Inspecting my perceptions - clicking together pieces of that LOVE thing, bigger than me; singing, songwriting, family, friends, profession, community and art!  Track not included here is me singing the national anthem which I have done at least 200 times at my kid's swim meets.  Am I too old to keep this up?  No way in hell! HA! (Thanks to Claire Crause for the photo shoot!)

BdetteQuistPerspection

Bdette Merva-Quist - perspection

Written to myself, keep living in the present!  Pared down sound, vocals, piano - BMQ, violin - Tre Doyle. 

Producers - Bernadette Merva Quist, Christina Morales Hemenway. Recording Engr - Geoff Michaels, Big Sky Recording, Ann Arbor, MI.
Track recorded for submission to Rio Doyle, Voice contestant April 2021.

Be Where I Am 7

Buy Be Where I Am

I was the printing rep for the 50th Anniversary AA Blues Festival, the car wrap, postcards, program magazine - also the editor on that - yet I've been singing the blues anonymously, for years.  Wrote this song while I was a district sales manager for a paper company, calling on the Dunder-Mifflins of the midwest for 10 years.

Star In My Car

acorn.mp3

Reflecting and remembering the Immigrant Cocoon I came from.  100% Slovak, parents raised in southeastern Ohio coal-mining country.  My Dad played the accordion and sang his whole life.  This is a nod to him and what he gave me, my own musical  gifts.

Immigrant Cocoon

A 94 yr old lady that I used to drive to church lost her great grandchild in a car accident.  She was devastated and asked "why not me?"  I wanted to write a song about it and THIS came out.  It was about a bs uprising of the traditional choir leader vs a somewhat arrogant new pastor who wanted to reach the "unchurched" with more modern music. At the time I was one of the untraditional musicians in the middle.  Hilda helped me roll over the fighting!

Church Fight With Mike Merva From Focusrite 02

Written when I was spending a ton of time traveling as a district sales manager for a paper company, a practical job to supplement my love for singing and songwriting, no matter who heard it or scoffed at it, especially me.  Why don't you go to grad school or something?  Then I wouldn't have time to do THIS!  As it was, only fit it in-between the bricks but like my Dad who DID get his PhD, I wasn't about to quit!

Star In My Car With Mike Merva From Focusrite 04

Where I Am - With Horn Version 1

Go ahead and compare, what will you see? -despair or variety? 
Be a gardner, be a seed. 😊

Be a Seed

Verse written to celebrate my parents and love lasting beyond life on earth. 
With Kahle Strickland and the late George Mallory on guitar.

Love Is The Evidence - First Recording

My theme song for 2022! Take this, you dis-er's!

Like "Don't Worry Be Happy", only with a little attitude, a little gospel.  With Kahle Strickland / bass and the late George Mallory on guitar.

Half Empty

"I'm a mobius loop baby, I got one side, I got two."

Be Where I Am

Iris DeMent song recorded for Alpha House fundraiser slide show.  BQ on imperfect piano and vocals.

My Life

Early, big hair, days. Written w/ Jake Smith, on guitar.

The Race

Let's have a truce.
Written by the late Martin Simmons.

When the Hell Will We Be Friends?

Leftover winter rattles in the trees. Stop, check, listen, go...I feel green.  Written while driving down Huron River Drive in Ann Arbor, MI in dreary March...spring's a comin' on.  BMQ lyrics, melody, vocals.  Collaboration with the late, great, Martin Simmons.

Wanderin'

No Fear

BQuist - Love Is The Evidence - 12|14|19

Guitar and piano rehearsals with harmonica

ImmigrantCocoon-ChurchFight-StarinMyCar-BeWhereIAm-Merva AlphaHouse/ Can't Get Next2U-wMartinSimmons

Singer-songwriter, late-bloomer.  Copyrights submitted for all tracks except My Life, written by Iris DeMent and recorded by BQ in 2002 for Alpha House, shelter for homeless families, fundraiser.

B'dette Merva-Quist

Pinned to spotlight

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