Were gonna zoom, zoom,,zooma, zoom!

Well that was new and different, and actually a lot of fun.

I was asked to take part in a video conference thru ZOOM the online meeting app.  Bill Batson was up to his usual antics and hosting a Sketch Flash Mob.  30 plus participants signed in to the session and after getting their prompt for what to draw, set to sketching for about an hour.  During that time Ian Moore and I each played a short set to give em something to listen to while they draw.

I was really worried about the sound quality, but it turned out pretty good I think.  It was a lot of fun, very comfortable and laid back, even though that is probably the largest single audience I've played for.  I could actually see most of their faces, though most were head down in their drawings.
In truth it was a step out to something I never had imagined I do or even like to do.

It has been a while, months, about half a year, since I last performed.  I felt the time away from it, the being out of practice.  It is like anything physical that one has to stay in practice for.  All things considered, it went well enough.  Before I had stopped playing out, about half a year ago, I was just getting to the place where I could over come the nerves that clench up my muscles and elevate my heart beat.  Today I had to just play thru it because my heart wanted me to play everything double time, and it was as if I had no power of breath.

I was very glad to play my songs for some new people.  I guess this is as social as we can get right now, and it will have to do.  It didn't feel like settling really, it was good.  Thanks to Bill, and to ROCA.

Nyack Flash Sketch Mob

Studio, cold, but open

It is the age of isolation, kind of.  With the virus, and the fear of spreading it keeping us all away from each other this seems a great time for artists to focus.  Be inspired and create.  I think that in actuality many people are suffering from the stress and confusion of the situation.  This is were the therapy of creative effort can really help.
I have opened the studio back up for the season.  It's still chilly in the morning, so not much in the way of recording.  I'd rather just sit out on the deck, in the warm sun and sing and play for the birds and chipmunks in the morning, and come into the studio after it has warmed up.  I can't seemed to be bothered to light the wood stove and heat the place up that way.
Letting go of the weekly performing that I did for over 2 years has been an adjustment, but not such a bad thing.  In this sense, the virus and isolation has actually removed a bit of stress for me.  I was always concerned about trying to be in my best form for the people who would hear me play.  Now, I don't worry what the birds think, they are pretty kind and forgiving.
So, it's just me and the music.  I have not got any closer to recording the new albums. Maybe this summer.
In the mean time crude videos of me doing some of the songs are going up on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp3ikM13RTRJs0-KJRINriw?view_as=subscriber
and I am putting the Summer Sessions 2018 album up on Soundcloud.com , one track at a time.
https://soundcloud.com/ramaldonadobsms-4986569/tracks

Let go and just enjoy the dream

It's funny how things work out, or don't, in life.  I believe it is a good idea that one's reach should exceed ones grasp with regards to dreams and goals.  I also think it is good to recognize that getting something other than exactly what you wished for means that life is going to be more interesting and mysterious.

When I was young I would often spend my recess in the music room experimenting on the piano.  How my music teacher endured it I don't know, selective deafness maybe, but not only would I fantasize about the music I was playing but about one day being a composer and scoring a film.  I never showed the focus to achieve any thing like that, but now, in a round about, thru the side door, kind of way, my music is being used in a film piece.

So, I take away the same thing that I have been led to believe many times before, dream, dream big, and enjoy the dream, then let go and just live.

I was very happy to be able to contribute on this project, and feel very honored to have been asked to be a part of it.

Bill Batson's short film project, "One Good Story"

Just listen

Just listen to what Drew Holcomb says about this music making thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pocyxlNOxdw

Snow, Cold, and, Gray, S.C.a.G.

IT seems almost too cold for it to be snowing here, but, it is snowing.  As the wood stove struggles to keep the house warm, the Boat Shop Music Studio is more just a cold boat shop than music studio.  No work going on out there, though I'd love to be able to be working there now.
I have been thinking about doing a real conversion of the space into to a dedicated studio, and quit with this hedging.  I'd insulate the walls then finish them inside and loose one of the big garage doors, changing into a solid wall, and making the other into glass opening doors, both for light and for getting larger things in and out.
The winter is such a good time for daydreaming and planning such things.

I am still listening to Joe Pugs podcast, The Working Songwriter
 https://soundcloud.com/twspodcast
and still get very moved with each podcast I listen to as I hear the ideas and experiences of these songwriter/performers that have "made it" and understand completely what they are talking about, and have even had similar experiences myself, of course, on my small scale.
I highly recommend this podcast to any writers or artist especially those who are younger or new to there chosen form of expression.

Available at Soundcloud.com

I've been listening to the demo tracks I have of "Garden of Love", the album.  I've been trying to determine the song order for the album.  I have even been trying to confirm that these songs should all be on this album.  I haven't felt up to sitting down to do more recording and trying to get tracks that seem good enough for release.  The recording process can seem a bit daunting, and a bit lacking in fun.  It seems that every time that red, record button gets pushed, the take I do has some kind of problem.  All the really good ones come when I'm not recording.  Some people thrive under pressure, and I have been one of those kinds of people but in other areas of my life.

As I listen to the demo tracks I have for the album, I sometimes feel like a few of the tracks are good enough.  I try not to be precious about the recordings.  Technically, I'd like them to sound good enough so that nobody questions the recording method.  But as far as the songs go, and my performing of them, I kind of feel like "this is it, this is what you get, no frills, just a song".  I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing.  This is probably why a producer is such a valuable entity in the process as an outside, or objective manager of the project.  Oh well.

Played my first Winter Farmer's Market this past week.  It was nice to get the first out of the way.  I still get nervous about the new setting, silly really.  I am glad to be back and playing out.

Music in the clouds

Deer in the front yard as the snow falls.  The site keeps me from
wanting to spoil the scene by making any sound.

Winter has set it's muffling blanket upon my world here.  It is ooooh soooo easy to give into the comfort of a comforter and sit with a chai tea that I custom blend with each cup, stare out the window of the house, or into the window of the wood stove and let the sound of the clock on the wall tick by between sessions of playing.
Playing, that is all it seems to be these days.  Not much impetus to write, or produce the new album. Fortunately for me, and that is how I see it, there is no pressure to do so, other than what I put upon myself.
In a funny coincidence I had though to make a post about song lyrics, posing the question "what lyrics have impressed you most, a line or two, or an entire song that just "resonated" with you?"  The coincidence part of this is that right now a lyric that I think resonates most for me comes from a singer songwriter that I also just heard in a podcast I just subscribed to.  The artist is Gregory Alan Isakov, the song is "The Stable Song" and the pod cast is "The Working Songwriter" hosted by Joe Pug, available on SoundCloud.
I've also just uploaded my first track on SoundCloud today!
So, the lyric.  Maybe it's Gregory's voice, which can be haunting and soothing, but is always inviting.  Maybe it is the self deprecating nature of the song.  The lyric is,

"I've been crazy, couldn't you tell,
I threw stones at the stars,
but the whole sky fell"

I just can't think of a more beautiful, sad, simple, and human sentiment expressed any better in any other song.  I am sure that there have been others that hit me this way, but I haven't been able to remember any.

I'm loving the hibernation of the winter, and feel inclined not to show my self til springtime, but life is not always so obliging to my hermit like ways.

Seasons change

THE warm season has gone away and the Boat Shop Music Studio has moved out of it's larger, colder studio, and up into the more intimate Attic space.  The uninsulated "shop" has a wood stove, but it just keeps it from being bitter in there, and it is not a tight stove, so it's a bit smokey, which isn't so good for the voice and singing.

The Attic, is really cozy.  The wood floors and ceilings, and eastern exposure for early morning light make it a great place for recording with just me and a guitar.  It wouldn't really be appropriate for much more than that unless everybody was very laid back, literally because of the low ceiling, but that isn't really a concern.

Just yesterday morning I made my first recording of a new song, "Trespass", up in the Attic.  This song will probably be song number 11 for the new album "Garden of Love".

THE other seasonal change is that the 2019 Farmer's Market performing season is over for me now.  It was a long and very rewarding run, playing every week from the spring of 2018 thru the winter and all summer into the first week of November of this year.

The market manager, Pam, gave me a gift I can never thank her enough for, by giving me a regular spot to play my music, and develop my ability to perform these songs.  She has been a true patron, angel, and friend.

It will be a bit different, not having a weekly "gig" now, but in truth, it is welcomed.  Now I can focus on the writing and recording in a way that I couldn't manage to when I knew I had to be in form for public performing.  Even after the year and a half of steady gigs, I still got keyed up as the market days approached.  That kept me from really focusing in on the writing and recording.

As verification of the new found psychological freedom, I just wrote that new song yesterday.  It was a "two day song", the first to have the inspiration and dig it out of my brain and shape it with the guitar and pencil, and the second day to learn it, start recording it, and then to see, and hear, the wholeness of it.  I love those ones, they are so instantly gratifying, and I have learned not to question how fast or fluidly they come to me.  During that period of writing, I don't stop thinking about the song.  I am haunted by the musical idea, super ear worm.  I can't seem to get out of the mind of the character of the song.  This is a very focused time and it is hard to stay in it with other things to think about.  I really happy I have arranged my life in a way that allows me times like this.

The end of the market season didn't mean the end of the performing season for me.  Yesterday I was invited to play for a "Arts and Cafe" event at the Central Presbyterian Church in Haverstraw.  Nancy, a jewelry artist, who I know from the markets, asked me to come and play as the evenings entertainment.  A chance to hang out with "Pastor Katie", who is always a good time, and play for such a friendly and appreciative crowd, I could not pass up.

Thanks to "Pastor Katie" of the Haverstraw Central Presbyterian church,
 for having mein her place.
 Thanks to Nancy Jagelka, jeweler extraordinaire,
 for introducing me to these good people.

THEY had a cozy stage set up, tables for people to sit and eat and drink and listen or chat, and lots of art to shop.  It ended up being a paying gig though I had didn't expect it.  Food and drink as well.  The really great thing was that it wasn't outdoors in the cold, like the markets all have been lately.  Lovely.

In truth, that was probably the best gig I've done from a certain perspective.  Though the markets are very safe, friendly, and appreciative, the musicians playing there are certainly just decoration, and it is rare that people stay to enjoy the music.  It happens, certainly, I've had people hang out and listen to multiple songs, and then go shopping, and then return to listen some more, but the overriding feeling is that the people are there to shop and then get on with their day.  We music performers are a bonus.

At the "Art Cafe" last night there was a bit more of a feeling that people came for community and were more interested in being in the space.  Some people were actually making crafts/art, and some were enjoying the drinks and snacks and most seemed to be listening and enjoying the music.  I got to do a bit more interacting with people thru the music.  Being up on the stage, which was minimally but thoughtfully decorated, gave me a real sense of purpose and place that felt good, felt right.

It was a step maybe, toward the kind of performance I'd like to do with this music.  This music is storytelling, and poem and the words have weight that wants a listener, not just somebody to tap their feet to the rhythm, though there was that last night, and even some dancing.  So from that perspective, it might have been the closest I've gotten to being able to present my music the way I'd like to, outside of recordings.  But recordings are the self indulgent part of this music thing for me.

I have ideas of an "Acoustic Cafe" type of show, showcase, that I'd like to see happen at some of the local establishments.  There are some great venues around, but the singer-songwriter, folk, and acoustic genre aren't the focus, as far as I can tell.  Maybe it will happen someday.

For now, it's the colder season and the time is "write" to record, and get these albums done.  I hope to play out again someday, but for now I'm good with hibernating for a while.
Peace.

Totally spaced out the fact that last week I got to be a stagehand/sound tech again.  It was an great time for a big birthday celebration at a local place in Nyack, "Prohibition River."  Their upstairs space is quite lovely.  Would be a great place for the "Acoustic Cafe".  I was just helping out the talented artist Bill Batson, with his lovely woman Marisol's, 50th celebration.  Great party and such a treat for me to do my thing again.  I almost miss the biz.