LaVon Hardison

Embracing New Beginnings

Happy New Year to My Amazing Fans!
As the new year unfolds before us, I want to take a moment to reach out to everyone of you and give you a psychic hug. I see you. I appreciate you.

2025 has been a challenging time personally and collectively. The disappointment of seeing the baser quality of humanity play out in real time has been a heavy load on the eyes and heart. I hope that you can find and create light wherever you are.

This poem by Edward Guest continues to goad me to get up off the mat when I am weary. May it give you a bit of inspiration.

Don't Quit
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
when the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
when the funds are low and the debts are high,
and you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit - rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns.
As every one of us sometimes learns.
And many a fellow turns about when he might have won had he stuck it out.
Don't give up, though the pace seems slow - you may succeed with another blow.
Often, the goal is nearer than it seems to a faint and faltering man;

Often, the struggler has given up when he might have captured the victor's cup;
and he learned too late when the night came down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out - the silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
and when you never can tell how close you are,
it may be near when it seems afar.
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit - it's when things seem worst, you must not quit.

~~~~

I have some shows coming up this month. I hope to see you, it's been a while.

I’m Back!

Hello friends,
After an almost yearlong hiatus, I’m excited to finally say: I’m back! Thank you so much for your support, patience, and encouragement while I took some time away from public shows—it’s meant more than I can say and I have been thinking about you.

During this past year, I’ve been working on:
* Creating and recording original songs
* Collaborating with other artists and singing on their projects
* Focusing on personal growth and self-care
* Feeding other aspects of my creativity including art and cat wrestling,
* Being a guest speaker and soloist at spiritual communities
* Trying desperately to convince my husband that we need a 3rd cat

It’s been a needed time of reset. And I’m so looking forward to sharing more of that with you soon.

For the rest of this year, I’ll mostly be performing at private events, but I’m now booking public shows for 2026, starting in January with Fridays at the First, a one-hour concert at First Christian Church in Olympia on Jan. 30 from 12-1 pm. These lunchtime concerts are intimate and fun. They are celebrating their 26th year! I will be closing out their 2025-26 season with Eugene Bien on piano and Osama Afifi on bass. Brava to organizer Leah Wilson for keeping this wonderful program alive.

I also have a Valentine's show coming up in February at New Traditions in Olympia, more on that later.

I look forward to seeing you in person and appreciate your interest and support in my music-making. You can hear and purchase new songs on Bandcamp, and If you want to support my music and art directly, Patreon is the best place to do so. I appreciate your support and interest.

Be gentle, be well and do be fabulous.

~ LaVon

Illuminate Your Listening!

Illuminate Your Listening with my new EP Shadow & Light

Hey music lovers! Get ready to add sparkle to your playlists with my new 5-song EP, Shadow & Light! The spiel: LaVon’s musical journey has been a long and winding jazzy road, and many of the songs on Shadow & Light have been echoing in her mind for years. This project was produced by Tim Kennedy and was done in collaboration with Jack Straw. This collection of tracks is a kaleidoscope of emotions and experiences that’ll have you dancing one moment and pondering deep thoughts the next. This is a follow-up to the previous EP, Brown Girls Dream.

Let’s dive into some highlights:

“It’s Not About You”: This snarky, funky track takes a satirical jab at the political chaos of the early 2020s. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by the world's noise, this song is your anthem!

“Message in the Moon”: Written after the passing of a friend’s father, this soothing song offers a comforting reminder of love and loss, resonating with anyone navigating grief.

“Pegasus”: Inspired by a childhood book, this whimsical autobiographical piece reflects on LaVon’s place in stories often dominated by blond, white kids, asking, “Is there room for me?”

“Center of My Gravity”: An immensely catchy pop tune inspired by Helen K. Thomas’ short story “Maybe This Time.” Get ready to hum this one long after it’s over!

“Shaking My Head”: I wrap up the EP with gritty blues. A powerful declaration of “enough is enough.” It’s a call to action and a reminder to stand firm in your beliefs.

You can purchase the EP on Bandcamp or your favorite online music store.

Join the Journey on Patreon!

I’m excited to invite you to join me on a special journey through my Patreon community. Your support can make a world of difference, and I’d love for you to be a part of it. By becoming a Patreon supporter, you're not only backing my creative endeavors but also getting access to new songs. As a patron, you’ll enjoy early access to my work and behind-the-scenes insights. Your monthly contribution, no matter the size, empowers me to continue producing the content you love in the live show while providing you with a unique, interactive experience. Thank you for considering this opportunity. I truly appreciate your support and can’t wait to embark on this journey together!

P.S. Please note that my performing schedule for the rest of 2024 will be limited as I take a break from live performances to work on exciting new projects. If you’d like to hear more music, becoming a Patreon donor is the perfect way to stay connected!

Goodbye, and thank you…To one of my superfans, Jackie Glover, who passed away in September. Jackie has followed my musical career for many years. It gave me much joy to see her face in the audience or talk to her about the song. Thank you Jackie for your ears and your big heart.

May your October be bootiful! And do remember to be fabulous!

LaVon

When It's Time to Stop Yelling at the TV

This week, I was awakened by a blood-curdling scream…of the feline variety. Ruby, one of my cat roommates, takes her job as house guardian very seriously. Any neighborhood cat wandering on the property or the porch just exploricating, just purrambulating is the target of Ruby’s ire. She puts aside her usually sweet, sleepy demeanor and becomes a zealous, self-deputizing security guard. She races from window to window to keep track of the perpetrator, muttering to herself about how the neighborhood is going to hell in a handbasket. Her cantankerous caterwauling is usually met by puzzled blinks from visiting cats who know that whatever is behind the window will not deter them from enjoying their day.

Now, in her mind, I know that she thinks that she is protecting her turf and her people, but from the outside, she looks like a crazy lady. That’s my roommate; she’s yelling at the TV.

I do that. I yell at the TV. Or the computer screen. I can’t believe someone said this or did that. Before I know it, I become a reactive mess. Staying in that reactive place is just mimicking and mirroring an energy running rampant in the world. It is a spicy place to visit, but I don’t want to live there.

Sometimes, when my feline friend gets wound up and takes her job a little too seriously, I pick her up or pull out her favorite toy to redirect her attention. I have to do that for myself, redirect my thinking so I am not a crazy lady! Redirecting our attention and energies is not spiritual bypassing or ignoring; it is preparing our minds to think logically and deeply and respond. How do you redirect?

Please continue to be fabulous
~LaVon

Summer means goats & zines!

Hi friends,

Keeping it short and sweet this month as I am enjoying the tail end of summer. I hope you are well in all ways and do stay fabulous! My summer has included zine fest and feeding goats and hangin' with the hubby.

Schmoozing with fans

At Bremerton Zine Fest

From Snark to Spark

When I feel snarky and resentful, and someone intentionally mentions my need for gratitude, I roll my eyes with a bit of annoyance. Intellectually, I know gratitude is an essential, imperative stepping stone, a guaranteed safety rope that can pull me out of any emotional funk and general human distress. But there is something about when someone else tells me to be grateful that feels empty and a tad bit weaponized.

Lately, I have been thinking about gratitude as less of a moral instruction and more of a feeling tone. When I need to call upon the energy of appreciation, I need a sense of connection —connection with where I have come from and what I have achieved, connection with humanity, which inevitably drags me out of the "why is this happening to me?" mindset. The fact of the matter is that the ups and downs of living and dying happen to everyone. So sometimes, the challenge is getting or feeling connected.

I recently read a quote by Buddhist teacher Nikyo Niwano that pointed me toward accessing that feeling of gratitude. He compared lack of appreciation "…as being grateful for tea, coffee, or sake but forgetting to be grateful for the water from which they are all formed..." Well, shut my mouth.

It was a reminder to get connected by stopping and seeing the connections, to see the connections to the things that were feeding me and giving me juice.

I am learning upright bass, and as an adult student who has some vocal musical dexterity, I am finding myself discouraged and not appreciating the progress that I am making. Why? Because I want it now!

Niwano's statement made some space in the grumble of ingratitude. It was an invitation to stop and make connections. I have been blessed to have many musical mentors who were also encouraged by their mentors when discouraged. I am on a musical path that others have been on. The wood of my bass came from a living tree manufactured in China by workers supporting their families (I am trying to think positively about Chinese working conditions). The person who sold me the bass made his living and supported his family with this bass, and on and on.

This exercise in making connections helped dissolve some of the crustiness and got me in touch with the expansive feeling commonly called gratitude.

I hope, friend, you can find that feeling of gratitude when you need to. Not because it will make you a good person but because that expansive space makes you feel good, and you deserve to feel good.

Upcoming gigs:
Monday July 8 @ Brother Don's in Bremerton, 8pm
Wednesday July 31 @ University Place Music on the Square, 6pm

Saturday August 3 – I'll be at Bremerton Zine Fest not as a musician but as a zine author. Come see my little art/writing booklets (see image above). I'll have my zines available online soon as well.
* See my calendar for complete details.

Thanks for everyone who came out to the recent show at Traditions in Olympia – a wonderful sold-out show with great audience! I'm planning another local show in the fall that should feature even more of my original compositions; I'll let you know about that soon.

Stay fabulous!

~LaVon

Making (s)now angels

"The easiest way to get present is to sing because you can't move to the next not til you finish the one you singing."

A friend shared this quote from Anne Lamont's book Somehow: Thoughts on Love, and I agree with that statement. Singing is one of the activities that focuses me; it gathers all of the wayward parts of me that are fretting over the future or stewing over the past into one moment of breath and sound.

Creating music with others lifts me from self-centeredness to open awareness of what is happening right now. Right. Now. I don't know about you, but Right Now, right in front of me, it is one of the most challenging places to find on the map. Don't you love being human? Being present is being intentional with my attention; it is choosing to be with what is in front of me.

In this aggressively distracting world, attention is a superpower. Our attention protects us and others, leads us to solutions, and is the nose of our curiosity.

In her fabulously titled book How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, author Jenny Odell spends a lot of time exploring attention.

"I've also learned that patterns of attention— what we choose to notice and what we do not— are how we render reality for ourselves and thus have a direct bearing on what we feel is possible at any given time."

While the Lamont quote mentions singing, I don't think this kind of attention is just for singers. This quality of being in the moment can extend to any activity. So I leave you with an assignment to track your attention and rest in the now. Yep, rest in the now! Roll around in it and make a (s)now angel in the delicious present. Undoubtedly, it will be a challenging practice and at times--not very pretty, but know that I will be practicing right along with you!

Check out my calendar for upcoming shows. A few tickets are still available for the Traditions show in Olympia on June 15th!
https://newtraditionsfairtrade.com/pages/events

The Poetry of Spring

“Atop the stones of a waterfall, / A bracken has sprouted fiddleheads— / Spring has come.”

--Prince Shiki (668–716, the seventh son of Emperor Tenji),

Lately, I have been swooning over poetry. I am not as interested in dissecting phrases, thesis, and structure as I was in high school English with Mrs. Tuttle. (Yes, she was as conservative in her worldview as her name implies.) While understanding structure is important, in my adolescent mind, after hearing much Charlie Brown intoned, blah, blah, blah, coupled with too many “thees” and “thous,” I saw poetry as academic and dried up.

But I was fortunate that my parents enjoyed poetry and would share Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, and Maya Angelou with me. There was much of it that I did not understand, but it was the feeling that it gave. Like sitting under a big tree and feeling like the clouds were talking specifically to me. Or touching a garden snake for the first time, curious and a little fearful.

I recently co-facilitated a poetry exploration class where folks had a safe and structured space to renew their relationship with the written word. Some participants were seasoned writers, and others were tentatively stepping into playing with words. It was a magical experience to witness the blooming of rekindled and newly found creativity.

One of the lessons that kept coming up in this four-session weekly workshop was the tendency to undervalue our perspective. Some folks were resistant to sharing because they believed that their topic was too ordinary and not interesting. But over and over again, when participants shared their so-called ordinary experiences, hearts were touched, human experiences were verified, and suddenly, there was a little more magical space in the room.

So, your assignment this month? Go read a poem. Read a poem written by someone who is very different from you. Type into the magic eight ball of Google “poetry of....” or “poetry by…” and be prepared to experience a little more interior space.

Oh, and do continue to be fabulous!

Musical Projects

I am returning to the studio in June, recording more original songs.

This set of songs has an acoustic, folky feel. Don’t worry --there will be more jazz recordings in the future, but I am enjoying writing and musical exploration. I’ll keep you posted.

Speaking of new songs, you can find my latest song, Pegasus on Bandcamp.

A little about the song: My father worked in education for most of his life, and one day, he brought a Pegasus book home from school. It was probably on its way to landfill; the spine was tattered, and the pages were marked. I had never heard of Pegasus — a winged horse completely captured my imagination. The kids having the adventure felt very "other," I remember wondering if I could have as much fun as they were having.

Upcoming Performance Dates

May 16th 7-9pm
Cellar Cat
with Jonas Myers and Osama Afifi

June 2nd 2pm
Swinging Sounds
Call Susan Patrick for reservations and venue address at (360) 888-4283
Tickets: $35 cash or check at the door.
Note: After 12 years, the Swinging Sounds House Concert Series is ending. This wonderful series has featured wonderful jazz musicians of the Northwest in a beautiful, intimate setting. Hosts Kathy Percival and Susan Patrick have nurtured this wonderful resource beautifully.

June 15th, 7pm
Traditions Fair Trade
300 5th Ave SW,
Olympia, WA 98501

July 31, 6-8pm
University Place Music on the Square
3609 Market Place West
University Place WA

Details of all shows on my calendar.

Time to update the script?

Mr. Bezos and company delivered a new bathmat to the house a couple of days ago. It's blue and ever so fluffy! I know it's just a bathmat, but we've had a thin chamois cloth as our "bathmat" for many years. It did the job, but it didn't give that feeling of “well done-your clean” that a bathmat gives.

We adopted a wonderful grey kitty from the pound named Milo ten or so years ago. Milo was affectionate, very intelligent, protective, and a gentleman, and while he loved my husband, I was fortunate to be his favorite.

He had so many good qualities. And as love goes, we adapted to his faults and quirks because that's what you do when you love something or someone. One of the adaptations that we made was not having a proper bathmat while he was around. Why? Well, our healthy four-legged friend had the not-uncommon feline fault of peeing on any fabric that happened to be on the floor.

It was a challenging quirk to live with, but we adapted. Nothing clean or dirty remained on the floor, and this thin chamois cloth was not a trigger for him, for some reason, so we kept it. We were grateful for Milo, quirks and all, and grateful that this piece of fabric was not a problem for him.

Sadly, he passed away in October, and I miss him terribly, but here's the thing: It was almost April before I realized that we could have a new bathmat. Holding on to that thin chamois cloth was not nostalgia, nor was it a way of honoring the dead. It was simply a thoughtless habit.

It got me thinking: How often do we need to wake up and remember to update the script? It is so easy to be dragged by distractions and get stuck in a breathless pace of living to get stuck in autopilot.

Sometimes, conversations about mindfulness or being in the present examine habits that come from the wrong motives or behaviors, not habits made in love or care that are not frequently examined.

As spring is beginning to unfold, it is an excellent opportunity to review my scripts!
As I am going through my day creating my to-do list and just living, I have to remind myself to take a moment and ask: why am I doing this? Do I need to continue doing this, or can I upgrade? Downgrade? Or do I have to do it at all?

If a humble bathmat required an upgrade, what else in my life needs some loving attention?

What about you? What parts of your script need an upgrade?

Upcoming Shows:

Wednesday, April 10, 6-9 pm

Table 47

5268 Point Fosdick Dr,

Gig Harbor, WA 98335

Friday, April 12, 4:30-6:30 pm

Vintage

725 Water St,

Port Townsend, WA 98368

Saturday, April 13, 7-9 pm
Cellar Cat

11253 NE State Hwy 104,

Kingston, WA 98346

Books I am reading:

I Sing the Salmon Home: Poems from Washington State, edited by Rena Priest

I realized I was a successful Eastcoast transplant when I could read a collection of poems about salmon and be moved and tickled. This collection of poems by Northwest writers is about each author's relationship with salmon, whether eating it or observing it in the wild. It's a lovely read!

Growing into wholly-ness

When I sing at a church on Sunday, I am often snapped into attention or gently nudged in the ribs with a gentle inner whisper, "Ahem, pay attention, this applies to you," or "Listen up, this might help you with...". I go to the service thinking that I am going to a gig when, in actuality, I am placed in an environment to be quiet, catch up with myself, and listen. This happened recently when I sang at the Center for Spiritual Living in Seattle (CSL). The guest speaker was Rabbi Olivier of the Bet Alef Temple, who spoke about holiness. The word holiness causes me to tighten up slightly; it feels like an aspiration similar to running up the stairs of the Space Needle. It is a word that excuses treating others like poop and using their backs to climb for a better view. As we look around our neighborhoods and beyond our nation to the world, there are a lot of folks doing things out of a skewed sense of "holiness." So forgive me if I am a little cautious when I hear the word. He based his meditation and talk on his birth Torah potion, which led him to ask, "Where is that Ikea map to build myself into a holy person?" There was laughter. He then mentioned spiritual luminaries like Mother Teresa and Gandhi expressing holiness. But the point from his talk that jumped out at me was that the Western concept of holiness is often associated with perfection. Honestly, I heard a loud crack inside at that statement.

Perfection is not holiness. Let that sink in.

Now, let's talk about a loaded word: perfection.

Striving for perfection, whew, it makes me tired.

Once I got a slight expansion about the term holy, I started to think about what holy looks like these days. I often think of the word holy as wholly, describing a state of being whole. And what does that mean? Being wholly means being comfortable in one's skin, speaking and hearing the truth, having a low tolerance to hypocrisy, and having a wholesome sense of radical self and self-acceptance. A sense of purpose and stewardship.

In these contentious times, there is a need for wholly-ness.We need wholeness to comfort and stand for and learn to live together. What does wholeness look like for you? You can listen to Rabbi Oliviers talk here (https://www.spiritualliving.org/livestream-sunday/)

Upcoming Shows in March

This Saturday, I will be sharing the stage with Seattle guitarist Cyd Smith. We will each be performing original music. You can get an acoustic sample at this show if you have not yet picked up Brown Girl's Dream. We'll be at C & P Coffee, an intimate setting for music; I hope to see you there Saturday from 7-9pm.

Please check out my calendar for more dates.

Upcoming Workshop (click image for details)

LaVon's Musings & News

Illuminate Your Listening with my new EP Shadow & Light

You can purchase the EP on Bandcamp or your favorite online music store.

Join the Journey on Patreon!