From Gene Burnett
Well, “Love & Heartache” is finished…at least the recording part. I still need to double check the master to be sure there are no glitches and then it’s on to designing the cover, making copies and getting it up on my site. I’ve been getting out of the hard copy business for some time now so I only make 100 or so copies of my albums to sell at gigs and give away to family and friends. When they’re gone they’re gone…but I do post them for downloading free or with a donation at my site and I get them up on CD Baby and through them to iTunes and a host of other e-retailers of music. All of this should happen within a few weeks. I am proud of the album itself. I like the songs and given my shoestring budget I like the sound a lot. I’m always glad to finish my yearly recording project…not only so I can share it but because while I’m recording and working on an album, I pretty much stop working on new stuff so I can focus on the work at hand…once it’s done I can start writing again. Some musicians “get behind” each album they produce…but I like to put them behind me and move on to the next one. One of the upsides of being over the hill. ;~)
My latest album “Better Off Broken” is available for downloading free or with a donation at my website. Just click here: BOB
As I shared last month, I rarely travel…but I’m starting to
stretch myself and do more. This past month a buddy of mine and I took a little
road trip from here in Southern Oregon to Reno to see one of my favorite
comedians Bill Burr. It was a blast and Bill was fantastic.
I posted some new videos this month: 3 Rogue Poetry Slam videos, 3 T’ai-Chi
videos and 5 Music videos. See links below in the Video section of this post.
So here we go…I’m going to start with local shows in case
you’re in the Rogue Valley and then proceed with the usual information about
where to find my music, videos, and pictures, including information about new
projects.
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.
Upcoming Shows:
Monday, September 5th,
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
Wednesday September 7th, 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. In honor of Labor Day, his
month's theme will be : “Songs About Work & Working”,
so musicians and spoken word artists will be doing songs and poems, covers or
originals, that either mention or are about work in any way. 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 community events. 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, October 5th, 2016: “Country-ish Songs”
*A heads up for next month: Wednesday, October 5th, 2016: “Country-ish Songs”
Saturday, September 17th, from 10am-Noon, my good friend Jesse
Biesanz and I are hosting a Hacky Sack session at the Band Shell in Lithia Park.
This will happen on the third Saturday of every month. We both miss the fun and
camaraderie of a good friendly Hack Circle and…more importantly, we miss the
practice! It’s fun, aerobic, cooperative, demands balance, coordination, quick
thinking and accuracy…So whether you’re new to the game, or an experienced
player who wants to brush up your skills, or an expert who just wants to meet
some new players, come on by. Hacky Sack basically involves keeping a small
footbag in the air, usually leather and fairly soft, using only your feet. When
there are more than two players, it’s usually played in a circle. If the circle
gets too big, it is split into smaller circles.
The only rules of this Hack Circle:
1. You’ve got to use your feet to keep the sack in the air and off the ground. No hands! (10 voluntary pushups if you do)
2. If you miss or otherwise screw up, you can’t say, “I’m Sorry.” (10 voluntary pushups if you do)
3. No serving to yourself. (10 voluntary pushups if you do)
4. No hotdogging. Meaning this is not about how many tricks you can do before the sack hits the ground, and it’s not about working obsessively on tricks. Tricks are fine but in general, we want to keep the hack going as a friendly group and keep everyone involved.
See you at the bandshell, rain or shine. The shell provides shelter from the rain and once a circle gets going, you’ll be plenty warm.
The only rules of this Hack Circle:
1. You’ve got to use your feet to keep the sack in the air and off the ground. No hands! (10 voluntary pushups if you do)
2. If you miss or otherwise screw up, you can’t say, “I’m Sorry.” (10 voluntary pushups if you do)
3. No serving to yourself. (10 voluntary pushups if you do)
4. No hotdogging. Meaning this is not about how many tricks you can do before the sack hits the ground, and it’s not about working obsessively on tricks. Tricks are fine but in general, we want to keep the hack going as a friendly group and keep everyone involved.
See you at the bandshell, rain or shine. The shell provides shelter from the rain and once a circle gets going, you’ll be plenty warm.
Tuesday, September 20th, I'll be competing with many other poets at the Rogue Poetry Slam which happens
at Caldera Tap House 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, September 21st,
I'll be playing at The Wild Goose Café & Bar. Just me solo from
8-11pm. Friendliest bar in Ashland. Never a cover at The Goose.
Saturday, September 24th,
weather permitting, from 11:30am-1:30pm,
I'll be playing original music at The
Lithia Artisan's Market, behind
the Plaza in Ashland. Come by and support local music and art!
For more info about 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.
Recorded Music
My newest album is called “Better Off Broken” and like all my
other albums, 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
Five new Music videos:
Three new T’ai-Chi videos:
Three New Rogue Poetry Slam Videos:
All
I Can Do (Rogue Poetry Slam Version)
Crazy World (Rogue Poetry Slam Version)
As Long As We Can (Rogue Poetry Slam Version)
Crazy World (Rogue Poetry Slam Version)
As Long As We Can (Rogue Poetry Slam Version)
My youtube playlist “Better Off
Broken” featuring all the songs from my latest album: BOB
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 1400 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)
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 8 or 9 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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