Ghosts of October
Looks like I completely missed blogging in October. Just to slip something in I'm writing from my phone while on the go. Sometimes life moves too fast to process & write about it all. Often at these times it is stranger than fiction.
In the past month I've juggled more jobs than ever to keep afloat and found more joyful surprises to cheer my soul. Ghosts of Halloweens past brought tears of sorrow and joy along with a glimpse of brighter tomorrows.
At the same time the Occupy Wall Street movement has swept the nation and continued to whisper ideas to change the world.
I've occupied a few hotels in towns recently touring with Poetry Alive! where I arrived a stranger and immediately found a community to share resources and make our stay more joyful. It's amazing how when we all share what we have, we all have what we need. It's easy to sit back, point the finger at someone else, and complain that life is unfair. However, when you honestly step forward and share your skills and talents there's really very little to complain about. As we enter the giving season please consider this and avoid wasting time at the malls and super box stores full of "cheap stuff." Consider what you have to offer your friends and family as gifts and when spending your hard earned dollars check out local handmade goods and services from local crafters, musicians, and merchants whose taxes pay for your local community services as well. Invest in your community and find ways for your local community to share it's bounty with nearby communities in need. Occupy your community this holiday season and watch it flourish.
On that note, there's some live jazz in front of me stealing my attention and calling me to participate in the real world once again. May you find such cozy company where ever you occupy.
Harmony
A young friend of mine recently went to Pirate Camp for a week and came back singing a song I had also learned at camp years ago. As we were playing in the river I remembered an alternate ending so that we could sing the end in two part harmony. It was so easy for us that I wonder why it is ever difficult.
I've spent a lot of time recently playing music with new people always searching for the synergy that allows for a truly balanced sound. I'm loud. I've met people who have beautiful sweet voices, but find myself holding back in order to balance and blend. I love the feeling when singing with someone who has enough vocal strength that we can open up and sing from the soul together.
I also find a magic in the moment when an audience opens up and sings out loud. "Play another campfire song that we can all sing along," as the woman said on a porch the other night. I've been building a random repertoire of such songs to play on the ukulele that speak to me, through me, and to others allowing us all to sing together. I know the music industry pressures us into believing we have to make and buy new music, but to me every live performance of a song is a new story. The more people who sing along, the bigger the story. Yesterday Andrew Fletcher and I shared some traditional jazz standards at LaurelHurst Retirement Community and it was fun to realize that not only did they recognize the songs, but often they were singing along. We all had smiles on our faces by the time we were done.
My mom never stopped me from singing, so apologies to those musicians who are annoyed when the audience begins to sing along, but I wasn't raised that way. How can we ever have harmony if we don't sing together?
Raw songs in rehearsal
Last fall I applied for the NC Arts Council's Songwriter's grant. Hopeful that I'd win the luck of the draw I've been working on getting ten songs ready to record my first solo album of original music. Unfortunately, I found out Friday that I will not be one of the two grant recipients this year.
However, below in raw form is song number nine given to me by journalist and songwriter Dave Shiflett who I met at the Mt. Airy Fiddler's Convention and song number ten that I've been fussing with the words for until today.
Without the grant I do not currently have any funds to pay for instruments, studio time, other musicians, album artwork, and copies of the CD. I might be able to do it though with a little help from my friends. If somebody better with dollars wants to help me run a kickstarter campaign that would be great. Otherwise, know that I'll bake you cookies, clean your house, weed your yard, watch your kids, or help you in whatever way I can if you have money, time, or talent to throw at this project.
Seeking feedback on a couple of little ditties
I've been working on my uke skills with some unexpected free time. On a whim I'm headed to the studio to record one song for a songwriter's contest this evening. But which song should I enter?
Below are the two newest songs that I recorded experimenting with my new camera before the batteries went dead (hence the blurry image, but you don't need to see me to hear the song). You can find my other original songs under the "music" tab on this page that were recorded last year.
It's free to listen to all my music on the internet. So, if you have a few minutes, let me know which of the seven tunes I've created on uke that you like the best or hate the least to help me figure out which song I should enter in the contest. Thanks!
Summer of Stars
This past summer has been full of amazing folks who inspire me to keep on keeping on making the dream come alive. Thank you to all those who live for a living, this is a little gift for all of you.
Thanks to Dan Petrella for recording some of my original songs with my little ukulele I got last November from Lora Pendleton too! You can listen to all five songs we recorded this week when you sign up for my mailing list at ReverbNation. But for my blog buddies here's one more:
LAAFFing September 2010
Below you'll find a quick tour of some of the things I've seen since September started moving along with the music of the Rhythm Rascals Hank Bones & Mike Gray who I recorded Johnny Mercer's Ac-Cen-Tchu-Ate the Positive with back in January. You'll just have to imagine the gorgeous day Red Hot Sugar Babies had Saturday playing the bandstand at Antler Village on the Biltmore Estate with special guest Hank Bones since I didn't take pictures that day. Most of the photos are from the view at the Magnetic Poetry Van yesterday at the Lexington Avenue Arts & Fun Festival. Thanks to everyone for playing this weekend! I'll be back out to play again with the Red Hot Sugar Babies on Wednesday evening at the Wedge.
Tip Jar Economy
Everyone I know is trying to sell something. Whether it's a piece of jewelry they made or a life insurance policy. I wonder where timber mogul William Randolph Hearst was when they decided to allow consumers to use paper as legal tender after he helped ban the industrial hemp that George Washington grew. Regardless, our lives are now planned around pieces of greenish paper and how they flow through our hands.
I felt like a "sell-out" putting Google ads on this website for a while, but they never paid enough for the bother. I finally put a donate button right below the booking link a year ago, but I don't think anyone has ever clicked that button. I do get some booking emails though (that aren't spam) and actually turn real ideas into real dollars. Really though this blog has always been a labor of love. If I didn't love it, I wouldn't do it. If I love it for all it can be, then like a well-watered garden it begins to grow.
So, here are a couple fresh new songs out of the notebook free for you to read. You may even find me singing them on a street corner near you. If you feel so moved you can always leave a tip through the "feed the muse" button whether in the form of dollars now or ideas for dollars later.
* * * * * * * *
Moving On
See that train a coming?
Gonna jump that open car
Let it take me far -- down the track.
My baby's up & left me
Now there's nothing to hold me back.
Been blue too many days,
Now it's time to move on with this pack.
See that shooting star,
Blazing cross the sky?
That's what I'm a-chasing as you see me zooming by
And I may never catch it,
But I'm sure to learn to fly.
I've been caught in a lazy haze
Now it's time to touch the sky.
Don't tell me I can't do it
Because my heart and will are set
If you don't bet on me,
You're bound to lose your hat.
You see I've had enough of crying
Listened to far too much a-lying,
Now this light is going to shine as bright as it can get.
* * * * * * * *
Holiday
Won't you take me down
to where the water is cool?
Just hold my hand a while
Listening to crickets woo.
Tell me a story,
Doesn't have to be true,
Of something that made you smile
Talk of laughter too.
Let's shed society's shackles,
That gossip raises my hackles.
Just whisper something sweet
& it will be a treat.
There's sunshine in your smile,
Starlight in your eyes,
Your voice is an angel's melody
Straight from heaven & that's no lie.
Summer heat
This summer has been hot! I don't know what the actual temperatures have been, but I find that biking around town means a whole lot of perspiration. (In other words I feel like I've spent most of the summer a sweaty mess.) The Red Hot Sugar Babies have lived up to their name so far, and July was full of steamy shows like the one at Rogers Park captured in the video here:
The Red Hot Sugar Babies from Erik Olsen on Vimeo.
I've also been weeding gardens, writing articles, learning & writing more songs on the ukulele, and trying to keep my brain from melting. Fire seems to be the theme as it burns away the debris of the past. Any day now I'm hoping to take flight with new wings like the phoenix. August has been so steamy with showers that it's been hard to see the way clear to launch toward anything new. If anything I've learned to rely on myself more since even the best of friends will sometimes turn and walk away from you. But, I'm grateful to my roommates and the friends who have continued to offer their support as I burn through all this mess.
September is starting to shape into something while the rest of the year remains a big blank page for now. Now back to dreaming up a plan of action for the journey into the heart of winter so I don't end up frozen.
Opposite ends of an evening…
I've been struggling lately to find the words. After writing for other people, it becomes hard to write for yourself again. But, out of last evening came a couple of pieces, the first either a jazz or jump blues little number and the second an odd piece that if nothing else shocked the bar fly that asked to read it as soon as it was finished. (I guess he was imagining me a modern female Bukowski.)
These two pieces came from opposite ends of the evening where my focus was to put pen to paper more than to write for an audience, but I haven't blogged lately, so here you go...
Sweeten up Papa
I just fell off from thinking again
Blew a fuse and had to make amends
It wasn't that I ever want to blow,
But I started getting frustrated with how it might go.
Darling you know I'd never do you no harm
Still I hope & pray to be back in your arms
But the way you're acting lately baby
Ain't no way to treat a lady
So it's time to turn you loose.
Sweeten up papa & come back home.
Lighten up mister, don't you leave me alone.
But if you treat me like a dog and won't throw me a bone
My heart will finally break and turn to stone.
*****
Open the door
With the knob that turns
Rather than knocking forever
On the barred entrance
From your last exit.
Softly let go of the clenched fist
Allowing the light of a new dawn
To dance upon your palm
Then lift your head to greet the sun
with shining eyes.
Out of the shadow of last night's storm
a sunflower bursts in the light of morn.
*****
Even a raging muse needs inspiration sometimes. Last night it came in the form of the music created by Aaron Woody Wood. You can find out more about him and his current album project here on his kickstarter project page.
Some like it hot!
Ooops! A whole month has gone by without a new post. There's no way to catch you up on everything, but I've been writing some articles for the local weekly the Mountain Xpress & playing hot jazz with the Red Hot Sugar Babies & learning to ride my bicycle around town in 90 degree weather so I'm reducing my carbon footprint on this earth while getting myself back in shape from the west coast tour. Whew! Also, I'm learning how to stretch those dollars farther, find the river to cool off from the heat, & barter what I can for what I need. The faster the crazy spins, the more I long for the simple.
I had a great conversation with Margo Timmins of the Cowboy Junkies last week and look forward to one this week with Nat "King" Cole's brother Freddy Cole for the Mountain Xpress. I'm excited to catch both of these musicians live when they play Asheville in the next few weeks.
Friday night after a steamy show with the Red Hot Sugar Babies at Roger's Park in Tryon I returned to Asheville to catch a little something special at LaRue's Backdoor that made me dance with joy. Check out this video that captures the sound of the band even if it fails you give you the visual of the whole Bill Murray Experience. They're hot!
Feed the Muse!
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