I Want to Hear 'Live' Music

These days I'm wanting to hear music 'live' and in person. Recorded music is wonderful, good for the long car ride, the distraction from traffic, yoga, cooking, behind the dinner party, helping me clean the house, relaxing...all of those places are good settings for recorded music. But when it comes to people who make the music, and the condition of music itself, I'm interested in the people and the sounds; what they are doing, tuning up their instrument, concentrating, playing something differently every time it's performed, trying to make something beautiful, being in the now. Music is completely in the now. And the people who create it are intrinsically and subtly more interesting than a recording. When watching and listening to people playing music, we are in a natural 'virtual world' state, the very one that we live in. The experience and the music fill up space, it reaches our bones, it inspires continuing thought and emotion, all of our senses are involved. Once we capture the music and put it in a format, it freezes it, which is a different setting for what music naturally is. For me, 'live 'music is a vital medium. I want to hear at least as much or more 'live' music, as recorded music.

I'm obviously not trying to sell recordings here. : )
...But specifically I recommend 'Blooming' for your next road trip.
Darrell Scott's on-the fly solos are worth the $15, and brilliant recording work. You should have seen him 'live' in the recording studio, as I did. 

Be Well and Prosper,
Kate MacLeod
www.katemacleod.com

Breaking a Leg and Patreon

Hello folks! It's been a while since I have "blogged." Been busy both performing and breaking my leg. I realize now, that when I get ready to perform and someone says "break a leg," that they're just kidding. : )
My muse this month, while nurturing my leg and on crutches for four more weeks, will be to also nurture my new home page at Patreon.com. I've investigated this website for a while and have decided it's perfect for my desire to be sharing what I do on a regular basis with a larger group of people. Through the page there's an easy to use activity feed where I can post to let people know about the progress of projects. I can even share the rough drafts of music with you. 
This website connects artists with interested patrons who pledge any chosen amount of money, in support of careers, and are in exchange offered music, gifts, music lessons, concerts and whatever else is possible for their patronage. Many of you have heard of the popular Kickstarter site that funds individual projects, but patreon.com provides ongoing communication between artists and supporters, and longterm support for careers. In the past I've relied on private support for some of my larger projects, but this new site offers an organized place to work in less of a vacuum, more within a community, a community of people who I actually create music for. I'm looking forward to this!
Please check out this page at www.patreon.com/katemacleod
And aside from music projects, I have plans to be back on my feet by summer, to enjoy some of my favorite hiking trails. xoxo

Fireside Chats with Kate MacLeod, watch or listen to from anywhere

I'll be online tomorrow night, Thurs Jan 22, 9pm EST, according to time zones, for my online chat/music show. You can watch from the comfort of your home or anywhere you are, online through Concert Window.com. I'll be playing some new music, interviewing Skip Gorman in New Hampshire, and sharing my favorite Hot Toddy recipe for the cold January nights. Don't miss Skip! He's a wonderful and reclusive master musician, specializing in Western Music and its Celtic influences. During the show we'll have a chance to get into some interesting discussions about the arts and share some duets with you.
Here's a sample youtube clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fidzdSfbOVU

Someone asked in an interview...If I could go back in time and visit a person or experience from history, who or what would that be? I answered that I would want most to hear Johann Sebastian Bach and his wife Anna Magdalena Bach playing music and singing together. Mmmm, that would be the ultimate for me, to hear wonderful music from the source and to witness the fabric of love that music is capable of supporting.

There's hardly anything that will effect my performance more than the sound system and the people operating it. Collectively, they can make me sound like a million bucks or make me sound absolutely horrible. It can effect things like sales at the merchant table, the enjoyment of the experience by the audience and musicians, as well as more serious things such as if someone will ever come back to hear me again or not. For sometimes, an audience member might not be aware that music can be irritating, or worse, because of poor handling of the sound reinforcement and they react to this subliminal experience. I've recently had a few frustrating dates with poor sound at an otherwise well organized event.
I'm going to have to add a sound person to my bill, someone that will do every show with me, as I did when I performed regularly with the Pancakes. It doesn't matter if presenters think this is demanding or problematic, it's a matter of making sure the audience is not shortchanged. Additionally, there is usually a correlation between how good the sound is and how many CDs I sell at the event.

     I watched a video by Reba McEntire currently being passed around the internet. It features her original song "Pray for Peace." It's great to hear you singing about this, Reba, in response to the current violence in the world. Which brings up the subject, to take this a step further. However a thought can inspire, it's action that's needed to create material change. The habitual violence and military activity of our world has been handed down from generation to generation, including the conviction that violence is somehow the most trusted way to solve political problems or to counter aggression. I understand the necessity of creating a defense in light of an aggressive world, but the aggressiveness of the world is what we are responsible for changing. It would require us putting our minds, hearts and money into change, in the same way that people invest all of those in militarism. People lose patience with negotiations, but then live through years of warfare as an alternative, as if that is normal activity. We are responsible for deciding what is healthy and normal. I argue that our historic perspective is a learned and fostered option.
     Militarism and use of violence for political sway, including terrorist activity, regularly includes highly trained specialists, requiring years of training and experience. Many politicians move from a military background into places of political leadership, further supporting militarism in a government's structure. If we want to change the course of violence and self destruction to ensure safety for the earth's population, there will need to be significant practical and material efforts to create cooperation and new ways of problem solving. Upcoming generations of people need to be taught new ways of thinking, of mediating differences, of placing faith in solving problems without the use of violence and warfare. It will take specialists and economic support to guide these changes, especially within governments. Although we generally admire peacemakers and those who create change through action, such as Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King and others, there seems to be a disconnect between vision and the ability to create what we envision. Vision can be made real through action and planning. We are responsible for what happens through our decision making and organizational programs, through where we put our money, who we put into leadership positions and to what limits we will tolerate current and growing violence in our world.

It's been fun this past week playing with Walter Parks, an amazing guitarist and composer. He used to tour as guitarist with Richie Havens for ten years or so before Richie passed away. It's times like these when I sure wish I was touring enough to be able to hire someone like Walter Parks to back me up for ten years or so. There would be something special, if so, I believe.

After a string of wonderful but sometimes perplexing music experiences, I'm led to ponder the meaning of music to people nowadays. Sometimes I think that music used to mean more to people than it does now. Americans have a musical heritage, but if it's not too many golden oldies in a loop sequence at the convenience store, than it's those who rehash the music that they grew up with, as if there has not been anything created since. I know how good the music was in the 60s and 70s, I was there. I was a kid, but I heard it everywhere, especially through my older sisters.
I now write music in response to everything and everyone around me. Those people like me are, in real and present time, in good or bad times, in the practice of keeping our lives and stories breathing, now. This is "us." We are our own developing heritage now. Current life and people are worth singing about.

The New Project

This morning as I entered in credit cards numbers, I was very glad to be finishing the order for my new recording project. The project itself has taken over a year, close to a year and a half if I account for the pre-recording work. Still, within the last 24 hours of working on the graphics for the packaging, we made 26 edits -- 26. I'm broke, and I never want to hear myself again. I truly hope that people like this recording, because I actually made it for them. As I said, I don't want to hear myself again. : )

Every year I study up on Robert Burns' music for the Burns' celebrations that I sing in. I learn a new song every year. I'm wondering if Robert Burns had a fetish about making love in fields, or if it was just that during his cultural time frame you could not mention beds. (tongue in cheek humor...e're yae aboot to take the lass too ser'slee.)

Subject of the day...thank you notes.
I've just spent the last two days writing thank you notes to people who over the past few months have hired me or have supported music projects that I've worked on. I like to thank people and think it necessary and proper, but additionally notice how the act of writing the notes brings to light exactly how many people it takes to make anything happen. It also nurtures my gratitude and appreciation. I have three more handwritten notes to write before I am done for the evening. Thank you all for being there.

What I'd Really Like to Do

Today's work consists of some things that did not get done yesterday, and then a look at what needs to be done for upcoming events, while all the time in the back of my mind what I'd really like to do is to change the world for the better. There are a list of world issues that I would like to address and it seems that I'm not alone in this. But as an individual, I feel powerless in comparison to the weight of the mass. I have been dismissed one too many times by people in positions of power and with money, which has sent me a message of insignificance. And I sense that people are quite entrenched in their habitual assumptions about the world. But in my mind and body, I feel the steps to change the world for the better, they are there. I wonder, what one person can do to change the world for the better, if they want to. I think about it every day.

The Great Rosanne Cash and Band

Opening a concert for Rosanne Cash is definitely worth a blog post. 

Last night in Layton, UT, I opened for her and her band at the Kennley Centennial Arts Center, a wonderful outdoor venue with a dedicated staff of people from the Davis Arts Council and a large body of volunteers. This venue is well suited for music, it's good for listening and can host over a thousand people without losing a feeling of intimacy between the performers and the audience. It well showcased Rosanne and her accompanying musicians. The band of course, is in itself an art form, to be expected from such topnotch musicians, but seemingly without ego they put the music in the right place. 

I just want to say that Rosanne is an artist so worthy of accolades, so dedicated to American music, so deep in her interpretation of song, that is was a true honor to open a concert for her. I'm still studying my heart for the ways that it moved me. The evening of music, her 90-minute set of powerful songs and musical artistry, reinforced my reverence for the importance and vitality of music as a whole, and the depth of music as a vehicle for love, wisdom and beauty. 

If I'm doing my job, then I don't seem to have time to blog. Have been from the east coast to the west coast in performance and loving almost every minute of it. Every day is different and yet there are some things that all people have in common no matter where I go. Such as...smiles. Watch out for Harley Davidson's parked behind your rental car that has bad visibility. I knocked one over the other day that was parked behind me while I was sitting in the car and on the internet looking for my directions. That seemed a waste of an "incident," but there's nothing you can do after the fact and I was very glad that no one was sitting on it. Check out my busy summer schedule at: www.katemacleod.com/calendar.html

My Pie Chart for Business Time

I made a 30-day study of my "work time" for a conference workshop and this is what I came up with. I've not yet decided what it's saying to me, but I suspect I might be changing the size of some pie pieces.

New Year - New Blog

Well, a new year does deserve some attention, aside from tax forms. I used to completely ignore new years' resolutions and fresh starts of many kinds, thinking I would only disappoint myself by breaking an agreement with myself, or worse, maybe I thought I was mostly fine the way I was and did not see an immediate need for change. Ha! I was not fine. There were many ways in which I was not "fine." And I'm sure that I've not been alone in that reality. So, I finally have a resolution that I think worth trying to keep, to check in with myself every day to see how "fine" I really am. And perhaps I can get closer to "fine." Or better yet, I could get closer to "feeling great more of the time" if I'd just pay closer attention to how far away I am from that and what I need to do to get there. This is my path for this year, along with the regular good food, good music, good time spent with my family and friends. Thank you everyone for being part of my world and I hope that you enjoy the coming quiet month of January, when light gradually increases, the days are steady and we have a little extra time for reflection.

No musician can be "the next _____." The next....Dylan....the next Madonna....the next Jimi....etc. People who become influentially famous in the music performance world do so because they are a complete original and offer the world something that someone else has not and at a time when they need it. Iconic musicians resonate in original ways, they stir thought and imagination, they inspire other artists. They draw from their own mentors and create a composite, but, they sound completely original. You can identify their voice from out of the air when you first hear it. You can recognize them from a hint of their original persona in visual graphics. They work from their unique place in time and within their time's particular cultural challenges and manifestations. When I read in the press about "the next ______," that really bores me because I know it won't come to pass, for the reasons I have mentioned here.

I spend a fair amount of time online reading posts about the music business and talking with fellow musician friends who are trying to navigate the vagaries of it. I also work on my own activities every day. One thing I find being commonly expressed is frustration at wanting more "success" than one has, whether it be more action, more exposure, more money, more opportunities, more acknowledgment...the list is long. Many compare their own careers to others. Most are sensitive to rejection. And some blame "the way the world is" for their lack of a dream come true. Seems to me that the very desire for things to be different than they are is at the root of this frustration. What kind of an idea is it that things should be different than the reality we are living at the moment? What part of our brain does this come from? Especially for musicians, whose very essence of chosen artistic expression is all about being in the moment...am curious as to why so many musicians drop that gift when we're not in the moment of playing music.

When I come home from a performance and am reflecting on the experience, I ask myself one question..."Did I do my job?" Sometimes I do my job well, but sometimes a performance can dramatically miss the mark. One can never really know going in, it's all an experiment. The best thing I can do is feel well prepared for anything, which means I need to know the music well enough that I can balance playing the music with relating to the other musicians on stage, addressing the audience and being in the moment, all at the same time. Out of my last three performances, they range on my personal scale of success from "not anywhere near to what it could be" to about a 9.5. My lowest point was not at all acceptable and it took me days to recover from it. Was I still not well from the flu? Was it the struggle with the sound system? Was there some under-rehearsed music in the program? I accept that I won't ever really know the combination and degrees of variables that contributed to that difficult performance. Thank goodness I can usually perform soon after an experience like that. I am so appreciative of second chances, a new day, growth spurts, experience and everything else that time can bring to support us on our path.

And so I was asked, "How does a nice little girl like you get involved with things like the music of Utah Phillips?"...and it was a joke. Well, of course it was. But it was a great introduction to how much a of a philosopher I can be, even though I don't dress or look like a stereotypical anything besides a musician, and from the east coast. I had a great time with some students at Westminster College, as we discussed important issues such as folk music, yes, folk music, and music written for societal change. We discussed the Catholic Worker Movement and feeding homeless people. We discussed pacifism. Pacifism...yummmm, is as good as chocolate, it's rich, and is good for everyone, if we'd just try it.