From Gene Burnett
One of the things I like best about finishing an album is that
I can start focusing on writing the next one. I’m already 10 songs in. Hope to
record sometime this Summer. Speaking of Summer, we’re getting a bit of much
needed rain lately, all of which is much appreciated around here. We are in a
drought and the more rain we get now the later that forest fire season starts.
We had a very smoky Summer last year and no one wants a repeat of that. Samarra’s
been out of town for months now, helping her dad with some much needed stuff in
Seattle. I miss her a lot but it’s good work and a good time to be doing it.
Meanwhile, I’m taking care of lots of formerly “back burner” projects…making
the best of her absence because I can’t think of a good reason not to.
Once again, I posted a ton of new videos this month…
Several more of my “Sky Videos”, where I take video footage
that I shoot of our beautiful Southern Oregon sky and synch it up with
recordings of my songs…A couple of which are songs I recorded as part of the
folk duo “Gene Burnett & Victor Cummings” back in Seattle in the late
80’s-early 90’s.
Three more videos of me performing at our local Rogue Poetry
Slam. I won this time. ;~)
A video of local band “Buckle Rash” performing “Jump You
Fuckers” which I’m very happy and excited about.
A video of me showing an easy way to play “Save It For Later”
by English Beat.
My good friend Jim Page was passing through and we decided to
make a couple of videos, one of me playing second guitar on one of his new
songs and one vice-versa. It was really fun and I’m very very happy with how
they came out!
A video of my song “Make Something Beautiful” being performed
by our local Rogue Peace Choir Ensemble. Very cool to hear my song sung by a
choir in a beautiful church. ;~)
As well as…
Two new Nature videos…”Bamboo in the Wind”, my favorite sound
in Nature…and another Breakfast In Bed for “Head” video for those who like that
sort of thing.
And four new T’ai-Chi videos…
See links below in the “New Videos” section.
My new album is done and up on my site! It’s called “Doubles
Hitter” and I’m very happy with it. Click here to listen to and/or download the
songs free or with a donation: Doubles Hitter
I also have a more detailed blog post announcement about the
new album with lyric samples and links to videos of the individual songs.
Please click here for that: Doubles Hitter Announcement
As some of you know, I mainly teach private lessons but I’ve
started teaching a drop-in T’ai-Chi Fundamentals class every Monday morning
from 9:30-10:30am at the Family Massage Education Center on the corner of
Mountain and E. Main here in Ashland. This is an on-going drop-in class, no
experience necessary. I won’t be teaching any forms in this class, just
relatively easy solo and partner exercises designed to give participants a
better sense of unforced balance, what it is, how to deepen it, and how to cultivate
it. Samarra made me a simple poster for the class that says:
Flow More ~ Force Less
T’ai-Chi For Daily Life
Learn to balance effort and relaxation
Fundamentals Class with Gene Burnett
Nice! That’s more or less what we do in this class. No need to
pre-register just show up a little before 9:30am. The fee for the class is $10.
So here we go…starting with the usual information about where
to find my music, videos and pictures, including information about new
projects, and then followed by information about local shows in case you’re in
the Rogue Valley.
There is so much to listen to and watch on the net these
days…I’m amazed anyone even gets this far in the newsletter let alone watches
or listens to anything I’m doing. I’m sincerely grateful for every view, every
listen, and every nice comment I receive. I’m happy if anything I post truly
reaches even one person. I’m offering all this stuff in a “just in case you’re
interested” spirit.
So…in case you’re interested…
Recorded Music
My newest album is called “Doubles Hitter” and like all my other albums (30 so
far…), it’s available for downloading free or with a donation at my website: www.GeneBurnett.com
Videos In General
Overall Mission: I post a lot of videos on youtube, over
1000 so far! I'm not trying to build a fan base...In fact, I'm not trying to
build anything. I'm not expecting you or anyone else to follow what I'm doing
or watch all of these videos. Posting videos is just part of my overall plan to
make my music (and my T’ai-Chi and Nature videos too) as freely available as
possible and see what freely comes back. I think of each video as sort of like
a message in a bottle...and more I toss out there the more likely one of them
will land on a friendly shore and something good will come back to me. So here
are some video links in case you're interested:
How to Find My Videos: First of all, I've set up a "Videos" page on my website (www.GeneBurnett.com) with a menu similar to what you see
below as well as a digital tip jar in case any of you want to contribute to my
cottage industry. Every little bit helps and not just financially.
I've also set up some blogs that make navigating and viewing my
various videos much easier. You can go to any of these blogs and see thumbnails
for all of the videos posted there. Scroll across the thumbnails and you will
see the titles of each video. Click on it and a page will open that will let you
watch the video right there without going to youtube. My latest videos are
always in the upper left hand corner.
To see all of my Music videos in one easy to navigate place,
click here: The Unforced Videos
To see all of my T'ai-Chi videos in one easy to navigate place,
click here: The Unforced Movement
To see all of my Nature videos in one easy to navigate place,
click here: The Unforced Nature
For a quick and easy way to sort through, listen to, or
download all of my albums free or with a donation, click here: The Unforced Music
To see my regular blog “The Unforced Life”, click here: The
Unforced Life
To visit my youtube channel and possibly subscribe, click
here: My Youtube Channel
To see all of my youtube playlists click here: My Youtube Playlists
New Videos
My
“Doubles Hitter” youtube playlist. Includes videos for all the songs from my
new album:
Buckle
Rash covers JYF!:
Two
videos featuring me and my good friend Jim Page. One of my songs and one of
his:
My
song being sung by a choir!
New “Sky Videos”:
Two
of which are “Gene Burnett & Victor Cummings” songs:
How
to play “Save It For Later”:
Easy Way How To Play “Save
It For Later”
I came in first this time. Three more
Rogue Poetry Slam videos of me reading my lyrics:
Four new T’ai-Chi videos:
Two
new Nature videos:
Breakfast In Bed For
“Head” (our gerbil)
Pictures
I've stopped posting as many pictures on facebook, (for many
reasons), and started posting them instead on Flickr, which I like much better.
Here's a link to my "home page" at Flicker: Photostream.
I have many photo galleries there but a few of my favorites are:
Small Miracles (mostly Nature related stuff)
The Dish Whisperer (I started posting a daily picture of my dish stacking
work over a year ago. I’m approaching the 900 straight days mark. I have no
idea how long I’ll keep doing this. I’m so used to it, it hardly takes any
effort at all to continue. I made a video for my song “I'll Do The
Dishes Tonight” that
featured a slideshow of the first year. I made it through my second year
recently, and hope to create another video slideshow set to another of my
songs. Stay tuned…)
"Head" and "Boot" (devoted to our two gerbils)
Upcoming Shows:
Monday, May 5th, There will be a free “Hip-Hop Open Mike” at the Black Swan Theater at The Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Doors open at 6:30pm, show starts at 7. These are really fun and it’s always nice to play a song for a seated audience in a nice room. They’re not too strict about that “hip-hop” thing, so I’m hoping to go up early so I can play a tune and then zip over to my next gig that night…
Monday, May 5th, There will be a free “Hip-Hop Open Mike” at the Black Swan Theater at The Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Doors open at 6:30pm, show starts at 7. These are really fun and it’s always nice to play a song for a seated audience in a nice room. They’re not too strict about that “hip-hop” thing, so I’m hoping to go up early so I can play a tune and then zip over to my next gig that night…
Monday, May 5th, I'll be playing at one of my favorite
Ashland venues, Liquid Assets.
A relaxed living room vibe with great service, excellent food and wine, and a
really nice place to listen to music. I'll be playing from 8-10pm, maybe
longer...
Wednesday May 7th, I'll be hosting my regular Themed Open
Mike at The Wild Goose. Usually this happens on the
First Wednesday of each month. This month's theme is “Country (ish) Songs“ so
musicians and spoken word artists will be doing songs and poems in anything
resembling a country-ish style are good to go. Hell you could do a song or poem
that just takes place in the country. We're never too strict or narrow about
the themes for this event. The main idea is to focus our attention a little to
hopefully inspire and motivate us creatively. These are always fun. No
Cover at the friendliest bar in town. Sign-up is 7:30pm. Show starts at
8:00pm.
*A heads up for next month: Wednesday June 4th, 2014. “ Songs
With Cussin’ ”
Monday, May 19th, it’s time for the annual Bob Dylan
Birthday Bash at The Wild Goose
in Ashland. All Bob, all night long. No idea when I’ll be going up…Things
should get going around 8pm. Come early, get a good seat, have dinner and pay
tribute to the master!
Tuesday, May 20th, I'll be competing with many other poets at
the Rogue Poetry Slam which happens at Northwest
Pizza and Pasta in Ashland. Sign-up is at 7:30pm and the show
starts at 8. If you've never been to or competed in a Poetry Slam, I highly
recommend this one. Come to watch, compete, or be one of the judges. Some
people think of slams as hardcore hip-hop events or places where people are
mean and talk trash, but nothing could be further from the truth. All kinds of
poetry are welcome and people are very supportive. And it's so nice to
participate in an event that is all about the words, or in my case, lyrics. For
me it's really not about winning or losing, but just the fun of sharing my
words with people and seeing what happens.
Wednesday, May 21st , I'll be playing at The Wild
Goose. Just me solo from 8-11pm. Friendliest bar in town. Never a
cover at The Goose. I usually play here on the Third Wednesday of every month.
Friday, May 23rd, I'll be playing at Paddy
Brannan's Irish Pub with The Graceful Losers, a.k.a. my
good friend Robbie Lindauer backing me up on guitar and hopefully, Mark
Arinsberg on cajon. I’ve decided that whenever I play with other musicians in
anything like a band setting, we will be called “The Graceful Losers”. We play
from about 9pm 'til around Midnight. Stop by for a pint and some music. I've
always liked the friendly and fun vibe of this place. One of my favorite places
to play.
Saturday May 24th, I'll be at The Downtowne
Coffeehouse in Talent, playing from 10am-Noon. Great acoustics,
super friendly neighborhood scene.
For more info on these and all of my shows, and to confirm that
there have been no cancellations, click here: Calendar
Since I'm putting this newsletter out once a month, it's
possible there may be a cancellation of a given show by the time it
happens. Please double check with my web calendar if possible to be
sure the gig is still happening. I'd hate to have you come out for nothing.
Also another gig or two might be added or times or locations might change, so
do check the calendar for the latest info.
Website
I continue to offer all of my albums for downloading, free or
with a donation at my website: www.GeneBurnett.com I started doing this about 7 years ago and considered it
a 5 year creative experiment. Well the 5 years passed and I decided to start
calling it my "ongoing creative experiment" as I have no plans to
stop. Since I returned to my folk roots and stopped climbing, or trying to
climb, the industry ladder, I've been enjoying music in my life more than ever
before. And enjoyment, rather than achievement or worldly success has always
been dearest to my heart anyway. So now I focus totally on what I love most:
writing, recording, performing and sharing what I create. If other people like
it, so much the better, but getting other people to like me or what I do is no
longer my goal or focus. I'm out to please myself first. I want to do my music
exactly the way I want to do it and see who likes it that way, not figure out
what people will like and try to do it that way. I put it out there freely and
see what comes freely back. So far so good. I've never had more success and
appreciation than I have since I started doing it this. Go figure.
Thanks, as usual, for your support and well wishes even if you
don't make to any shows.
GB
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