The Musician's Wife

Alms for the starving musician...

**if you're a blogger and would be willing to reblog or link this post to your blog in some way to get the word out, I would be eternally grateful!**

Okay, well if you've seen my 6'4" hairy husband you know that he's far from starving.  Also, I have a great job so no, we're not strapped for cash.  However, when you're funding your own music career (as opposed to having a corporate giant backing you, marketing you and telling you what to do) and you have a family it's important to do it as responsibly as possible.

As such, all of the money the band makes goes back into the band so no one has to bear any kind of financial burden to carry their careers beyond practicing, writing music and playing great shows.

That being said, it is expensive recording an album and though this one is paid for, in order to start work on a full length CD with more of their awesome music (hopefully including additional instruments like cello, harmonium, accordian, fiddle, etc.) we need people to buy their new EP!

What is an EP, you ask?  It's a CD that has a small sample of the band's songs.  It's a small taste, a tiny bite of the band.

In a word, it's a tease.

So purchase your appetizer and help us get on to the main course!

Thanks to all my readers for your continued support!

Buy In Letting Go by Brad Loomis and the Resonance

Image by Justin Holland © 2010 Brad Loomis

Bite of Seattle Stage Set-up, or My Husband, the Artist

When you play at a venue or festival, often times they ask you to send them a sheet that spells out in detail what the band's stage set-up will be.  When you're playing with a full band it can get kind of complicated and the sound people and stage crews need to know where everyone will be standing.

  It seems kind of strange but keep in mind that everyone is attached by some kind of wire to their instrument and/or a mic.  If these are not set up correctly you get tangled wires, feedback issues and possibly bad sound.  

The following is Brad's rendition of the stage set up for this year's Bite of Seattle.  It's just him and his secondary piano player.  But he still had to send it in because at things like this, details are very important.

Note that Danielle is wearing a skirt, while Brad is both without clothes OR facial hair.  I always wonder why, in stick figure drawing, some stickpeople get certain identifying items and some don't.  But I love how the perspective is as correct as possible.  

He's adorable, but should probably stick to song writing.  

I'm just sayin'. 

A door, a divider, a ladder, a chair and a band.

Note: Sorry the photos are posting so small...I don't know what's up with that (what's up with that, what's up with that? You do, voodoo, yoohoo, goomoo, what's up with that!), but you can click on them to get a better view.

We had a photo shoot Sunday afternoon.

Everyone was on time...except John.

Boo, John, boo.

Don't be fooled by his manly exterior...even though he looks older than Brad he's actually still a teenager.

Yes...I said teenager.

(We don't need to mention the fact that I taught this teenager swimming lessons when he was five and I was a teenager! Nope...don't need to mention that at all.)

So we can't blame him for being late...he has a lot going on right now in addition to playing in Brad's band.  John is awesome, late or not.

So we went to this field:

It's right next door to where Brad, Rick and I went to high school...like, a couple of years ago...

(If you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you, too.)

But before we got there I had Brad and Rick load up the following:

1. One dining room chair.
2. One 6ft tall ladder.
3. One privacy screen thingy. (You'll see...)
4. One door, in a frame, knob and all.

I honestly had no plan.  I just found these things in our home or garage and thought they may be cool props. 

We drove to the field, waited for John, took all the stuff out and I just started barking orders like a drill sergeant.  

"Look up here!" "Walk out there!" "To your left!" "Rick, take two steps forward, John four steps back...no, John, four manly steps back!!" "Brad put your hands in your pockets! No, your coat pockets!"  mostly from a good fifty yard away.

Keep in mind that we had a busy road behind us.  And yes, people honked at us, cheered for us and yelled, probably in hopes I'd fall off the ladder.  Which I did not do...I almost did once when I was laughing but I caught myself.  

It was a TON of fun.

Here are some of the results and outtakes. 

Here's my hubly.

He's adorable and this picture makes me want to kiss his face.

This is a silly picture of Brianne, the piano player.  But it captures a part of her personality...which is hilarious and wonderfully goofy.

This one captures the other parts of her personality...the graceful, beautiful parts.  She could model...seriously.  Though it takes a while to get a shot like this of her...because the silly girl inside tends to trump the model.

I have proof.

There's Rick! He's the bass player.  He's the bass player who doesn't like having his picture taken.  He was very tolerant of the whole situation.  Thanks, Rick!

Very, very tolerant.  He was also very easy to photograph.  Which is great, for a guy...guys are notoriously hard to photograph.

It's John! John drums.  John doesn't strum but John does drum.  Drum John, Drum!

Dr. Seuss is my hero. 

John is so much fun, but in a laid back, dry way.  He's hilarious without hardly doing anything.

These are the band shots...some were keepers, some were not and that's how photography goes.  Especially when you've got four people who all need to be not looking like angry monkeys or blinking or yawning, etc.

This pose was kind of weird...I don't know what I was thinking.  That room divider spent the rest of the shoot folded up and hidden in the grass.  Did I mention I have no real idea what I'm doing?  I thought I could have them stand in front of it, like as a cool backdrop.  However, when I got all those big manly men lined up in front of the dang thing, it disappeared! How weird is that? 

Ah, the door! It turned out pretty cool, I think.  I was afraid it'd be cheesy but it's gotten some good responses.  I like it.

Moody above.

Sepia tones below.  John was not angry, but seriously, would you want to anger that guy? I wouldn't.  Grrr!

 

And finally, for your viewing pleasure, a more natural pose:

I love my job!

Two part twos to write...

I took a break! Hooray!

It was not self imposed.

Scratch that...it was unintentionally self imposed.

Because my hubly had my netbook and I kept forgetting to get it back from him so I could write while at my job. 

For some reason, writing blog posts by hand is nearly impossible for me.  Writing anything by hand is difficult, really. 

I don't know why.

So anywhooooooo, I'll be back soon with some part two's finished and a breakdown of how a show works from the POV of the artist with photos.

Love you all!

On film...

This was at Elpis Art House in Marysville, WA.  Taken with a cell phone, it's obviously not the best quality but it works. Enjoy!

I don't want to...you can't make me!

I have been off the blog bandwagon for a while...

I have no excuse...

I just didn't feel like it.

I am ashamed.

Okay...not really.  But still...

Did you miss me?

I missed you.

I'm sorry I let work and diapers and dishes and laundry and reading and the general strife of life to get between us.  

Forgive me?

Thanks.

So, I've just finished the book The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. 

It was simply amazing, beautiful and inspiring.  It was joyous and sad and fast paced and methodical.  There are a million reviews online, so I won't go on about the plot, but I will say that it is listed as Sci-Fi, which is like saying a house is made of concrete just because that's what the foundation is made of.  The science fiction part of the plot is just a catalyst for the story, which is about the search for meaning and God and family and what happens to those things amidst tragedy and personal pain.  It's not overtly religious and gives a wonderful insight into the lives of Jesuit priests and shows a completely different (and much more realistic) side that you would never see in Hollywood.  Russell also doesn't pull any punches as far as the reality of the characters and situations go.  There is some cursing but it is used in places that make sense and is not at all gratuitous.

I plan on reading it again.  Books like this are like paintings, to me...every time you go back you see something wonderful that you didn't see before. Then, I plan on reading the sequel, Children of God.

On another note, our Haiti benefit show was a little disappointing.  We advertised like crazy (even on TV!) and only about 40 people came.  We had some generous donations, though, and the music was AWESOME.  Everyone did a fabulous job.  In the end, even though there was not a big turnout, it was great.

Brad has two shows left in February, this Saturday and next, so make it out if you can! You can see the dates and places as well as new songs and video on Brad's facebook page.  Come check it out, and leave a comment so we know you were there!

Hee hee...I just opened the front door and guess what was there? A package from The Coffee Girl! I'll be posting more on that on Hello!Marysville real soon!

Do you hear that? No? Me neither. Dang it.

Brad played at the Everett Historic Theater last night. 

It went pretty well.  Brad did a great job, but the sound was decidedly not great.  He sang through a wireless mic and that coupled with the fact that The Other Woman would not stay in tune gave him plenty of obstacles to overcome.  Plus, honestly, the sound guy was not the usual one (who I've heard is really good) and I don't think he knew what he was doing. **UPDATE: The sound guy knew his stuff...but not the venue, which is no fault of his.  He did as good a job as he could given the situation!!

On a side note:  If you didn't know already, sound techs can make or break a show.  Often times they don't know what they are doing or they lower the sound quality for the opening bands on purpose so the headliners sound better than anyone else.  It's like this unspoken thing at certain venues...often times the headlining band doesn't travel with an opening act, so the venue is responsible for booking one or two bands to open the show.  So the main act rarely knows the opening bands and sometimes these local acts are really good.  Like, better than the the band everyone is paying to see.  So lowering the sound quality for them is a weird nod of respect to the headliners.  Which in turn is a nod of disrespect to the other artists...but it's one you deal with, I guess. 

In this case, I think this guy just was not familiar with the theater's set up...he seemed to be trying really hard.

Brad did a great job, anyway. 

Plus, it was really cool seeing his name on the electronic marquee! I took a picture with my cell phone, so it's terrible quality, but still...pretty darn cool.

The other bands were a Neil Diamond tribute band called Cherry Cherry, and then an awesome new band out of Everett called Scene Change.  Then there was a singer/songwriter named Daniel Kamas who had a great gal on stage singing back up named Christiana Speed. They were a total highlight!  The last act was a blues band called Back Porch Blues and man, did they have a huge following! They were really fun...lots of harmonica and guitar and piano solos and Britta Grass, singing the lady vocals, was really, really good.  I always love good, strong female vocals.

All in all it was a great night, and we raised a bunch of money for Haiti and the Red Cross

And that, folks, is what it's all about

Goodnight!

Benefit Concert for Haiti

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Elpis Arts is a community art collaboration that was created as an off shoot of House of Paine in Marysville, WA.  Watch a video about House of Paine here.

Elpis was created to provide a venue for the arts in the Marysville and the surrounding areas.  It's a grassroots effort to create a platform for local artists, musicians, craftspeople and writers via networking, concerts, arts shows and internet and social media.  In it's beginning stages, Elpis is gathering steam to become a locally focused force for the arts.

As such, the people of Elpis are working on a benefit concert for earthquake ravaged Haiti.

Personally I think the concert should also benefit the tranquilization and Siberian relocation of Pat Robertson.  But they said that wasn't "possible".  So we're sticking with helping people in Haiti.

More details about the show will be posted as they come.

In the meantime, please comment below if you are willing to be put on a volunteer list for the show or if you have any other helpful information, ideas, etc. 

Helpful skills include: Photographers, graphic artists, musicians, set-up/take down and being rich.  Even if you're not local, you can still help out. 

The Husband

I won't get all flowery and fluffy about how great he is and all of that.  I love him, he's mine, I'm his.

But part of the point of my blog is to write about him and his music and maybe insert a little info on what it's like to be married to someone who's career choice is generally less than lucrative but is, at the very least, something he is wildly passionate about...in his own, laid back way.

So here's an update on the music scene that, for me, is as local as it gets...it's right here at home.

Brad's up coming cd is going to, most likely, be an EP.  For those of you who don't know, EP is short for extended play...which makes no sense, because it has fewer songs than an LP (limited play) would have...all in all, it's usually about four or five songs. 

Well, he's got several songs recorded so far...what are considered "scratch tracks".  Meaning that they're not gussied up in any way, just Brad and his guitar playing the songs...no production, no mixing...raw.  If the guitar is louder than the vocals in a certain part, well, that's how you hear it.  Once it's mixed down things like that can be fixed. Except mixing and production cost money...and it's not cheap.  Unless you can find some talented friends or friends of friends.  Wink wink, nudge nudge...

The problem with being married to someone who is really good at something artistic that you appreciate but don't know much about, is that they tend to be much harder on themselves than you would ever be on them. 

The vocals drown out the guitar on that bridge?  What? I didn't notice that. The capo was a quarter of a centimeter misplaced on the fretboard and you can hear the off tone in the up beat? Uh...I think it sounds pretty.

So with his scratch tracks not being perfect but me needing something to send to venues to get some gigs (I'm the manager, see?) we have these little "discussions" about how he doesn't want to send out crap and I don't think it's crap so give me a friggin' CD ALREADY!

And we also have, like, a million people who have been waiting on an album for years now. 

Plus, all those little things that don't sound like a professionally done cd are, to me, like how a live show sounds...when someone gets on stage and it's just them and their guitar and the audience...that's raw.  So raw tracks aren't inherently bad.  They're just not polished, and that's okay...for now.

So, I wanted to post a couple samples of his recordings...but he wants to clean them up a bit first.  I'm glad I asked first!

This is my man.