From Gene Burnett
We’re in our usual back and forth between winter and spring-ish Southern Oregon weather. Makes for some interesting sky…raging water in the creeks…and plenty of days where I layer up, shed layers, put them back on and then shed them again. Good training! Practice and teaching are going great and so is my music…at least as far as my own experience goes. I’m not making much money and there is very little market for what I do…but I’ve really been enjoying singing lately…more than ever…and that’s what’s always counted most for me. I’ve even got a few songs written for my next album project. Only another dozen more and I can get started on recording it.
I posted a bunch of new videos this month: Several Music videos (all sky videos
from my 2013 album “Already There”, 1 Rogue Poetry Slam video, 2 T’ai-Chi Videos, and one Nature video.
See links below in the Videos 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:
Wednesday March 1st, 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 will be
our 4th annual “Love Gone Wrong”, so musicians and spoken word artists will be doing
songs and poems, covers or originals, that are about or mention love gong wrong
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, April 5th, 2017: “Songs About Fools & Foolishness”
*A heads up for next month: Wednesday, April 5th, 2017: “Songs About Fools & Foolishness”
Monday March 6th,
I'll be one of the featured artists at
the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Hip-Hop Open Mike at the Black Swan Theater.
I’ll go up early, sometime around 7:00pm, and then jet over to Liquid Assets
for my regular gig there.
Monday March 6th,
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 7:30-9pm
Saturday, March 18th , from 10am-Noon, my good friend Jesse
Biesanz and I are hosting a Hacky Sack session outside Caldera Tap House on
Water Street in Ashland. We’ll be under the overpass. This happens 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 Caldera rain or shine. The overpass provides shelter from the rain and once the circle gets going, you’ll be plenty warm regardless of the weather.
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 Caldera rain or shine. The overpass provides shelter from the rain and once the circle gets going, you’ll be plenty warm regardless of the weather.
Tuesday,
March 21st, I won’t
be competing with many other poets at the Rogue Poetry Slam which happens at Caldera Tap House in Ashland…but I will
be opening the show with a set from 7:30-8pm. 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.
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
All of my over 30 albums are 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
New Music videos:
Youtube playlist with all the songs
from my 2013 album “Already There” including alternate versions: AT
Youtube playlist with all the songs
from my 2012 album “Why Start Now?” including alternate versions: WSN?
Youtube playlist with all the songs
from my latest album “Love & Heartache”: L & H
2 new T’ai-Chi videos:
One New Rogue Poetry Slam Video:
One new Nature video:
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 1800 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.
"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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