cheap spotlights, big crowd, loud noises

The River Hill Coffee House was wonderful! It took place October 19th, this past friday night from 7- 10:30. A friend of mine, Kathleen Littleton, was in charge of organizing the event, so she found a way to allow me to play (without me attending any of the meetings.. etc) They had so much equipment at this show, I can't explain how many guitar amps and microphone cords were filling up the huge area designated as the "stage" in the river hill cafeteria. enough power amps for people working at the wendy's down the street to hear some of the music! There were couches and rugs, and tables with artsy products and art work hung up over folded up cafeteria tables. Not to mention the dim lights from christmas lights and the two "spotlights" created by lightbulbs in those metal bowl-shaped devices.

Now that you have a feel for the setting.. I performed 3 songs, "spectacular", "what you'd say", and "maybe". And my faithful fans/friends and myself agreed that it was one of the best performances yet. I think all of this recording has made me become a little more consistent in my performances. A lot of times when I perform lots of songs I'll lose track of where I am in the song or simply forget some of the words, but with the hard work in the recording studio (if i can call an office with a computer and microphone a recording studio) I've really got all the songs figured out.

I've had so much fun with all of this lately, making CDs for my close friends (because the CDs still are not perfected in any way), performing at different venues, meeting tons of great people, and hearing so much good music... that I've been behind in all the paperwork! Like my paper for example, that I haven't started writing. I could totally write a personal essay about what this experience has been like, but RESEARCH is something i need to focus on and just DO even though it can be painful!

The holiday's are coming and the deadline for the maryland application is 10 days away. Next step would be to focus on these writing assignments, and rather than perfecting my recordings of my songs.. I'll start getting a grasp on my paper. there's so much i could still write about, it's scary to narrow-down. I'm starting to think I should bring out 3 different aspects of what makes a good musician and then pull examples from various artists to exemplify these qualities. That could get really messy though. We'll see!


Jodi

many unexpected pleasant surprises

This weekend has been great! I'm kind of getting lost in a good way in the music life. Lets see...

friday night I played at Maranatha fellowship for their coffee house in the section of the church they call "The Well". I opened for Forget Reason (www.forgetreason.com), and was able to play 5 songs. It was a great opportunity to get out there, and I made friends with the person in charge who apparently knows my family in some way (his daughters went to highschool with my older siblings at Roosevelt). The band members of forget reason have really taken me under their arm so to speak. They're just very supportive of everything I'm doing which helps me out a lot in times when I think-- what am I doing, again?

I have a completed college essay and I love it. One thing out of the way and done well.

The real "surprise" of the weekend came on saturday when we heard of Kendall Payne, a singer-songwriter from LA who has made friends with my dad through reading his books and my brother because they both live in Malibu and got connected, she was in the area and needed a place to sleep saturday night. So here is this rock-star who's got CDs for sale online and is on tour doing her thing, sitting in my living room! I played some of my songs and she played some of hers, it was really great. On sunday she got up last minute and played songs for the congregation, brought 20 CDs and sold them all after first service. She played for the youth group and everything, all for free. She's going to Nashville tomorrow to play with Andy Davis and The Daylights, I wish I could go to that show because it seems completely awesome!

One bit of insight from Kendall Payne: my dad asked her where the big music city was these days, and she said the internet blows any music city out of the water. The only way to make it is through exposure on the internet, while NYC, LA and Nashville all have a great music scene, the internet is where its really at. She uses CDbaby.com to distribute her CDs and they take 4 dollars and do all the work that comes with CD sales, she gets the rest.

guess she can be a source for my paper! the few hours i spent with her were valuable and simply awesome. This week I'm going to record/fix up the last recording i did.

Oh one thing i left out, before my performance on friday night I went to part of the song-writers collaborative focus group meeting. I met some great students and I like Tom and Sue a lot! This could be a really great program, I look forward to the next meeting. Its a shame I had to leave early for the show on friday, but at the same time kind of great to be busy with so much stuff I love.

Now is the struggle to care enough about math class to study for the test tomorrow, I'd really love to just spend all my time doing music and living through great things to be able to write about.

Paste magazine is a great one a friend of mine just let me have (her old copies of it), I think I'll ask for a subscription for christmas. they put sample CDs in each magazine with new artists. Its great!

The last bit of update I have- a friend of mine majoring in Film at towson, Joe Anderson asked if I'd want him to make me a music video because he'd like to try to get some experience with that. The idea is very tiny right now but I'm excited about that, it could be something really fun for both of us.


thats all for now!


Jodi

one day, 5 songs

I am still at the barn right now, being serenaded by Nuc's awesome band Forget Reason. I recorded all afternoon a quick CD I titled Round 1. I have been invited to open for forget reason on friday night in college park! Wonderful :) I can't wait!

Today went pretty smoothly I recorded Without knowing guitar and vocals at the same time and then went back to record each separately. This helps eliminate any problems with timing. After that I went at it, four songs in a row recording guitar and vocals at the same time. i'm using protools which allows me to punch in and use all kinds of effects. I didn't add any digital effects to my songs (yet) but it all sounds great! I am pleased with how today went.

Tomorrow is election day and my fingers are crossed for Kerry! I hope he beats bush.. for many reasons.

Friday night at 8 o clock. It's on, I'll be preparing.


Jodi