Monthly Archives: June 2009

Moondancing Billie Jean — My Michael Jackson Tribute

June 26, 2009
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I was never a huge Michael Jackson fan, but I did really like a lot of his stuff, and in general I thought, despite whatever else one might think about him, he was a pretty fantastic songwriter.

I’d been playing around with Billie Jean for a while and decided this was the time to put it out there — Michael Jackson by way of Van Morrison. As a tribute to the late moonwalker, the first half is Billie Jean in the style of Moondance, the second half a mashup of the two.

I think it a testament to Michael’s genius that his work can be not only brilliant in itself but translate so well into other styles.

I keep the Offhand Band YouTube channel for original stuff, so this performance is on the Potluck Creative Arts channel and here through the wonder of embedding. Enjoy.

Just Got Interviewed for the Brent & Woofy Radio Show

June 18, 2009
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Earlier this week, I heard from Brent Boehler of Brent & Woofy. Brent also writes and performs original songs for kids and families, and Woofy is his buddy, a dog who happens to be a puppet who happens to be voiced by Brent through ventriloquism. In addition to their own albums, shows and all sorts of other things, they’ve got their very own radio show. After receiving a copy of Everyone's Invited, Brent asked me to do a telephone interview for the show.

I just got off the phone with Brent a few minutes ago. He’s quite a nice guy, and the interview was really enjoyable. It will air on the Brent & Woofy Radio Show in a few weeks on CHLY 101.7 FM out of Nanaimo, BC, then sometime after that on CJAM 91.5 FM out of Windsor, ON, and Detroit, MI. The show will also be available to listen to online through Brent & Woofy’s website.

I’ll post links when more info is available. In the meantime, there’s plenty of other cool stuff to check out from Brent & Woofy. Enjoy!

Oh, Right, I’m Supposed To Be Blogging

June 8, 2009
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I always meant to blog here regularly about how things are going with this “band,” what it’s like to be a musician, things like that. It’s been tricky with so many other things going on. I won’t say they keep demanding my time, I’ll say that there are reasons I keep making them more of a priority than this. It feels like it’s been necessary, but it’s also been frustrating because I’d enjoy being able to do more here.

Aside from a lot of life maintenance stuff that’s incredibly boring to talk about but seems important in this complex world (accounting, backups, things like that), even with music and the arts there are things going on other than this. I’m mostly making a living giving Simply Music piano lessons. They’re really great, much better than other methods I’ve taught — better for the students, better for me. I kind of need another couple dozen or so students in order to actually be making a living, though, so making that happen takes time beyond doing the lessons themselves. And continuing to learn how to actually teach the material. And all the administrative stuff that goes on around it all. There’s always something :)

I’ve also done some gigging. There was a piano bar gig in Albany for a while, but that fizzled out, and I’m not so heartbroken about it. It was a long way to go to have hardly anyone show up. Another more local gig has come by, but I’m going to test the waters on that before talking much about it. We’ll see what happens.

Last week, though, finally got out a couple dozen more promotional copies of the album, mostly to a bunch of kids’ radio shows/stations. So I’m looking forward to seeing what comes of that.

I wonder if I put out the album too soon! I finished it right around when I started kicking things up with piano lessons, and that plus these bunch of other things have meant less time for promoting the album. I wonder if I ought to have gotten other things to a point of making a living first, and then focused on the album. I’d have been a lot better able to publicize it right from the start rather than letting it sit around for so long and still not really get to do much!

Anyway, that’s where a bunch of things are right now, moving in good directions, just slowly, and so it’s nice to have some patience about it all. And nice to try to think ahead and figure out what’s really a good way to go about things. Live and learn, right? Hopefully so.

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