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LM: Well, it makes me feel really good because I really believe that music and the
arts are so necessary to have a happy life, to have a well-rounded life. Yes, it's

important, it's very important to learn a love of reading and a love of mathematics,
and you have to be able to balance your own. Nobody will ever care about you and
your money and your circumstances as much as you do. But you can't be all work.
You can't be all that IT and all that kind of thing. You have to have the balance of art.

BiTS: Tell me what you're doing now. Are you preparing for another record? I gather
that from some of the emails that
you've sent me, you’re writing stuff for
another record?

LM: Yeah, I've got five songs and what
I've been doing for the last few records
was I would write and record tunes
with different artists, and I have five

tunes already in the can with bands
from Paris. My friend Big Dez, he is a
magnificent band leader and a
Big Dez magnificent guitar player and so much

aka Phil Fernandez energy. Big Dez from Paris, and he has

that band Big Dez. They’ve got like 12
albums out and I just met him at a jam
at the Le Caveau des Oubliettes in Paris

when I was there hanging out once.

We struck up a friendship because of
our mutual love of the blues and he has worked his way into blues scenes all over
the world. So Dez will come here to Chicago a couple of times a year, and I have a

building when I know people, when I've met somebody in music and I appreciate
what they're doing, sometimes they'll come here and stay here. I joke it’s the Stars
Motel, and the price of admission is you have to write and record three songs with

me while you're here.

BiTS: [Laughs] Oh, that's wonderful. That's absolutely terrific. Yeah, I'm glad I asked
the question now. Wonderful. And at what stage is the planned album that you're
working on?

LM: Well, I have three songs with, like I said, no, I have five songs with Dez that are

written and ready to go. And then there's a young guitarist, bandleader from
Northern Indiana, Jack Whittle, that I've worked with quite a bit over the last few
years. I really, I really love Jack's style because he is the perfect combination of

Americana and Western swing and blues, and rock and roll, not to be confused with
rock. He sings and he has a real unique personality, really a beautiful personality and
I've toured with Jack, and I've done a lot of gigs with him, and I've written some songs
that I think he would really excel at. So my plan is get him in on three tunes and then
I have an all-female band, well, my band Tres Amigas, it's me, Janet Cramer on drums