A Diner Club Christmas! Now available!

This is technically my first album release. ^^ These are 7 of the 11 tracks recorded. Make sure to get a hard copy if you'd like the FULL album! All the proceeds to to charity. ^^



And don't forget about our upcoming show at the Queen!

And there's a possibility I'mma be on the radio Sunday. Stay tuned for deets!

And the rest of August went something like this.

Strawberry ice cream flat root beer float.

Both ingredients are remnants of social gatherings I've had here at my bachelorette pad, and there's no decent way to get rid of them... so I've merely deferred to the indecent methods.

Speaking of indecent, hellooooooooooo not updating my blog for a month.

Here, before you read on, click "play" on this song I wrote. Then you can listen and read at once. It'll be magical.

Click here for lyrics and stuff

What happened in that time?

• First paying gig since May! Or so I believe, since I haven't yet received a check. If I don't, I guess I volunteered to play background music for a dinner party. (I guess it's not really in good form to report publicly that I haven't been paid yet, but, that's just the thing... here's a transparent look at how I'm growing from my experiences. /tangent)
  
• Played for the Delaware Friends of Folk coffeehouse. It was their second round of performers for the Delmarva Folk Hero contest. Michael said I should do it, so I did, and I did my darndest and I just didn't make it. Reasons I'm not disappointed: there's a lot of good performers in the area, I can't win everyone over, and I planned and played my absolute best. Anyway, I ran into my fellow FAWMer and songwriter Aaron Nathans, which was kinda cool, and I got a taste of how the open mics are run by the Delaware Friends of Folk. Plus I met a ton of cool folks, which I always try to do wherever I am and it's always a good time. Michael & Erin's duo, the Honey Badgers, were finalists from the first round so they'll be playing at the Delmarva Folk Festival in October. Yay!
  
• Played at Mojo Main's open mic a couple of times, which was snazzy. One night I brought the dulcimer onstage, which was pretty fun. ^^ Oh, my snapshot was also in the local paper... it's not in the online version, but they wrote an article about some of Delaware's open mics, and Mojo Main was featured (of course!). In my own humble estimation - this is one great open mic. I've played/run a few in my time...
  
• I lost all my guitar students. Yep. So. There's that. I know my role as a guitar teacher, and if I've got beginners I generally expect that they will discover more of their musical identity while studying with me; once they know who they are, they might find another teacher or program that fits better, or they might decide that a little bit is enough for now. As long as the decision's what's best for the student and the student's family (and as long as it's not because I stink), I'm a happy teacher.
  
• The timing of it, though, is impeccable... which is to say, I'm not sorry to have a little of my time back to focus on what I'm doing, at least for now. Looking into the fall is like looking into a smoke-filled room. Fragments and bits of opportunity are drifting around and it's hard to say what's going to happen. Some exciting and new stuff's over the horizon, though.
  
• Also I finally joined ReverbNation. Michael told me to do it at the end of July and I told him I'd look into doing it the next week. Better late than never!! I don't know how the rankings work but somehow I shot up to #19 for Newark, which is quite strange.
  

So, yep. Ready for September. The end of summer means fewer hours at work which means greater hours for music!! :)

First campfire of the season!

Hallelujah!!

Campfire!!

(Photo by Laura Madara)

Last year, I had the pleasure of performing at 3-4 campfire programs with Delaware State Parks. This was not by any coincidence, since I am also employed by DSP. Now, among many other things, I am technically the booking agent for an entire park. Granted, we have all of maybe five performances a year, but... still. It counts.

Anywho, I booked myself for a campfire program. Actually, I guess I didn't book myself. Since I'm an employee, I can't get paid anything other than my hourly rate, so when I play, I'm technically playing as an employee of DSP and not as a crazy music lady.

Even though I still am, and will always be, a crazy music lady.

Anyway, I love my park and I love campfire programs! There's one thing you need to understand about me... I've been to summer camp. Overnight summer camp. Since the first grade 'till about fifth grade. And at summer camp, you sing. You sing ridiculous songs, sentimental songs, funny songs, songs with participation or callback lines, walking songs, grace songs, morning songs, night songs, time to go to bed songs, counselors trying to entertain the kids when there's an unexpected delay songs...

And if you've been to a summer camp where there are songs, you know what I'm talking about. It just seeps into you. There are songs we learn as children that we can never escape. If you have little sweet songs embedded into you from childhood that always make you feel happy and nostalgic, you're incredibly blessed. You get to hang onto those songs for your entire life and they will always take you back to summer camp.

Yes, it absolutely takes guts to get up in front of people by yourself and sing songs. Even more guts to make them all stand up and sing and motion along to "Princess Pat." But as I told the audience last night... I think people really do want to be silly. They do want to have fun. And outwardly we all assume that no one else wants to do it. But secretly, everyone does want to stand up and do the silly motions and sing "Princess Pat."

Also, when I'm doing a campfire, I guess I'm just more aware that people are there because they love the outdoors. They're not drinking. They didn't just stumble in on some other motive. They're not there for any other reason than knowing that the outdoors and music go together like fine wines and certain cheeses.

Plus, I've always secretly wanted to be a storyteller. Campfires are a great way to start to sneak into that. :)


Photo by Cathy Tibbitt Joulwan


We also took a little night hike after the campfire, and it was beautiful. If a little muddy.


Photo by Cathy Tibbitt Joulwan

Mojo Main's first Tuesday acoustic matinee

So... I guess I was the groundbreaking act for Mojo Main's acoustic matinees on Tuesdays. A few folks got to hear it, too! Honestly, I'm not being snide... I need more experience in front of a mic. I know it. So I was very happy with how it turned out - really low-pressure for me, I gave a performance I was pleased with, and I had a real bonafide gig. And it started on time. :)

The acoustic matinee idea seems like a great fit for the place. No cover, an hour set for folks to do pretty much whatever they want, and people eating dinner. Win.

Games & Gigs

Real quick, because I should definitely be in bed...

Wednesday, 3/30: Played at Mojo 13, along with the Paper Janes. Luckily a small audience of our friends amassed, thanks to no help from me, goodness gracious... I'm bad at this. How did I ever get to be a performer who didn't like her own performances enough to invite people to see them? Lord help me.

Saturday, 4/2: Played at the Barn's talent show, dressed like I was in the circus, had a ton of fun. I had the chance to play a couple of my family-oriented nature tunes. (They're not exactly suited for a bar crowd, so I'll take whatever opportunity I get.)

Monday, 4/4: David Bessent's videogame, MAwCiMs: Arena, came out on Kongregate. I had the privilege of writing the music for this awesome game.

Also, I played Mojo Main's open mic. Stefan Wolfe came along for the ride, showcasing his mad skillz at total improv. I covered "Dynamite" by Taio Cruz and had the whole place clappin'.

Tuesday, 4/5: I'm playing Mojo Main's very first acoustic matinee. Website says it starts at 7, booking agent says I play at 6, I say I'd better be done by 8 'cause I have other stuff to attend to! (Stupid of me to schedule something on kinship night without a contingency plan for kinship itself, which is hosted in my house. I made the broad assumption that the show would in fact occur at the time that the booking agent said it would. Right now, I doubt significantly that my assumption is correct, but God is good and He'll see me through this little snafu.)

A'course, my buddies The Paper Janes and Battleshy Youths will be playin' at the University of Delaware at the same time, and I would have liked to go see them, but such is life.

Saturday, 4/9: I'm playing Lums Pond State Park's Family Camping Weeekend. Assuming it doesn't get cancelled because of rain or something like that. Because right now, the forecast is rain for a week, no lie.


That plus my music students equals a very very busy two weeks. The honest confession: along with job stress, I'm starting to feel a little worn out. (Have I mentioned I haven't even done my taxes yet?) I'm working hard, playing hard, not sleeping, and not having a lot of feelings of success right now. I used to have said feelings a lot, it's just recently they seem to have up and vanished. It'll get better. I know. God is good. Even when (especially when) you just start to feel "blah."

The FAWM 2011 Showcase - Newark, DE

This is the only media of the event I have, so far. Michael did some video recordin' of the event, but of course he is in school and needs to do school things, so it may be a little while before we see them videos. Which is a-okay. I'd really prefer for him to get out of college with decent grades. ^^

Top row from the left is Kevin, Jeff, Zach, Michael, Sandy, Jessica, Lori, Steve, and Rebekah.
Bottom row is Brene, myself, Shane, Aaron (and his daughter, Lily), and Todd.
There is so much talent in this photo.

The event went incredibly smoothly. The room was pretty much full the entire show. Setup and breakdown went off without a hitch. Donations were made. Merch was sold. Networking was performed. Food arrived in multiple hands and departed in multiple bellies.

One audience member expressed surprise over the high level of skill exhibited by all the performers. I think some folks came expecting an open mic - that is to say, a crapshoot of good and bad. This was really more of a showcase, with all the artists selected and confirmed beforehand. And wow, everyone really nailed it. I am, of course, a little biased, but it didn't feel tiresome and it didn't feel too formal - it honestly felt like everyone hangin' out in the parlor on Sunday, doing some music, eating some food, and enjoying each others' company. For three hours.

This was our vision for FAWM 2011. This photo really is our vision. To gather together a crapton of really talented musicians. I'm honestly just taking a little time to regroup, personally, after organizing all this, but I'm already looking to the future of this group and I think we're all interested in making sure that this doesn't fall apart. It's a grand old adventure. We'll see what the future brings.

Many thanks to all the performers, the audience members, the Newark Arts Alliance, and especially Michael, who is an absolute champ and the co-organizer of it all - this was so fun.



Here, have a program:

People Who Have Songs

Playing Tate Street Coffee was a great deal of fun. Many thanks to everyone who came, including the gentlemen who are collectively the Space-O-Nots, who sat right in front and sang along to Jonathan Coulton's "Re: Your Brains" and "The Horseshoe Crab Song" (an original, of course).

I admit that this was my first... well, my first "real" gig as "Em, the singer/songwriter." I'm not sure exactly why it qualifies as "real," it just... does. Playing for an hour on my own in a public establishment... I've done it before, but only as a classical guitarist. It's never been an hour of my own stuff.

Nervous? Yeah. About my playing? No. Mostly I was nervous about the fact that I was unleashing my own writing on the world. Playing classical repertoire is a much different experience... you end up playing stuff by a lot of dead white guys. Sometimes they're not dead yet. Sometimes they're not guys. But mostly, yeah, dead white guys. Not your own stuff. The stuff that's your own is the technique and the interpretation of the music. And trust me, it's not that people are not judging -- people are totally judging. People can (and will) tear you a new one over technique and interpretation.

Playing your own stuff... flawless technique is nice, but you can interpret your own music however you want. People are judging your playing by a different standard, maybe trying to relate, maybe just appreciating the musicality of it... maybe listening to the poetry of the words (if applicable). So while I'm used to the stage... it's a whole different world.

And I think that I think too much about what people think. I have songs, and I've watched other people who also have songs -- more or less studied them and tried to find out what it is that people with songs do.

• People who have songs tend to showcase said songs, usually doggedly.
  
• These songs tend to become precious to the communities in which the person belongs.
  
• Occasionally, a person who has songs will rise into the consciousness of wider and wider communities,
  
• but the common thread running through all people with songs is that they never cared much about that bit. They only had their songs and a desire to share.
  

I guess I always had songs, but I never much had the desire for sharing 'till now. If I had to guess, I would say I probably only have God to blame for that. I can't logic it out how it comes to be that desire grows where no desire has ever grown before, or how love multiplies in a world that seems to crush love underfoot at every turn. All I know is, it does.

Goin' to Carolina... in real life.

I'm in North Carolina right now, couchsurfing at my friends' houses, catching up, seeking advice, and generally enjoying the snot out of myself. Liz and I went contra dancing last night to the tuneful playin' of the McKenzies:



I even have a gig tonight at Tate Street Coffee House :) Just 'cause I wanted an opportunity to share with my friends all that I've been writing and doing these days. It'll be fun to see how it all turns out. Also, I'm completely stoked about it.

More later! I'm running late for lunch with a friend!