Facebook

Favorite Posts ~ Part Three

Here are more of my favorite facebook posts culled from my status updates and my comments on other people’s posts:

‎"Today, a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration – that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There's no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we're the imagination of ourselves. Here's Tom with the weather."


Bill Hicks 
(May he rest in peace or at least take a less fitful nap...)

Timothy Leery once said that senility was the best drug he'd ever had!

Old guy walks up to old woman at the nursing home, and half yells half says, Bet you can't guess how old I am! The old woman looks him over, reaches into his pants, feels around in there and then says, 87! He says, Holy Cow! How'd you know that? She says, Ya told me yesterday!

And now back to your regularly scheduled programing.

As far as I'm concerned, the later fire season starts the better. Working outside, I'm getting pretty used to this weather. And it's been a great bird year so far. The sun will come when it does.

Attention Ashlanders. It is now official. I will be learning "Muskrat Love" today in order to perform it tomorrow night at my "Songs About Animals" Themed Open Mike at The Wild Goose. If that's not incentive to come out for it, I don't know what is...

Best youtube comment today: “I remember this song. I heard it as I was coming out of my dad’s testicles.”

 Posted on Barry White's "Can't Get Enough Of Your Love Baby".

Hey is that your mom in this porn video? Click on this bogus link to have your computer all fucked up!

I alway thought it would be cool to be fishmonger, but without the fish, you know? I wanted to mong something, just something less smelly, so I became a balancemonger and a songmonger. Good monging there.

I don't hit many home runs, but I hit a shit-load of doubles.

I realize that not every one in town is going to be at the Maceo Parker show tonight at the Armory. Will the four people who aren't please come to our Open Mike at Tabu? 7:30 sign-up. 8pm show. 6 songs each. ;~)

I really hope this one works out. I just don't think I could stand a tabloid headline reading: Sir Paul Dis-Shevelled. (On Paul McCartney’s engagement to Nancy Shevell.)

I think "Freddie Got Fingered" is a masterpiece. And Pauly Shore was great in "Encino Man". In other news: I also have no shame.

I think that to get people's attention these days, their silent rapt attention, a performer has to be extraordinary. Every note, every word has to be amazing, one grand slam after another, and even then it's not a lock. Me, I'm a doubles hitter. The Edgar Martinez of Folk Music...I love doubles and I hit shit-loads of them, but not many home runs, and no grand slams yet. So I'm happy if anyone listens at all.

I'd rather live in my world than live without me in yours.

I'm looking forward to people complaining about the heat instead of the rain. It will be refreshing!

I'm not building or climbing anything, and my goals are more along the lines of "meeting whatever comes next", so for me there are no "important" gigs anymore, just pleasurable or less pleasurable ones. My pleasure is based first of all on whether I liked my playing, secondly on whether anyone else did.

I'm not climbing anything, strategizing, or headed anywhere special. I practice, I make my sound, I keep showing up, and I see what happens. I've been doing it for many years and I'll keep on doing it as long as I can, regardless of whether the shows are large or small, bars or stages, packed or empty. It's not my career, it's my life. As they say in Hollywood action movies: It's what I do.

I'm wondering...how much longer will it take before spellcheck stops red underlining "facebook" and it just becomes an actual word? Come on Spell Check, get with it. There are over half a billion users here...

I've noticed that most women have a mental list called "Things I want to fix or change about my partner". It might not be obvious at first, and they might deny it, but they've got that list...

Men have a list too...It's called "Shit I'd like to get done this weekend".

Idealism, without the sadness or melancholy that acknowledges the reality that actually is, the reality that the ideals oppose or seek to transcend, is not interesting to me. In fact I usually find it boring, naive, insulting or all of the above.

In general, I don't care so much how often people hit their targets as much as which targets they are aiming for. In my teaching and music and writing, one of the things I do is to encourage people to aim for targets like balance, art, beauty, grace, and more accurate use of language.

In the long run it doesn't matter what we do with our machines or our hearts for that matter. Everything has its time and then is gone. Individual people, species, planets, suns, galaxies, all here for a while and then gone. In the short run however, which is all there is..

It’s Love by Gene Burnett (©2010)

Everything that comes to life gives up its life someday

To fold into another form and try another way

Galaxies—Wedding rings—Particles and waves

Everything that comes to life gives up its life someday

The Universe—This old guitar and everything it plays

Were always never what they were or will be anyway

What we are—Where we are—The mysteries outweigh

The Universe—This old guitar and everything it plays

Chorus

But it’s love—That pounds out all the dents

It’s love—That wears down every fence

It’s love—It just don’t make no sense

But it’s love—That makes it all make sense

I sell myself a bill of goods that I am here to stay

I tell myself the goods are good—The bads are far away

But I know there will come a time when I will have to pay

So I sell myself a bill of goods that I am here to stay

It’s like a dream where what I see is always changing shape

Anything I try to hold just evaporates

Full or empty—Every glass is heading for a break

It’s like a dream where what I see is always changing shape

Repeat Chorus

Everything that comes to life gives up its life someday

So take my hand and walk with me—Before we slip away

Galaxies—Wedding rings—Particles and waves

Everything that comes to life gives up its life someday

Repeat Chorus

In the movies, this is how they show that a parent is neglectful and uninvolved in their kid’s lives. 

Parent: Shouldn't you be in school? 

Child: It's Sunday (or Christmas, Easter, Summer, Midnight, etc..). 

It's like a songwriter rhyming "fire" with "desire". Come on screenwriters. I'm sure you can do better than this. Just think about it for 5 minutes.

Jeeez, what self-respecting spammer would....oh...nevermind.

Just a reminder that on this day, July 23rd, 2011, the vast majority of human beings on Earth did not overdose on any drugs or addictive habits, and in fact handled their shit pretty well; did not commit a violent crime, get into a fistfight or steal anything; did not blow up any buildings, torture anyone, or betray any friends, and, in fact got along pretty well.

Just made this up: We all know that when you start a new relationship immediately after a break up, you're on the "re-bound". But when you start a new relationship before the break up, you're on the "pre-bound". I've got to work that into a song somehow...

Man, there is no word I hate more in the facebook world than "new". I mean coming from facebook, not my friends...Almost every "new" thing so far has been a huge pain in the butt. I still can't stand that "shift-enter" thing for commenting and it's been months...

Note to spammers and scammers. If you send me a friend request with a turkey buzzard head instead of a porn skank for a profile picture, I will accept it automatically. It would be refreshing actually. Starting the relationship with an acceptance of death and then seeing what life was there, rather than starting with the expectation of life and ending up seeing what death was there...

Mr. McCartney seems unable to reveal anything about himself in his music more nuanced or personal than this: He thinks having love is good and losing love is sad. Would I trade 10 or 20 IQ points for his gift for melody? Hmmmmmm...probably not, but I would think about it. His melodies are awesome.

Oh Christ. I mention Michael Bolton, negatively, and facebook instantly wants me to "like" him. Fat Chance. Actually, Fat Balding Horribly Awful Sounding Chance. Actually...I don't know if he's fat...it just worked better that way... ;~0

OK, I can understand lower case posts with bad spelling if you're texting it in while driving and lighting a joint but...did you know that when there's a dotted red line under a word you just typed in, it means that it's probably misspelled? Some misspellings escape spell check of course. If you don't know the difference between there, their and they're, you're out of luck.

One thing's for sure, I'm definitely not "new-fashioned".

Personally, I like the tension between opposing perspectives. I'm one of those "questions are better than answers" guys. Taoism, yin/yang, my opinions are a work in progress, we can't ever really know "The Truth"…that sort of thing.

Having an "I'm right. You're evil." point of view, seems like a recipe for only temporary security. Pretty soon any disagreement "out there" seems to re-enforce one's own doubts and so "they" must be stopped or converted to quell those doubts, and that battle never ends. The most politically committed people I know, the people who are very sure that they are right and other side is more or less "evil", are some of the most agitated, ill-at-ease, perpetually outraged, restless and unhappy people I know. I'd rather accept the un-going ambiguous nature of "truth", the relative helplessness of one person to change large currents of energy, and the ultimate insecurity of any fixed point of view, than just close the door on "them".

The upside for me of not having much money is that I don't have to learn about, care about, or get involved with "investing". I'm much more interested in and drawn to creating value and trading it for money (or other value) from my community. I like working and don't plan on stopping.

There are some things that only failure can teach.

When Chuck Norris tweaks his dick the entire internet crashes.

When it comes to flying and moving objects with the mind, it seems that the farther the person who can do this is from me, the higher they can fly and the heavier the objects they can move!

When it comes to results, positive or negative, I find it's not so much what I do that counts, it's what I keep doing.

“You are free to do as we tell you. You are free to do as we tell you. You are free to do as we tell you. You are free to do as we tell you. You are free to do as we tell you. You are free to do as we tell you. You are free to do as we tell you. You are free to do as we tell you...”

Bill Hicks (RIP)

You can't shut Nature out. It's in you, on you, is you. ;~)

You care if you care, you don't if you don't. If you care, you know it, if you don't care, you know it. Forced caring isn't caring. What about, "Why should I go on living?" I like that question better.

You may not be looking at the world through rose colored glasses, but you are looking at the world through "you" colored glasses, at least I think you are. I don't trust or believe anyone who thinks their glasses are "clear", or their guru's glasses are "clear". We have our guesses, but I don't think anyone knows the "ultimate nature" of anything.

So, How'd It Go?

How Was The "America Show"?

Just about everyone I know who wasn't there has asked me this question.

But first, a little background. The Britt Festival is our premiere music venue here in the Rogue Valley. Major national touring acts, beautiful outdoor setting, great sound system. On June 24th, 2011, I got to open for America on the Britt Pavilion Main Stage.

OK, so how did it go?

The answer is: It went really, really well. As well as I could have hoped for. I chose a set list that leaned towards my more clever and sweet side as America's fans are on the older side themselves these days, and they were always such a sweet band anyway. They also bring so much musicality that I thought something a bit more lyrically cerebral would contrast nicely and be a good set-up for the band.

I was nervous the night before and I'd had a couple of cokes at a friend's gig so I was kinda wired and couldn't sleep. So I just ran through my whole set in my mind, making sure the lyrics were all there and more or less what I wanted to say between songs...

Then the day came. I taught a partner work T'ai-Chi class which was nice. The physicality of it burned off a bit of the adrenaline. It was nice to get on the grounds 3 hours early and feel into the space...I hung out a bit with America's guitar tech and the sound people and then did my sound check. I plugged in and after playing about 10 seconds the sound guy on stage said, "How's that?". I said, "Dude, that's the best monitor mix I've ever had in my life!"

Then I hung out on the grounds, caught some of my friend Jeff Kloetzel's set on the smaller lead-in stage, checked in with Samarra, my friends and videographer, and just bopped around.

By then I was excited but really ready to go. I wasn't tight nervous or anything by then, just READY. I played my big Martin (1977 D-35S) which I just brought out of retirement recently. I had my 000-15 on stage in case I broke a string, but I didn't need it. And then I just went out and did it. Played a 9 song set with no glitches to a crowd of about 1500 people! To be honest, I get to play to concert type audiences, maybe a total of about an hour a year. Usually, I consider it kind of amazing if even a handful of people are listening at one time. So, this was a huge jump for me.

I had a good feeling about doing this show. I thought I could do it, but really, I wasn't sure, since I so rarely get to play for seated, listening, or even potentially listening, people. I've done my share of it over many, many years, but it was never even close to a regular thing in my life.

Well, now I know I can do it, which feels nice, even if I never get another chance like this. And due to my not being officially in the business, not being interested in traveling or the entertainment "industry", being 54, not being very current or fresh musically, there is a distinct possibility that this was, and will be, the best and biggest show of my life. I had a great time, the Britt sound system was awesome, everyone treated me really nicely and the crowd seemed to like what I did.

My set list, including links to mp3's of the songs:

Nothing's Impossible Now

Brand New World

Free Range Chicken

Undiscovered

I'm So Married

Tourist Town

Dancing

For Now

Make Something Beautiful (new one, sorry no link yet)

At the break before America went up, there was a line of people waiting for me to sign CD's! Very fun. Never done that before. I brought 100 copies of "Clever~The Best Of Gene Burnett Volume One" and sold 66! Crazy! I did price them to move at $5, but still, 66 for me is a huge sale. It was a blast.

After my set, Michael "Woodsy" Woods, their long time electric guitarist, came up and told me he really liked my set and invited me to come up and "Na, Na, Na" with the band on their final encore "Horse With No Name"! So I got to do that too. Very cool. I will have that song in my head for the rest of my life.

Here's my facebook post about the night:

"Thanks everyone! I had a great time and did everything I hoped to do.

My priorities were 1. Play well (check) 2. Enjoy myself (check) 3. Be liked (check) and 4. Sell some CD's (check~66!) Thanks to everyone at Britt for taking a chance on me, to "America" for inviting me on stage to "Na, Na, Na" with them on "Horse With No Name" (!) and for being such a class act in general. A great night all around. I signed a whole bunch of CD's. Never done that before. I don't know how many people were there but it had to be between 1000-2000 people. Biggest crowd I've ever played for, by far. Now to get some rest. I'm back at The Downtowne Coffeehouse in Talent tomorrow, I mean today, Saturday morning, 10-Noon. ;~)"

And then the next day, I went to my regular coffeehouse gig and played my usual semi-background set. There were a few people who came because they'd seen me at Britt which was nice. I sold more CD's than usual and did better in tips so that was nice too. But I'm so over myself. I had a nice time playing the coffeehouse just like I always do. The Britt Show was just a really nice gig and it was great to play for a listening audience. But I felt not even a twinge of superiority towards any other local musicians, even ones I don't like. No status boost or whatever. It was just a very nice gig. I know that I can do this sort of thing and so do a lot of other people around here now. That's all it was. Now it's back to my regular life.

We did get to video the set and we got a CD from the sound board. I hope to get then synched up and posted on youtube before too long....Meanwhile, here's a picture of me and America just before or after the final bow. It still blows my mind. If I wasn't there, I'd swear it was CGI'd!

Nothing's impossible now...

God Bless...

America!

I just got some great news! I'm going to be opening for "America" on the Main Stage at the Britt Festival! I wore out their first album back in high school! This is their 40th anniversary tour and should be a blast. The Britt Festival is the premiere music festival here in Southwest Oregon. It's in nearby Jacksonville. (I live in Ashland.) Beautiful outdoor setting, great sound system, great people to work with. I'm really excited about this show.

I'm also going to be opening for Bill Maher on August 26th, 2011, but not on the Main Stage. For that show I'll be on the new Table Rock City Stage which is a new stage they just built this year to showcase local talent before the Main Stage action starts.

The "America" show is Friday, August 24th, 2011. Get tickets here if you're within range of this venue: http://www.brittfest.org/performances My friend Jeff Kloetzel is playing that night on the Table Rock Stage, so come early if you can and catch his set.

Thanks for your support!

GB

New Video

Your Face

I wanted to let you know about the new video that I just put together with the help of my friend and videographer Doug Cochran. It was quite an undertaking and I'm very proud of it. It started innocently enough while I was watching a free animation show at Southern Oregon University that my friend Steven Meyerson was putting on. Suddenly, out of the blue, it occurred to me that my song "Your Face" would make a great video if it was accompanied by appropriate footage of dogs from youtube that matched the lyrics.

I was so inspired to do this that I immediately began the somewhat difficult process of finding the videos, figuring out which ones would work in which places, and then getting permission from each youtube member to use a portion of their work in mine. This took a little while as some of the youtube members had videos with tons of hits and evidently stopped paying attention to their youtube message boxes since they got many, many messages...one member informed me that it would cost me $1200 to use a clip from their video...one member worked in finance and didn't like my "Jump You Fuckers" song and so refused permission..and some just ignored my requests. But I found replacements for the ones I couldn't get permission to use and eventually lined everything up so Doug and I could assemble and edit it on one evenings work.

Have I mentioned that I am one scarily organized dude?

I tried to embed the video here but for some reason when I did the video ended up cropped off so about a third of it was not visible. So I'm just including the links here. I hope you like it and if you do, I hope you'll forward the link to any like minded people who you think will like it too.

The song is from my album "Without The Moon" and is, like all of my music, available for downloading free or with a donation at my site: www.GeneBurnett.com It's also available a little easier and faster at CD Baby and iTunes, but it'll cost you a buck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf7kJsysh0s&feature=channel_video_title

Take care, be well and thanks for your support.

GB

My Recording Process

Step By Step...

For my latest album "Too Busy To Worry", I thought I would break down the whole process of recording and putting together one of my albums into steps and then I decided to add commentaries as I went, describing how each step actually played out as I completed the album. So here it is...

1. Write The Songs. The first step for me is to write the songs. I usually have up to 20 or so lyric ideas in progress at any given moment. I write at least a little almost every day. Sometimes I just add a word or two, maybe a line, sometimes several. Each idea is a stack of pieces of scrap paper clipped together. When one of these stacks of lyrics is getting close to where I think it is almost "done", I start working with the guitar to find the best chords and rhythm to accompany it. Sometimes I write lyrics and music together, but usually I write most of the lyrics first. I might have a basic musical idea or rhythm while I'm writing the lyrics, but not always. Once it is starting to really come together, I write out the lyrics in a notebook. When it's done, I type the lyrics into my computer and print a hard copy that goes into another notebook. At this point I start to perform the song in public which usually changes or tweaks it a bit. When I have about 15 or so songs that are ready, I stop actively focusing on writing and begin to focus on recording what I've got so far.

For this latest project, "Too Busy To Worry", I felt I had enough songs ready around mid April, 2011. I've been having a major wave of songwriting inspiration since about 2006 or so. It seemed to peak in 2009 when I recorded 6 CD's worth of music. I did 4 in 2008 and 3 in 2010, and so far this is the first project of 2011. So I'm slowing down a bit...which is fine by me. I probably forget over half of my songs as I go, so I'm very grateful for recording technology. If the well goes dry, I can always re-learn the one's that got away. This project, like the last two, felt like a particularly good and strong collection of tunes. It was nice to start this blog post and see the project as a connected flow before me and to add these comments as I went to color in some of the details.

2. List The Songs In Album Order.The next step for me is to write a list of the songs in the order they will appear on the album in my notebook. This helps me see the album as a total project. I write the songs in order in a column on the left side of a page and then I have columns on the right that say: Recorded, Mixed, and Mastered. As I complete each stage in the studio, I check off these columns for each song.

I did this on Monday night, April 18th. I consider my albums to be more like song catalogs than old style "albums" that I expect someone to listen to straight through. Not only are singles replacing the album concept, but mine are usually 15 or 16 songs, in this case 16, and very few people will sit and listen to a 70+ minute album. Nevertheless, just in case, I start with what I think are the 4 or 5 strongest tunes and then order the rest in a way that I think would be the best order to listen to them all in, if one were so inclined.

3. Check And Print The Lyrics. The next step for me is to review the lyrics on my computer to see if I've either made any mistakes typing them in, or if any of the lyrics have changed since I first entered them. Once they're all set, I print new copies of any that have changed for my Master Lyrics Notebook. I also print another hard copy of each lyric to bring to the studio. My Master Lyrics Notebook is huge, so bringing just a folder of the lyrics for the project at hand is much easier to deal with. I never perform with lyric sheets but in the studio, I use them to save money by making sure I don't forget any words and have to start over.

I did this on April 19, 2011 in the late afternoon.

4. Create Word doc's and .pdf's. At this point, I usually create a word doc and a .pdf of the lyrics for the project. This is for my web man when the time comes to post the lyrics on my site. Since I'm already involved with lyrics, checking and printing, it's convenient to do the doc's and .pdf's at this point. On my site there will be a readable, printable .pdf, but not a downloadable one. I let people know that if they want their own copy of the lyrics, I will email them a word doc. or .pdf of their own. This is why I make and store a word doc. as well as a pdf.

I did this on April 19, 2011 in the early evening.

5. Create Email Drafts For Web And Design Work. At this point, I create an email draft that contains a list of the song titles, numbered and in order. One copy of this list will go to my friend Ben Grunde who helps me with graphics and printing when the time comes to design the album inserts. Ben's copy will also include album credits, the title, etc...all the info we'll be wanting to include in the design. I don't send it to him yet however, because I need to record, mix and master the songs before I can get the track length info that I need to include in the printing. I also start a draft that will eventually go to my web man, Datta Groover. This will also include a list of the song titles, but will also include a brief description of the album to include with the web posting of the album on my site and a pdf. of the lyrics to post there as well.

I did this on April 19, 2011 in the early evening.

6. Find Or Take Pictures For The Album Cover. I think about the title or album concept and look at my existing pictures to see if any of them will work. If not I go out and take the picture I want to be the cover. In any case, I'll usually have 2-4 shots ready for the email I'll eventually send to Ben Grunde who helps me with graphics and printing. At this point the pictures go into the email draft that I created in step 5.

In this case I had it narrowed down to one picture on April 19th, which I attached to the email draft that I sent to Ben eventually. Then I changed my mind in the first week of May and thought another picture might be better. So I attached both to the email draft, thinking I'd make the final choice later.

7. Practice And Perform The Songs. Now I practice and perform the songs as much as I can to work out any bugs and get used to each song's tempo and feel. I steer all my live sets toward these new songs and try to make sure I play most of them at every show. I pay particular attention to the songs that are the newest. The older ones I've already performed several times at this point, but the newer ones, I want to be sure are well broken in before I record them. I do this until I'm satisfied that the songs are all in good shape and ready to record.

I started doing this in earnest the night of April 19, at an Open Mike that I co-host here in Ashland. As of the 22nd, things were going great. I worked out the bugs in some of the newer tunes and the older ones were sounding good. Suddenly, on the evening of the 22nd, a brand new song appeared and almost wrote itself. I wasn't planning on writing at all until this project was finished but sometimes things like this just happen. My plan is to include it on this album and see if it fits. I was planning on re-recording an older song called, "No Such Thing" that I've modified a bit since my original recording of it back in 2006. If the new one doesn't fit, I may just do NST on my next album. Just to be optimistic, I entered the new song lyrics into my computer and updated my album song list, the word doc and pdf and email drafts that I created above. As of the 23rd, the songs were feeling pretty good. I had a bit of a cold, perhaps made worse by hay fever, so the task was to sense the best time voice-wise to book studio time and begin recording...

8. Book Studio Time And Record The Songs. When the songs are ready, I book studio time with my friend Tom Freeman at Freeman Sound Studios and I record the songs. In the first session, I often manage to get at least one take of all the songs. I'll leave the studio with a rough mix CD of the songs to listen to. If I feel that any of them is not as good as I'd like, I book another session and re-record them. All my recordings are just me and guitar. I love this phase of the process. I think one of the reasons I love recording so much is that it is the one time I get to sing in a silent room and know I'm being heard, not just by Tom, but by the microphone itself.

I felt pretty good about the songs and the quality of my voice to record them around the first week of May. So I called Tom Freeman and booked the first recording session for Wednesday May 18th and a second one on Thursday May 19th. This gave me some more time to work out any additional bugs in the songs. My hope was to record at least one take of all 17 songs at the first session and then either re-record any songs I didn't like the following night or if all went well, start mixing (Step 9). I did end up getting takes of all 17 songs on the evening of the 18th...I listened to them on Thursday the 19th and while they weren't perfect, they were close enough that I could live with all of them. A small side step in the process is that when I actually record the songs, I usually notice small errors in the lyric sheets that got past me in previous checks, which I indeed did this time as well. So I went back to my master lyric files, as well as to the word doc's and pdf's that I made earlier and made the appropriate corrections.

9. Mix The Songs. When I'm satisfied with the recordings, the next step is to mix them. This is where Tom and I set the balance between the vocals and guitar, as well as add the right amount of effects like reverb and EQ to the overall sound.

I went back into the studio with Tom on Thursday night, May 19th to start in on the mixing. I was thinking and hoping we might be able to mix all the tunes in one night and we did it! Aside from the usual mixing we had to "fix" a few songs. On one tune, I sang the lyric incorrectly. It was just one word and we had minimal bleed through from the guitar tracks so I was able to sing just that one line and Tom punched it into the master. On a couple of songs, we had one chorus that was weak, so we substituted a copied piece from a chorus that was fine and pasted it right in. The digital recording world is really amazing that way. I don't know anything about it really. This is why I hire Tom to do this stuff. He's very good at it and it saves me money, aggravation, and time to have him at the helm of the tech end of this process.

10. Master The Songs. This is where we set up the final Master copy of the album that I'll leave the studio with. We set the order of the songs, how much space there will be between the songs, add more compression if needed and make sure the overall volume is consistent.

I went back again to Tom's on Friday, May 20th to do the mastering and this went smoothly with no hassles whatsoever. Three days from beginning recording to having master CD's in my hand. This was a personal record! The entire cost of recording, mixing and mastering was $349.

11. Check The Master. I leave the studio with a master CD copy of the album but I need to check it to make sure there are no digital glitches and that everything is OK. I usually make a digital copy of the master and check that. I lay down with headphones on and give the whole album a careful listen. If all is well, I store the master and will use the copy to make further copies from.

I did this on Saturday, May 21rst and everything sounded great! Once I've checked the CD Master, I know the song lengths so I added those to the email that I sent to Ben Grunde who helps me with the design work.

12. Burn The First Batch Of Copies. At this point, I will usually burn the first batch of copies, usually about 30. I don't have any graphics yet, so I will just store this first batch of 30 on a spool, ready for assembly when the time comes.

This, I also did on Saturday, May 21rst. Since it requires next to no attention, I find it nice to burn discs while doing other tasks, like getting the email off to Ben with all the info that will need to go on the album graphics. It's also nice to have the first batch of discs all burned and ready to go when I get the paper inserts printed.

13. Design the Album Graphics. Now I get together with my friend Ben Grunde and we design the album graphics. I usually have a basic idea and a photo or two to consider for the cover. I keep my album design very simple so this doesn't take too long, usually a couple of hours. We do a design for the jewel case insert, for the tray card, and for a label that goes on the CD itself.

This too, I did on Saturday, May 21rst...it went fairly smoothly and took a couple of hours.

14. Print The Album Inserts And Labels. At this point Ben will print enough inserts for the first batch of 30 or so albums. He's a busy man, so it might take a week or so until I have the copies in hand.

After doing the design work, I told Ben I needed 30 copies as soon as he could get around to printing them. I never know how long this will take so I always leave myself some tasks to do at this time. No sense killing myself to do them earlier if I'm going to have this little lull anyway. So, with printing pending, I proceeded to Step 15.

15. Compose The Email Album Announcement. While I'm waiting for the printing to be done, I then compose an email announcement that I'll send out to all of my contacts when the album is done and posted on my web site. I announce the album as well as include a lyric sample and comment about each song.

I composed the email on Tuesday, May 24th and tweaked it a bit on Wednesday, the 25th. I considered it done at that point, but planned to give it one more look when the time came to send it out...On Wednesday, I also filled out the CD Baby application on line where I saved it, planning to pay for it when I had the actual CD in hand ready to mail it to them. (More about CD Baby below in Step 17.) At that point, I just had to wait for the printing.

16. Assemble The First Batch Of Albums. Once I have the printing in hand, it's a pretty easy job to assemble the first batch of albums. I've already burned the CD's themselves with my CD duplicator. All I have to do is put the inserts into the jewel cases, the labels on the CD's, the CD's in the jewel cases, the completed albums into sealable plastic CD envelopes and add a price sticker.

Ben brought over the printing on Friday, May 27th, and I assembled 20 of the 30 I had already burned. I also paid $59 for listing the album on CD Baby and packed up a copy of the CD to mail to them. I also filled out an application to copyright the album as a "Sound Recording" with the Copyright Office of The Library Of Congress and packed up two copies, the application and a check for $65 to send to them. I also packed up a few copies to send to my Mom and a few close friends that I always send hard copies to. Eventually, all the songs will be available for downloading free on my site, but not at this point.

17. Send Copies To My Web Man and CD Baby. The first copies go to my web man, Datta Groover so he can post them on my site. I also send a copy out to CD Baby, a great company in Portland that for a minimal fee, sets up a page to sell the album. I don't bother with the option to have them sell the actual hard copy CD's. I only have them set it up for digital distribution. This means that not only will they sell digital downloads of the songs on their site, but also it will go out on iTunes and many other digital e-retailers of music. They collect the money, take their cut, and send me checks.

Our Post Office is closed on Saturdays and since Monday was Memorial Day, I had to wait until Tuesday to mail copies to CD Baby, the government and friends. As it happened my web man, Datta Groover who lives in Fort Collins, CO was visiting and doing some work here in Oregon. He arrived in Ashland on Wednesday, June 1rst and I met up with him that evening and gave him his copy in person rather than ship it. I also sent him the email I had drafted earlier with the information I wanted listed on my site along with the album. Now, I had to wait until he got the songs up on the site before I could move to Step 18. In the meantime I got emails from CD Baby asking me to OK the album for digital distribution as well as the layout of the page they set up for it on their site. Everything looked fine so I did that on Saturday, June 4th.

18. Meta-Tag The Songs. Once Datta lets me know the songs are posted on my site, I then "meta-tag" them. This means I attach a jpg. of the album cover as well as album info like artist, song title, etc.. to each mp3 of each song on the album. This enables people who download songs from my site to more easily integrate the songs into their music collections.

On Wednesday, June 8th, Datta notified me that the album was up on www.GeneBurnett.com so I could meta-tag the songs. This involved downloading the mp3's to my computer, adding the album graphics and information and then uploading them back to the site. I did this on Thursday, June 9th, but when I went to check the songs before uploading them back to the site, I found that many of them had digital glitches in them and would have to be re-done. This kind of thing happens all the time in the digital world and considering how smoothly everything else had gone on this project, it didn't even phase me. I sent Datta an email letting him know about the glitches and waited for his reply, hopefully telling me that he had re-loaded the songs and they were good to go. I got an email on Friday, June 10th, letting me know that the songs were up and ready to be tagged with no glitches this time. The process took about an hour then it was ready to go. I sent Datta an email letting him know the songs were tagged and up on the site and he sent me one back right away letting me know that he'd pulled the trigger and the album was "live" on line. The only thing left to do at that point was to tell the world about "Too Busy To Worry".

19. Send Out The Album Announcements. When all the songs are posted on my site and meta-tagged, I then send out the announcement to all my email contacts that the album is done and posted and available for downloading free or with a donation at my site, www.GeneBurnett.com I also post a similar announcement on facebook and on my blog, The Unforced Life.

Also on Friday, June 10th, I sent out the email announcement I'd previously composed (Step 15). I decided it would be a good idea to link each song title in the email to that particular song on my site, so I added those links before I sent it out. I also posted the same announcement as a "note" on facebook and as a blog post on The Unforced Life. I also posted this step by step process description on The Unforced Life as a separate entry and on facebook as a separate note.

20. Bring The Album To My Shows. At this point the album is officially complete and I bring it to my shows along with my others and make it available for sale.

I actually had been bringing copies of "Too Busy To Worry" to a few shows already, but I didn't make a big deal out of it. Once it was on line and the announcements sent out, then I was a bit more aggressive in promoting it at my shows.

21. Start Writing Again! Throughout the above process, I might do a little bit of writing here and there, but I deliberately don't focus on new ideas until the album is done. But now, with the album behind me, I feel free to focus again on developing and completing songs.

To listen to the finished product, please visit: www.GeneBurnett.com