To vote, click here, scroll down to the player, highlight your favorite song, and click the "Download" circle with the music note icon.
“Empty Cup” made the cuts to be entered in the Detroit Music Awards’ “People’s Choice” category! While my chances of winning are slim since the voting is going to be very competitive, the opportunity to share my song with more people is really exciting. You can vote for my song (or any of your Michigan favorites) at www.detroitmusicawards.com by scrolling down to the music player and clicking “download” for your favorite song! A vote is cast for each download.
Ironically, “Empty Cup” was a song I never expected to leave the filing cabinet when I wrote it years ago. I wanted to reflect on just how many people offer help during the completion of a song like “Empty Cup,” and share some “Thank You’s” to people who deserve recognition. Writing a song is more than just me sitting in my little home studio and messing around with chords on the guitar. It’s a spectrum of moments, and many people offer help along the way. Some don’t even know how important their advice is.
The first group that I wanted to thank is the Holly High School students who attended a career fair workshop I led in 2008 addressing the music business. The counseling staff asked me to host a session about being a working musician, and I was a little nervous to try to “be the professional on the subject.” However, this was one of my top memories from teaching. I loved talking to young writers and musicians about my musical journey, and it was fun to discuss how musicians could make a living during the changing paradigm of the recording and downloading industries. My workshops were packed with interested sophomores, juniors and seniors (as well as a few teachers and technology staff who were curious!)
I ended up closing the session by playing a song, and on a whim, I shared a song I had never performed live, a song that I never really felt it was very good because it was so different from my other works. I played the high school students “Empty Cup.”
The session ended before I finished playing my song, but I don’t think any one got up to leave when the bell rang. And the younger audience’s reaction to this song was so overwhelmingly positive, it gave me the courage to continue redrafting the tune.
I later was asked to do some songwriting workshops with Mrs. Farkus’s creative writing courses in 2008-2009, and I think I ended up playing “Only the Rain Knows Why” and “Empty Cup” for those attentive writers too. What really gave me encouragement was students came up to me in the hallway a year later asking, “Where can I get a copy of that Empty Cup song, Mr. Vial?” I had never thought it was a song worth recording!
Sharing an early draft of a song with an audience can be terrifying. It’s hard to believe that a song I first drafted in August of 2007 didn’t become a finalized recording until September of 2011. And without those Holly High School students offering encouragement, it wouldn’t be competing for the Detroit Music Awards’ “People Choice” category. The song would still be sitting unfinished in my filing cabinet.
Next post in a few days will be about the musicians who played on the track, and how a draft of a song from 2007 becomes a full-band arrangement by 2011.
Thanks to you all, and God bless,
Mike
To vote, click here, scroll down to the player, highlight your favorite song, and click the "Download" circle with the music note icon.
“Empty Cup” made the cuts to be entered in the Detroit Music Awards’ “People’s Choice” category! While my chances of winning are slim since the voting is going to be very competitive, the opportunity to share my song with more people is really exciting. You can vote for my song (or any of your Michigan favorites) at www.detroitmusicawards.com by scrolling down to the music player and clicking “download” for your favorite song! A vote is cast for each download.
Being on tour is expensive, especially with gas close to $4 a gallon; however, I thought I’d be smart and cut down on food expensives by having picnicks during my off times, avoid restaurants and fast food by eating, simple healthy meals. Little did I know, this would lead me to meet two, nice officers of the Schaumburg police.
You see, Google Maps shows two large parks right by Chicago City Limits. I arrived to my gig really early, and I decided to spend the afternoon at Atcher Park. Why not enjoy some of this gorgeous, early summer-like weather before being cooped up in a bar all night, right? I found some park benches and read a magazine.
The scene of the crime...
However, I guess these park benches are over the line of the public park and on the St. Marcelline Parish’s “private property.” A representive of the church called the police and told them a man was “camping” on their property.
So this leads to two cop cars arriving to investigate the scary musician eating some goldfish crackers and reading the Illinois Entertainer while laying on a blanket.
Honestly, the cops were pretty cool. Once they realized I simply thought I was using the public park (which was like 30 feet away), they were joking about the “incident.” As I drove away, one of the cops yelled, “Rock out Slayer at your gig!”
So now I’m at a Starbucks, kind of chuckling that the Catholic Church called the cops on a fellow Catholic.
Wow. This was my second time playing St. Patrick’s Day as a musician, but it feels like my first. Last year, I was still teaching, and I only played an earlier afternoon slot.This year, St. Patrick’s Day became a very large event for me as a musician.
As a teacher, I used to share some notable stats from the career. (Example: Number of cups of coffee, number of papers collected, number of times I rapped during a grammar lesson, etc.)
I thought I’d share some stats as a musician on St. Patty’s Day: Learned 20 Irish songs in preparation (in five days). Played two gigs. Drove 95.2 miles. Sang for eight hours. Drank one beer, a Guinness. Only had one drunken lady try to sing into my microphone. Got my first sunburn.
Hope you all had fun! I’m still tired!
My mom got us a shamrock plant yesterday. It's pretty awesome!
Got my first sunburn of the year, in March. This is also a very unattractive photo of my arm.
Hey! Natalie and I are in the Lansing State Journal article’s Life section! The article is about our Michigan-made wedding and our blog, mymitteninyours.com!
You can read the article online by clicking here: “Married–and made in Michigan”
Hey! Look at us cheering our nuptials with jars of McClures!
Special thanks to Tricia Bobeda for writing up the article and photographer Greg DeRuiter for meeting us at the Lansing City Market to take some photos of Michigan stuff we might be using at our wedding!
Photo Credits: Andrea Lawson
