April Newsletter

From Gene Burnett

A bit of a slow month for me. Only a handful of new videos. ;~)  The weather is warming up nicely and maybe some outdoor shows will start coming my way. I already have a “weather permitting” gig this month at the Lithia Artisan’s Market here in Ashland. I also finally finished making videos of all of the songs from my newest album “Crooked Love”. I’m hoping to start recording a new project soon, but I’m in no hurry and I’d like to write a few more songs before I start…

Links to new videos as well as my “Crooked Love” video playlist are below in the “New Videos” section of this newsletter.

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.

Recorded Music

My newest album is called Crooked Love and like all my other albums (31 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 “Crooked Love” youtube playlist. Includes videos for all the songs from my latest album:

Crooked Love Playlist 

My “Doubles Hitter” youtube playlist. Includes videos for all the songs from my previous album:

Doubles Hitter Playlist

Here are the last two new videos of songs from my latest album “Crooked Love”:

Praying Mantis Blues

70's Girl

Here’s a “live” version of “Undiscovered” from the lastest Hip-Hop Open Mike at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival:

Undiscovered (Hip-Hop Open Mike Version)

Here’s my song “Tango”:

Tango (Featuring A Dance With Samarra)

Here are two new videos from the latest Rogue Poetry Slam:

Shut Up Or Shut Up (Rogue Poetry Slam Version)

Everybody Wants To Be A Cowboy (Rogue Poetry Slam Version)

And two new T’ai-Chi videos:

Systemic Pressure Testing

"That's Not T'ai-Chi."

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 recently crossed the 1200 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)

"Humor" 

"Me Playing Music"

Bathroom Pond Mural

Weird Book Covers

Trippy Clouds

Yellow Fungus 




Upcoming Shows:

Wednesday April 1^st, I'll be hosting my regular Themed Open Mike at The Wild Goose Café & Bar. Usually this happens on the First Wednesday of every month. This month's theme, is “3^rd Annual Songs About Fools & Foolishness”, so musicians and spoken word artists will be doing songs and poems, originals or covers, that are about or mention anything to do with fools or things foolish. 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 Ashland. Sign-up is 7:30pm. Show starts at 8:00pm. *A heads up for next month: Wednesday, May 6^th, 2015: “Love Gone Wrong”

Monday, April 6^th, 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 7-9pm, maybe longer...

Tuesday, April 21^st, 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. $5 cover, all of which goes to the winning poets. 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.

Saturday, April 25^th, weather permitting, from 11:30am-1:30pm, I'll be playing at The Lithia Artisan's Market, behind the Plaza in Ashland. Come by and support local music and art!

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 or 8 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

www.GeneBurnett.com

Let's Take It

Nice ‘N’ Easy

A lot of the time I don’t like being online that much and I want to get the things I have to do there done as fast as possible…But what if one of the things that makes being online unpleasant for me is that I want to get whatever I’m doing done as fast as possible? What if my own impatience is contributing to the unpleasantness, which in turn contributes to my impatience? What if this is true of all kinds of things? I don’t like doing them so I want to do them fast, but this fast doing might be the very thing that contributes to me not liking them in the first place.

So…picture this…it’s not a realistic picture perhaps, but picture it anyway…It’s the 50’s. Frank Sinatra arrives at the Sands in Las Vegas to pick up Ava Gardner for a night on the town. It’s a warm desert night but not too warm. There’s a slight breeze—sport jacket weather. He strolls casually through the lobby, maybe five, ten minutes late. He finds her room and taps on the door. He hears Ava’s voice from a bit of a distance saying, “Come on in Frank…” He enters. The room is casually tidy. The lights are low. The curtains are drawn and the huge picture window looks out over the shining city. Ava pokes her head out from the bathroom and says, “I’m running a little late Darling…make yourself at home.” Frank smiles and says, “Take your time Baby.” He walks over to the window, lights a cigarette and takes in the view, casually thinking about how the night will go, where they’ll start their evening and where they’ll end it and perhaps pausing to appreciate and enjoy his good fortune. This is how I want to start responding to the little inconveniences in life…the internet slow-down…the little things that won’t open…or that jam…or that require more attention and work than I at first thought they would…Take it easy. Take your time. Relax. Good things come to those who wait. Enjoy the moment.