Today I look forward to a milestone that is important to me as a teacher: the winter recital for my private lesson students. It is amazing how the year flies by, and since we only have one or two recitals a year, I always reflect at this time on how quickly time marches on. (I also tend to view a "year" in terms of a school year, as many teachers do.) I am very proud of my students, who have achieved so much and who continue to amaze me. In just a couple of hours, 17 of my students will play piano, violin, or sing for their friends and families. Today I am not on the stage, they are. Today I hope to focus on how wonderful it is that they are giving their gift of music to other people by performing, but also talk about other ways in which your talents can affect and help people.

Which brings me to the next topic, that of the Officer Down Fundraiser concert which we are in the process of planning. Although the details are not yet 100% certain, (hence my reluctance to mention time, place, date, or hosts) it WILL happen within the next month or so. A friend of mine, who has been interested in aspects of sociology, criminal justice, safety, and law, for most of his life, and who happens to also be a music fan, had the idea of bringing the community together to raise money for the families of officers, and the officers themselves, who were wounded in the recent, tragic, rash of violence in Columbia, especially Molly Bowden, whose future health remains uncertain. I know I have been deeply alarmed and affected by these events close to home, and worldwide events, such as the Tsunami, that have all of us perhaps reflecting on the frailty of life. In recognizing that any one of us could be gone in an instant, we not only must appreciate life and those around us more fully, but give of what we can to provide comfort for those going through a difficult time.

Of course I am biased, but I believe music can bring people together and stir emotion unlike almost anything else. I am honored to have the opportunity to help bring people together to help, if we can. I DO know that tickets will be $10, ALL money will go to the Officer Down Fund, (the band and I receive no money for our performance) and a portion of CD sales will also be contributed to the fund. Additional donations are of course welcome. Local media is being very supportive, and this event will be getting great radio, newspaper, and TV coverage. Molly's injuries were so severe and will require such long-term care that her health insurance will not be able to cover all the hospital costs, and she may not be able to return to work in the future. I am hoping we can raise $10,000, which will still only scratch the surface for her and her family, but will hopefully provide them with a little comfort. Molly, and every officer, was and is serving our community in the capacity of a protector, so we should try to give back whenever possible, and recognize the risks they take when serving us.

I will provide more details on the concert as soon as I get final confirmation. Again, the concert WILL be in a venue in Columbia, tickets will be available for pre-sale at $10, it will be on a Saturday evening, and an early show (7:30pm) so that families with children can attend. All ticket proceeds, additional donations, and a portion of CD sales for that evening will go to the Officer Down fund.

Thanks for your support of music, and each other.

Wow! Last night the band had a fantastic New Year's Eve gig for First Night in Columbia. The venue we played at was so stuffed past capacity that I was told by a neighbor of mine who tried to attend that the site manager wouldn't allow them into the room, due to fire codes. There were people in the hallway and lined up the stairs, as we played on the second floor. Anyhow, it felt great to have such a full, responsive, fun crowd, and I couldn't have imagined a better way to ring in the new year. The band also was in rare form musically and everything came together beautifully with a couple of songs we had changed around. A few of my private lesson students attended, and it was so fun to see them sitting front and center. Also, CD sales were great, so I send a huge 'thank you' to everyone who supported us by attending the show, and everyone who gave their support by purchasing the music.

Since we only got back from Colorado Thursday night, we felt pretty pooped after the show, so we weren't able to take people up on several offers we had to celebrate downtown, go to private parties, or do much of anything except walk to our next-door neighbors house, drink a couple of beers, watch Seinfeld re-runs, and then say goodnight as soon the 2005 was born. But if New Year's Eve is any omen of things to come this year, I have nothing but high hopes.

Thanks to BA, who called us up after midnight and told us to turn on KOPN 89.5 FM. He was playing several cuts from Come In, Come IN: LIVE and wanted us to hear.

Happy New Year to everyone!

Christmas has just come and gone, and the New Year is rushing toward us. I am currently in Colorado, celebrating the holidays with friends and family at my sister Heather's house. Much has happened in the last couple of weeks. As I sit and type I am enjoying music on my new MP3 player, a gift from my sister who knows I have started to become avid about my running routine and want to hear whatever music I desire on my jaunts. Currently Peter Gabriel is telling me he hears that voice again, from the annals of one of his best albums, 'SO.'

On December 11th, my band and I played the Lee Ruth CD/celebration party in Boonville at Thespian Hall. So many local/regional musicians were there to play, help, celebrate, and commune. I met people I've heard of for the past four years but never seen in person, and I felt completely energized getting back onstage with the guys after a couple weeks away from performing. We re-arranged 'You Electrify Me' (our contribution to the Lee Ruth project) and had solos highlighting each member of the band as I introduced them. It was awesome. The venue was almost as beautiful as the kind people I met that night.

Shortly before Michael and I left for Colorado last Wednesday, I received a call from my Nashville producer telling me that some investors have decided they would like to fund the recording of several more songs. Although Belltown isn't sure of what the exact parameters of the project will end up being, it is incredibly exciting to have people willing to invest in me and my music, and trusting that the outcome will be worthwhile. The response to 'Out of the Wilderness' has been incredibly positive and encouraging. Although I continue to operate under a need to remain mum about specific details about the project...things continue to look up, and up, and up. I promise the full story will one day be told! Hopefully soon...

I have done/will do a couple of things I've never done before on this trip. I went to a spa and got a pedicure by Michael's request that I allow him to give me a gift of 'relaxation.' It was pretty awesome. I just don't usually do things like that. But my feet are softer than they've been in a long time. After scrubbing and massaging my feet, they pushed down my cuticles and put my feet in a hot paraffin dip, then painted my toenails and moisturized my skin. I know some women do this all the time, but it was a treat for me, and reminded me of those things, with ten toes, that get me around all the time and deserve a little better treatment! I usually ignore my feet.

I also plan to try my luck at downhill skiing before we head back to MO. I am a little nervous....let's pray nothing is broken by Tuesday night.

I am looking forward to Friday's First Night performance in Columbia, and the start of a fresh year of possibilities. As of now, I am scheduled to showcase in Nashville on Groundhog's Day...and whether Phil tells us we have six more weeks of winter or not, I am guaranteed to have a great night playing music in Nashville. I really have a good feeling about 2005. That's a nice number...and I feel there are 2005 things I want to do in the coming twelve months. May you all dream your 'crazy' dreams, and may many of them come true.

Happy Thanksgiving, one day late! We're up in Chicago, celebrating with Michael's family. I've basically followed strong turkey day tradition by spending not just the ACTUAL Thanksgiving holiday, but most of the day after as well, lounging on the sofa, making a trip to the kitchen every half hour or so for more food, and napping while watching re-runs of Seinfeld and the Simpsons.

We also watched 'The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' (is that right?) this morning. Interesting. I actually like Jim Carrey in dramatic roles, but there's something so comedic about his VOICE alone, that it's sometimes hard to remember you're not watching a comedy. He is funny without trying to be so.

Holiday tradition also called for a lengthy debate/discussion about politics, religion, gender issues and the environment today, but luckily most of it was punctuated with laughter and more gulps of beer, or wine, or cream soda, or coffee, or better yet a bite of cheesecake. Michael's mother is Italian and his father is Polish/German, so Thanksgiving dinner, while always including the pre-requisite turkey and stuffing, is actually more about lasagna, sausages, spaghetti, and other Italian or Polish dishes. I even learned the names of some of them while I was eating them, then promptly forgot what they were while digesting.

I spent three hours helping Michael's mom cook. I was pretty proud of myself, as it included some tasks I've never been responsible for before, and I might even have learned a family secret or two. The coolest was contemplating the irony of drying out several loaves of bread for the stuffing, only to re-hydrate them in water, bunch them up into little balls of dough, and add all the other ingredients to them, mushing it together with your bare hands like a kid with Playdough. Fun!!!! I can't believe I've never taken the opportunity to do some of this with my own mother, who's a great cook, and I vow to do this in the next year or two if we're with my family for Thanksgiving. I've got all of her great recipes in this huge family cookbook she puts out every few years (we're on the third edition) and yet there's something extra that goes into those recipes, beyond the list of ingredients and temperatures and cooking times. I'm sure everyone can attest to that 'un-nameable' something that guarantees that even if you follow your mother's recipe to a 'T', it never tastes as good as when she cooks it herself. SIGH!

I do miss my family, and phone calls aren't enough. We're looking forward to Christmas, which we will spend in Colorado, with my sister and other family members. I hope to downhill ski (watch out trees, small animals, and people in my way) and relax before the BIG PUSH which is going to occur in my music career with the ringing in of the New Year.

More to come...

Just a few days ago, I was asked by a student at MU to answer some questions for a story he was writing in one of his classes. The topic is how digital distribution of music affects artists, music stores, and music itself. Another point of concern is what might happen to albums as an art form. I don't know what will ultimately happen with his story or if it will be available for the general public to read, and since the topic fascinates me and is quite pertinent to what I do, I've decided to basically re-print my reponses to him here in this blog.

First of all, my performance and recording career began right as the push for digital distribution was gearing up, so I've been involved in it from the start. In speaking with musicians whose careers began years before mine and have been at it longer, I know the general perception is that digital access to music has changed and is greatly changing the musical landscape for artists, labels, record stores, and consumers alike, but it seems there is a positive and a negative side to these changes.

First, for the positive side of digital distribution: it affords artists more ways to get their music to the public, plain and simple. For some artists who do not have distribution deals in music stores, they can still have their music listened to, and purchased by, an international audience through various digital distribution websites, or their own website. It also provides an excellent way for people to "review" your music if they haven't heard it on the radio or attended a live show. I do have song clips on my website and on CD Baby (great online music store) because the more informed people feel about their decision to purchase, the more likely they are to do so. So, in this way, many artists probably sell more music to people who would not buy their album on the basis of seeing the cover alone. I'd liken this phenomenon to the way that record stores, in the last two decades, brought in "listening stations" where you could review a CD you were interested in buying to make sure you wanted it. In general, I think this increases CD sales. I also have individual songs available for sale and download on several websites like Apple iTunes and others. I still sell more complete albums than I do individual downloads, but part of that may be due to the tremendous amount of information consumers have to sift through in order to find a single artist or song. The added income from digital downloads isn't something I'd turn my nose up at, however. It gets my music to more people and doesn't seem to be hurting my CD sales at all. In my experience, people still seem very interested in purchasing CDs at an actual music store, or purchasing it at a show, and often their last option is to order it online if they can't find it elsewhere, so right now I feel digital availability of music is an ADDENDUM to the other ways that music is available, rather than something that is ringing the death knoll for those other options. However...everything changes as technology grows and as we grow accustomed to new ways of doing things, so certainly the various ways in which digital distribution will affect music, not just as an industry, but as an art form, will continue to be seen in the years to come.

Because of my label and some of the websites I'm carried on, I've had the opportunity to be on these digital pay download sites, and also to be distributed 'online' in stores like Tower Records. This is beneficial to me because I'm not on a major label yet, so I don't have hundreds of thousands of CDs manufactured to physically stock in Tower Records stores all over the United States. But if someone can go online at Tower and find my CD, I'm still 'available' in every state without having to expend millions of dollars to make enough CDs to physically stock in each of these stores. Is this necessary to be competitive in the music industry? To some extent, yes. As my demo gets shopped to labels, I'm able to show them what my appeal is to a wider audience than just my local one, because I have customers all over the world. I can point to how many hits my website gets, how many CDs I've sold online and where those CDs are going to, and how many times a certain song has been downloaded. They're not just looking for how many people you draw at a local show, they want to know if you can attract listeners from anywhere, and how well you're able to market youself. Online and digital distribution is just one vital part of that beast now. And if a major label is not the route someone wants to go, it's infinitely helpful for those who are independent and want to remain so, since it gives them more options for reaching an audience without spending millions on marketing.

I do see some negatives to the increase of digitally available music. First of all, my biggest concern is what I view as the "Tangible and Visible" side of music. I do feel it is important to be able to hold an 'album' in your hands, view the artwork and lyrics, and feel a physical connection to the music you are hearing. Already in our lifetimes, the actual 'record' has become almost obsolete. (On the flip side, however, vinyl is now seen as "collectible" and quite coveted.) But if you think about the "tangible and visible" quality of records as compared to CDs, the first noticeable change is that on CDs everything is smaller. Not quite as visually impactful. If you have a thousand records, you really know it because it takes up half a room in your house! :) So we have CDs, which sound better, and are smaller, and now 1,000 of them can fit into a couple of shelves in your house. This is more convenient for music lovers, but CDs just aren't as "interesting." Will CDs go the way of cassette tapes? That depends, I believe, on the technology of the system, not on digital availability of music. For example, tape players sounded better than record players and 8 tracks, so people stopped buying records and 8 tracks. CDs sound better than cassettes, so people stopped buying cassettes. I don't think people will stop buying CDs in favor of digital downloads, because the comparison is not as direct. There is nothing "tangible or visible" about a digital download. I think in order for CDs to become obsolete, a better sounding device will need to be invented. And then I still believe people will want something physical they can look at. This is due to the emotional significance many people place on music, in relation to the artists that create it. I think people want to see their favorite artists live because it creates a personal connection for them between the music and the person. If you don't have the option of seeing the artist live, the pictures and artwork on an album provide the next best thing, at least SOME connection to the person creating the music. In no other art form are the art and the artists so vitally tied into each other.

As for losing the visual art with the increase of digital distribution, I sincerely hope this never occurs. I don't feel it will for a long time, at least, because I can say that my albums sell on the basis of the cover art first if someone has not heard the music yet. A good graphics job, a nice photo, can impact someone's emotions and sensibility more immediately than anything else. I can't count the number of CDs I've purchased becuse of the cover art when I'd never heard the music. (But my favorite one is Screaming Trees 'Uncle Anesthesia.' Bought that when I was 13, and it opened up my eyes.) If music stores were ever to become obsolete, I'd imagine online record stores would STILL offer complete albums with cover art and photos, because it's human nature to want to "hold and see" things. CD Baby is one of the most successful online music stores, and they rely heavily on the visual impact of your album to get people interested in reading more about it and listening to sound bytes. If someone doesn't have a clue who you are, how will they ever find you on the internet? They won't find you by name because they don't know it yet. They won't find your music by song title, because they don't know it yet. But if they go to an online music store and type in their favorite genre of music, and see your album pop up with awesome cover art, they're going to look farther. Just seeing your name and a song title won't do it for them because it's not necessarily interesting in and of itself. People need a "weeding out" method. I would never want to spend hours and hours a day clicking on song titles of people's names and just "hoping" I'd land on something good. We need more information, and visuals can provide that extra incentive to get us to look farther.

I think the value of 'album as art form' will be self-preserving. All the very best musicians have historically been concerned not with "singles" but with the flow and connectedness of the album as a whole; ten or so songs that create a musical masterpiece, rather than isolated bodies of work meant to sell commercials on the radio. Count on your Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, Nick Drake, Led Zeppelin, Joan Baez and Beatles of the world (just to name a few for whom the idea of 'album' is important) to save this art form. Modern musicians can hope to aspire to this level of artistry. In the same manner that painters must learn the rules of the past before they can break them, so must musicians. We can alter the way that music gets to the people, but I don't think we can ever eradicate entirely the traditions and modes that have made music, and albums, such a central part of our lives.