Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Music News You Can Use - January 2015

Happy 2015!!  I am a bit slow getting out my January newsletter, and this could be the start of a new trend. A mid-month newsletter? Or quarterly? We'll see. Hope you had good holidays and are recovering okay from all the fun your wallet had.
 
The first part of January, I was at my first ever songwriter retreat put on by Brett Perkins, a Californian who makes his home in DenmarkHere is one of his fine songs.  We gathered near Santa Cruz, and about half the participants were from Sweden or DenmarkHere is a video from Annette Bjergfeldt who has had quite a musical career in Denmark.  Don't know what she is saying but what a voice!!  Five days of co-writing, each day with a different partner -- stimulating and exhausting!!  Got seven songs out of it, in various stages of completion. Here is a co-write with Steve Key, performed at our finale concert.  What a treat to work with him!!
 
 
Not gigging much in January or February, working on my craft: learning Ableton Live looping (Here is a great video on that for you serious music geeks), and digging deeper into drop D tuning, among other stuff.     
More stuff for you musicians. If you haven't already, sign up for Ari's Take. It is a great blog on current trends in the music business, which is changing daily if not hourly. Another good site I just learned about is Indie On The Move, with help for the hardest job of all:  booking!! I need some dates around the Eno River Festival in Durham, North Carolina on the July 4th weekend. (Washington DC down to Durham -- hint, hint :-)
 
 
Other news: I am hot on the trail of finishing my third CD.  All the tracking, mixing and mastering is FINALLY done -- about a two year process.  I hopefully will have "product on the shelves" in a month.   Here is one of the more rocking songs and here's a quieter one, with Aireene Espiritu helping me on the vocal.  I am doing a show with Aireene at the Monkey House in Berkeley on March 28th.  Dulcie Taylor will be playing also.  Mark your calendars!!
 
 
I am going to be tagging along with Chappell and Dave Holt on their tour down to LA in early March and I am looking forward to that.  It will be fun to play a bit of the "jazzier side of Americana" with them, and to pitch my new CD too.  Details on my website calendar.
 
 
Your turn -- what have you been up to?   Love to hear from you!! 

John
Roy Zat
Croizat
Whatever