From Gene Burnett
As usual I’m proud of this latest batch of songs and I hope you’ll check out a few tunes and see if you find them useful in your life. This project includes many songs that were written to meet the 2023 Southern Oregon Songwriters Association song challenges. If you check out the video descriptions for the songs on youtube, you’ll see what the challenge was. We had 10 this year and a couple of them I did twice, so I actually got a dozen songs from seeing if I could meet these challenges. I’ve already started on 2024’s.
Once I get an album up on my site, get all the videos made and uploaded and shared them all individually on facebook, I can really focus on writing again. I’m still in the process of sharing the videos on facebook as I write this…and I’m already 4 songs into next year’s album project. Looking forward to digging into this year’s SOSA challenges as well.
As I’ve reported here many times…during the pandemic I lost my taste for playing in noisy rooms and therefore play out much less often than I used to. When I see people playing music at craft fairs, bars, coffeehouses, farmers markets and places like that to largely indifferent chattering audiences, I wish them well but have zero desire to do it myself. I had as much fun as could be had doing that, but I am done.
That leaves me with precious few places to play music in public. I loved what my friends Phoenix and Lichen were doing with the Vintage Coffeehouse but they recently sold the place to move on to more profitable ventures. Phoenix has recently started hosting a music night at a nearby restaurant, also in Talent, OR. I played one show last month and while it was not a perfect concert venue it was pretty much a listening crowd, so I’ll likely try it again. But aside from an occasional show there, benefit shows, and The OSF Green Show, which wouldn’t even be a possibility until well into next year, there’s not many places I feel like playing. Every time I play out these days it’s like the Super Bowl for me. A stand-alone event that might be my last public show. So who knows, I might very well have played my last show.
I did try an experiment this month. I played a video house concert called “Songs About Death” on the Day of the Dead. I did it on facebook live and while the show went great and people seemed to like it, the sound was listenable but not great. I’m still trying to figure out how to make my guitar sound good on facebook. If I can solve this dilemma I will likely do more video house concerts.
My “Sunday Stay-At-Homebodies Virtual Open Mike” continues to be my main musical outlet. As of this writing, I’ve posted 86 of them and I’m enjoying it quite a bit. I don’t get a lot of views but I’d like to think that I’m getting as much actual listening as I used to when I was playing out more. I have a folder filled with links to my various musical friends’ websites, youtube channels and such and if people don’t post anything I go find stuff to post and listen to myself. It’s been great to give my musical friend’s music the attention it deserves. So much of the time when I was younger, I was too busy, too ambitious, and sad to say, too competitive to do that. So I’m making up for lost time and thoroughly enjoying it.
Here’s the basic info on the open mike:
I post youtube video sets on Sunday nights (usually 3 songs) at 8pm PT USA and share them to my facebook timeline as well. With these posts comes a standing invitation to singer-songwriters and spoken word artists to share a recent video of some of your own stuff in the comments below my posts, as well as a promise that if you post your stuff on the same night I post mine, I will do my best to watch and comment. My Sunday nights are reserved for listening to music, preferably of the homespun variety. So join me if you can either on youtube or preferably, facebook.
I tend to focus more on music news for this newsletter but teaching T’ai-Chi continues to be my main income and central practice of my life. I consider my music as a subset of my T’ai-Chi practice. I teach mainly private lessons and very much enjoy helping people with their balance as well as their personal and physical goals. I’ve been teaching in the park here in Ashland, all weather/all year, for something like 23 years now. Even though psychologically, I feel “retired” or “semi-retired”, I have no plans to ever stop teaching.
Winter is finally here in Southern Oregon. I’m teaching one day a week at our home studio but the other days, except my day off Saturday, we’ll be out there in Lithia Park in pretty much all weather. Layering up is the order of the season! As the bikers say: “There’s no such thing as bad weather, just wrong clothes.” It is cold out there and sometimes my fingers and toes get a little frosty, but overall I feel the health benefits of an all-weather practice outweigh the discomforts.
I posted another batch of videos to my youtube channel this month.
I posted 4 “Sunday Night Stay-At-Homebodies Virtual Open Mikes”, each with a different theme.
I also posted a Zoom open mike set with Southern Oregon Songwriters Association (SOSA) and a live one as well.
I posted a another “How To Play…” video, this time for my song “Who’s Gonna Believe?”.
And I posted a video of a video house concert I did on the “Day of the Dead” called “Songs About Death”.
For links to all of these and more, see the Videos section below…
So here we go…I’m going to start with local events 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:
Nothing scheduled for sure at this time.
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: GeneBurnett.com
Videos In General
Overall Mission: I post a lot of videos on youtube, over 2000 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.
A Note on Monetization: I won’t be able to monetize my videos on youtube anymore. Monetization seems to be an option youtube wants to reserve for bigger more ambitions channels. I’ve always had mixed feelings about having ads on my videos, so to some extent, this is actually a bit of a relief. On the other hand, it was nice to make a little money from my videos and nice to think of “views” as adding slightly to my income. But such is life. I’m happy to be rolling free and clear of ads. With the help of some savvy facebook friends, I was able to ad this paragraph to the descriptions on all of my videos at once:
I hope this video has been helpful to you or touched you in some way that leaves you a little better off for having watched it. This is not a big time channel and I have no plans for it to become one. I’m too small to have ads on my videos and I’ve always had mixed feelings about them anyway. If you would like to support and encourage what I do here, you can make a donation to me directly via paypal. No donation is too small, (or too big!) and all donations are very much appreciated. Paypal 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 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
To see a youtube playlist featuring all my Pandemic And Post Pandemic Open Mike sets and songs click here: Pandemic Open Mike Sets & Songs
And here are links to my individual album youtube playlists.
Who's A Good Dog?
By Ear~20 Songs From 2020
From The Temple To The Street
The Way Of All Things
Slow Down Fast
Thunder Moon
Love & Heartache
Better Off Broken
Crooked Love
Doubles Hitter
Already There
Why Start Now?
Where I Belong
Have A Wonderful Miserable Life
Too Busy To Worry
No Other Life
See No Evil
Brand New World
Up For Grabs
Flow More ~ Force Less
Undiscovered~Parts 1 & 2
Maybe Nothing’s Wrong~Parts 1 & 2
Without The Moon
Nothing’s Impossible Now
You Are Wrong
My Song Now
Terms Of Surrender~Parts 1 & 2
Undiscovered Country
Plan B
Where Will You Sleep Tonight?
New Videos
I’m going to do something a little different with this section of the newsletter. Rather than provide individual links to each video, I’m going list the titles to the videos followed by a link to a blog I’ve set up for that category of video. Just click on the link and you’ll go to either my Music videos blog, or my T’ai-Chi videos blog or my Nature videos blog. Once there you’ll see a wall of thumbnails. The ones in the upper left corner are the most recent posts. You’ll be able to scroll over any of these thumbnails. It will flip over and show you the title of that video. Click on it and you can watch that video without leaving the blog. This method is much less time-consuming for me and actually, I think, more convenient for you. It might sound complicated but it’s very easy. Give it a try.
I posted 8 new Music videos:
Sunday Stay-At-Homebodies Virtual Open Mike #83
Sunday Stay-At-Homebodies Virtual Open Mike #84
Sunday Stay-At-Homebodies Virtual Open Mike #85
Sunday Stay-At-Homebodies Virtual Open Mike #86
SOSA Zoom Open Mike #49
SOSA Live Open Mike #6
How To Play “Who’s Gonna Believe?”
“Songs About Death” House Concert
These and all my music videos are right here: The Unforced Videos
No T’ai-Chi videos:
But all my past T’ai-Chi Videos are right here: The Unforced Movement
No new Nature videos:
But all my past Nature Videos are right here: The Unforced Nature
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 "Albums" page at Flicker: Albums
I have many photo albums 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 3000 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.
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 over 10 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 way. Go figure.
Thanks, as usual, for your support and well wishes!
GB
