Saturday, August 29, 2009

Extraordinary...

Last night, I performed with John Luttrell and Scarlet Rivera. Fellow KSBR Schmooze artists. You may or may NOT be aware.. that on Sunday September 6th, John Luttrell, Me, Jeff Oster, Denise Young and Scarlet Rivera will be all on the same stage together, from 6pm - 9:30pm Pacific. This is a rare and beautiful opportunity for YOU to join us. We would love to meet you.. those of you that are supporters of our music and those of you that have yet to see us perform live. Together we can bond, share stories about how the music has touched you. How we as the artists, were touched in diverse ways to compose and create the music with the help of many others.

To KSBR: DJ and Don... I appreciate the encompassing efforts to bring us together.

Visit KSBR to buy your tickets to the Schmooze event. You will come away feeling uplifted.. ready to take on the world.

To say that the performances I have had this summer was mediocre.. has NOT been that. The moment we are on stage together are the moments of clarity, beauty and the love for our music and one another's talents are bigger than we are.

Each of us have a distinct musical voice. Songs that touches us in many diverse ways. Here are links to those of us performing.. and I HOPE you take the time to listen to each of us with open hearts and minds.

Jeff Oster

Scarlet Rivera

Denise Young

John Luttrell

Kori Linae Carothers

As I type this.. Jeff and Denise are in Nashville, at the JPF - Just Plain Folks Just Plain Folks awaiting awards, and performing.

My thanks to Will for introducing me into a world filled with musical opportunities, new friendships, and more kindred spirits than I ever thought possible.. this is NOT lost on me.

Extraodinary is the word....

Monday, August 24, 2009

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Whirlwind...

Where do I begin? At the beginning? Summer was the beginning of all this craziness. I am HAPPY.. but oh... man its been nuts. Not complaining... happy to see the music doing so well.

The biggest news.. is that the album has made it to number 2 on the top 100 charts for July 2009 at the zonemusicreporter.com. You can click on title of the blog and it will take you there very fast! Click here: ZoneMusicReporter

My sister Annette has reported to me that she has been hearing my music on Comcast's Music Choice program. We both have been very emotional about it all. I can't tell you what this project has meant to me. I have ALWAYS wanted to record my music and to have the opportunity to work with Will and Corin at Imaginary Road.. has simply been THE best experience in my life.

I want to thank those of you that are on the album. Jeff Silverman.. you rock! Will and Corin.. thank you . I am sure throughout my life I will continue to thank you.. because we all will be working together again. Katja, Tania and Deb... thank you... I will never be able to thank everyone properly for the hard work, the love they put into the music.. for helping me, for becoming my friend for life. All of you.. Jeff Oster, Jeff Silverman, Aeone, Will, Corin, Scarlet Rivera, Tom Shinness, Eugene Friesen, Jeff Haynes, David Cullen, T Bone Wolk, Malcolm Dalglish, Derrik Jordan, Jim McCarty, Chris Bahnsen, Ian Blanch and Skip Saylor.

Jace Vek.. thanks for your recommendations... look what you did! LOL

Words cannot EVER express.. my thanks....

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Home...

After what seems like years of being away... I am home. I went to Vermont to work at Imaginary Road Studios... to mix in Surround Sound. I am quite happy how the music turned out. I think we have a few more tweaks here and there.. but other than that, I will have surround mixes of Trillium. I took my 10 year old daughter with me... and we had a great time just hanging out with one another. Seeing Imaginary Road and staying there in the summer time was FUN! Jane had fun "planting" sticks around the area. I met Rocky Fretz and his lovely wife.. and of course hung out with Will and Susan. Corin as always, did a rockn job mixing/mastering the surround mixes. We took many pictures of the Vermont area.. mostly of the Stickney Brook and the West River. They have had SO much rain and the bugs were out in force. I have NEVER seen ants as big as there were in VT! lol I even got bit by some no-see-ums. In fact.. I was the main course.

After Vermont, Jane and I drove back to Boston on Saturday the 1st of August. We drove down the 2 East. Which was a beautiful drive. I must confess New England is one of my favorite places to visit. We hung out at our Hotel because of being ultra tired. Sunday morning came roaring in.. we did our laundry, etc. The mundane things of life. I met Bill Bernardi the maker of the Lyricon. Google that.. and I guarantee an interesting read.

Then... I had an interview on WICN Tonal Vision show with Karen Mungal. We drove to Worcester pronounced by the locals Woosta... Its not Wor chester. its Woosta.. rhymes with Rooster. Many of the locals had a good laugh at how I thought it was supposed to be pronounced. The concert was amazing. As with any concert..if I don't remember to take pictures it ain't gonna happen .. and it didn't! *sigh*... I was too focused on playing the music.. and staying in a mode where I could perform. I met some wonderful people and the studio that I performed in was fabulous. Karen is a lovely woman.. and I enjoyed talking with her.

We drove back to our hotel.. and I think Jane and I ended up going to bed at 11pm Eastern. I was exhausted and slept soundly. We woke up Monday morning and got ready to fly from Boston to Minneapolis. OF course there was NOT a direct flight on American.. so we had to fly to Chicago.. make a MAD dash to connect to our flight to Minneapolis. Imagine... us running in the Chicago Airport going from the K concourse to the L concourse.. "Home Alone" comes to mind... we barely made it.

What is the chance in life that you have friends in two different states that have the same last name? Well... Will Ackerman... of course in Vermont. My best friend and her family live in Minneapolis.. and their last name is Ackerman!!!! NO relation there.. but it makes an interesting story. We arrived in Minneapolis in the evening.. the sun was still up.. and it was SUPER to see Kathy and her family. We have not seen each other in a while... so it was a good visit. They took us to the Mall of America on Tuesday. THAT place was wild. I met Bill Binkelman there.. and that was cool. VERY nice guy. I enjoyed talking with him.

Wednesday came all too soon. We flew from Minneapolis to Chicago.. then Chicago to LAX. It was hard to be done.. but I told Jane to be happy instead of being sad. Happy for the experience she had.

Its been a very interesting summer. Fraught with challenges. Who doesn't have them right? Mine seem to hang by a thread at times.. and I am often perplexed at what to choose.. and where to go.

Many of my choices tho lately.. have been good for me on many levels. I have chosen to never let the negative bring me down. Sure.. I can wallow in it and make myself unhappy in that choice.. but I choose to enjoy what life hands me. Not saying I don't have my down days.. but I tend to decide to stay positive to matter what.

I will be posting pictures! Onwards and Upwards!
Today is turning out to be very busy... I am drowning! lol.... sheesh