clear blue eyes. I looked clumsy and plain with my thick hair covered and I was glad I only had to wear the thing for fun. In spite of my quirky sexual attraction to some of these sheiks and their wives, I felt sorry for women in Dubai. While it is modest and humble in a sweet archaic way, it is definitely an effective tool; keeping women in their place. They cannot see very well in the chador and they tend to hold onto each other for physical as well as moral support. Men stride around jocular and macho, content in their power and superiority. Even on the beach, I witnessed two women in full chador. Their husbands ran freely in shorts, jumping in the waves while they walked gracefully on the sand, letting their feet gently touch the water but clearly unable or maybe not allowed to jump in and romp at will. The allure and mystique of this custom seems cruel when women are unable to participate in the freedoms of everyday living.

They are building a hotel completely under water, where each room will be an ocean aquarium. It’s called Hydropolis. They have this one hotel, the most expensive seven star hotel in the world. Each room has its own landing pad for helicopters. The people in Dubai are richer than God. None of the native Dubai’ins work. They are all far too rich. All the working class people in hotels, shops and restaurants are Indian, Pakistani, Thai or Nepalese. The country is a monarchy and the sheiks are good to the people. They get free health and dental care and they pay no taxes. There is zero crime in Dubai because everyone is happy and taken care of. Rents are cheap and gas is cheaper and sometimes the government even gives houses to people for good service. I saw a sign for a condo building that said if you buy one, you get any Audi of your choice and if you buy a penthouse you get a Porsche! They have every American business in Dubai. I saw buildings for Microsoft, CNN, Dell, Showtime, HBO, KFC, Burger King, TGIF, Mcdonalds, Cinnabon, Claire’s, Kenny Rogers Roasters, Harley Davidson, Gap, Ikea. It was astounding to see how much American money is invested in Dubai.

The Dubai Jazz festival was sponsored by Alitalia, Phillips and the Hilton. The crowd was huge and demonstrative. I sold all the cds that I brought in ten minutes. The crowd was full of Americans and British people. I hope I get to go back to Dubai. I never thought I’d say that but it’s an amazing place.

I will go back to Europe and the second leg of the blues caravan on March 1st. Although I am exhausted, I feel blessed and lucky to be working at a time when many are not. I know my life is charmed and I love my fans. Thank you for coming out to see me all over the world. The first reviews are coming in about the new cd "White trash girl." It will be out in the states in mid april. So far, people seem to like it. One British reviewer said, "subtle, she ain’t." I thought that was pretty funny. I have never pretended to be subtle. Maybe that reviewer just wasn’t paying attention. Hope to see you all soon!

Love and a whole lotta juicy kisses,

Candye