From Gene Burnett
Our typical February “false spring” has been longer and springier
than usual this year with flowers blooming and butterflies doing their thing. We
have gotten some rain and snow as well which is good news and helps a bit
towards having a more smoke free summer.
Life and practice is good here in Ashland. I’m still working on
adding more strength training to my T’ai-Chi practice and learning how much is
too much so I can preserve my tendons which seem to be injury prone and have
always hampered efforts in this direction in the past. So far so good! Only
minor soreness here and there and I am definitely getting stronger.
Also working on new songs for my next album project. I’m in no
hurry…I’m thinking maybe I’ll record in April…who knows.
Samarra’s busy with grad school but we’re still finding plenty
of time to connect and share our many mutual interests. I even went trail
running with her last month. ;~)
I made four more sky videos of songs from my latest album
“Crooked Love”. Only a couple more and I’ll have videos posted for all 26
songs. I also made three more “Rogue Poetry Slam” videos. I won this time,
which is nice but the main thing was that I performed my stuff the way I wanted
to which feels better than winning. Busy month for T’ai-Chi videos…I posted 5
new ones, including a talk I gave at a local massage school grand opening,
Samarra “throwing like a girl” (which is just a joke since she has an amazing
arm), and some all-weather rainy day practice.
Links 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
“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 are three new videos from the
latest Rogue Poetry Slam:
And five 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,
March 2nd, 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 March 5th, 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 “Songs
About The Weather” so musicians and spoken word artists will be doing
songs and poems, originals or covers, that are about or mention anything to do
with the weather. 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, April 1st, 2015: “3rd
Annual Songs About Fools & Foolishness”
Tuesday, March 17th, 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.
Monday,
March 23rd, 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.
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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