I am also intensely excited, as I feel like I am stepping onto a new stage of life, in my home country, as someone who has come full circle in so many ways.

Three weeks from now I will be performing my new jazzy musical thriller, Finding Venus (På Hengende Håret), for the first time with a full cast in Norwegian. Yeah, it’s happening at Herr Nilsen in Oslo on June 21st!

The scary part is that I suspect I might be met with a more critical eye and ear in these parts, since I come from a well known entertainment family, which of course entails certain expectations. At the same time it feels absolutely fantastic to finally get to tell my story of healing and transformation, which has been partially hidden for so many years.

The cast is fantastic, just the right mix of talented, wild and wise. A beautiful bundle of creative energies, each with their own unique expression of love and life.

The musicians are some of my very favorite in the world. Deb and I used to play together in a duo called Sirens. We’d make the European clubs go wild with our combination of jazzy classical pop and funky groovy out-of-this-world weirdness. Aage and I met when I played my violin in a Nordic Youth Symphony orchestra at fifteen and have played together off and on since then. Amazing cellist!

Here’s a link to the calendar and ticket sales: www.carolinewaters.com/shows.php

Here’s a link to my official website, where you can find video and sound clips for both the Norwegian and English versions: www.carolinewaters.com

Looking forward!

Love and Blessings, Caroline

Stilling the voices of fear
It has taken almost ten years to finish the process of writing this memoir. The writing itself didn’t take that long, but stilling the voices of fear and arriving at a point of feeling worthy of sharing it took lots and lots of processing.

Since I grew up as a child star and got ample validation for my performance, sharing myself in musical and theatrical ways have been much easier than sharing myself as a person. In many ways, I have hidden behind my artist image, carefully selecting the pieces that had “promotional value” for public display.

At this point in my career, all I really care about is to share my truth and being in ways that will empower and build bridges of love, tolerance and understanding. And, in order to do that, I need to be as real and honest as I possibly can.

Some say our brains are wired to focus on problem solving as a modern extension of our basic survival instinct, no matter how well we are doing/ being. We also seem to have forgotten to utilize the art of appreciation and acknowledgement on a daily basis. Until Thanksgiving comes around, or Christmas, we seem to bury our heads in the sands of our tasks.

The glorious results of childhood conditioning
I spent most of my childhood in eager and active pursuit of goals related to my intellectual, physical and artistic progress. I learned early on to appreciate the value of discipline, hard work and focused study. And for this I am grateful. But for the longest time I didn’t realize that I or anyone else, or life itself for that matter, had value other than in the achievement of goals or perfected performance.

Today, after a rich life of contrasting experiences, I savor and appreciate as much as I can, as I know it is the KEY to my happiness.

The important art of savoring
When we savor a moment, we let ourselves be filled with awareness which in turn expands our consciousness in that instant. Have you noticed that when you stop to smell a flower, you also become aware of more of your surroundings?

When we become aware of our surroundings in the spirit of appreciation, we  open ourselves to what is possible and to the gifts that are there for us.

The dangerous art of complaining
It never cease to amaze me when I listen to someone complain about something and I realize that they are totally blind to the opportunities that would be apparent to them if they’d only stop complaining. For example:

I met a man in a seminar I attended, who was buried in grief about his daughter’s illness. I listened patiently for a while and then offered a resource that I knew had helped a lot of people in the same situation. But it was as if he didn’t want to know about it. It seemed as if he was more interested in continuing his rambling than finding a solution to his daughter’s condition. I wrote the name of the resource on my card and handed it to him, but found my card on the floor underneath his chair when he left the seminar. My heart just ached.

Living like there’s no tomorrow
I was blessed with a serious car accident that helped me get out of my own way. I don’t wish this on anyone else, but for me it almost seemed like it was necessary to force me to “let go and let God”. During the course of my tremendously tumultuous journey of recovery and discovery, I have learned to appreciate and savor each moment like there’s no tomorrow.

Today, I appreciate every single day I get to wake up and seize the day. And as I practice savoring every lesson learned and every single being who grace my path, I am discovering a whole new world of opportunity, creativity and deliciousness I never knew existed.

The Trick: Replacing fear with appreciation
There is one little trick to this appreciation business. You can’t be fearful and savor at the same time, so you’ve got to let the fear go bye-bye. This takes a bit of courage to do, but if you practice savoring the stuff that has less of a charge, your appreciation muscle will soon become strong enough to shoo the fear away!

I have done it, so I know it works:)

Finding Venus – Come Hell or High Waters
If you’d like, you can catch a sneak peak of my journey of recovery and discovery, as I have just finished creating  a web site for my new musical, Finding Venus – Come Hell or High Waters, with video and sound clips  and all that Jazz!

Finding Venus - Come Hell or High Waters

All Love, Caroline

The art of appreciation, focus and communication

How can we set the tone for a more harmonious co-creation? How can we empower each other to collaborate in the spirit of love? How can we allow ourselves to receive the good that abounds and let the energy of good vibrations reverberate into the world at large?

These are some of the main tools that help me stay focused and inspired:

Appreciation – Express what you appreciate as often as you can, in words and action, and bask in the feeling of that which you appreciate as you go about your day. Write it, sing it, speak it, show it in all kinds of ways you  can think of and watch how your perspective and the world around you transforms as a result.

Focus – Keep you eye on what it is you wish to accomplish, create, receive and avoid fear based distractions. Give your attention, time and energy to that which you love and want to see blossom and thrive. Do this with any scenario that has your attention and see what happens.

Communication – Share your strengths, vision and gifts in ways that gives you joy and feels good in your heart and soul. Ask for help when you need it and receive the love that abounds with open arms, also when it comes in unexpected ways.

These simple tools have helped me in more ways than I can describe. By keeping my eye on the ball, giving and receiving in the spirit of joy and heartfelt communication and practicing the art of appreciation as much as I can, I am able to stay positive and creative in the face of adversity and turmoil. By focusing on the positive aspects, I can see the beauty and creative potential in people and situations that otherwise would have scared me and inhibited my expression.

Here’s my song Did You Know as I performed it with cellist Erlend Habbestad at an amazing venue called Smöga in Sweden last summer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4swoKym5y5Q

Love and Blessings, Caroline

Here’s my definition: Success happens when my heart and soul is enriched by my being, when I follow the song in my heart to it’s most joyous potential and let that joy reverberate in words, music and action into the world at large. My success is not defined by sales or ratings. It is measured only by my passionate involvement and how well I care for the life and talent that is available to me at any given time.

Thank YOU for being part of the passionate musical journey that sent my heart soaring in 2010! Your joyous participation helped my music expand into Sweden, New York, Washington DC, Tennessee, Arizona and more of California, and brought about a glorious gig opportunity in San Francisco for 2011.

THE NORWAY DAY FESTIVAL 2011
On April 30th and May 1st, I will be representing Norway as entertainer at the Norway Day Festival in San Francisco. I have been asked to open the festival, sing the Norwegian and American national anthems, give two feature performances at the main stage (one each day) as well as several pub performances during the day. This is a great honor and I am very excited to create a most delicious music menu for this.

Here’s a video with the two of us performing together

Hope to see you! More info and CDs at http://www.carolinewaters.com

When I was eighteen years old, I was hit by a car that severed my left leg and sent me flying 28 feet through the air, landing face first in the pavement. Long story short, it took awhile to get my body and brain up and running again. Four years, to be exact.

The first amazing gift of this event was learning that I could be perfectly happy in the moment without all the elements I thought I needed to be happy. I actually received the gift of loving me, just for being. The elements I thought I needed to be happy were things like; being an A-student, winning competitions, looking sharp, slim and fit, performing well and being a people pleaser.

By removing these elements for a period of time, and thus being effectively stripped of superficial distractions, I learned to appreciate the gift of every moment of life that was available to me.

Today, 26 years later, as I am about to leave for my first National Tour of the USA as a solo artist, I feel incredibly blessed by the perspective the gift of starting over has given me. I feel that I am starting over in so many ways, and instead of feeling nervous or pressured, I feel grateful simply for the gift of being alive and for the gift it is to be living my dream as an artist.

The gift of releasing fear and worry

Yesterday, in the midst of composing press releases for the upcoming tour, I found myself in the not so uncommon sea of worry about the future. Will they ignore me? Will enough people show up for my performances? Will I be able to make ends meet at the end of the road? All these thoughts scurried around in my head as I struggled to find the most perfect wording to entice the New York media.

The worrying didn’t help at all. I can tell you that right away. It put me in a space of feeling heavy and incompetent and unfocused. Realizing this, I was able to release the fear and the tension and the worry in a surprisingly short amount of time. And the transformation that occurred was astounding.

The moment I decided to release my fear of not being/ doing enough and embrace the gift of my being, messages began to trickle in from people all over the world, affirming their appreciation and support of my music and performance. This felt wonderful of course. But the most important transformation took place within me.

I woke up this morning feeling truly liberated in my body. And I had this knowing within that who I am and what I do in this world is enough. It doesn’t matter how many people show up for my performances or how many CDs I sell or how many newspaper articles gets written about me. The only thing that matters is that I keep letting my heart move me into action and let that song that makes my heart sing be heard, loud and clear, far or near, wherever it takes me.

I am excited for this Tour, for the people I’ll meet and the places I’ll see. I’m excited to move and be moved, to love and be loved, to listen and explore, and eternally grateful for the chance of starting over every single day.

Here’s the tour schedule and a video: http://www.carolinewaters.com/shows.php

Love and Blessings, Caroline

I am not only talking about the pressure related to the performance itself but also the challenge of promoting each performance sufficiently for each venue. It used to be so easy, or so it seemed…

All through my childhood, I walked on stage with the expectation of a full house, cheering me on throughout my performance, followed by hundreds of fans lining up for an autograph as I excited the theater. I had no idea what marketing efforts lay behind such a scene. It was just there for me to bask in and shine and savor.

As I grew into adulthood, I learned the art of marketing, creating my own shows and of running my own record label. Since I already had the expectation of full houses and a famed upbringing to draw from it was easy at first. My confident attitude combined with plenty of goodwill in the media got me off to a great start.

How do I cope with the performance pressure when life comes crashing down?

It’s not like my life was an easy one, by any stretch of the imagination. After getting completely smashed in a car accident at eighteen, I had to rebuild my leg, brain function, speech and memory from scratch. But the confidence and the work ethics that was instilled in me from childhood was still there, cheering me on.

Miraculously, I was able to utilize whatever obstacles came my way to further my creativity and performance value. Granted, it took many years to heal the trauma, quite a bit of schooling and a bunch of therapy to pull me through, but performance wise, I always seemed good to go. Almost always.

I have often struggled, however, with the emotional pressure that comes with being an artist. More specifically, I have struggled with the “need” to be as good as I can possibly be in any given situation. My father, the great entertainer, expected nothing less. And, even though he made work a lot of fun, the underlying expectation of excellence in all performance was loud and clear.

How do I break the cycle of workaholism and truly harness the power of my creative talent?

I have learned my lesson over and over, the hard way, that it doesn’t work in the long run to push or will my way through. And I have asked myself over and over why it is that I keep doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different outcome. Twelve step groups will tell me it is called insanity. My work ethic oriented mind will tell me it is the only way to succeed. All I know is, I have to find another way.

In order to break this thing, this cycle, I have to resist my mind and go against my deepest instincts. I have to disobey my inner dad and break the rules of my “perfectionist” ego. My heart, of course, tells me to relax, breathe and receive the good. But in order to follow my heart I need to make friends with my ego in order to prevent it from sabotaging. It’s a tricky thing…

Or maybe it’s all quite simple? Abraham Hicks, the author of “The Law of Attraction” and “Ask and It Is Given”, tells us that what we focus our attention on, we attract more of. In some ways, I have used my perfectionist upbringing as my excuse to hold myself from true, liberated excellence. So, here’s my genius plan:

Photo by Eva Groven

Just breathe

When I set aside my intellect and listen to my body. When I slow my breath enough to feel my heart beat. When I open my mind wide enough to see the aura expand from every plant and flower as they are being observed. When I take the time to breathe and witness the miracle of life that is happening all around me, is when I can truly access the amazing speed of my unconscious mind and the genius power that exists in alignment with source energy.

It is my desire to sing and play my way across the stage of life in total alignment with the well being that abounds. This means I have to slow down enough to notice what it is that holds my attention, and from there make sure that my focus is in alignment with my desire. I simply have to breathe. Just breathe. That’s my genius plan.

I have enclosed one of my favorite tunes for your listening pleasure, and the lyrics in case you want to sing along:)

Love Always, Caroline

In the Moment (from the Being Totally Alive CD)
Words and Music by Caroline Waters

What am I supposed to do, loving you the way that I love you
What am I supposed to say, could there be another way
What am I supposed to see when you look at me
How am I supposed to be in this dream reality

Oh it is perfect as it is
In the moment as we are
In the moment as we meet
In the moment

How can I release this fear and just let you love me
How can I begin to near what I’m really meant to be
How can I begin to breathe all the love I see
How can I fulfill the need of this dream reality

Oh it is perfect as it is
In the moment as we are
In the moment as we meet
In the moment

I am releasing, earth willing, no less than two CDs in the Norwegian marketplace on May 3rd, with a fabulous presentation at Cosmopolite Scene in concert with Aage Kvalbein tomorrow night, the very same day a big cloud of ashes is expected to enter the air space over Oslo… And then there’s this other possible eruption looming under the surface. Katla, which is overdue and usually follows in the footsteps of her little sister, if predictions come true, has the power to create more changes than any of us dare to imagine at the present moment.

I have plans to tour California this summer and all of the USA in the fall, but those plans are based on my ability to fly. Perhaps I’ll be taking the Queen Mary 2 instead and slow things down a bit? Or perhaps I’ll be stranded in Europe for a while? Regardless of what happens, I am eternally grateful to be living a life of music and healing. And I am excited to build my future in greater harmony with mother nature and the amazing love that connects us all!

If you’d like to catch the show, check out www.carolinewaters.com

Love and Blessings, Caroline

I have labeled this new album a tribute to some of my favorite heroes and heroines in songwriting, such as Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Suzanne Vega, Jennifer Warnes and George and Ira Gershwin. And as I receive the most amazing feedback from audience members and people who just happens to find me on the Internet, I understand on a deeper level just how much these people have shaped my life and music for the better.

Peoples Parties

Joni Mitchell was my first teacher in the art of playing guitar and singing from the heart and soul. Her album, Court and Spark, healed my heart over and over as I practiced every note and every syllable exactly the way she did it. The reason I chose Peoples Parties for my CD is because I can relate so much to every single person she describes. It makes me laugh and reminds me to have compassion for myself and others.

Song of Bernadette, Famous Blue Raincoat and Gypsy

Jennifer Warnes, Leonard Cohen and Suzanne Vega was referred to me by my dear friend Stefanie Stroh, the very last time I spoke to her. She disappeared after almost finishing her year-long vision quest, backpacking around the globe, and vanished only a day away from home. Stefanie loved Jennifer Warnes’ renditions of Famous Blue Raincoat and Song of Bernadette and urged me to get her album. She also sent me a copy of Suzanne Vega’s Solitude Standing. These songs carried me through years of desperately seeking Stefanie, who is still missing to this day.

Just the other day, as I had just finished my performance at Life on Wilshire, a man approached me, introduced himself as Steve Postell, Jennifer Warnes’ guitar player, expressed how much he enjoyed my set and wondered if he could have one of my CDs and release party fliers to give to Jennifer. I was of course thrilled and gave him two CDs:) Don’t you just love how synchronicity works?

Summertime

Anne Brown made George and Ira Gershwin’s Summertime famous in 1936 as the first Bess in Porgy and Bess. She was my first voice teacher and remained my good friend and mentor until she passed away at ninety-six. This amazing woman, who refused to perform unless they changed the law to include “colored” people in the theatre, back in the day, helped me through the toughest years of my life. She treated me like a star when I felt like a complete failure in most arenas, as I was slowly recovering from a car accident that left me with a amnesia and brain damage. Through her guidance, I was able to sing from my heart with no holds bar, effortlessly and powerfully.

My Cat, Rascal

I feel unusually calm, as I sit here with my green tea latte at Starbucks in Culver City, finalizing the set list for tomorrow’s release concert at Kulak’s Woodshed in North Hollywood. It is perhaps the sadness of my beloved cat Rascal’s imminent departure that is laying so heavily on my chest… She has been with me for almost twelve years, and just like my childhood dog, Hippie, she has been part of all my creative adventures with a constant outpouring of adoration and unconditional love. I will sing for her tomorrow night, for her life and her love, as I share my tribute to those who have touched me so deeply with their song.

Thank you, Joni, Leonard, Suzanne, Jennifer, George, Ira, Anne and Rascal! You live on forever in my heart and in my song.

Here’s Rascal

And here’s my all time favorite tune, Song Of Bernadette, as I sing it on my new CD, Exposed.

Love and Blessings, Caroline

The first thing that comes to mind is to use my talent the best I can to contribute in any way that I can. So, the upcoming concert at Herr Nilsen in Oslo will definitely benefit Haiti. Secondly, the products that I have for sale can also be useful, so I’ll have 25% of all CD sales go to Haiti as well.

Other than that, I believe that our thoughts, prayers and songs and living our lives in alignment with our calling creates great energy for the world at large. So, I will continue to express the song in my heart as powerfully and as joyously as I can with my words, music, teaching and performance.

We all have the power to help and inspire. I’d say, let’s move this world into a better place by aligning with the song in our hearts and by letting that song move us into action in whatever way feels the most natural to each and every one of us. And let us listen to each other, really listen, and see how and where we can contribute most effectively to the big chorus of love and consciousness expansion that propels us forward in this time-space reality.

Let us listen to the song of Haiti and contribute with our individual hearts and voices in whatever way it moves us. We can do a lot of good here. Let’s do it!

Here’s a video of me singing my song Little Angel, recorded live at TV Follo’s Christmas special in Norway. Little Angel can be found on my CD’s, Exposed and Venus Envy.

Love and Blessings, Caroline