From Gene Burnett
My latest album, ”More Sandcastles”, as well as my other 40 albums, is available for listening or downloading free or with a donation here: www.GeneBurnett.com All of my albums are also available at many e-retailers of music as well as Spotify. I also made videos for all of the songs. Here’s a link to a youtube playlist with all of them: More Sandcastles Youtube Playlist
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.
I have officially put a cork in the muse bottle at 23 songs, and unless I get one hell of a great idea, I’m putting writing on hold while I focus on getting these tunes ready to record. Rehearsals have begun. I’ve been through all 23 once with only a little lyric tweaking necessary. Musically, they still need more repetition and polishing but I’m optimistic that I can be in the studio soon to begin recording.
My songwriting process:
Any time I get an idea for a song, I write it down or type it directly into my computer. I have many word documents with many ideas in various stages of completion organized into a few general category folders based on how close they are to completion. I check in on these ideas more or less every day and see if anything grabs me. I’m happy to add a word or a line or two…anything that moves an idea forward is OK with me. They all start in the “New” folder and gradually work their way towards “Almost Done” folder.
I meet with a few other Southern Oregon Songwriters Association (SOSA) members once a month on Zoom. My intent each month is to have 1-3 songs ready to share at that meeting. I record my “set”, share it on youtube and then, since I don’t play out much anymore, I pretty much forget those songs as I move on the next one. Some of these songs will be in response to songwriting challenges or prompts that we come up with at the end of each year.
When it’s time to record, usually when I have 20-25 songs, I go back to those SOSA meeting videos and relearn the songs, see if anything needs tweaking, and get them into shape for recording. This is the stage I’m in right now. I start with the first one I wrote and go through all of them one at a time. And then again and again until I’m happy with them. So as I said above, I’ve been through them all once and am now into my second go ‘round. So far so good! It’s been a pleasure to reacquaint myself with these tunes, many of which I had forgotten the titles of, let alone the lyrics and how the melodies went. That’s where the computer (lyrics) and those videos (musical arrangements) comes in.
Once the songs are ready, I will schedule time my friend Tom’s recording studio and we’ll record the songs. My recordings are simple, mostly voice and guitar, with occasional second guitars or harmonies.
Once the tracks are recorded, mixed and mastered, I get with my friend Ben and we design the album cover. All my albums have been digital only for a while now so no hard copy printing needed. The “cover” is really just the thumbnail that will accompany the tracks online.
At that point I get the album up on my site where it will be available for downloading free or with a donation. I also list the album with CD Baby who will distribute it to the usual e-retailers of music, including Apple Music, Spotify, etc.
I have a very short list of friends who like actual CDs so I’ll burn hard copies of the album for them and mail them out.
I then make youtube videos of all the songs and put them in an album playlist in the order they appear on the album. Usually, just clouds or nature footage to accompany the song, Nothin’ fancy.
I share the videos on facebook…usually one or two a day until I’m done.
At that point, the songs have helped me sort out my life and keep my creative outlook alive. I’ve recorded and shared them in case anyone else might also find them useful. And then, finally, I can get back to writing again. ;~)
In other news from my world…I have taken more control of my web site and now have a less cluttered version of it online. Since the inception of my site, it’s been run by my good friend Datta Groover. He was nice enough to continuing doing it even when he left Ashland and the web design field to focus on writing and leading workshops. Now, however, the site is in the hands of my trusted student and friend Noel Ruiz. In the process we’ve cleaned things up a bit. It’s still the antique “cool for the turn of the last century” site that you know and love, but now with a slightly cleaner look. It is really great to take the burden off of my buddy Datta and to have someone local managing things. I’m sure there’ll be a few glitches to iron out in the transfer process but right now it’s up and running and ready for a visit from you! www.GeneBurnett.com
My “Sunday Stay-At-Homebodies Virtual Open Mike” continues to be my main musical outlet. As of this writing, I’ve posted 121 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 24 years now. Even though psychologically, I feel “retired” or “semi-retired”, I have no plans to ever stop teaching. I have however moved to teaching two days a week here in our home studio and it’s nice to have that option anytime it’s too smokey or hot, which it’s been lately!
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.
And I posted 1 SOSA Zoom Open Mike set.
I posted a video of my entire set from the OSF Green Show.
I posted a “How To Play Crooked Love” video.
And I posted one T’ai-Chi video.
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.
Recorded Music
All of my over 40 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 7 new Music videos:
Sunday Stay-At-Homebodies Virtual Open Mike #118
Sunday Stay-At-Homebodies Virtual Open Mike #119
Sunday Stay-At-Homebodies Virtual Open Mike #120
Sunday Stay-At-Homebodies Virtual Open Mike #121
SOSA Zoom Open Mike #56
Entire Set ~ OSF Green Show
How To Play “Crooked Love”
These and all my music videos are right here: The Unforced Videos
1 T’ai-Chi video:
67th Birthday Bar Hang
This and 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 4000 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
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