[Spoken Intro] [“I lost my parents in an auto crash when I was only seven. I’m not leading in with this to make you feel sorry for me. It’s a necessary preface to my song honoring my parents, who I knew too briefly, but maybe well enough. . . . I was a very precocious girl, so I maybe knew a little more of the world than some 7-year-olds. I know I was inquisitve and always full of questions. My father was the poet, Sebastian West. He also worked as a logger in Northern California because then. . . AND STILL. . . poetry doesn’t “pay the rent.” My mother was Rowan Savage of the line of the Savages of Locayle in County Down—and so the Irish swing of this song . Her name—Rowan—means something like “Little Red-Head.” I’m sure that is why I am a dark “Ginger” as some call it. In another song, I’ve honored my mothers mother, Roberta—Gramma Bobbi and later just Bobbi to me. She was the woman who took me in and raised me. You might be wondering how Gramma Bobbi ended up with an Englishy name like Roberta. Well, her actual name was the modern Gaelic . . . Roibeárda . . .pronounced, I guess, about the same, but, as most Gaelic names are—spelled with letters that don’t make much sense to Americans. Almost every damn thing comes out like a “V” even though it’s spelled with “Ms” and “Bs” Well, While Bobbi was a singer-songwriter, musician—mom was a fine musician with the typical Irish stringed boxes of the Irish Bouzouki and the Tenor Mandola. I’m going to try my hand on both of these in this track—the Mandola wasn’t hard. I already play the mandolin. I mourn my parents, of course . I think about them a lot. There were, as Bobbi told me, lots of jokes ‘bout the marriage of my folks and their last names: “Rowan Savage will marry Sabastian West on Saturday the—so on and so forth.” Think about it — SAVAGE-WEST (slight chuckle) A little funny, I guess. Worth a smile at least. By the way, this song is going to seem a great deal like I’m singing about myself. In a way I will be, but I’m singing mostly about them and especially my Irish heritage.] They tell me the name Kaitlyn (Catherine in English) means “Pure.” I try to live up to that——well. . . I try MOST of the time.
