Join us at Beanabox on March 31st!!!

And so, it begins

The first song for the new CD is at about 90%. :-D I actually got an idea on the way home from some errands, got into my studio, and a few hours later have the basic arrangement done.

It wasn't the first one I planned, on, but the Lord decided that this one was going to be the first to get recorded. Vicki came home, heard the beginning of it, and loved it. So, one started, 11 or so to go...

YIKES-A-RONI!!!! :-D

The Small Graces

Bob Bennett says it best: "These are the small graces, the little moments when the miracles occur." And if anything has been the continuing theme of my life over the last year, it's the small graces.

Was feeling frustrated tonight with a decision that I made earlier - a dumb one, I might add, that cost us money that I had, but that would have been better used elsewhere. That's keeping me awake a little longer than usual tonight.

I open my email, and find an order for 4 CDs. Yesterday, it was a contact from a retirement home, requesting a program. I never know when they'll come - extra payment for a gig, a check paying for a jewelry order, selling music through iTunes and having it add up to over $40, someone ordering a CD, or ordering a new jewelry piece. Or asking me to repair a piece. A week of storytelling and magic for a church's missions conference. A Sunday School class booking me for their Christmas party. One at a time, these small graces where God reminds us that He cares, and He's the One who is faithful and true.

I am not a good businessman - not like my grandmother. For not having a high school diploma, she was a wise businesswoman, running her restaurant with both business savvy and high ethics. The ethics I got. The savvy? Not so much.So, in my weakness, the Lord remains strong, helping me learn and keeping us afloat as I figure this stuff out.

And along this path of learning, the small graces. Sunny days and reminders of spring. An email from a friend. Encouragement and connections when someone comments on the blog. A picture. A request from Ezri for a belly rub or some cuddle time. Watching an incredible sunset.

The small graces - the little moments when the miracles occur.

Help save Internet Radio

There's an Internet radio station that Vicki listens to every day - www.beethoven.com. She loves it. Well, that may all become history, thanks to those fine upstanding folks in the RIAA. They've pushed through something that threatens to put small internet broadcasters out of business, and I personally feel that it um... sucks.

Get the details here: savenetradio.org

Internet radio is one of the few places independent artists can get airplay, since mainstream radio is not indy-friendly. (some have asked why I didn't submit my CD to radio stations... simple answer: because they wouldn't play it. Not casting stones at the folks I used to work for, but without turning this into a whole essay on how radio works, bottom line is it wouldn't get played. Period.) And the RIAA is doing it's usual wonderful work to insure that any money there is to be made off of music is going to be made by them.

Anyway, please check that site out, and if you feel as passionately as I do about having choices in music listening on the internet, take the time to write your representative or sign the petition. Thanks!

It's beginning to sound a lot like Christmas...

I was a little surprized at this, since I didn't think we'd go this direction this soon, but...

My next CD is going to be a Christmas CD. :-D I'm in the process of submitting my CD to Hobby Lobby to be considered for play in their stores, and they asked, "do you have a Christmas CD?"

For some reason, that kind of clicked with Vicki and I, and we decided that's the direction of the next CD. I've already got 30 or so songs as possibilities, and I'll start playing around with them in a week or so. A few ideas for specific arrangements came this morning (in the shower - the place where a lot of thinking gets done), so already my head seems to be in gear for this. Lots of carols, a Gregorian chant piece, some older advent songs, and one of John Mulder's songs are on the list - we'll see what comes of it

We also know the title of the album (I've got several album titles that have been around ever since I started the last project), but I'm not going public with that just yet.

Any requests? If your favorite is on my list, that just might get it moved up... :-D

And, if you haven't got a copy of "Angelica's Waltz," this would be a great time to get one... so we can pay that project off before starting the new one. :-D Enough with the commercial... back to work.