Hello out there in isolation sphere, how are you holding up? I hope you and yours are well and safe.

It is nearly 1 AM where I live when this post goes up and later in the morning I am going to have my first chemotherapy session. Hopefully, I am sleeping right now, but you never know. Right now (I write his post a week earlier) I am starting to get nervous.

Chemotherapy has rather nasty side effects even though it has come a long way from when my mother had to deal with. The oncology nurse advised me not to have a too close look at them beforehand, as I might not get many. I felt though I needed to be a little prepared because I will have to call the hospital in certain circumstances. So I read up on them, also to know what I can do to make things easier for me.

Most information I found didn’t help much though because it wasn’t written for COVID-19 shielding times. Never mind. In the end I decided to get as much blogging done as I can, be as resed as I can and meditate the life out of me 😉

I will soon know if it worked 🙂

So, for now, let’s come away on our musical journey around the world. Today we travel to the United States of Amerika and to a band called “The Cactus Blossoms.” While I have never heard of them, Twin Peaks fans might know more. The band appeared in one episode of the 2018 season, according to the Rolling Stone. Page Burkum and Jack Torrey are brothers despite different names. According to All Music, Jack adopted a stage name when he started as a musician aged 19.

Every source I read (I admit they weren’t many) compared them to the Everly Brothers as they seem to play a similar country-music-influenced rock style. I have no clue about 50’s or 60’s American rock music (besides Elvis, of course, but that’s another story) so I can’t comment. They were on a European tour in 2017 (please read more about one of their concerts on Pete Viney’s blog), and that’s about what my tired brain could manage to convey to you.

Please forgive me and find some links about The Cactus Blossoms after the video. And as always: Follow the link underneath any video to their YouTube location if they don’t play here on the blog.

Find out more about the Cactus Blossoms on their page

All Music wrote about them here.

And the Rolling Stone mentioned them too here

Yes, I know we can’t travel in person at the moment but we can online. To come away with me to the States with these two videos:

Come Away With Me 2020 Musical Challenge Country for Monday April 26th, 2020

I am taking a rather random route around the world, but sometimes it makes sense. Next week we are going to visit Ireland. Find out about interesting musicians from Ireland on the EXTRA.ie page.

As for the suggestions to take part:

1. Join in! No matter where, when and with what. You missed the first week? Don’t worry. Just jump in when it suits you.
2. Send us the link! The ping-back option does not always work so please leave a link in the comments of the post on the day you take part. Or leave it at the “Come Away With Me 2020 FB page“
3. Tag your post either with ” Come Away With Me Musical Challenge”/ #CoAwWiMeMuCh” / “Come Away with Me 2020 Musical Challenge” o/“CoAwWiMe2020MuCh” / . You can also use these as hashtags for Twitter and other Social Networks to give your post more exposure. If you add #blog and #music with your hashtags it will get you more readers.
4. No matter which music or country the prompt favours you create with it whatever you please. This is supposed to be a fun challenge and no chore.
5. I post a prompt for the next week with every “Come Away With Me 2020 post” I write.
6. If you like, use this picture for your readers to find the posts.

Just one more thing before you go: The hospital that is treating me is fundraising for a dedicated breast cancer unit which would allow same-day diagnosis and better premises for patients and staff.

Please, if you can spare a little money hop over to their Just Giving Page and give as little or much as you can. Or share the page on your social media. Your support means a lot to me! Thank you very much.

Thanks my dears, for staying with me until the end. I appreciate your presence. Please stay safe, stay kind and remember that you rock!