the Skinny

I totally did it! Go me! Quite surprised to find myself on the other side of my week with a handful of new songs, and a wholly different experience of writing.

The place:

The building:

beautiful, no?

My work space:

Piano + makeshift recording studio. (Amazing acoustics!)

 The results:

And also, this happened:

So there you have it. I wrote 3 rounds and 4 songs – two for guitar, even,
which is hilarious since I don’t actually know how to play guitar (yet).

The writing part was really hard, at times, no joke… but I had so much fun presenting the Concert-and-Converstion afterwards that I wish I could go around residing artistically all the time. I love playing shows, but it was extra lovely to also talk about music, and answer audience questions.

More, I say! Please.  And thank you.  Now let’s all go eat cake.

Normally when I write music, it takes place in various not-so-public places; in my sleep, in the shower, in my pajamas in the living room.

But for a week I’m relocating to a retreat center of sorts, to write publicly, and officially. I’m going to be the Artist-In-Residence at the Anam Cara Center in Fairfield, CT.

I’ll be there 7 days, and I’ve given myself 5 song challenges, to try to write in ways that are outside my comfort zone. And then at the end of the week I do a Concert-With-Conversation about the experience!  Cool, right?!

So that works out to, what…. about a song a day, I guess, it’ll have to be, to leave a day to rehearse and put together a 45 minute concert and talk, and then the last day is the performance.

Hmmm. So that… that’s pretty ambitious. Well, you know what? What will be, will be.  If one new song comes along that’s stellar, and everything else is gravy.

Wish me luck! Will report back soon.

Guess what? I performed this month at the Brooklyn Academy of Music!

One of BAM’s three venues is a very cool, pretty big cafe-style venue, with all the swagger of a club but the excellent sound of a place that takes music very seriously. (Can you say ‘union house’?)

This is the place. Cool, right?

Got a wonderful surprise when two beloved, longtime fans I haven’t seen for a while (my ‘FLY’ girls!) showed up as a surprise. With a sign:

Annie, me, and Marie

I was the opening act for an amazing multi-genre show called SOULIFY. The show was me, a killer gospel act called Voices of Inspiration, a sensual belly-dance act (Amalia), and main act, pop singer Greta Larson.

Boy do I wish I had more photos! I need someone to follow me around documenting everything, don’t I?  (Any takers? : )

But you can tell it was a great night just from this:

The four graces, radiating happiness

All in all, great night at a great place! Would love to play there again. Here’s hoping the stars align in my favor.

Oh, why Ohio?

mini music conference!

Scored my jamming fix

Many fine musicians, including friends Charlie Mosbrook, Heather Syka, and the True Falsettos

I got to spread love around recently. It was one of those get-more-than-you-give experiences.

Long story short: I sold Valentine’s Day serenades. I wrote a wee little song, one chocolate’s worth, and offered to sing it, ‘live’ over the phone on Valentine’s Day, for $5. So I called whomever the buyer wanted and sang to them.

First off, it was more popular than I’d expected – I spent the whole day calling people. Second, it was to all sorts of people! Mothers, daughters, boyfriends, girlfriends, in-laws, grandparents. A number of people got happily teary. (Including me.)

Here’s a lil’ video slideshow to the serenade. It’s for you, too. I wanted you to know.