From Gene Burnett
Last month I was asked to help out with a children’s grief
support group…4 kids whose dad committed suicide just last December…my mission
was to play the kids a song, tell them a little about my songwriting
process…get to contribute some ideas, stories, words and phrases about their
dad and then make a little song out of them…and all with a reporter from our
local paper there. And I had about 40 minutes or so to do this. No pressure.
;~) I went in with a lot of respect for this job…I had no confidence that I
could pull it off. I just brought all my tools and hoped for the best. Well, it
went better than I could have hoped. The kids were amazing and their mom was
fantastic too. I thought my biggest success was that I didn’t do too much.
Here’s a nice article about it in our local paper, The Ashland Daily Tidings.
Special Event happening all Summer: My good friend and one of
my favorite T'ai-Chi students Betty LaDuke, who recently turned 80 and is still
going strong, is having a big retrospective show at The Schneider Museum here
in Ashland on the SOU campus. It will feature work from her entire career, from
her earliest work right up to her very latest and very beautiful pieces. The
show will be up until the middle of September. Highly recommended. Please visit
www.BettyLaDuke.com for more info. And if you’re from out of town and would like a
quick sample of her work, I shot some video at the opening and synched it up
with some of my music. See the link below under the New Videos section.
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.
By the way, if you've gotten this far, I thank you. I’m
offering all this stuff in a “just in case you’re interested” spirit.
So…in case you’re interested…
Recorded Music
My new album, is called “Already There” and like all my other
albums (29 so far…), it’s available for downloading free or with a donation at
my website: www.GeneBurnett.com I like all of my albums but some people really seem to
especially like this one.
Videos In General
Overall Mission: I post a lot of videos on youtube, over
800 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
Some New Videos:
Don't Like Me Too Much (Rogue Fam
Jam) (A new song played by me and some musical friends at the Rogue Fam Jam
here in Ashland.)
Old
Guy Cell Phone Rant
(Just what it sounds like…)
Four Words (A song from 2006 or so set to some
great sky footage.)
Undefeated (Another song from the same album,
again set to some beautiful sky footage.)
Faded Star (A video of me recording this song for
my latest album. This is one of my favorite new tunes.)
Already There (A video
of me recording the title song from my new album.)
Attitude & Intention In T'ai-Chi
(Just what it sounds like…)
We're All Gonna Die/Poetry Slam Version (I’ve been
reciting some of my lyrics as poems at our local Rogue Poetry Slam and loving
it. One of the few places in my life where my stuff is actually listened to. A
real treat. This is round 1 at the June Slam.)
At The Time/Poetry Slam Version (This is round
2 at the June Slam.)
For Now/Poetry Slam Version (This is round
3 at the June Slam and includes the final scores.)
The Queen Digs My Stuff (At a British friend’s 65th
Birthday party, we had a surprise visitor, The Queen of England! And she was
gracious enough to give me an unsolicited testimonial.)
Celebrating Life~The Art of Betty LaDuke (Some footage of my good friend and
longtime T’ai-Chi student Betty LaDuke’s recent retrospective art show here in
Ashland with a couple songs in the background, one by me, one by Leonard
Cohen.)
“Number Songs” playlist below…
“Sky
Videos” playlist below…
“Rogue
Poetry Slam” playlist below…
New Youtube playlists:
Number Songs (Many videos
from my latest Themed Open Mike.)
Sky Videos
(A collection of some of my songs set to footage to the beautiful Southern
Oregon Sky.)
Rogue
Poetry Slam
(I’ve been competing in our local Rogue
Poetry Slams. A real challenge to read my lyrics as performance poetry…but I’m
doing OK so far…I’ve won one and come in second and third in two others…I’ve
got my performances from the last three slams here…)
Pictures
I've stopped posting 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. This month I passed day 500. 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. If I make it through this second year,
I may write a new “Dishes” song or use some other song I’ve already written to
make another video.)
"Head" and "Boot" (devoted to our two gerbils)
Upcoming Shows:
Monday, July 1rst, 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 play from 8-10pm, maybe longer...
Wednesday July 3rd, 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 "Love Gone Wrong",
so musicians and spoken word artists will be doing songs and poems that deal
with this ever popular subject. 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 August 7th, 2013 "Songs Of Summer".
Wednesday July 10th, my good friend T-Poe will be hosting a new
Poetry Open Mike at Paddy Brannan's Irish Pub. I think things will be getting started
around 9pm. I will be attending and tuning up my spoken word chops for the
Rogue Poetry Slam happening the following week at Northwest Pizza & Pasta.
Tuesday, July 16th, 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 which 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, July 17th, 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.
Saturday July 20th , weather permitting, from 11:30am-1:30pm,
I'll be playing at The Lithia Artisan's Market, behind the
Plaza in Ashland. Come support local music and art!
Saturday July 27th, 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 5 years ago and considered it
a 5 year creative experiment. Well the 5 years are up and I've 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
No comments:
Post a Comment