Carolyn Xivalas owner of Pink Cloud Beading in Fairfield is a former songstress keeping her musical past alive with her two boys.
Xivalas grew up in Providence, R.I., the middle child of two brothers who were avid guitar players.
“I was the singer, I played piano and guitar to get by, but my instrument was my voice,” she said. “So my younger brother and I started a duo up in Rhode Island and we used to travel around to all these places on the water playing.”
James Taylor and Joni Mitchell were some of their favorites to cover.
She attended Roger Williams University and then began working for General Electric in Providence. She would later transfer with the company to Stamford.
“I just wanted to get out of Dodge,” she said. “I wanted to explore a bit, but I”™ve got to have the leaves and the whole October thing.”
She moved in with two friends and, unsure how to deal with her new Fairfield County rent, she began singing at venues around Stamford.
She hooked up with a recording studio and made a demo with her brother.
“I was never a corporate kind of girl but it paid the bills, but I needed to stay with music.”
After putting out her demo, Xivalas began to work in human relations in Stamford.
“It was great for me, it was up and involved and working with people.”
Through her HR job she met her former husband and her best friend and an agent. After passing her tape around Stamford, Xivalas began working weekends as a club singer.
“I worked every weekend. I did pop, jazz and rock. I was in New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and carrying a full time job as well.”
After marrying and having two children, Xivalas stopped singing on the weekends and stopped working.
After moving from Stamford to Norwalk and then to Fairfield, Xivalas divorced in 2004.
She opened Pink Cloud Beading Co. in 2005.
“I was in a very bad place, my husband left, my kids were five and 11 and it was a shock. Financially I was OK, but I had to do something. I couldn”™t take a full-time job with the kids.”
Xivalas took a hobby of beading and has turned it into a full store on Post Road with classes provided throughout the Fairfield community.
“If I didn”™t enjoy what I do I couldn”™t do it,” she said. “It”™s much like singing in that the creative is there.”
The music in Xivalas”™ life has returned with her children. She and her boys Michael, 16 and Zachary, 11, have jam sessions complete with a PA system, drums and an electric guitar.
 “It”™s like the Partridge Family,” she said. “It can be really weird, but it”™s really fun. We hang out and play, to be able to do that with your kids is great and they love it. But you can”™t bog yourself down with negativity, it”™s too contagious. Having younger kids keeps me energetic.”
Xivalas says that as her kids get older she may start getting out and singing on the weekends around Fairfield.