On January 19th I was honored to play at the annual
Martin Luther King’s Birthday Celebration in nearby Medford where I was joined
by my good friend T-Poe Varnado for a couple of songs. It doesn’t happen very
often, but it’s always nice to play on a stage for a listening audience.
Several new videos this month…I posted four new “live” videos
from last month’s “Dreams & Wishes” Themed Open Mike…a couple of new
T’ai-Chi video and three more Rogue Poetry Slam videos. See links below in the
“New Videos” section.
My friend Doug Cochran recently helped me make a couple of
slide show type videos set to my music as well. There’s “By The Stars” which features art from my friend Erik
Anderson’s book “Vistas
of Many Worlds” and “Free-Range Chicken” which features art from my good friend and
T’ai-Chi student Betty LaDuke.
My voice is recovering well from whatever’s been messing with
it and I hope to begin recording a new album very soon. Can’t wait. These songs
have been ready for months. Samarra is heading up to Seattle for a visit in
early February, so that might be the time. Fingers crossed.
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 “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
900 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
Four “live” music videos from my
“Dreams & Wishes” Themed Open Mike:
Two new T’ai-Chi videos:
Three more Rogue Poetry Slam videos
of me reading my lyrics:
A couple of songs with T-Poe Varnado
at the Martin Luther King’s Birthday Celebration in Medford:
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 800 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, February 3rd
, 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...
Wednesday February 5th, 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 our“3rd
Annual Love Songs“ so musicians and spoken word artists will be doing
songs and poems relating to love. 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 March 5th, 2014. “Winds Of Change”
On some as yet to be determined date in
February, I'll be
playing at Paddy Brannan's Irish Pub with The
Graceful Losers, a.k.a. Robbie Lindauer backing me up on guitar and Mark
Arinsberg on cajon. I’ve decided that whenever I play with other musicians in 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. I’ll
post the correct date here as soon as I know it.
Saturday February 15th, I'll be at The Downtowne
Coffeehouse in Talent, playing from 10am-Noon. Great acoustics,
super friendly neighborhood scene.
Tuesday, February 18th, 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, February 19th , 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.
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
