Austin, TX is one of Havilah and Melina’s favorite cities in the world. Why? Because it’s the live music capital of the world and we LOVE music. Join us May 3-6, 2012, when we will be serving as both yoga and creativity coaches as well as tour guides of this incredibly fun and exciting city.
The weather and atmosphere will be perfect for practicing yoga, delving deep into our authentic selves for creative inspiration, swimming in the crystal clear waters of Barton Springs, sampling food at a few of Austin’s best restaurants and listening to some of the best live music at legendary venues such as The Saxon Pub and The Continental…maybe a little two-stepping at The Broken Spoke? Anything could happen!
Retreat Schedule: Thursday: 1:30-3:00pm Yoga Workshop, 3:00-4:30pm Creativity Workshop (drop in’s welcome $15 per class) 4:30-6:00pm Outdoor Excursion 6:00-7:30pm Free Time 7:30-9:00pm Dinner 9:00pm – Music
Friday-Saturday: 10:00-11:30am Whole Foods 11:30-1:00pm Barton Springs + Juice Land 1:30-3:00pm Yoga Workshop, 3:00-4:30pm Creativity Workshop (drop in’s welcome $15 per class) 4:30-6:00pm Outdoor Excursion 6:00-7:30pm Free Time 7:30-9:00pm Dinner 9:00pm – Music
Sunday: 10:00-11:30am Brunch 11:30am-12:30pm Town Lake Stroll 1:30-3:00pm Yoga Workshop, 3:00-4:30pm Creativity Workshop (drop in’s $15 per class) Shuttles to airport or stay and join us for music in the evening!
Cost for the full 4 day Urban Retreat: $600 per person, without transportation: $500 – (Austin resident: $120)
Cost Includes: Transportation from the airport, hotel, group outings to restaurants and music venues 4- 1.5 hour yoga workshops with Melina 4- 1.5 hour creativity workshops with Havilah 2 Trips to Barton Springs (Does not include lodging or meals)
To reserve your spot in the retreat send your $150 deposit or full payment to: Melina Meza: 118 Echo Ave. #5, Oakland, CA 94611. Final balance due by April 16, 2012 (can be paid with credit card upon request)
Hotel Recommendations/Accommodations: Here are a few of our favorite pics: Most Luxurious: San Jose Hotel Great Location/Next Best: Austin Motel Affordable: Home Stead Hotel Hostel: Austin Hostel *When booking your room, please consider staying in the South Congress, Downtown, Town Lake, East Side, or near the University.
Taking time off from the internet for awhile..Feel free to email if you want to say hi or desperately need an update on the continueing adventures of Havilah!
Hello lovelies!! Hooray! It's May my favorite month. My burfday is tomorrow, I am having dinner with my gorgeous friend and talented singer/songwriter Jess Klein...then Thursday is spaghetti, wine, cake and Blazertag with all my favorite peeps including the amazing Jana Pochop, Billy Masters and brother Peter Rand. On May 20th I play at Opa in Austin at 8pm with Billy Masters and Mark Williams. Then I'll head out to Kerrville Memorial Day Weekend for a blissful sunny weekend playing songs round campfires with amazing musicians from around the globe. Then I make my annual summer trek to Bellingham, WA where I've got a bunch of shows lined up from Walla Walla to Seattle to Portland and of course my beloved Bellingham. Check out the calendar for more info.
My summer adventures continue in August when I will visit friends and fam on the east coast. Let me know if you would like to book a house concert!! Here is a link to a website that helps folks set up dinner and song nights right in their own home. I can speak from experience that these are the most fun and lucrative gigs for a singer songwriter chic like me who enjoys intimacy and interaction with the audience. In fact, Susan Gibson and I will be performing a house concert August 13th in Oregon City. Barbecue, bonfire and fifty or so fans will be enjoying great songwriting and performing up close, then get to hang out and have fun with each other and us afterwards. Go to www.concertsinyourhome.comto see my profile and how you can make this happen at your home.
September I embark on a quick trip thru Oregon and California on my way back to Austin for the fall. Again, contact if you would like to organize a concert in your home. Next, my new BFF and partner in yoga/creativity crime Melina Meza, Will Hewitt and I are leading what we call a Y.A.M. retreat. Yoga Art and Music!! We are bringing peeps to Austin on September 25-30 for a week of yoga, yummy food, wellness, creativity coaching, singing and songwriting (oh and hot tubbing!). My dream of integrating my skills as a musician, teacher and yoga practitioner have come to fruition. Contact me to learn more and I will be posting info on how to sign up.
Well, enjoy your summer and I can't wait to cross paths with you soon. Namaste. Love. Havilah
Spring is here and I can hardly believe it. The year is passing with lightening speed and I am wondering where I will find the time to put into motion all the ideas I have for the coming months. As some of you may know, when I am not singing and wandering the streets of various cities around the world, I teach young teenagers, mostly from Mexico, how to use correct grammar and write a decent composition. They are hilarious and infuriating and I both dread and long for the last day of school. This year in particular I have connected deeply with my students. Every day I learn patience, acceptance and to not take myself so seriously. I learn forgiveness, as every day is a new day with children, every moment is another opportunity to start again, no matter what mistakes have been made in the past. This is not always the case with adults. We have such well-formed pictures of ourselves and who we are in relation to the rest of the world. We react to one another and hold onto material attachments, insecurity and resentment as if they were some sort of life-line. And they are, but only to an illusion that prevents us from ever discovering of how capable we truly are of making our dreams come true. And to be happy. And to feel loved. Which is my next big adventure.
June 2nd I will end my career as a public school teacher and begin this journey back to myself. I am envisioning myself traveling, singing and teaching others how to tap into their own well of creativity using tools I have discovered from my own healing and creative evolution over the past ten years. While I will continue booking performances throughout the Texas and Pacific Northwest regions, I will also begin offering one-on-one and small group workshops centered around cultivating creativity through yogic principles and body/mind/spirit alignment.
One of my goals at the beginning of this year was to seek out teachers and mentors where and whenever I could. Here are a few examples of people I have run across so far who are inspiring me and confirming that I am indeed moving in the right direction. To start, Melina Meza is a yoga practitioner and teacher with over twenty years of experience. She has recently published her second book on seasonal vinyasa and ayurvedic nutrition. At the moment she is entered in a contest to be on the cover of Yoga Journal Magazine. Vote for her by clicking here!! She is also super passionate about music and has been spending a fair amount of her down time here in Austin, TX soaking up live music and sharing her expertise at various yoga studios around town. We are planning to collaborate in the fall and present a seven day retreat during October where we will practice yoga and creative expression through the voice and song. Campfire song circles with secret special guests and even a night out on the town will all be part of the fun! Contact me to learn more as space is limited!!
Another incredible person I have discovered is Darden Smith. An award winnning songwriter and recording artist, Darden has also created a program called "Be An Artist" in which he travels to schools over the world and teaches kids that creativity lives in everything and in every person. Then, he writes and records a song ON THE SPOT with the kids. I am hoping to offer something similar to groups of young people, or at least be Darden's roadie! Check out the link and support his program in any way you can because it is awesome and kids deserve to be encouraged to express themselves artistically as much as they are encouraged to become athletes and doctors.
Next on the list of Havilah's Inspiritor of the Year Awards is Jeffrey and Christine Smith who run the David B, a small cruise ship out of Bellingham, WA. They take small groups of people on cruises through the San Juan Islands, up the Inside Passage to Alaska and various other stunning hidden corners of the Pacific Northwest waters. They are wonderful friends of mine who are a perfect example of how creative vision, determination and hard work are all you need to live life straight from your heart. Conversations about offering a Singing and Songwriting cruise in 2012 have occurred!
The final award (for today anyway...) goes to Erika Randall and Daniel Beahm, super duper husband and wife team who wrote, filmed, directed and produced a full-length feature film on virtually nothing but raw talent, determination and a shit ton of LOVE. I am blessed to have several songs in this film entitled "Leading Ladies" including the opening credits which I am offering as a free listen right here for the first time. Having created quite a buzz among the independent film festival circuit world-wide, a distribution deal is right around the corner. Help out by going to IDMB and rating them a ten. I also heard a rumor that the soundtrack will be released by the summer which includes my song "All Night" and the opening credit song "Sister, Sister" which you can listen to right now!
Ok, this is turning into a book instead of a blog so I will save more for later. Please stay in touch and by all means contact me if you are interested in participating during any of the afore-mentioned events or collaborating on something similar. I am so excited for the new directions my life is taking. I encourage you to find new inspiration in your own life and to follow the quiet voice in your heart. Most important, be happy and compassionate to yourself and others. Namaste.
And here is a little something live for your listening pleasure:)
Next, Sunday March 13th 4-6pm at The Whip In "In the Living Room with Mo McMorrow" and Darwin Smith
Then I head to New Orleans!!! for the first time with some bad ass chics from Bellingham, WA. When we return I will take SXSW by storm at a private party on Saturday around 4 (inquire if interested) and then Romeo's at 8pm.
Other than that, I am working on summer shows in the Pacific Northwest and hopefully putting out a live EP soon. Hope everyone is well and we see each other soon. Love Hav
Oh! Here are some pics from our rockin show at Lambert's!!
So it's freezing cold in Austin and I have officially entered the bleak cold doldrums of February. Last Friday it actually snowed and this morning it was 22 degrees. Strangely enough, on Sunday it reached 75 degrees and I practiced yoga and yapped with the gals in the park for over three hours. Strange days. Looking forward to my gig at Lambert's Barbecue in Austin on February 25th with Chris Hawkes. When I'm not sitting by my fire with yogi tea and planning my next big advenure, I am tinkering in my online workshop. A few new songs accompanied by pictures and stories behind the lyrics. I would say "take a gander" but it sounds like I'm asking you to waddle around your house with a goose taped to your head. Stay warm my friends and hope to see you on the 25th!!
Hi! Got in late last night from Dallas. The show at Opening Bell Coffeehouse was a sweet surprise. Most times when you play a city for the first time there's a good chance you'll end up feeling...well...lonely. Instead, I was met by a lovely intimate audience, a wonderful opening set by Stephanie Fix and a visit with Jefferson Freedom Cafe owner Robert Scarborough and his sweet wife Celine. There was even a paparazzi of sorts, three different people shooting video footage and pics. Stephanie and I almost felt famous! Robert and Celine live in the same building as the Opening Bell Cafe and invited Stephanie and I up for a coffee afterwards. Their loft is beautiful and features a panoramic view of the city. Artists themselves, their walls are adorned with paintings, vinyl record covers and guitars. I spent a lazy Saturday hanging in Denton with awesomest brother Peter Rand, then a late lunch with good friend and songwriter Chris Hawkes before gliding home on a slick rain sodden highway.
Hope to see you on Thursday, January 27th at Momo's in Austin. I will be recording the show and adding tracks to my ever expanding online "workshop". This is a blog of sorts where I am collecting new material, old material, rough tracks and random pieces of writing. Click here to check it out. Also, Chris Hawkes and I have a show coming up together at Lambert's Barbecue in Austin on February 25 that will be a BLAST. SO lots of good things happening already in 2011. Be well and stay warm. Love Havilah
Happy 2011!! This is a quickie and I'll share more about my fabulous trip to Washington and Oregon soon but for now here's the scoop....I'll be playing at Momo's January 6th and 27th of this month at 6:30. Billy Masters and Mark Williams will both be joining me. I've also got my first show in Dallas on January 14th at Opening Bell Coffee at 9pm. Hope to see you!!
Hey everybody!! The holidays are here, I have decided Walgreens should hire me as their official spokesperson as I am responsible for at least eighty percent of their sales, at least at the one on Oltorf and Lamar in Austin. Tomorrow I play a 6:30 set in Austin at Momo's with Mark Williams. Friday I set sail for the Pacific Northwest where I will play Bainbridge Island on Saturday evening at Pegasus Cafe at 8pm. Seattle is on Sunday at the lovely Skylark Cafe at 8pm as well with my good friend on guitar, Phil Sottile. I wish you all the happiest of holidays and hope to see you somewhere in the world over the next few days. Much love, Havilah
Hey peepers! Last minute booking this week at Botticelli's in Austin with the one and only Billy Masters. Also, I just set up my merchandise store at Reverbnation. It's pretty rad. There are t-shirts (very overpriced, I'd rather you bought music but it would be cool to have people wearing a t shirt with my name and lyrics on it!) mugs, water bottles, mp3 albums and singles and even ringtones. So far I only have Bengalese Butterflies and Delilah's Gold up but Crashing Into Emeralds and Superfarmhouse will be available soon as well. A year of traveling, touring, recording and yoga certification is on the horizon. I am grateful for all you do to support and encourage my dreams. In return, I hope my songs bring you closer to your heart and in some way help you realize your true potentiality as well.
