Set List: Top of the Park, Ann Arbor, June 14, 2015
Photo credits: Chris Major-Talley
June 14, 2015 @ Ann Arbor’s Summer Fest: Top of the Park
- Only the Rain Knows Why
- Here Comes the Sun (Beatles)
- A World That’s Bigger
- Don’t Mess Around with Jim (Jim Croce)
- I Just Want to Be Your Last
- Burning Bright
- Love Birds
- Mahogany
Ginny’s second daddy show!
Yesterday went from “Here Comes the Sun” to “Only the Rain Knows Why” quickly!
Video: https://instagram.com/p/37YaUlDTZL/?taken-by=mikevial
Ryan Stanton’s video clip of the end of “Mahogany”: https://instagram.com/p/37VZ01kmGS/
Want to hear a studio recording of a song played at the show? Download a music bundle of all of my music here.
I say thank you, because you are awesome
On commute from Chicago to Detroit last week, Peyton Tochterman and I were joking about how the music business makes NO sense most of the time.
Live on Fearless Radio in Chicago
Peyton quoted Hunter S. Thompson: “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.”
LOL!
Last week, and really the last five years, has been a contradiction to that when I focus on you, and not “the industry.”
Music has been a wonderful excuse to make new friends, and bump into old friends who attend a concert: friends from high school I haven’t seen in years, college friends with jobs out of state, musicians one their night off, Holly teachers on summer break, former students now with families and jobs…
Today, two days after a successful short run of gigs dates, I have to pause and write a thank you. I’m four years into music full time, and I couldn’t be doing it without your support.
This morning, I received my first poem commission!
Tomorrow, I leave for a mini tour of four gig dates, 600+ miles on the road.
I pause and reflect on this because when one starts out in any business, one hears “no” more than “yes.” When I was 18, all of the music schools where I applied said “no.” When I was doubting myself two years, I applied to an MFA writing program, and got another “no.”
None of these rejections have been setbacks; instead, they’ve been opportunities for me to reevaluate a new way to pursue what I enjoy doing: writing, playing music, and teaching.
And after 900+ gigs, I keep meeting people who say, “Yes!”
The real gatekeepers aren’t the college board members reviewing applications or the a record label executives listening to a CD. They are the people who host house concerts, the people who leave a buck in the tip jar, the people who attend intimate shows at a local venue; and the first gatekeeper we face is the voice inside our own heads.
Today, I remind myself that the first person who has to say “yes” is ourselves.
Chicago House Concert with Frances Luke Accord
PS: Still not convinced? Read this: Seth Godin: Pick Yourself
The listicle, the short form writing that is part article, part popsicle–fun, “but not too nutritious” (Okrant 1)–is here to stay.
Here are five of my favorite examples:
- The 11 mistakes every young band makes
- The 10 weirdest custom guitars
- 22 best coffee shops in Michigan
- 5 ways listicles are changing journalism
- 5 reasons the listicle is here to stay, and why that’s OK
We live in a bite-sized, watered-down world; but the listicle is not ruining journalism, readers, or the Internet. The only danger with the listicle is we often see it as a final statement, a sign that the work is done.
But what’s more powerful? Reading a list of the best breweries in Michigan, or embarking on road trip from your own research and creating your own list?
Go forth and create your own listicle.
Spring has been surprisingly fruitful for my writing (AKA, I’ve been writing a $hit ton between diaper changes!), so I’ve started a new project for the summer: “Be the Muse: Commission a Poem.”
Poem patrons get:
1. the first hand-written draft;
2. a framed signed-typed copy; and
3. a giant download of 22 songs as a thank you.
$40 = 1 poem, 22 songs, and many hugs: Click here to commission a poem.
Kitchen tables make the best offices for writing!
My co-writing partner!
