How about now?

It’s such a great thing to be able to work

with people of my age group with similar experiences and musical exposures. And yet even so, there are no guarantees that you will have an understanding and synchronicity. I feel particularly fortunate. These wonderful musicians helped create this CD I’ve been wanting to produce for

a long time.

Here’s to those bright lights:

Richard Martinez whose musical genius and curiosity made every session a happy adventure with all ideas welcomed;

Ed Palermo who brings musical brilliance, humor and a deep love of music wherever

he goes;

Paul Socolow, an amazing bass player and,

as Ed says, “one of the funniest people on planet Earth” (Paul says he’s going to put this on his business card);

Bruce Williamson on tenor sax - he came, he heard, he nailed it;

Violizzy for her happy vibe and 5-string violin;

Peter Calo for his beautiful guitar playing on True North; he brought so much to the song;

and lastly, but most importantly, my husband Steve Varvaro whose crazy love carries me through life.

Aren’t we the lucky ones?

1. RIDING HOME © 2020 Beddy LoBalbo

Keyboards RICHARD MARTINEZ, BEDDY LoBALBO

I remember being in an open-air flower shop in Manhattan the first time I heard the Eurythmics' Sweet Dreams. I stopped in my tracks and listened intently. I was transfixed.

Some years later, I wrote the opening riff for a composition class and put it on a back burner. It moved to prominence when a disheartening argument in the car one night brought the realization that the relationship wasn’t going to make it. We’d hit too many red lights.

Watch the rain run down the window pane

Red light. We hit them all tonight

RIDING HOME

All the noise, the voices in my head

That race around a love struck dead

RIDING HOME

Silently you and me

Side by side alone

RIDING HOME

All the signs I didn’t even see

A place I didn’t want to be

All the words I never thought we’d say

Wrong turns that made us lose our way

RIDING HOME

Silently you and me

Side by side alone

RIDING HOME

RIDING HOME
RIDING HOME

RIDING HOME

2. TRUE NORTH © 2022 Beddy LoBalbo

Guitars PETER CALO

Bass PAUL SOCOLOW

Keyboards RICHARD MARTINEZ, BEDDY LoBALBO

I had just compiled a book of quotes called “The Musician Says” and one of the quotes I found was by a certain very well-known songwriter who said, “Make sure your first line is the absolute truth or you’ll spend the rest of the song covering your ass.” Or something along those lines. That’s a lot to lay on a first line. Shortly after, I was taking a sabbatical from the Christmas/New Year’s events (Actually, I was hiding out) in the Adirondacks with a foster dog. We went out one evening and meandered down the dirt road. Suddenly from next to us in the woods was the unmistakable “yipping” of coyotes. The dog spun around and headed back for the cabin. When I too turned, I had the thought, “How did I get so far down this road?” That’s when I realized two things: I could outrun my dog, and I had the first line of my song.

How did I get so far down this road

When I wasn’t even planning to leave home?

Where is this journey bringing me?

Can I trust and just leave it alone?

Love has a wisdom all its own

It calls us to venture forth

I’m gonna learn what I’ve always known

I’m gonna find True North

TRUE NORTH

I’M GONNA FIND TRUE NORTH

What are these words they’re throwing around?

Where are those who speak my language?

Who are the ones that I can turn to

As we walk along the edge?

Love has a wisdom all its own

It calls us to venture forth

I’m gonna learn what I’ve always known

I’m gonna find True North

TRUE NORTH

I’M GONNA FIND TRUE NORTH

Come home to the moment

Silently stay

Come home to the moment

To know the way

TRUE NORTH…

How about now_ Digital cover art (1).jpeg

Hear it hear on Spotify

3. HOLY WATER © 2022 Beddy LoBalbo

Bass PAUL SOCOLOW

Keyboards RICHARD MARTINEZ, BEDDY LoBALBO

We were all sitting quietly before the start of the Woodstock yoga class. It was July and the windows were open. It began to rain hard and in that moment I felt what a life-giving blessing water is, and had the thought that all water is holy. Richard helped me find that lovely impressionistic flowing sound that begins and ends the song.

The blue world turns as time goes

Rain falls and love flows

All water is holy water

The life it brings

Moves through everything

All water is holy water

Hey ano hey ano hey anoway

All tears are holy water

In the joy, in the pain

We are healed again

All tears are holy water

Hey ano hey ano hey anoway

All blood is holy water

Every heart knows

The sacred river that flows

All blood is holy water

Hey ano hey ano hey anoway

The life it brings

Moves through everything

All water is holy water.

It’s holy water

Holy water

Hey ano hey ano hey anoway

The blue world turns as time goes

Rain falls and love flows

4. AREN’T WE THE LUCKY ONES? © Beddy LoBalbo 2022

Tenor saxophone BRUCE WILLIAMSON

Keyboards RICHARD MARTINEZ, BEDDY LoBALB

I was thinking of an ironic situation where there is great love but no future. And yet the couple feels so fortunate for this fleeting gift of big love in little time. Then I tried to channel it through Billie Holiday.

Don’t have much money or time

But life is treating us fine

I have your hand in mine

Aren’t we the lucky ones

We don’t know where we are bound

Who knows why, when or how

We have right here right now

Aren’t we the lucky ones

I know more and more about less and less

I know happiness

And I know and you know we are so in love

That’s everything, and that’s all

There are no promises made

No eternal bliss

We’re just loving what is

Aren’t we the lucky ones?

5. BORROWED TIME © 2022 Beddy LoBalbo

Bass PAUL SOCOLOW

Keyboards RICHARD MARTINEZ, BEDDY LoBALBO

How much we take for granted. As if our lives will “creep at this petty pace from day to day” without end. My friend was telling me about beautiful moments with her father who had just died. I thought of my daughter, now grown and living in California, and the tender moments like reading to her, or having a tickle contest, or watching her fall asleep.

A whisper

At sunrise

A sleepy smile

A kiss when departing

For a little while

The moments so endless

Drifting on

Hold them

Love them

Until they’re gone

BORROWED TIME
SWEET BORROWED TIME

SWEET BORROWED TIME

The sound of your laughter

The soft of your cheek

The slow of your breathing

As you fall asleep

The moments so tender

Drifting by

See them

Know them

Before they fly

BORROWED TIME

SWEET BORROWED TIME

Love

In a river of eternity

Ageless and new

I’m holding on tight

To you

SWEET BORROWED TIME

6. HOME AT LAST © 2022 Beddy LoBalbo

Alto Saxophone ED PALERMO

Bass PAUL SOCOLOW

Keyboards RICHARD MARTINEZ, BEDDY LoBALBO

How much we take for granted. As if our lives will “creep at this petty pace from day to day” without end. My friend was telling me about beautiful moments with her father who had just died. I thought of my daughter, now grown and living in California, and the tender moments like reading to her, or having a tickle contest, or watching her fall asleep.

I can see it now (Yes, I see)

In a great big house (Yes, I see)

That sits high above

The river I love

HOME AT LAST

And I’ll sing my songs (Yes, I’ll sing)

Right where I belong (Yes, I’ll sing)

While the sun shines above

The river I love

HOME AT LAST

It feels like I’ve been waiting all my life

To find a place I’ve carried deep inside

HOME AT LAST

Grace has pardoned everything that’s passed

I’m glory bound

I finally found

Hallowed ground

HOME AT LAST

And I’ll rest my head (Yes, I will)

On a great big bed (Yes, I will)

Moonlight above

The river I love

HOME AT LAST

7. ALL I WANT IS YOU © Beddy LoBalbo 2022

Bass PAUL SOCOLOW

Keyboards RICHARD MARTINEZ

Again, I was thinking of an ironic situation where one could have everything and yet there was that someone who eluded them.

Then I put my hair back in a tight braid and became Sade.

I could have anything but all I want is you

I’m such a spoiled child with every joy and still so blue

I could have anything but all I want is you

Take a trip ‘round the world

Dress in diamonds and pearls

Haute couture and the purest gold

Leave me cold, leave me cold

I could have anything but all I want is you

I’m such a spoiled child with every joy and still so blue

I could have anything but all I want is you

I fill my days up with empty surprises

Trying what’s next and what’s new

But I can’t seem to find peace in my heart

All that I find there is you, you, you

I could have anything but all I want is you

I’m such a spoiled child with every joy and still so blue

I could have anything but all I want is you

Bass PAUL SOCOLOW

Keyboards RICHARD MARTINEZ,

BEDDY LoBALBO

Oh, Aretha. What can I say? When I saw, “Amazing Grace,” it shook me to my core. “How I Got Over,” became my new obsession as I took apart the chord structure and the hipness of Gospel piano. At the same time, COVID hit hard and we were all separated. I was frightened, I was discouraged; horror and pandemic were sweeping the world. One day, I sat at the piano and sang my unhappiness and weariness.

Lord I have sorry

Oh, I’m mad

No trust in tomorrow

Oh, I’m just so sad

Yes I have taken

The long road away

My faith is shaken

Please find me today

BRING ME BACK

BRING ME BACK TO WHAT’S TRUE

DEAR JESUS, BRING ME BACK

BACK HOME TO YOU

In this world of darkness

So full of greed

I have forgotten

It’s your love I need

When will this suffering

And sadness cease

I need your solace

Lord, I need your peace

BRING ME BACK

BRING ME BACK TO WHAT’S TRUE

DEAR JESUS, BRING ME BACK

JESUS, BRING ME BACK

BACK HOME TO YO

(inspired by John O’Donoghue)

5-string violin VIOLIZZY

Bass PAUL SOCOLOW

Keyboards RICHARD MARTINEZ, BEDDY LoBALBO

I’d been carrying around a soul-crushing heartbreak and the maelstrom of emotions it engendered. A poem by John O’Donoghue about the breakup of a relationship stressed that the only way past the heartache and betrayal is through it, so just hunker down, feel it, let it have its time. I gave it a little Chopin and a little gypsy violin.

This is the time to lay low

To the wall. Take it slow

Let the poison run through

Let the bitter weather come and go

HEARTBREAK, HEARTBREAK

You don’t want to feel this

You want to outrun

This kind of pain

Never been done

You don’t want to feel this

It hurts too hard

And it’s gonna go

Wherever you are

This is the time to lay low

To the wall. Take it slow

Let the poison run through

Let the bitter weather come and go.

HEARTBREAK, HEARTBREAK

You don’t want to see this

Turn a blind eye

But anywhere you look

You’re gonna find

HEARTBREAK, HEARTBREAK

Alto Saxophone ED PALERMO

Keyboards RICHARD MARTINEZ

Frank Sinatra. Maybe Rosemary Clooney. I was playing standards with my jazz class and decided to write one myself. I want Ed Palermo’s alto sax solo to be the last music I hear on this earth! (After “Spirit in the Sky”)

They say you win some

And you lose some

And you leave some

And you choose some

But I never knew

You’d have a change of heart

I know that you, love,

weren’t true love

I am so blue

What can I do, love

Oh, I never knew

You’d have a change of heart

At the start you said you’d be

In love forever with only me

But for you, love was a game

What a fool, what a shame

And now I find, dear

I am resigned, dear

That I was blind

To your design, dear

And now it’s so clear

I’ve had a change of heart.

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What They're Saying...

How about now?

1. RIDING HOME © 2020 Beddy LoBalbo

2. TRUE NORTH © 2022 Beddy LoBalbo

3. HOLY WATER © 2022 Beddy LoBalbo

4. AREN’T WE THE LUCKY ONES? © Beddy LoBalbo 2022

5. BORROWED TIME © 2022 Beddy LoBalbo

6. HOME AT LAST © 2022 Beddy LoBalbo

7. ALL I WANT IS YOU © Beddy LoBalbo 2022

8. BRING ME BACK © 2022 Beddy LoBalbo

9. HEARTBREAK © Beddy LoBalbo

10. A CHANGE OF HEART © 2022 Beddy LoBalbo