A PERSONAL NOTE FROM LORIE LINE

Wednesday night Minnesota Governor Walz announced new Executive Order COVID restrictions and mandates for our state. All Performing Arts Centers are now closed. Theaters and venues have been required to shut down for the remainder of the year. Other Governors in surrounding states (where we tour) also put new gathering restrictions into place, all of which affects a tour like ours.

Unfortunately, we have had to cancel this year's tour. We gave it our best shot. We tried to provide a safe social distance seating environment for everyone, but it seems the times are just too challenging for us to make it work. 

For Tim and me, we will be fine. This will be our very first Christmas not touring and the most challenging part for us will be filling our time that we normally spend seeing all of you. You are our Christmas family. And we will miss you dearly.

We were very careful in our preparation for this tour, not knowing what to expect. As you know, we did not order a 2020 collector bell, so I won't have thousands of bells in my garage. I did not make a new album, so I won't have thousands of unsold CDs in my warehouse. We did, however, print programs, and if you don't mind, we might just take a black ink marker next year and scratch out 2020 with 2021. Ha! The two new fabulous dresses that I made for this year's show will hang in my wardrobe closet as I look forward to wearing them next Christmas. 

In the meantime, we have already started to book next year's calendar. Many dates are already in place and venues are excited (as we are) to open again. If you purchased tickets to this year's show from Lorie Line Music, we will be contacting you in the next couple of weeks. If you purchased tickets from the venue, your correspondence will come from them.

To keep the tradition alive, we have a virtual show that will go live on Thursday, December 10th. We had reserved that night for those of you who would not be able to see a live show. I've never done a virtual concert, so this new project is exciting in the midst of all these challenges. I hope you'll check it out. 

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE YOUR VIRTUAL TICKET LINK

Thank you so much for being our friends, our family, our fans. We send you all our love and wish you all the best this holiday season and look forward to a bright and shiny new year.

Merry Christmas,

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE YOUR VIRTUAL TICKET LINK

CLICK HERE TO PREVIEW THE CONCERT

 

CLICK HERE TO ORDER A LORIE LINE CANDLE 

My grandfather was an amazing person. 

My first memory of sitting at a table with a white table cloth and a white linen napkin was with him. I was 7 years old and we were eating in downtown Phoenix at the Arizona Club. He was a very successful businessman and was the President of Arizona Sash & Door. He and my grandmother took me everywhere and proudly introduced me. "My granddaughter plays the piano." He had quite the personality. He taught me how to "look people in the eye," and carry on a good conversation. From an early childhood, I remember him teaching me how to respond to a question with a complete sentence. He (and my grandmother) taught me good manners. I was well-behaved and I did not want to ever disappoint him. I wanted to make him proud (until the day he died).

I spent every summer with my grandparents for 10 years, starting at age 7. I'd save my babysitting money, pay one way, and they'd pay my way home. It was my favorite time of year. They paid attention to me. And although I was one of 10 grandchildren, they always made me feel (the most) special. (Today I know they did that for the other nine grandkids as well.) Everyone got a nickname.

He was the kind of person where you never wanted to leave his side. . . because he was going to do something interesting and you didn't want to miss it.

He had a shop out back and my favorite smell to this day is the smell of a shop . . . gasoline, wood, oil, machines, tools, cars, engines. He was always making or fixing something. I'd spend hours standing by his side in that memorable Arizona night heat, talking to him. 

My grandfather loved hobbies. He was always doing SOMETHING. If we weren't in the shop, we were in his garden picking melons. Or learning a new hymn at the piano after dinner, singing all the parts. He'd shuck corn, can beets, and if we were just talking around the dining room table, he'd crack walnuts. He (and my grandmother) would speak Spanish (fluently) when he didn't want me to know what he was saying. Actually, I think he was kind of showing off. He was brilliant in every way.

Charlie Mann. He loved his name.

Every day he got dressed up. He wore beautiful clothes and fancy designer shoes (thanks to my grandmother) even though he'd just be at home alone for the day. He'd put on a hat if he went outside (Arizona sun) and I remember that he always wore cologne and something sticky in his thick, curly hair. Before bed, he'd put on his burgandy silk pajamas and crawl into bed and pull out his Bible. My grandmother and I would sit at his bedside and he'd read a beautiful passage of scripture out loud to us. He'd make daily applications from the reading. . .  some things which I will always remember. We'd pray, then he'd affectionately hug and kiss me on the cheek goodnight. When I'd leave his room, he'd write in his journal about his day. (I secretly and selfishly always hoped he would write something special about me.) His Bible and his journal sat beside his bed on his nightstand until the day he died. 

Like I said, my grandfather was an amazing person. Extraordinary.

Today I look back and with these challenging times before us I now know the secret ingredient in his soul.

He was not afraid. 

* * *

In August we toured North Dakota. Although most everything in the country was shut down due to COVID restrictions, we'd been invited to perform in an old opera house in Maddock. A woman named Carol Backstrom called us earlier in the year, and we booked the date. Although everyone in the country was in total fear of the virus, we wanted to go. We were not afraid.

When Carol invited us, she explained that the stage of the opera house was located up on the second floor of the building, and there was no elevator to get my piano up to that area. There were very steep stairs and of course, my 1450 pound piano would never be able to be pulled or pushed up that flight. But, have no fear! They assured me in the beginning that they would figure it out. The whole town was excited to have me, and there were plenty of creative people who would get my piano up to the second floor of this old building.

With so much going on with the COVID situation, I kind of forgot about the upcoming challenge of moving a concert grand piano to a second floor of an old opera house. (It was one of those things where you put it in the back of your mind.) But, apparently, Tim assured me they had it all figured out. All I knew was they had the EXACT measurements of my piano. We were doing it.

When we got there, sure enough, everyone was waiting outside the opera house in the side alley. And, boy did they have the gear . . . a special forklift, a custom built plank just for my piano, and a dozen men all in on the quest of "getting Lorie Line's piano up to the second floor of the opera house." They warmly greeted us, jumped in right away and opened the back of our truck, and started moving the piano out onto the special lift they had built . . . just for me. (Ahh. . . engines, wood, oil, gasoline . . . the smell of the shop.) 

These men were like my grandfather. I was in good hands. Never once did I think they'd drop my piano. They had totally prepared for this day. There was something special about them. They were not afraid.

In 15 minutes, they moved the piano up into the air to a small man-size door and basically popped it in to the opera house. It was effortless. At the end of the night my piano went back down (in the dark), the same way it came up.

It was a magical and very memorable day.

That night, before I got into the truck to go back to Minnesota, two of the men (Paul and John) came to me and asked if they could pray for me. They laid their hands on me, and said the most beautiful words I've ever heard . . . for a woman they'd just met that day. 

Do you know that "Be Not Afraid" is stated 365 times in the Bible?!! As I get out of bed, it is now my first thought of every day. And as I venture out on a tour that will be the most challenging time of my life, I will think and meditate on these things.

(Isaiah 41:10) Be not afraid, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

You can bet that I will be returning to Maddock, North Dakota. And soon.

WATCH THIS VIDEO! Click here to meet the town and see my piano being hoisted up two stories in Maddock, North Dakota.

Pictured above is one of the earliest photos I have with my grandfather. I was two years old in this photo (1960).

Notice who I'm standing by. (He was probably telling me to stand still and "smile!")

(Pictured left to right . . . my grandfather Charlie Mann, my father Dale, my mother Lorraine, my aunt Lorna, my aunt Loretta, and Frances, my grandmother. In the front Lorie and my brother Chip.) Everyone is still living (all in their 80s) except my grandparents.

My nickname was "Punkin-O".

CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS TO THE UPCOMING CHRISTMAS TOUR 

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Purchase a candle and celebrate Christmas with Lorie Line. Light your candle and sing along to Silent Night at the end of Lorie's program. Shipping end of November.

COMING THIS WINTER!! NOW TAKING AUTOGRAPHED PRE-ORDERS!

BACK IN STOCK! BEST SELLER! Features 17 of the most requested contemporary standards from movies and Broadway in Lorie's recognizable style. This is a compilation of the best and most well-known songs and most featured Lorie Line music on Pandora Radio (over 100 million spins!). Includes Music of the Night (Phantom of the Opera); Part of Your World (The Little Mermaid); Unchained Melody (Ghost); I'd Give My Life For You (Miss Saigon); Hymne (Vangelis); Theme from Prince of Tides; Theme from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves; Medley from Dances with Wolves; Think of Me (Phantom of the Opera); Wind Beneath My Wings (Beaches); A Whole New World (Aladdin); Have I Told You Lately That I Love You; Theme from Beauty and The Beast; Tears in Heaven; Love Is - Theme from Beverly Hills 90210; When I Fall In Love; Can You Feel the Love Tonight (The Lion King).

COMING THIS NOVEMBER! NOW TAKING AUTOGRAPHED PRE-ORDERS! A great stocking stuffer for Christmas, this book features easier but very fun piano arrangements for beginner/intermediate players that will make any pianist sound great! Features 17 classic kid's songs, all with sweet and beautiful melodies, arranged with the special creative Lorie Line touch. 

Itsy Bitsy Spider
This Old Man
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star 
(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window? 
You Are My Sunshine
Mary Had a Little Lamb
She'lll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain 
I'm a Little Teapot
Hokey Pokey
London Bridge Is Falling Down
Pop! Goes the Weasel 
The Bear Went Over the Mountain
The Muffin Man
Baa, Baa, Black Sheep
Row, Row, Row Your Boat
B-I-N-G-O
The Wheels on the Bus