Interviews
Divine Diva Delights Newsletter
an interview with Karen Drucker
When you were starting out in your career how did you know you were making the right choice as far as pursuing that career for yourself?
Gee, do we ever know if we are making the "right choice"? I think life is a series of paths that you just keep choosing and if you keep trusting your heart, hopefully you are lead to the path that feels the best. There is no way, when I was first starting out that I would have thought that the path I am on right now would be where I am today. Life just kept presenting choices and eventually those choices lead me to where I am today. I know that I am happier than I have ever been, and it is all due to a million little decisions I have made over the years to keep following what my authentic path was.
Who were you biggest influences growing up?
Carol Burnett and Carole King. I loved Carol Burnett because she gave me hope and a focus. I was a geeky kid who was basically an outsider, but had the ability to make people laugh. Her personal story was similar to mine (we both grew up in Hollywood, went to Hollywood High) and I found that when I would go every Friday to the taping of her show, I would feel there was hope for me to find a place in this world. Around the same time, Carole King moved on to my street and I became the baby-sitter for her children. When she remodeled her house, she gifted me with the life changing event of allowing me to "baby-sit" her piano for about a year. I traveled with her, I watched how she handled her life, and her music influenced me to start writing little songs of my own -- and now, 30 or so years later I am making my living doing what was just a fantasy when I was a teenager.
When you faced obstacles or fear along the way how did you overcome them, and move beyond them?
Fear: False Evidence Appearing Real. I think everyone has fear, the difference is how you deal with it and how much energy and power you give it. I have a certain level of fear with everything I do - whether it is making a new CD, doing a concert, or being in an unknown situation. I just try and really get clear about what I DO want in the situation, and allow myself to acknowledge and then gently walk through those fears so that they don't stop me. I breathe, I listen to music that inspires me, I call friends and ask for support, and I always pray for the highest good to be revealed. I think the more you are clear on what your highest good is in any situation the fear lessens because you are there for a higher purpose than all those little things that your inner critic will serve up!
What or who inspires you and why?
Nature inspires me the most. I live in an area where I hike almost daily and am amazed at the ocean, forest, redwoods that are just so incredibly beautiful. Any kind of stress that is going on in my life can be utterly transformed by swimming in the San Francisco Bay, hiking in the forest, watching the sunset. I write my songs when I am in this kind of environment. I am also blessed to be friends with some amazing inspirational authors. Sometimes I have to pinch myself when I realize I am doing the music for a conference with authors I have been reading for years. People like Joan Borysenko, Alan Cohen, Oriah Mountain Dreamer, SARK, and Mary Manin Morrissey are sources of great inspiration and helping me believe in a bigger dream.
If you could go back in time and change anything about your life would you change anything? If so what would you change and why?
I am a big believer that everything happens for a purpose. There are people who come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime. I feel those relationships are almost divinely ordained. So when I think of my worst mistakes, failures, or relationships that didn't work, they have all lead me to who I am today. When I have been in the middle of something that is not working, it has been challenging to remember this - but for me this is a spiritual practice. I have to remember that there might be something bigger happening right around the corner that I might not know about yet. When I have faith and trust that all is well a lot of times what happened eventually turned out to be far better than what I was planning on!
What do you feel is your greatest achievement?
It's funny I have had large achievements in my life, ( had my own TV show at 21, was part of a relay team that swam the English Channel, received an honorary doctorate) and yet what comes up in this moment is that my biggest achievement is that I think of myself as a loving, kind and compassionate person. I have a husband that I adore, friends that I love, and feel honored to have been with both of my parents when they made their transition. I think all I ever really want to be thought of as is a kind and loving person.
What are the most important lessons you have learned along the way?
I wrote a song years ago that said "Everything that you do all comes back to you." I think that is what my main philosophy is. I try to make everything in my life be a mirror - how I treat people is how I will be treated, how much love I give out is how much I will receive. I also think the lesson of opening up to the idea that there is a larger picture that I might not be aware of right now has been a turning point in my life.
What do you hope others will remember most about you and your life?
I hope that they feel I have made a difference with my music, workshops, and I have contributed something good while I was here. I hope they will feel that I heard them, saw them, and contributed to their life in some way. I really hope people will just have a good ole chuckle and remember me for my comedy and also my chants that hopefully have inspired them.
What is the best advice you would give other women who are not sure what path to choose in their life?
I would say just do it, just start, don't worry about doing things right or wrong. I have a chant that says --"I don't have to be perfect, it's ok to be wrong, I give myself permission to sing this song!" Every time I write a song, I write pages and pages of lyrics that get thrown out, I try all sorts of 'wrong" notes and lyrics until I find the ones that are right. How do we ever sculpt something if we are not willing to make " mistakes"? It is the mistakes that get you to what is right: meaning, what feels right to your heart. So just go for it and try, and when you fall down, acknowledge yourself and start again. My chant "I will be gentle with myself" was written to help me treat myself with tenderness when I am doing something new. I wish we all could treat ourselves with sweetness more often.
What does success mean to you?
Success to me means feeling joyful, waking up happy with the expectation of what this day will bring, feeling soul-fulfilled, and having a happy personal life and a balance between my work life and personal life. Growing up in Hollywood, it seemed to me that life was all about having lots of "stuff": fancy car, big house, expensive clothes. Now I see how all that "stuff" is nice but it doesn't necessarily mean you are happy or fulfilled. Success ultimately means that I am living a joyfully happy life and giving and receiving love.
Soundtracks for our Spiritual Life
Diana deRegnier
Sacred, inspirational and religious music empowers us with life-affirming messages, helps us to relax, optimizes good health and encourages us to attain our highest level of being.
San Francisco artist, Karen Drucker, urges us to lift up our voices, dance and empower ourselves with her life-affirming messages. If the words don't fit, Karen invites us to add our own. On her CD, Songs of Spirit III, "Start my day with love" works for me whatever time of day it is. "This or Something Better" sets my heart free and promises "the Universe stands up to meet me, to claim my highest form of good." And, "Gentle with Myself" suggests "I hold myself like a newborn baby child."
An Interview with Karen Drucker
by Rob Wallace
All I knew about Karen Drucker before I interviewed her was that our Center's vocal music director was a huge fan and that we now open our service with "Thank you for this Day." Now, the more I hear Karen's music, the more I like it and our community and Minister do too.
Karen Drucker's message to all New Thought Music creators is to "Get the Music Out there." Karen believes that if we strive to perform and heal with our music, it is inevitable that widespread acceptance will naturally happen. We can then find each other's CD's in a section of Tower Records labeled "New Thought Music." This is her message as well as her mission; she goes about it in a graceful, healing and frankly, aggressive fashion.
Karen is adamant that we need not compete commercially but rather focus on doing our good work that will take us to the goal of healing the world. "Check out what other people are doing our mission is healing and ego less." Maybe that sounds too expansive? Karen backs up her viewpoints with action.
Karen is quite direct and her life is made up of some surprising accomplishments. For example, she is a dedicated athlete. How dedicated? Karen swam the English Channel and she swam from Alcatraz to the San Francisco city shore many times. When she mentioned that fact, I said,"...prisoners died doing that!" She stated that the current is not all that it has been played up to be, there are no sharks, and the water is not that cold. Hmmmm.... Oh, and I forgot to mention, she has biked San Francisco to L.A., and walked from Santa Barbara to L.A. Karen says her best melodies come to her when she is working out. The more determined and energetic she is, the better her music is. Sometimes, she admits, she has to listen to her own song, "Breathe," to slow her pace down and balance.
Her new publication is a "CD Songbook of Chants and Sing-A-Long's for All Kinds of Gatherings." Thirteen original chant lead sheets plus two versions of each chant, a performance by her and then a backtrack. Karen goes the extra mile by making the book usable for Churches that don't even have a music director. She includes in the CD Songbook a complete handbook for service, simple chord theory, and transposing chord theory.
Thoughts On Loving Kindness
Eddie Conner - Newsletter
Speaking of kindness and love, I call my good friend Karen Drucker, the Queen of Song-ffirmations. She's a genius at taking positive thoughts and turning them into musical anthems that lift your heart, heal your body, and sing to your soul. On her "Beloved" CD, she wrote a song titled, "My Religion is Kindness." I love her music and recommend her album's to everyone I know.
My religion is kindness
My church is nature
My God is a feeling that lives deep inside
My job is to be conscious
My path is forgiveness
My religion is kindness
And I practice it everyday
I know that Elizabeth Kubler-Ross and Karen Drucker are onto something brilliant. I know the power of loving kindness because of I have been on the receiving end of it. I know it's live changing and unforgettable. And the brilliance of kindness is, once you receive it yourself, you immediately give it back to the world ten fold. Please, today and everyday, be kind to others and most importantly, be kind to yourself.
The Speak Well Being Group
Newsletter Barbara Christenson
I love being connected with so many musicians who are speakers and workshop leaders. What a gift it is to be so talented and then put that talent to use in this way. And what a pleasure it is to meet the person behind the voice.
While her music is soothing, inspiring, relaxing and energizing all at the same time, Karen Drucker is vibrant, funny and, well, girl-friendly. For many years she made her living singing in blues clubs around San Francisco, singing songs of pain, loneliness and self-pity. Then one day she was asked to perform a few upbeat and positive songs for a church service. That morning changed her life and gave her a whole new musical path. And the timing was perfect.
But first, a little background. As a child growing up in Hollywood, she was a competitive swimmer who had a burning desire to be on stage. Then fate stepped in. Carole King moved onto her street and Karen became the baby-sitter for Carole's two small children. Carole was her role model and Karen was thrilled that when Carole remodeled her studio, she let her borrow her piano. Karen taught herself to play and started writing songs and performing at every open mike night in Hollywood that would have her. She studied acting at Hollywood High School and eventually moved to San Francisco to start an act that combined music and comedy.
Along the way Karen has led her own band, performed all styles of music for private parties, conventions and over 1000 weddings. With her comedy partner, Lauren Mayer, she performed customized musical comedy for corporate parties around the country, as well as headlining comedy and cabaret clubs around San Francisco.
"All that changed after 9/11," she told me. "It wasn't okay for corporations to have fun at that time, and the phone simply stopped ringing." And that's when her inspirational CD's started really selling.
She began singing at a New Thought church regularly, and before long became music director. As an offshoot, she began leading women's retreats and speaking and singing at mind-body-health conferences. At one of these she met and struck up a friendship with author and speaker, Joan Borysenko. Karen made such a contribution to Joan's programs, that they now work together on a regular basis.
In connection with the mind-body-health conferences she was led to write special songs and chants that expressed a path of healing. She finds this new calling more rewarding than she ever experienced in commercial nightclubs or musical comedy for corporations. For her, this is music that makes a difference in people's lives. "Writing chants and songs that I know will be used for people who are going in for surgery, chemo treatments, or are having a hard time in their lives, is such a gift for me," Karen says.
She also has another life as an athlete. She said she writes a lot of her songs, especially chants, while participating in long distance events. She's swum the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon. As part of a relay team, she has swum Lake Tahoe, from the island of Lani to Maui in Hawaii, and her team holds the record as the first American Women's Relay team to have a successful crossing of the English Channel. She has ridden her bike from San Francisco to Los Angeles for the AIDS bike ride, and walked from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles for the AVON Breast Cancer Walk. As you can imagine, she was singing all along.
A couple of years ago she realized it was time to leave the comfort zone of church music director and take her programs and healing music out into the world. So, while she used to sing the blues, now she's singing a new kind of blues song called, "I've Lost the Right to Sing the Blues." "Basically," she says, "the song says that my life is just so good, I can't complain anymore! "Well, I still whine a little," she admits, "but overall, life is good and I feel so blessed to be making my living doing what I love and hopefully making a difference.
©Copyright Karen Drucker 2007 All rights reserved.
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