November News

We opened November with another great Sundaysong Singalong in Stacy Park. They keep getting better and the coolest people keep showing up.

Maile made a pot of Chai Tea and I passed out the first Singalong Songbook. This is the first draft of what I hope will eventually be a nicely bound book of dozens of songs with drawings in the margins. Listen to us sing on Soundcloud:

Sundaysong Singalong 11-2-14, Soundcloud player

I’m now on a perpetual search for songs about peace, gratitude, wisdom, friendship, higher love… Please email me if you have or hear any good singalong ideas for a Sunday morning.

As a musician trying to focus on what I do best and present it in the easiest, most authentic way, I’m frequently wondering about the seven music strategy questions in this survey:

Please click here and give me your perspective by taking
my 1-minute, 7-question, multiple-choice survey.

Thanks for any help with those question,
j

p.s. I went to Santa Fe for the week of Thanksgiving, took a ton of pictures and found a few artists I really liked.

Santa Fe Photos

Maile, Anais, Papa, Lil and I spent Thanksgiving week in Santa Fe where we rented a wonderful 5 level artist retreat on 5 acres in the hills just outside of town. We had a great time, walked a bunch of galleries, ate green chile dishes, hiked the hills, visited the Taos pueblo, and found time to sit around, draw, read, talk and watch TV.

I found a bunch of art I liked and was constantly taking pictures of the beautiful sky and sunset light, all the art and ornamentation. Here a few of my favorites and a slideshow at the bottom of the 297 photos in my Santa Fe set on Flickr.

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A Few Favorite Santa Fe Artists

Tim Althauser

I’ve been looking for nature motifs for music poster ideas recently, particularly photos of the sky through the trees. In Santa Fe I shot dozens of what I call looking up at trees. So you can imagine how excited I was when I found Tim Althauser’s paintings of looking up at trees at the William and Joseph Gallery.

Apparently he is in his 70s, has suffered a stoke and applies painstaking detail despite a limited range of movement. I love these.

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Mark Horst

When I saw Mark Horst’s style, it reminded me of what I like about Mark Tansey and the fellow whose painting – Chesapeake Birdwatchers – hangs in our room. Figures in the foreground, abstract, minimal background.

From talking with the gallery owner I learned he is a divinity and fine arts grad from Yale who went the art route. Apparently, he changes up his style for each series. This one is from a trip to Injambakkam, India. It looks like he works from photographs.

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 Various Artists

Here are a few other artist’s work I liked, snapped a pic of around town.

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November 2014 Singalong at Little Stacy Park

It was a gorgeous day and a gorgeous set of people this morning singing along in Little Stacy Park. Maile made a pot of Chai Tea for everyone, Gray played along on uke, lots of old friends and kiddos showed up, and the weather could not have been nicer.

My printed songbooks seemed to be a vast improvement on the transparency projector… we sat in more of a circle and people could actually read the words! Listen below to a few clips from our singalong set, on Soundcloud.

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October News

October was a month of fantastic firsts. We threw our first Sundaysong Singalong outside at the park to great effect. A bunch of cool folks came and really dug it, singing Beatles songs while kids make chalk art on the sidewalk. We’ll do it again the first Sunday of November.

Ralph and J Play Along on Waller Creek

And I played my first gig with my new battery powered pedalboard and vocal amp. My dream of amplifying the magic paid off, and I think Ralph and I were able to make that sweet spot into a dreamy space for the Friday lunchtime crew. This stood in stark contrast to the campus gig Ralph and I played the week before, by the turtle pond, without amplification, where I belted out the songs and struggled to be heard over all the distracting background activity.

Maile, Anais and I also checked out a cool festival an hour north of Austin called Art Outside. Considering that art outside is basically what I consider my mission these day, I had to check it out, and I’m glad I did. Cool music, vibe, grounds, and format. Weaving visual and performance art in with the music festival added a real richness that made it feel more participatory and authentic than just a hipster-hippy party.

hipster hippy,
j