I just found out from Ricky Broussard that the promoters selected me to perform at the French festival next July. Wonder of wonders! I guess my spiffing up of my demo (and bio and the like) provided them with a little something to go on. Hooray for Gascony!
Hmmm. I wonder what the South of France will be like when I'm experiencing with Ricky...and Roger...and Bear...and CHADD THOMAS...okay, I'm getting a little bit spooked out now.
Hopefully since Miss Leslie is going, she'll be nice to me and I will have some fun with another gal around. I'll probably have to try to be really fun all the time, because I have long observed that I have a strong penchant for putting the "I" in team. Heh.
Not that that's a bad thing....
Ugh...I am extremely worn out this morning. I was tired last night even before I went to rehearsal, plus I bought a couple of inexpensive examples of literary deliciousness last night, which only makes me want to pull a blankie over my lap and a cat to my side and read, read, read.
The one I'm starting with is of a lighter ilk than the others. A young American girl goes to England to research the Scarlet Pimpernel, the Purple Gentian, and the Pink Carnation. She discovers all sorts of spy-laden intrigue during the French Revolution and uncovers the identity of the Pink Carnation, which had previously been unknown.
It's a little too amateurishly written, especially when it gets a tad too romance-y, but I am seriously loving the characters.
I'm tired today. Want to get my record player back from Laura and go home and listen to some stuff. And read. And nap. And make a tasty dinner and hand out candy to youngsters.
Must be the witching day casting its spell upon my person.....
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Million miles an hour
I've been working through a lot of things in my head lately. Many of them have to do with financial troubles, as I feel like I'm sinking and I'm not sure how to get ahead. It may be that I have to bite the bullet and get another part-time job, but then I've got to do the band thing and the record thing and more. The thought of trying to do it all nearly cleaves my forehead in two.
Been thinking a lot also, lately, about what I want and don't want romantically. I have finally, for the first time in my life, gotten a somewhat clear idea of how I would like to be treated; I also have an idea of the sort of personality of the person who I would want, and how I would like to go through life if I were with this someone. For years I have known women who have very specific ideas about their ideal mate, and I scoffed because it seemed to me that all they were doing was turning away opportunities. Granted, many of them had "ideals" that would make me sick, but that's them, not me.
I am finally realizing that it is very important for me to stay true to what I want, now that I know what that is. It's a shame no one I currently know fits the bill. But I am happy in general, and I feel hope. I was out last Friday at Lambert's and was intrigued by many people I had never seen before; compelled by curiosity and attaction, and impressed by the collective IQ. I don't doubt for a minute that I will meet these people in the future. In the meantime, I need to make sure the projects that keep me the most happy don't fall prey to my rather frequent fits of melancholy and lethargia.
And by the way..about these new projects that keep me happy... my new band ROCKS! Dante was exactly what we needed to get things tied in place. He and I have been doing some co-writing as of late, and it's great to put my words to his inventive and evocative melodies. And he keeps on top of me for the guitar too, telling me when I'm being lazy. I love that. And we have practice tonight and I have work to do. It helps that when we were all at Nick's for his party on Satruday night, that Darren was gushing about my song. I'm glad he liked it, because this is so new to me that any bit of compliment and non-criticism is welcome. As far as this project goes, I do not want criticism so early on, even in the name of art.
DB Harris is in Nashville working on the harmonies for "It's Later Now"-- he is in touch with Mario to make sure the tracks are in place and they're loading the files to .ftp for ease and efficiency. It looks like my idea to make "It's Later now" a male-female duet might be possible, even after the fact ! This Thursday afternoon I'm meeting with Brennen Leigh to have girlie time and go over the songs on my album to see where she would fit in (and she's definitely doing mandolin on 'Daddy's Girl").
Mario is working withthe horn players and other soloists, as I have given him carte blanche to make "Threshold of Heartache" sound exactly like what he is envisioning. If it sounds totally Spanish, that's just fine with me.
And I am recording with Jim Stringer on November 14th. Besides the engineering, I think he's going to do some straight steel on a couple of the songs; maybe male harmonies too. We'll see how involved he wants to be. I am working on finding a good pedal steel player to record here in Austin. Mario said he'd make sure Carlos paid for that, and all I have to do is nail down a price and let Mario know.
Things are coming together, that's for sure! After mid-November, my main focus is to work on the album design, the liner notes, and get some good photographs taken. I also need to talk to my stylist girlfriends to see if one of them could make my hair look like Loretta Lynn ca. 1970, for the photo session. I'm going to need an awful lot of fake hair for that!
Been thinking a lot also, lately, about what I want and don't want romantically. I have finally, for the first time in my life, gotten a somewhat clear idea of how I would like to be treated; I also have an idea of the sort of personality of the person who I would want, and how I would like to go through life if I were with this someone. For years I have known women who have very specific ideas about their ideal mate, and I scoffed because it seemed to me that all they were doing was turning away opportunities. Granted, many of them had "ideals" that would make me sick, but that's them, not me.
I am finally realizing that it is very important for me to stay true to what I want, now that I know what that is. It's a shame no one I currently know fits the bill. But I am happy in general, and I feel hope. I was out last Friday at Lambert's and was intrigued by many people I had never seen before; compelled by curiosity and attaction, and impressed by the collective IQ. I don't doubt for a minute that I will meet these people in the future. In the meantime, I need to make sure the projects that keep me the most happy don't fall prey to my rather frequent fits of melancholy and lethargia.
And by the way..about these new projects that keep me happy... my new band ROCKS! Dante was exactly what we needed to get things tied in place. He and I have been doing some co-writing as of late, and it's great to put my words to his inventive and evocative melodies. And he keeps on top of me for the guitar too, telling me when I'm being lazy. I love that. And we have practice tonight and I have work to do. It helps that when we were all at Nick's for his party on Satruday night, that Darren was gushing about my song. I'm glad he liked it, because this is so new to me that any bit of compliment and non-criticism is welcome. As far as this project goes, I do not want criticism so early on, even in the name of art.
DB Harris is in Nashville working on the harmonies for "It's Later Now"-- he is in touch with Mario to make sure the tracks are in place and they're loading the files to .ftp for ease and efficiency. It looks like my idea to make "It's Later now" a male-female duet might be possible, even after the fact ! This Thursday afternoon I'm meeting with Brennen Leigh to have girlie time and go over the songs on my album to see where she would fit in (and she's definitely doing mandolin on 'Daddy's Girl").
Mario is working withthe horn players and other soloists, as I have given him carte blanche to make "Threshold of Heartache" sound exactly like what he is envisioning. If it sounds totally Spanish, that's just fine with me.
And I am recording with Jim Stringer on November 14th. Besides the engineering, I think he's going to do some straight steel on a couple of the songs; maybe male harmonies too. We'll see how involved he wants to be. I am working on finding a good pedal steel player to record here in Austin. Mario said he'd make sure Carlos paid for that, and all I have to do is nail down a price and let Mario know.
Things are coming together, that's for sure! After mid-November, my main focus is to work on the album design, the liner notes, and get some good photographs taken. I also need to talk to my stylist girlfriends to see if one of them could make my hair look like Loretta Lynn ca. 1970, for the photo session. I'm going to need an awful lot of fake hair for that!
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Busy, schmizzy.
Funny how I need to spell "schmizzy" as such, instead of "schmusy". Ahh, the idiosyncrasies of the English language.
Band practice last night was AMAZING! The addition of Misti totally pulled the whole thing together, and Charlie's drumming sounded great too. The songs we played sounded like REAL songs, and we even worked up an original tune...if only I could come up with non country-oriented lyrics at the drop of a hat.
Still no word from Dante. Hopefully he's gotten here okay and hasn't run into too many difficulties on the drive from California.
I pick up my CD at Kinko's later, along with a couple of prints of my promo photographs, and thus I'll be able to pack them up with my spiffed-up bio and get it to Rick B. sometime tomorrow. Wahoo!
Rachel got offered a job with American Eagle. Good for her! I hope she weathers the changes and transitions well while moving into this new chapter of her life. It's amazing to feel real personal power, and I don't think she's ever felt it keenly, like this will surely do for her.
I think we underestimate the feeling of personal power. I've been trying to make sure that I keep remembering how it feels by constantly trying new activities, however insignificant they may appear to be. I may feel like the "stupid kid" as I learn these new skills and meet all these new people, but eventually I'll master whatever I need to and be that much better for it.
The garage band is part of my trying new things, for sure. Tamborine, maracas, shakers, and a front-and-center stage attitude is something I'm not quite comfortable with, but it's sort of a 'duck to water' thing when you've got great people you're working with. And we've been practicing in a real garage, which is a blast (albeit warm at this time of year).
Also, my new cheap gym and the classes that go with it are challenging as well. I've been working my ASS off trying to feel physically better and stronger. Slowly things are improving to that end.
Designing and making a CD cover on my own and getting my demo CD professionally printed (even if it was only one CD) is helping me feel like I LOOK more musically impressive to people who want to see that, like the promoters of that French country music festival. I've always approached my music with such an amateurish attitude that it's kind of nice to try on a coat of a different (bright, sumptuous) color for a change.
This week, if I meet up with Dante, I'll be showing him around town and getting him acclimated...although he's resourceful and pragmatic from what I could tell. Nevertheless it helps to have a go-to person when you're in a new city.
My next new activity is going to be volunteering at somewhere for a day. I don't want a huge commitment to that sort of thing due to time constraints, but I want to do something, somewhere...and soon.
Band practice last night was AMAZING! The addition of Misti totally pulled the whole thing together, and Charlie's drumming sounded great too. The songs we played sounded like REAL songs, and we even worked up an original tune...if only I could come up with non country-oriented lyrics at the drop of a hat.
Still no word from Dante. Hopefully he's gotten here okay and hasn't run into too many difficulties on the drive from California.
I pick up my CD at Kinko's later, along with a couple of prints of my promo photographs, and thus I'll be able to pack them up with my spiffed-up bio and get it to Rick B. sometime tomorrow. Wahoo!
Rachel got offered a job with American Eagle. Good for her! I hope she weathers the changes and transitions well while moving into this new chapter of her life. It's amazing to feel real personal power, and I don't think she's ever felt it keenly, like this will surely do for her.
I think we underestimate the feeling of personal power. I've been trying to make sure that I keep remembering how it feels by constantly trying new activities, however insignificant they may appear to be. I may feel like the "stupid kid" as I learn these new skills and meet all these new people, but eventually I'll master whatever I need to and be that much better for it.
The garage band is part of my trying new things, for sure. Tamborine, maracas, shakers, and a front-and-center stage attitude is something I'm not quite comfortable with, but it's sort of a 'duck to water' thing when you've got great people you're working with. And we've been practicing in a real garage, which is a blast (albeit warm at this time of year).
Also, my new cheap gym and the classes that go with it are challenging as well. I've been working my ASS off trying to feel physically better and stronger. Slowly things are improving to that end.
Designing and making a CD cover on my own and getting my demo CD professionally printed (even if it was only one CD) is helping me feel like I LOOK more musically impressive to people who want to see that, like the promoters of that French country music festival. I've always approached my music with such an amateurish attitude that it's kind of nice to try on a coat of a different (bright, sumptuous) color for a change.
This week, if I meet up with Dante, I'll be showing him around town and getting him acclimated...although he's resourceful and pragmatic from what I could tell. Nevertheless it helps to have a go-to person when you're in a new city.
My next new activity is going to be volunteering at somewhere for a day. I don't want a huge commitment to that sort of thing due to time constraints, but I want to do something, somewhere...and soon.
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