Amy Winehouse

My latest song is about the tragedy that is Amy Winehouse.  She happens to be one of the most vocally talented people that I've seen in a long time.  I hope she gets it together... And I hope that you like the song Falling Star... 

Who's Listening?

Hey everyone!!  Hope you all are enjoying my project thus far.  I'm just over a month into the writing and I'm really having a great time with this.  My ReverbNation player and my Feedburner site are giving me some great stats for my sites... such as how many plays I'm getting, how many widget hits I've had, how many fans I have and so on... So... 

I encourage any and everyone to post a comment, check out the tunes, download a song or two if you like em', check out the videos, join the mailing list or become a fan... I'd also like to thank everyone who's been listening!!  I've had a lot of positive feedback.

Well, the last few days I've been writing about close friends, family members, relationships/dating, opinions I have on other artists, and paying homage to a very dear friend of us musicians... See if you can tell which ones are which.

I'll tell a little story about one of the tunes... I was recently reading a magazine that I frequently check out called... well, I guess I shouldn't say the name... but, its a great mag relating to all that is an indie artist.  The writing is good, the articles are insightful, and I'm able to check out a lot of cool artists that I've never heard before.  This particular issue however, had a few artists that said some pretty stupid and irritating things.  

One of the reviews had a girl talking about how she really never listened to music that much because that detracted from her artistic direction... Wow.  I can't imagine not listening to music, ever.  Its never been a chore or a negative experience at all.  I love checking out old stuff that I haven't listened to in a while and discovering new and intricate details that somehow got by me the first 100 times.  I love coming across the next beautiful artist or songwriter like Justin Vernon of Bon Iver or this group I like called Yo La Tengo.  

Another article had this guy who said he kind of played 7 instruments.  You kinda play 7 instruments?  What does that even mean?  Is that to say that you don't really play one very well?  So... you want me to check out your music knowing that you're proud of the fact that your playing or singing is average at best?  

Finally, in yet another article about this really interesting little musical collaboration (sarcasm intended), I read about a girl who never really considered herself a musician until about 6 months ago.  Come on, really?  6 months ago?  What happened in that time frame?  Oh... wait, I know... you're rock-star boyfriend convinced his record label to give you guys a deal!!  Now you're a musician.  Way to go.  I don't know if these people were just saying this stuff because its cool and 'indie' to act nonchalant-- or because they really meant what they were saying.  Either way I didn't want anything to do with they're movement.

Basically, these articles did the opposite of what they're supposed to do.  After reading them, I did not want to go out and listen to their music.  I didn't want to read another word.  I did not want to check them out the next time they might be playing a show.  I take immense pride in my strengths and weaknesses as a musician.  I have a lot to learn about a lot of things but I also have conviction about what a musician is and what he/she isn't.  I'll be a student of music until I the day I die.  I do play one instrument well, I love listening to music all the time, and I've considered myself a musician for a long time...

And that is the story of my new song entitled "I'd Never Buy Your Record Now".  Hope you like it!!

2 New Ones...

Here are the latest songs... Do You Cry? and Dream Of How It Ends.  Hope you like the tunes.  I think I might take "Do you Cry" and develop the song a little further.  It has a nice overall meaning to the song.  

I like "Dream of how it Ends" as well.  No chorus, no bridge, just a long verse.  I dig songs like that.  This song was actually about a picture that I keep seeing in my head.  I don't know what it means but... well... anyway... 

Looking forward to the inauguration tomorrow!  Also looking forward to getting my computer back.  I had to rebuild it after it broke down again.  New chip, new motherboard, new ram... should be killer though.  We'll see... 

Which Song Is Your Favorite?

Post a comment and tell me which tunes you like... 

Hold Me Tight 01.17.09

Falling Creek 01.16.09

Today's song is a simple one.  Hope you like it...

In this photo... from left to write... Rachel Holmes, Evan Setzer, Me, Abbey Phillips, and Long John "Lillehamer" Liley.  

Pike Place Market 01.15.09

New Song... I like this one... hope you do too!!!

What is Write Before Right?

Check out my new video... What is Write Before Right?

The Rain Dancing King 01.14.09

New song today called The Rain Dancing King... hope you like the picture of rain!

New Flash Player!

In uploading and installing my artist page and music to my facebook profile, I came across a new flash player that will hold all of my songs instead of just 10.  I will probably keep the Last.fm flash player on the site to let people know that they can go there but the ReverbNation player is better.  You can also click on my site at ReverbNation for all of my free downloads as well... Enjoy!!!

Letter to the Editor 01.13.09

My song for today is called Letter To The Editor.  Oh by the way... my computer is working now so I was able to put up an MP3 of the song.  There was a full page letter in this month's BRM(Beyond Race Magazine) that was from an irate guy who wanted BRM to change the name of their mag.  He was a nasty ol' bigot who said some horrible things about minorities.  Anyway, I really appreciated the response by the mag so I decided to write a song from both perspectives... Hope you like it... I also will have a video of the song that will be up shortly...

You Tube Player

So I think I'll just go with the one blue YouTube Player at the top of my blog.  If you click on the icon just to the right of the play button, you will be able to choose any of the video's I've uploaded.  Let me know if you have questions. 

Hey, here's the deal!

So I'm learning how to run and operate a blog.  You all have many options with this blog.  You can play many of my songs with the pink last.fm flash player at the top of the site.  Clicking on the actual song will direct you to my last.fm page where you can download any of the tracks for free.  Clicking on the little triangle to the right of the title will play the song from the pink flash player--keeping you in the blog.  

You can also watch videos from my blog that I've embedded on the blog.  I'm thinking of taking off the YouTube videos but keeping the blue YouTube Player that I have at the bottom.  The blue YouTube player will play all of the videos I've uploaded into my YouTube account.  This will keep me from having to embed a new video on the blog all the time.... I don't really know which direction I should go with that... What do you think?  I could also upload a video directly into the blog... but that just seems like an extra step.

My Computer Sucks

Ok, so I just got my PC--that I built--serviced about a month ago.  Well, as luck would have it, the darn thing won't turn on.  So I had to record my song for yesterday on my camcorder... But because I don't know how to compress the video to under 200mb, I had to load it into You Tube.  But for some reason, the video wouldn't load.  Anyway, I'm putting up that video today if it kills me.... and another one that I have yet to write.... 

Full Production

Ok, for the first time I was actually able to write, record and produce a song in one day.  Its called "Can't Put Up The Fight".  Hope you like it!!