From Gene Burnett
Work continues on my second album of 2014, tentatively titled
“Crooked Love”…This one will feature several duets and trios with musicians I
jam with regularly around Ashland. I’m not used to working with other musicians
and this process happening over months instead of a few days, but I’m getting
used to it. So far so good!
We’ve been having an extra hot Summer and after a pretty dry Winter, forest fires are on everyone’s mind around here, especially when we get a chance of thunderstorms. I recently got out of the heat for a T’ai-Chi vacation/retreat weekend at the coast with some of my Seattle and Ashland friends. It was much cooler at Bandon and we all had a fantastic time. Some video links are included below.
My wife Samarra spent most of this year out of town, helping
her dad out with some important organizing and de-cluttering up in Seattle.
This is the longest we’d been apart in 20 years but she was doing good work and
it was a good time to do it. Now she’s back and we’re catching up and sorting
out the next phase of our lives together which may very well include graduate
school for her. Our relationship has been a long conversation about how we can
best be true to ourselves and still stay together. For two pretty independent
and stubborn creative people, it’s kind of a miracle we’ve made it work so well
for so many years. The conversation continues…So far so good!
Several new videos posted this month…see the links below.
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 “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
latest album:
“Three-Legged Dog”, featuring Mandy,
a wonderfully happy dog:
Three-Legged Dog
Three-Legged Dog
I came in first again. Three more
Rogue Poetry Slam videos of me reading my lyrics:
Six new Open Mike videos with impromptu band:
Six new T’ai-Chi videos:
Five new Nature videos from the
Oregon Coast:
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 just passed 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:
Saturday, August 2nd,
weather permitting, from 11am-1pm, I'll
be playing at The Lithia
Artisan's Market, behind
the Plaza in Ashland. Come by and support local music and art!
Monday, August 4th, 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...
Monday, August 4th, 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 August 6th, 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 third annual “Songs
Of Summer” so musicians and spoken word artists will be doing songs and
poems, originals or covers that are about or mention anything to do with
Summer`. 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 Septemer 3rd, 2014: “Songs
About Work and Working”
Sunday
August 10th, I’ll
be performing from about 6:45pm until 7:15pm at Grizzly Peak Winery as
part of the Jackson Fuel Committee’s 4th Annual Folk Music Festival.
There will be many musical acts donating their time for this great organization
which, among other things, provides free wood to help low income folks stay
warm in the Winter. The event runs from 4pm-8:00pm and there is a suggested
donation of $10.00. Please call 541-488-2905 for more info.
Tuesday, August 19th, 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.
Wednesday, August 20th, 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, August 23rd, I'll be at The Downtowne
Coffeehouse in Talent, playing from 10am-Noon. Great acoustics,
super friendly neighborhood scene.
Saturday, August 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 whoever else we can
scare up for the gig. 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.
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
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