Do Good Blog

Call + Response, a rockumentary

2008-09-23T22:01:00.000-07:00

For several years I've been a fan of Tremolo, introduced to them by a mutual friend who worked with Justin Dillon, the leader, in another music life.

Justin and the rest of the group have long been committed to the cause of ending modern day slavery, a blight on mankind that too many Americans don't even know about and too many people in the world simply ignore. It is estimated that there are more than 27 million people -- many of them children -- living now in forced slavery.

For the last two years Justin has been working on putting together a concert to help expose this terrible thing, but the concert turned into a movie, and the movie is about to be released. The title of it is Call + Response, and you can see a short clip of it here. On that same site, you can also find a theater where you can go see the movie, which includes performances by or interviews with Moby, Natasha Bedingfield, Cold War Kids, Ashley Judd, Cornel West, Daryl Hannah, Julia Ormond, and many others, including, of course, Justin Dillon.

But knowing Justin, that is only part of the story. His note reads: "We are rolling CALL+RESPONSE out all on our own so that we can give all the profits away to those who are victims of slavery."

In other words, you can help put an end to modern day slavery, and you can help someone who has been a victim of slavery, simply by going to the movies.

Want to do more? Go the betheresponse.com, create an account, then login to see what else you can do.

I can't tell you that this will be the most entertaining film you'll ever see, but I guarantee you it will be told straight and well, and that this is something you should know about.

Thanks, Justin, for your passion, for your good music, and for putting them together to do good!

Quit your day job

2008-09-16T15:06:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know, one of the oldest lines in the music biz is, "Don't quit your day job."

These people must assume that indie artists actually have day jobs, and who knows where they'd get an idea like that, but I'm here to tell you that their well-meaning advice is, well, mean.

You want to be an artist, you need to starve a little. Not really, but you have to be hungry for the thing that is important to you. Jesus, who wants our relationship to God to be very important to us, said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness...."

Taking a cue from the Master Teacher, blessed are those indie artists who hunger and thirst after their work, too.

Are you hungry for it?

The Boys Are Back In Town

2008-09-16T14:57:00.001-07:00

As the song says, the boys are back in town! And not a moment too soon, from the looks of the music business. Golly!

What's an indie artist to do? Where you gonna turn? Who you gonna run to? Here, of course, where you can get friendly, honest, experienced, objective advice.

And while objective advice is something we often object to, it can be very helpful when you want to know how to get better at doing what you love to do.

Oh, by the way, we don't use our objectivity to crush your dreams or pull the rug out from under you, we use it to build you up, make you stronger, and help you do good. Isn't that why you do music, after all?

Music to my eyes

2007-02-06T00:09:00.000-08:00

The last few days have been music to my eyes, mostly because of a couple of young artists who sing with their paints. Artists you should know about.

It all started when I got an e-mail from my mother-in-law, forwarding along a link she had received from her brother that turned out to be a blog created by his son. Most blogs are made up almost entirely of words but with a picture here and there. This blog is quite the opposite, consisting almost entirely of fairly high quality images of very high quality original art.

Now those of you who are quick with the whole "neighbor's nephew's sister-in-law's third cousin's best friend" thing will have figured out that the artist of which I speak is actually my wife's cousin, and therefore mine by marriage. And you may also think you have figured out that the reason I speak well of his art is because of this familial relationship. Au contraire, say I, and I say it with gusto.

I admit to a bias here and there, but when it comes to praising work simply because I know and like the person who created it, I draw the line pretty firmly. Where would I be as an honest assessor of words and music and performance if I allowed myself to be swayed by affection or admiration? The truth is that I deeply and genuinely like many of the artists with whom I work, but if their work requires the hard truth I deliver it.

And so it is with young Mr. Kitch (aka Dallas Teague, a name that pays homage to Donald Teague, the artist's late maternal grandfather, who was himself a world-class artist and whose paintings you can still buy today, assuming you are on good terms with your banker).

So mosey on over to his blog, admire his work, and remember that you heard about him here first. He is already excellent, and as he continues to paint and mature and be less distracted by homework (a joke you will only get if you look at his pictures), he will get better and better.

As for the second young artist, who is really, really young (12, I think, putting her a little more than a decade behind Bryan), you may have already heard of her. She's good enough and famous enough already to have stopped using her last name and be billed simply as Akiane (pronounced ah-KEE-ah-nah). And I'm willing to give her that, because she is truly a phenom.

She has, after all, been on Oprah (So has my brother, but that's a story for another time.), major newspapers around the world have printed stories about her, major magazines have done the same, there are video interviews of her on YouTube, and now I'm blogging about her. What more could be required to get her to the very top?

You may be skeptical when you look at her art and read what she has written, because it doesn't seem possible that one so young could do work that is so mature, so beyond her age. She has an answer for you: God. And that's an answer that is hard to argue with, especially when she says it and when you look at her work.

I'll write more about Akiane later, and perhaps more about Bryan, but for now let me point you to a song I wrote with Steve Eaton a few years ago that talks about "inspired" art. Go to the Do Good Music MySpace page and the song Living In The River should start playing automatically. Listen to the words, and then, like Bryan and Akiane, start living in the river.

One wedding and a funeral, and music

2007-01-04T16:53:00.000-08:00

Christmas and New Year's are special days, each for their own reasons and in their own ways, and both of them have their own kind of music. Christmas has all those carols and jingling bells, and New Year's has Auld Lang Syne. Seems like we always use music in the seasons of life, usually to help us celebrate them in a way that words alone can't.

This past holiday season held more for me than just Christmas and New Year's, though--it also held a wedding and a funeral. I officiated at both, and music was involved.

The wedding came first, in San Francisco. It was a lovely ceremony, with a beautiful bride, a handsome groom, smiling families and happy guests. A professional pianist, who makes much of his living by playing his portable Korg keyboard at weddings and corporate parties, was on hand. The bride had given him a list of songs to play for the time before and during the ceremony and a list to play during the cocktail hour. He was quite good, and the music added just the right touch.

The funeral was as different as, well, as different as a funeral is from a wedding. Somewhat symbolically, I thought, that service was also on the other side of the country, in Miami. It was just three days after the wedding but in a different year. The bride and groom from the wedding have now been married for less than a week. The husband and wife from the funeral (it was for the wife) had been married for more than 65 years. Still, the music added just the right touch.

Some of the music was used as a background in a slide show put together by the family, and the songs just worked. But the music that touched everyone's heart was provided by the widower who was saying goodbye to his beloved wife.

His name is Earl Law, and his late wife, Judy, was my father's first cousin. Theirs was a love that, as I said in the service, the world was privileged to behold. It was one I believe they were created to share with each other, and one way Earl shared his love was through singing. At the funeral service, he sang to Judy one more time.

He is 89 now, and he stood up and sang (a cappella) two verses of I Love You Truly in a voice that is still a pleasure to hear and with a feeling that you can only imagine.

Later I asked him about his music career, and he told me he first sang "professionally" at the age of 12. Music was always his life--it was never his livelihood--and for him it is like breathing. He cannot not sing. And what a joy for me to have heard him sing when he was younger and had a very strong tenor voice as well as now, on this sad but beautiful occasion.

Weddings, funerals, love, relationships, family, forever. All reasons to do good music.

The hardest-working man in show business gets a rest.

2006-12-26T16:47:00.000-08:00

Quick, what's the most famous thing about Augusta, Georgia? If you're a golfer, even if you are musician who is a golfer, the answer is The Masters. It is one of the four "majors" of men's professional golf, and, some say, the toughest ticket in all of sports. Harder to get into than the NBA finals, the World Series, the Superbowl, or even the Kentucky Derby.

If you're not a golfer but you are a big fan of James Brown and his music, you might say the most famous thing about Augusta is that it was the hometown of James Brown. Now it is where he will be buried, with the funeral being held at 8500 seat James Brown arena. The actual burial will, presumably, be elsewhere. Al Sharpton will officiate. (I would have been happy to officiate, but there are two reasons why I couldn't: 1. I'm officiating at a wedding in San Francisco on the same day, and 2. I wasn't asked.

All that notwithstanding, James Brown contributed a great deal to the world of music. I don't agree with the pundit who is suggesting Mr. Brown receive a Nobel Prize, but he does deserve our admiration and appreciation. He made a difference, and the difference he made was a good one.

Mr. Brown died on Christmas morning, 2006, at the age of 73. He had many nicknames, including The Godfather of Soul, but the one he seemed to be most proud of was The Hardest-Working Man in Show Business. I'm not sure if that referred to his physical activity on the stage or what he did behind the scenes, or just how often he worked. In any case, working hard is almost always a recipe for success, and as far as music is concerned, James Brown was a success.

All that hard work apparently didn't translate into a successful home life, seeing that James was married three or four times. I say three or four because it is now not clear whether or not he was really married to his "widow," who does claim they were married legally in 2004. We'll see.

But it is not Mr. Brown's private life most people know or care about. We know he made a lot of music -- even a lot of good music -- and we know his impact on music will be felt for decades to come. For all of that I'm sorry to see him leave, but I'm glad he's finally getting a rest. May he rest in peace.

Mele Kalikimaka!

2006-12-19T17:47:00.000-08:00

That's Merry Christmas in Hawaiian, and in spite of all the fun I had as a kid playing in the snow and drinking hot chocolate to fight the frosty air, I'd just as soon be celebrating in Hawaii as anywhere. I'm pretty sure Santa Claus goes there last and spends the rest of the winter working on his tan.

Whether you are in the snow or on the sands, I hope you have a very Merry Christmas. Spend at least part of it with family and friends, spend at least part of it listening to good music, and spend at least part of it remembering what Christmas is really all about in the first place.

I know the wise men didn't really show up while Jesus was still sleeping in a feed trough, and I even know that the Bible doesn't say there were three of them. (We get that because there are three gifts named, so we figure there must have been three wise men.) I also know that there is something wonderful in the fact that the first visitors to the Good Shepherd were lowly shepherds. I can imagine one of them saying to the others, "They told us he was some kind of King, but I think he looks like one of us!"

But all those facts and more are unimportant compared to knowing who that baby was, why he was born, and what he did with his life.

That is worth celebrating, worth being joyful and merry about, and worth a few moments of your time and a few words of thanks.

My Christmas wish for you is simply this: that this season will give you a deeper appreciation for God, for those people you love, and for all people everywhere. If that happens, you will have a Mele Kalikimaka indeed!

Norah Jones, Relient K, and Panic at the Disco

2006-12-07T23:24:00.000-08:00

I was walking out of a fun little Palo Alto cafe yesterday after having lunch with a friend (also a music biz guy) when I spotted an abandoned Wall Street Journal. The Marketplace section was on top, and in the middle above the fold were pictures of two pretty gorgeous models. But that's not what caught my eye.

The headline that grabbed my attention was this: In a Turnabout, Record Industry Releases MP3s.

So I picked up the paper, brought it home, and read with interest the story that starts like this:

The music industry has long resisted selling music in the MP3 format, which lacks the copy protections that prevent songs from being duplicated endlessly. But now, Blue Note Records and its marquee artist, jazz-pop singer Norah Jones, are selling her latest single through Yahoo Inc. as an MP3—despite the risk that may add to piracy problems.

It took a little bit of looking around at Yahoo!, but I finally found the song and, being your dutiful blogger/reporter (and a Norah Jones fan), I bought the song. Same price as iTunes, 99¢, and a bit rate of 192K. In what I can only think of as somebody trying hard not to leave any money on the table, the folks who are selling the Relient K MP3 through Y! Music have two versions available: 128K for 99¢ and a 320K "High Quality" version for $1.25.

Some of you out there can probably tell the difference between a 128K MP3 and a 320K MP3, and if you can you are either listening through incredible headphones or you have names like Spot or Rover. But what's 26 cents between friends?

Anyway, that's not the point. The point is that Record Labels, who have a very strong vested interest in keeping things exactly like they were in 1986, are experimenting with selling MP3s that do not have DRM (digital rights management to the techies and lawyers, copy protection to most of us) embedded in them.

Granted, they are only dipping a toe or two in the water, and they are doing that with Jones, Relient K, Jessica Simpson, Jesse McCartney and Panic at the Disco. An interesting mix that speaks to the philosophies of various labels.

(How many of you thought Panic at the Disco was on an indie label, by the way? If you look at their MySpace site you'll see their label name is Fueled By Ramen, which certainly sounds indie, and you'll see that their "label type" is indie, but FBR is part of Atlantic Records, which itself is part of Warner Music Group. They are no more independent than a married man on a business trip who "forgets" his wedding ring.)

And of course that's not the point either. The point is that Record Labels are finally admitting, in a very cautious, very measured way, that it really wasn't piracy that has been killing them for the last 10 years.

By the way, one of the fun things on the Y! Music site where you can buy these unprotected MP3s is some language that says, "Want to know why MP3 downloads are way cooler?" The first reason they give is that these files will play on any MP3 player, including an iPod. Now that's market power. And a very soft slap at Apple, whose iTunes songs will not play on any MP3 player.

But that's also not the point. The point is that Record Labels, who have leaned far too heavily on lawyers and far too lightly on consumers, IMHO, now understand that DRM doesn't stop piracy but does help technology companies (Apple) control the music world. And they don't like it.

Maybe, just maybe, those of who make music and those of us who want to buy MP3s will benefit from this great awakening. And maybe the Record Labels will too.

Are you ready for another idol?

2006-11-29T23:23:00.000-08:00

Quick, name the winner of American Idol from season three. Give up? Her name is Fantasia Barrino, although she now just goes by Fantasia, because I'm sure it is written somewhere that to be a true diva more than one name is not allowed. Besides, we kind of like that one name thing in our idols: we talk about Kelly and Ruben and Taylor as if we know them.

But that's not the point. The point is, I'm not sure I'm ready for another idol.

Take Fantasia, for instance. Now don't get me wrong, this girl can sing. She also gets props from me because she's apparently stepped up to life and met it with faith and determination. But in the vocal department, how good is she? The allmusic.com review of Free Yourself, her debut album, claims she is not bad but also not great. The review was written by Stephen Thomas Erlewine, and you can read it at allmusic.com or you can read it on iTunes. Or you can read the part I'm interested in here:

...And that reveals Fantasia's biggest weakness, which is part of the inherent flaw of American Idol: it rewards contestants who put on a show of being a great singer instead of actually being a great singer.

So what do you think? Is American Idol more about Simon than it is about finding a great singer? That is to say, is our reward for watching it the entertainment we get through the process rather than finding a star at the end of the rainbow? Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!

Don't fool yourselves, Kids. American Idol is not about identifying the best singer, it is about selling Coca-Cola and entertaining us with everything from embarrassing moments for some really bad singers to rare moments of triumph by some really good singers. Throw in the cat fights at the judges' table, the sniping between Ryan Seacrest and Simon Cowell, the back stories about the ten finalists, and of course the opportunity to vote and you've got plenty of things to keep you talking and tuning in.

That's not a bad thing, at least as long as we're looking for entertainment and not a singer to idolize.

You can be a somebody

2006-11-28T00:51:00.000-08:00

Music is everywhere. You may not think that headline is much of a revelation, but if you work with music in any way it should at least make you happy.

Why? Because somebody writes that music and somebody performs it and somebody records it and somebody mixes it and somebody masters it and somebody manufactures it in some way. Somebody else chooses it and somebody puts it on the radio or in an elevator or behind a commercial or in a movie or television show or uses it for music on hold.

Even talk radio has music, and as far as I know there are only two television shows that do not have a theme song, and I can only think of one of those. What is the other one?

Anyway, I'm encouraged by this "music is everywhere" idea. That means that some of the songs I have already helped write might just sneak into people's ears somehow, and it means that if I think about places where music is I might be able to contribute to songs specifically for those places.

And so can you. You can be one of those people I mentioned earlier and you can help bring music to life in some way. And when you do, you will be a somebody.

Lessons from The Best Music You've Never Heard

2006-11-19T23:22:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine called to tell me that his daughter, singer/songwriter Tiffany Joy, was going to be featured that afternoon on a popular San Francisco radio show, The Pete Wilson Show. But Pete's show isn't music, it's talk.

Before I could ask what talk radio had to do with a singer, he explained that Wilson was doing a show called "The Best Music You've Never Heard," that several hundred people had sent in CDs trying to be part of that, and that Tiffany Joy had been selected as one of the final 30.

As it turned out she was one of the final 20 (out of 500 entries), and they played clips of all of those then asked people to call in and say which one they liked best. A very diminutive, audio-only version of American Idol.

There were three "judges." Pete himself, who admitted to knowing nothing about music but knowing what he liked, was the host and one of those who offered his opinion. He had two guest judges, both men and both part of the music world, and they similarly offered their opinions. Almost all of those were of the "liked it... didn't like it..." variety, but once in a while they waxed a little more eloquent.

After Tiffany Joy's clip, for instance, one of the guest judges said that when the song started he thought he was going to have to leave the room, but then the song shifted in an interesting way and he suddenly liked what he heard. Goes to show you that the first 10 seconds make an impression, but they aren't the whole story.

One of the most interesting comments came after a guest judge inserted a clip from an artist he knew and admired who was not one of the contestants. Turns out this fellow had won a GRAMMY award and still no label has signed him.

The expert judges opined that being unsigned was probably the best deal for that particular artist, because no label would really know how to market him.

I wonder how many of the indie artists who were listening took that comment in and rolled it around carefully in their minds. Too few, I'm guessing, because being signed is still the holy grail. I'll write more about that later.

Anyway, Tiffany Joy, being fairly well known in the area and having a father who was willing to help promote her, ended up getting the third most votes, which was very nice. There were no prizes, except that the song with the most votes got played all the way through. It was a fine song, but everyone acknowledged that the group probably won not because they were the best but because they were the best known of those who were played.

And that is why this business is so hard. You have to be known to get heard, and you have to get heard to be known.

This Boy Can Play

2006-11-14T23:11:00.000-08:00

Quick, what do Billy Ray Cyrus, Rebecca St. James, Chet Atkins, Matt "Guitar" Murphy, Kumie, David Ragsdale, Thomas Kinkade and Jeff Foxworthy all have in common?

Well, there could be a lot of things, but the only one I know is John Scott Evans.

John has worked with all of those outstanding artists, either touring with them (Billy Ray), opening for them (Chet), writing with them (Kumie), or having them play in his band (David). You've got to admit that is a pretty impressive list, and of course there are many more names that could be added to it. With just a few more words (of the lyric variety) I might even be able to add my name. But that's another story.

For now I want to let you know two important things:
1. John is the newest artist on our Catch A Rising Star podcast.
2. John's new CD, Above The Sun, is just about to be available.

Taking those two things in order, if you listen to the podcast you will of course want to buy the CD. Reverse them and it still works. Buy the CD and you'll want to listen to the podcast. You win either way.

John is one of the finest fingerstyle guitarists you'll ever hear. There is something in his music that goes beyond the notes -- and there are more notes than you can imagine, but always just the right amount -- and gets into your heart and soul. Personally, I think it is joy.

Whatever it is, all you have to do is listen to know that it is there and that this music is special.

We wanted to give you a free sample of that, so John has agreed to let us put one of his songs on Free & Legal Music. Just follow that link, enter John's name, and you can grab your very own free and legal copy of Caliente from John's album Live At The Loft, featuring John with an outstanding band which included famed violinist David Ragsdale. (You'll hear more about that recording and how the band got put together when you listen to the podcast.)

Keep your eyes on John's website or on this blog to find out how you can get a copy of Above The Sun or other John Scott Evans recordings. In the meantime, enjoy the podcast and your free song, and spread the word about John Scott Evans and Catch A Rising Star.

That's Entertainment

2006-11-14T22:02:00.000-08:00

Allow me, if you will, a brief but not serious digression from the specific world of music to the more general world of entertainment. And I'm not just clowning around.

My friend is, though, and he is a pro!

His name is Bill Terry, but to much of the southeast he is known as PJ the Clown. He's probably not the only Bill Terry and I know from a little sleuthing that he is not the only PJ the Clown, but for my money he's the best one of both of those. Just so you don't go finding the wrong PJ, let me give you the link where you can find the right one.

Bill and I "grew up" together, and I use the quote marks to indicate that I understand there may be those who take issue with the idea that either or both of us are grown up. Like our wives, for instance.

Recently Bill and I were able to spend a few hours together when we were both back in our home town, and it was a treat. Turns out we still have a lot in common, including an appreciation for his mom's pecan pie and a joy in entertaining others. I got to be on the receiving end of that one evening when Bill put on a magic show just for me, his parents and his daughter, who is in kindergarten. (She's the teacher.)

So consider this post a little bit of shameless promotion for my good friend, who is absolutely the best balloon twister I've ever seen (he made a Little Mermaid out of balloons, and I recognized it), who is an excellent clown, and who does a magic show that is fun, clever, and at the same time can illustrate important points about life to the kids he performs for.

Need a clown, a magician, a balloon twister or all of the above in one delightful package? PJ is your clown.

You can build it and they still won't come.

2006-11-05T23:04:00.000-08:00

The title of this entry is, of course, a reference to a line in the movie Field of Dreams. For those of you who don't know the movie, Kevin Costner plays an Iowa corn farmer who hears a voice saying, "If you build it, they will come," understands that he is supposed to build a baseball field, and when he follows through with that the Chicago Black Sox (all long since dead) show up. So do hundreds and hundreds of other people. It is a good movie, one somebody described as "magical."

That's a good word for it, because the idea that simply building something like a baseball diamond or, let's say, a CD is absolutely no guarantee that anyone will come at all. That is a bit of a sad thing for those of us who love to create things like songs, CDs, tours, or even blogs and websites. Having a MySpace profile, for instance, is no guarantee that anyone (except Tom) will ever find you.

You can even have distribution, that elusive benefit that in the pre-Internet days was the Holy Grail for many artists. "If I only had distribution," some artist would say to me, "my music would sweep the world." Distribution is important, I agree, but if you have the Internet you have distribution, so what is limiting you now?

Marketing. The same thing that limits many of us.

Or rather, the lack of marketing. Now there could be other things that are missing as well. Your content might not be any good, in which case marketing will have a little harder time. You might be charging too much or too little for your work, in which case marketing has more to overcome. You might not be unique in any way (although I believe you are), in which case marketing will make you so (even if your unique feature is your sameness) and then start selling you or your CD.

Do I sound cynical? I don't mean to, but I do want to know what you think about the role of marketing in the world of music, our field of dreams.

Carmi - The Musical

2006-10-31T18:15:00.000-08:00

"Don't you mean Carmen?"

"Nope. Carmi. Like my car only backwards."

"Never heard of it."

"The musical or the town?"

"The anything."

Well, to tell the truth, I'm not all that surprised. On the other hand, I kind of am. It seems like everywhere I go someone has heard of Carmi. (The town, not the musical. There is no musical -- yet. But I'm working on it.)

Carmi is the little town in Southern Illinois where I grew up. I say "little" because I think a population of 6,000 qualifies for that designation, but it is the biggest town in a 30 mile radius or so.

I was just back there last weekend for my high school reunion (which was a blast), and I was amazed all over again at all the music that has been through and come out of that place.

It all started at the reunion. Carmi used to have a place called Teen Town, and the father of one of my classmates had been the sponsor of it for many years. Bob, my classmate, put together an excellent and extensive display of pictures, programs, and even video (some of which had been reel-to-reel) of events that had happened there. I found more than one picture which included me dancing to the music of a live band.

And what bands we had! One of the most famous of the time and area was called East of Eden, and they are still playing. The Turks were also a biggie for us, and there were others that were very good. I don't believe they ever played in Carmi, but in nearby Mt. Carmel I once went to a dance that had Tommy James and The Shondells playing.

But most of that is in the past, and I also learned something about the future last weekend.

I ran into a friend from my old neighborhood at church on Sunday morning, we talked for just a minute, then he left briefly and came back with a CD in his hand. Turns out it was a band his son is part of, along with two other guys from Carmi and a fourth friend they knew from school.

Now I get CDs fairly often, but this one was special. I mean, three of these guys were from Carmi, and they were signed by a pretty prestigious label! The name of the group is Run Kid Run, and they are on Tooth & Nail Records.

And trust me when I tell you that as good as RKR is, those guys are not the only artists hanging around the Carmi area who are extremely talented. So what is it with Carmi and music? Did it all start with Teen Town years ago? We may never find out until we see Carmi - The Musical.

BTW, I just found a connection between Run Kid Run and Tommy James and The Shondells. Be the first to tell me what it is and I'll send you some good music.

Lessons from The Blind Boys

2006-10-26T23:58:00.000-07:00

As I was working on some podcasts this evening I was playing Spirit of the Century by The Blind Boys of Alabama, an album I can listen to over and over again.

A couple of years ago I was in Nashville for a conference that had nothing to do with music but was held at the Grand Ole Opry. One night there was an opportunity to go to the Opry and listen to a very nice line up of artists, with Christopher Cross as the headliner.

I wanted to see him, but I was much more excited to see The Blind Boys, one of two opening acts, and I couldn't stop jabbering about them until the other two members of the group I was with caved in and said they'd tag along, even though they were tired and would rather just stay in.

Christopher Cross was excellent, for sure, but the stars that night were The Blind Boys. Only three of the original six members of that group are still alive, and they were all there, singing away. They told their story in words, in song, and in a video that none of The Blind Boys have ever seen.

Perhaps the most amazing thing to me was that they had never, until that night, appeared at the Grand Ole Opry. Even though they sing Southern Gospel and not country, that just seemed wrong. But there wasn't a note or even a hint of a note of bitterness when they talked about finally getting to Opryland, there was only joy.

They must have had some sadness, because three of the six weren't there to celebrate and participate on that famous stage, but you'd never know it. Just like you'd never know by their attitudes or words that they were blind.

And you'd never know that they performed in relative obscurity for 40 years, driving (well, being driven) from gig to gig and loving the music every time. For the last 20 years or so they've been much better well known, finally getting discovered after all that time. But I don't think they've changed.

I can learn a lot from those fellows. Perseverance, patience, perspective and purpose all come to mind, and there are still 25 starting letters I haven't even used.

So thank you, Blind Boys, for all your good music and for your even better hearts. May we all learn to see as well as you can.

Words with music, then music with words

2006-10-19T00:07:00.000-07:00

I got a phone call this morning from my good friend Mary Dawson, president of CQK Music, a Do Good Music Master, and a delightful lady.

She called to let me know that she'd had some challenges with her web site, which is why it is down, but the conversation quickly moved to an area she and I share a deep passion for, songwriting.

Mary is teaching a class on the topic at a local college, and she was telling me that she had just given her class the assignment of writing new words to the classic song, "Over The Rainbow." Their next assignment, of course, will be to write new music for their own words.

That is, in fact, a great way to write a song, especially if you are brand new to the task. What you end up with might even be pretty good using that method.

My question for you is, what other "tricks" do you know for writing a song? Do they work ?

Send me a note or post a comment, and I'll follow up on the topic later with some results.

Lijie - a Rising Star

2006-10-17T00:32:00.000-07:00

I've just posted the latest episode of Catch A Rising Star, and I'd like to invite you to check it out. In fact, if you don't already subscribe to this podcast you need to get on board. We've had some great interviews and have more lined up.

But for now I want you to focus on Lijie (pronounced Leejay by those of us who don't quite know how to do the real Chinese intonation), a wonderful young woman who has lived most of her life in the U.S. and who started writing songs way back in junior high school.

Somewhere along the way she figured out that she loved doing that, and she started pursuing a career in music. With her determination, her desire, and with the gifts and abilities she has in abundance, I believe she's going to make it, too.

And in spite of the fact that she has written (her words) some "gut wrenching" songs, she has a great sense of humor. In one part of our interview that didn't make it to the final cut the topic of termites came up. (Don't ask.) Sharing a bit of trivia with Lijie, I mentioned that the weight of the termites in the world exceeds the weight of the people in the world. Hardly missing a beat, Lijie said those termites "must be super-sizing it at McDonald's."

Back to the songs, which you are going to want. You can buy Lijie's CD Roam on iTunes, at CD Baby, and even through her MySpace site. But the place to get it is directly from Lijie on her regular web site. Why? Because she'll autograph it for you! How cool is that?

In fact, while you're there buy several copies. The price is right, and someday that autograph alone could be worth more than a whole closet full of CDs! Lijie is, after all, a Rising Star.

Why studios won't go away

2006-10-15T01:46:00.000-07:00

I confess that I am a geek wannabe. I don't generally write code, although I did once write a commercial database program using 4D and I can work my way through HTML and even CSS. I've been a regular user of computers of various stripes for more than 20 years. Once upon a time, thanks largely to some very good people in the company, I oversaw technical support and testing for a company that made TCP/IP and even built a DHCP/DNS server.

All that just to say that I'm pretty confident when it comes to learning a new program that I'll be able to jump in and, faster than a speeding slug, get right to the usability stage.

But now I have been stopped in my tracks, and the pun (which you shall soon discover) is intended.

You see, I've been thinking seriously about upgrading my sound editing software. I've downloaded several different trial versions from various and sundry publishers and I've researched others. My basis for comparison included two programs that are very inexpensive and do pretty good work, but I wanted more and better.

Not that these programs are slouches, mind you. I started with Audacity, a free product that comes out of that part of the open source community called SourceForge. I like Audacity. It does almost everything I want, it does it fairly quickly, and it is very intuitive. The only problem is, it crashes now and then. Sometimes when that happens, even if I have just saved a file, I get a strange message about orphan blocks. i usually trash them, but sometimes that is not a good thing. So I use Audacity to do some voice recording and a lot of editing, but when I'm dealing with a file that is more than five minutes long, I edit in fear.

GarageBand is very stable (by comparison) on the other hand, but it lacks some of the things I like about Audacity. Changing the gain on one part of a track is a pain, etc., etc., etc. Still it's a great program, and as part of a $79 package that included a bunch of other cool apps, it's hard to beat.

Of course part of the goal of GarageBand is to sell Logic Express, and part of the goal of Logic Express is to sell Logic Pro, which is a very serious program indeed. I can tell by the retail price of one buck short of a grand.

So I figured I'd take the intermediate bait, and here's what I learned: there are some excellent programs out there, and some of those have extraordinarily powerful features. At least I suppose they do, which is all I can do. I certainly can't make them work.

Just before I downloaded the trial version of Logic Express from Apple I read a review of it that basically said, "This is a great program if you can figure out how to use it." I smirked at the screen, knew I'd figure it out easily, and barged in. I owe that reviewer an apology.

And that is why studios will survive. I used to think that all the great recording and editing sofware would make studios obsolete, but I think just the opposite will happen. Indie artists out there will buy some expensive program, record happily to their hard drive, and then not be able to open the file, let alone edit it. Others will buy an expensive program, figure out how to use it, install some baffling in their garage, and open an independent studio recording other indie artists.

So hang in there, studios. Most of the indies who bought all those fancy programs will be back, and they'll have a whole new appreciation for what you do. I know I do.

The last store standing

2006-10-12T01:54:00.000-07:00

An article in the 10/10/06 Daily Variety says that Trans World Entertainment is "the last large, national music and video specialty chain still standing."

Now where you live there just might be one of the 148 Wherehouse stores, but they are owned by TWE. Same thing for Sam Goody and their 335 stores (Sam Goody and Suncoast, combined). TWE even tried to buy Tower Records, but that failed and Tower is now being liquidated, one CD at a time.

And do all the failed stores blame digital downloads of music and videos for their demise? No, they put most of the blame on someone you might not even consider one of their competitors -- Wal-Mart .

Sure, digital downloads play a role in all this, but more music is still sold in physical than electronic form, and the smaller bricks and mortar stores don't have the buying power -- or almost any kind of power -- to keep people from following the price. Wal-Mart can buy cheaper and sell lower than almost any other retailer, and they know it.

I've often thought about Wal-Mart putting others out of business, but I never thought about them putting a whole industry out of business. Have you?

Starting at 60, going like 90

2006-10-08T21:57:00.000-07:00

I was looking at an obituary notice for legendary golfer Byron Nelson (someone I want to spend some time with in heaven), when I noticed this item in the Milestones section of last week's Time Magazine:

DIED. Etta Baker, 93, influential blues matriarch whose music helped spark the folk revival of the 1960s; in Fairfax, Va. Baker worked for nearly three decades at a textile mill before taking up the guitar full-time at age 60. Her raw, soulful mix of bluegrass and Delta blues--starting with blistering renditions of Railroad Bill and One-Dime Blues on a 1956 compilation album of southern Appalachian musicians--won her a cult following and, in 1991, a folk-heritage fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

You might infer from that text that Mrs. Baker didn't play guitar at all until she was 60, but that would be incorrect. She came from a musical family and started playing as when she was 3 or 4 years old, but she didn't play for the general public until 1956, when she made her initial recording at the age of 43. She wouldn't release another album for 35 years.

Instead, she voluntarily went back to a domestic life, working in a textile mill and raising nine children. Ultimately, as the Time snippet indicated, she made music her full time occupation, and the world was richer for it. She didn't do a lot of recording, however, releasing One Dime Blues in 1991 and Railroad Bill in 1999. Etta Baker with Taj Mahal (I think Taj was mostly listening to Etta) was released in 2004 when Mrs. Baker was 91. And she was, according to All Music Guide, working on yet another album, to be released this year.

I don't know about you, but all that kind of inspires me and gives me a little perspective.

And it adds one more person I want to spend some time with in heaven.

Explicit

2006-10-05T09:49:00.000-07:00

I'm a big fan of iTunes. I use it every day to download podcasts and almost every day to listen to music. Once in a while I buy songs or albums, and I've even purchased a video, but I rarely look at the list of "Today's Top Songs."

This morning I was taken there automatically as part of a registration process, and what I saw surprised me. And that surprised me even more.

What jumped out was not the title of the number one song (How To Save A Life, by The Fray), it was all those little red boxes with the word "explicit" inside them.

Sixteen of the top 100 -- for those of you who are math-challenged that's 16% -- were marked explicit. The online Merriam-Webster says that means: 1 a : fully revealed or expressed without vagueness, implication, or ambiguity : leaving no question as to meaning or intent <explicit instructions> b : open in the depiction of nudity or sexuality <explicit books and films>.

Interestingly, there were only six songs marked "clean," a designation that indicates an explicit version is available somewhere. All of those clean songs were lower on the list than their explicit counterparts except for one.

Knowing that most of the people who buy music on iTunes are teenagers, I wasn't surprised that the explicit versions were more popular. I know what those years are like, what the attitudes are, how the rebellion and exploration and peer pressure and insecurity and hormones and desires all kick in at once and explode your brain into tiny fragments. Teenagers aren't stupid people, they're just teenagers. Sometimes they feel almost human, and most of the time they are.

And knowing that the goal of the record industry is to sell units, I wasn't surprised that so many explicit songs were available. If the record industry understands anything at all, it is how to exploit -- I mean reach -- their market. The big record companies aren't evil, they are in business to make money, and they are far more interested in protecting their turf (e.g., downloads) than they are in protecting society. Social responsibility is not their job, social mining is, and they are good at it.

So here I sit, surprised at my surprise, because none of this should surprise me.

At the same time, I refuse to accept it as "just the way things are" and not make some effort to make a difference. After all, I know the damage that too much exploration as a teenager can have on a still growing mind. I know the chaos that can happen in a life with no boundaries. I know the scars that take too long to heal from failing to discriminate between what is good and what is not and simply acting on impulse or at the will of the so called crowd.

Somehow I survived all those things, and so will most of the people who buy those explicit songs and fill their minds with negative energy, salacious thoughts, and a vocabulary that will hold them back in ways they can't even imagine at the moment.

The way to counter all this, I think, is not by rallying the troops to take all the explicit music off the market. This stuff has been around almost as long as dirt, and it will not and cannot be eradicated.

No, the way to fight it is to replace it with good music. Not just a clean version of the same song, although that is a positive step, but songs that are good in intent, content and quality. And when I say quality, I mean we'd better make sure that the production values, the musicianship, the writing, and the performance of those songs is every bit as good as it can be. Anyone who counts on the positive nature of a song to carry it alone is in for a shock. Very few people want to listen to a bad song with a good message.

And what about those big record companies? The indies are taking care of that.

Rising Stars

2006-10-02T12:20:00.000-07:00

Have you checked out our Catch A Rising Star podcast lately? I'm telling you, there are some artists there you need to know!

Right now we have interviews with three different artists there in four podcasts (our interview with Vickie Natale is in two parts), and we have the next two artists either on the schedule or in the can.

If you haven't already done this, make sure you subscribe to the Catch A Rising Star podcast so they'll download as soon as they are posted.

This is great stuff -- and who knows, one of these days we might even interview you!!

Now that's good music

2006-09-24T22:47:00.000-07:00

Lewis Greer, David Benoit, Terilyn Joe (emcee), David Pack, and Charles Marsala (host, emcee, and Mayor of Atherton) before a Heart of Silicon Valley benefit concert

Back near the end of 2001 I met a fellow named Jeff Pollock for lunch. A mutual friend had introduced us electronically, so when we met in person for the first time our conversation was fairly wide ranging as we searched for common ground.

We found it pretty quickly in music, something we were (and are) both passionate about. Jeff shared with me that he and some others had been kicking around the idea of doing house concerts in order to raise money for relief efforts for the attacks of 9/11. As we talked further, he asked me if I'd like to be involved in that.

I thought to myself, "Let's see. Doing good through good music. Yeah, I think that's a fit!" So I got involved and actually became an official co-founder of Heart of Silicon Valley.

Since then HOSV has helped raise more than $200,000 for non-profit organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area by mounting about 17 events. We've had a lot of extraordinary help, generous contributions of time, money and resources from individuals and businesses, and we've presented some amazing music.

Just a couple of weeks ago we put on a concert to benefit PACE (Pacific Autism Center for Education), and the performers were David Benoit and David Pack of Ambrosia fame. Either one on their own would be a headliner, but together they were really incredible. I wish I could have captured some of that for you, but the beauty of the music was only part of the story.

Both of the Davids were great crowd pleasers and very entertaining, but that evening they shared not only their talents and the fruit of years of working hard at what they do, they also shared their hearts. (The same could be said for the side men who played with them, bassist Trini Sanchez and drummer Jeff Olson.) These are artists who love to do music and also love to do good with their music.

That's a big part of the heart of HOSV, and it is at the very core of Do Good Music.

So let me encourage you to support those artists and do all you can to be like them. You may never be able to play piano like David Benoit, sing like David Pack, or write like either one of them, but whether you can or not you can do this: you can make good music and use it to do good. And that's good music.

Is Christian music in a rut?

2006-09-17T01:32:00.000-07:00

I was doing a little surfing tonight when I came across this article from the Washington Times. Much of it is about something, I'm sure, but the most interesting part to me was a quote from Christa Farris, editor at CCM Magazine: "Christian music should set the bar for other music, but right now it's in a rut."

I've heard it said that a rut is just a grave with both ends kicked out, which of course implies that being in a rut is kind of like being dead. We don't have to go that far, but clearly being in a rut is a bad thing.

Now I don't know what the date of that article in the Washington Times was, but I'm thinking it was late August, somewhere around a month ago. But in my experience it might have been any time in the last, oh, 15 years and had some grain of truth to it. And "contemporary Christian music" is only about 35 years old.

That doesn't mean I think all Christian music is bad, much as it may sound like it, but it does mean that I think a lot of Christian music lacks that je ne sais quoi which makes it stand out from the crowd. In fact, back in the '90's (and that was clear last century) a friend of mine who is an excellent musician claimed he could spin the radio dial, come across some music, and tell you in less than 10 seconds if it was Christian music -- even without any lyrics being sung.

So what do you think? Is Christian music in a rut?