From Gene Burnett
Now that my double album “Crooked Love” is done and available for downloading free or with a donation at my website, I’ve been focusing on making videos of some of the songs. See links below in the videos section of this post. And here’s a link to a recent blog post with information about it: New Album I hope you’ll give it a listen. I’m very proud of this one.
We’re getting some much needed rain here in Southern Oregon this season and hopefully it will continue. A dry winter might be nicer for us humans, but it means more fire risk and smokier air next summer…so I don’t mind it at all.
I got to represent Taoism again at our local Thanksgiving Interfaith Ceremony. This year marks the 31st year that this wonderful community event has been happening. It’s always a pleasure to participate and I have a video link below. The theme was “The Benefits of Belief” so in addition to playing my song “Nothing’s Lost”, I also read my “Top 10 Benefits of Believing in Taoism”.
I got to represent Taoism again at our local Thanksgiving Interfaith Ceremony. This year marks the 31st year that this wonderful community event has been happening. It’s always a pleasure to participate and I have a video link below. The theme was “The Benefits of Belief” so in addition to playing my song “Nothing’s Lost”, I also read my “Top 10 Benefits of Believing in Taoism”.
With so much violence, inequality and suffering in the world these days, I am continually reinspired to do what feels most deeply right to me: living simply, helping people with their balance, responsiveness and mobility through T’ai-Chi, sharing my music as freely as I can, and in general continuing to develop a knack for unforced balance, kindness, music and friendship.
I wish you all a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year!
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 “Doubles Hitter” youtube playlist. Includes videos for all the songs from my last album:
Here are some new videos of songs from my latest album “Crooked Love”:
Here’s a link to my presentation at our 31st Annual Thanksgiving Interfaith Ceremony:
One new Nature video:
I didn’t compete this month, but I did open the show for the Rogue Poetry Slam with a few songs (two of which feature songs from Crooked Love and are listed above):
And two new T’ai-Chi videos:
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 1000 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, December 1st, 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 December 3rd, I'll be hosting my regular Themed Open Mike at The Wild Goose Café & Bar. Usually this happens on the First Wednesday of each month. This month's theme is our 4th annual “Holiday/Winter Songs” so musicians and spoken word artists will be doing songs and poems, originals or covers that are about or mention anything to do with winter or the seasonal holidays. 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 8:00pm. Show starts at 8:30pm. *A heads up for next month: Wednesday, January 7th, 2015: “Whiny Songs~Pissin’, Moanin’, & Complainin’”
Tuesday, December 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. $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, December 17th, I'll be playing at The Wild Goose. Just me solo from 8-11pm. Friendliest bar in Ashland. Never a cover at The Goose. I usually play here on the Third Wednesday of every month.
Saturday, December 20th, I'll be at The Downtowne Coffeehouse in Talent, playing from 10am-Noon. Great acoustics, super friendly neighborhood scene.
As of now…I don’t know if or when I’ll be playing at Paddy Brannon’s Irish Pub this month…and I’m set to play a few songs as part of John Elliot’s show at Oberon’s on the plaza in Ashland on December 12th…not sure what time that show starts or if there will be a cover…so as usual:
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
