Kristofferson's Life In Music

I read this great article online about Kris Kristofferson and his songwriting career. The article is by Simon Cosyns of The Sun and can be found here. I just had to include the following excerpt:

For Kris, there were few musical high points in the late Seventies and early Eighties but that all changed when he became a member of the country supergroup The Highwaymen with Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings.

“I didn’t think I was in their class as a performer. My songwriting is what got me in there. I guess it gave me enough audacity to think I belonged. Willie plays the guitar like a classical musician and has a powerful voice. He phrases like a jazz singer, almost like Frank Sinatra.

“If I’d ever dreamed back when I was a janitor that I would be standing up on stage with those guys and be close friends with all of them, I would’ve thought I’d died and gone to heaven.”

In 2008 he’s still writing and singing, but he doesn’t know when the next new song will come to him. It seemed right to ask Kris if he thought that music was the most important aspect of his life.

“It’s closest to the soul,” he answers.

I like that... after everything he's done in his career - his songwriting is what's "closest to [his] soul." That's the way I need to keep it when I've gone off into a tangent of trying to be commercial and get a song published... The Muse is with Kris and may it be with us all...

Korg Pa500 "Baby Blue" Songwriter Station MIDI Keyboard

Korg introduced the Pa500 Songwriter Station/"Baby Blue" Professional Arranger. It's a completely self-sufficient DAW with lots of features and the ability to hook it up to your computer as a MIDI keyboard to use with your own home recording software. I have a laptop/USB audio box/USB keyboard and software that I use to record, so I'm fairly mobile and can take my system on the road, but something like this system opens up even more opportunities for portability or a fast way to "get the idea down".

From Korg's website:

The "Baby Blue" Professional Arranger available at the amateur price

For the musician, composer, performer and entertainer, the interactive Pa500 is the perfect musical partner. Like its big brothers - the Pa800 and the Pa2XPro - the Pa500 uses our RX (Real eXperience) technology to deliver a sound unprecedented in an arranger keyboard. With exclusive Korg features such as the XDS Dual Sequencer, intuitive TouchView interface, quarter-tone on-the-fly and a four way joystick for realistic articulation, the only thing really missing is a big price tag.

Stunning Sound

It all begins with sound. Based on the EDS (Extended Definition Synthesis) engine found in the Korg M3, Pa800 and Pa2XPro, the Pa500 provides 80 voices of polyphony and a breathtaking quality of sound. Over 880 fully editable sounds are preloaded (including a full GM soundset and 56 drumkits), representing a full range of musical instruments from almost every genre - each exploding with depth, nuance, subtlety, accuracy and richness. The User area has space for up to 128 user sounds and 64 drum kits.

Effects Everywhere

For many years, Korg workstations, synthesizers and digital recording studios have included outstanding studio quality effects that are simply breathtaking. In that same tradition, the Pa500 offers four stereo processors plus a Final semi-parametric three band EQ containing a treasure trove of effects, from rich reverbs and dazzling delays to guitar-type modeling effects from Korg's renowned REMS series - 124 different effects in all. And you'll appreciate the separate three-band EQ on each track for dialing in that perfect sound.

Done with Style

No doubt: Korg's Style programming is world class. The Pa500 delivers a deluxe set of styles, programmed by some of the leading arrangers in the world; each of whom worked according to their musical strengths. The result is over 320 preloaded Styles that provide unparalleled realism and detail, adding anything from tasteful guitar picking, a tight bass and drum groove, a powerhouse R & B rhythm section all the way up to a full orchestra! Styles follow your timing, voice leading and chord changes to create an amazingly defined musical performance in real-time. With up to eight parts, four variations, three intros/count-in, three fills/break and three endings, each Style is a complete musical environment. Additional parts or "riffs" can be sequenced and triggered in real time using the assignable Pads. Advanced features such as Syncro Start/Stop, Fade In/Out, Assignable Pads, Tap Tempo and Manual Bass allow you to spontaneously add complex and professional touches to your performances.

Guitar mode

Creating convincing guitar parts from a keyboard has never been easy - until now! When creating a guitar part for your Style, you can chose a chord, capo position, and literally transform the keyboard into the fretted strings of the chord to allow realistic picking patterns, strums, chokes, slides, hammer-ons and other "guitar-specific" artifacts. The result is stunning. Best of all, the Pa500 can automatically enhance the guitar tracks of existing Standard Midi Files.

All together now

Need to switch sounds fast? Four STS (Single Touch Settings) buttons allow you to have up to four sounds split and layered across the keyboard and switch them all instantly with a single button press. The STS assignments can be saved independently for each Style. Each of the 256 Performance settings can instantly recall the Style, Sounds, effects, tempo, key and scale used to perform a particular song.

Creative sequencing scenarios

In addition to traditional "track at a time" workstation sequencing, the Backing Sequencer allows you to create songs quickly and easily by capturing multiple Style driven parts at once. You don't need to be a master programmer - even beginners can write their own song in minutes. In fact, you don't even need to play at all! Using the Step Edit/Entry feature, you can simply type in the chord changes, fills and style changes in step-time - a big boost for arrangers and non-keyboardists. This quick approach to programming is also useful in the studio for creating professional, great-sounding backing music for commercial, film, video, multimedia or internet applications. The sequencer provides massive editing power - you can even edit the tone parameters of each track.

Non-stop entertainment

With Korg's XDS Dual Sequencer, one can load as the other plays, and a DJ-style cross fader can blend between them, providing a seamless, continuous musical performance. The Pa500 can playback SMF (Standard Midi File), Karaoke files, and GM (General MIDI) files - and is able to display lyrics in most popular karaoke formats. There is also a practical Marker function to allow you to jump directly to a given position in the song: you can fix the markers using the internal sequencer (or using a computer based one - the marker format is standard) and then remix your favorite songs during a live performance for added spontaneity.

Expanding SongBook

The exciting SongBook feature was developed to make your life easier while playing live. The SongBook is a Musical Database, completely user programmable, containing all the settings needed to play a particular song. You have only to search for the song you would like to play by Song Title, Genre, Artist, Tempo, etc. and press "play". Each SongBook entry will instantly recall every setting you've saved in order to play that song perfectly - Sounds, Style, Performance, Volumes, Muted Tracks, FX settings, Easy Edit, STS settings, Master Transpose and more. This indispensable musical feature is unique to Korg.

Less is more

With all the technological power packed inside, it was vital that we also made the Pa500 easy to understand and easy to use. But we went even further, creating an instrument that provides an intuitive, musical, fast, foolproof experience. With our amazing TouchView display you can simply think, see and touch the panel for easy and intuitive control. So that musicians of all levels can make great music quickly, there are two interface modes: Easy and Expert. The Easy mode shows only the essential elements with bright, bold icons - useful for beginners or playing live - while Expert mode provides full editing control. And when you need more information, check out the on-board contextual Help System - in any of seven languages! In addition to 61-velocity sensing keys, the Pa500 provides a four-way joystick, assignable switch, assignable slider, assignable pedal jack and four pads provide the tools to spice up your performance by changing effect settings, adding or muting parts, slowing the tempo, or even adding "mini-sequenced" solo, arpeggio, or backing riffs. Nothing stands between you and your professional performance.

Save it for later

In addition to providing a USB/MIDI computer connection for moving and saving data, the Pa500 can also save and read data from SD / MMC memory cards for instant access to your custom data, MIDI files and songs. The back panel also features MIDI (In, Out), Audio Ins (1, 2) and Outs (L, R), damper and assignable pedal connections, headphones.

All-in-one

Hiding inside is a full stereo sound system with two double cone speakers in a bass reflex enclosure for the best sound in a small box. The Pa500 is completely self-contained and easily transportable - whether rushing to a gig, jamming with friends, or teaching a new tune to the band. We couldn't fit any more fun in here if we tried.

Keep your Pa500 feeling new with operating system updates. These updates are available as free downloads from www.korgpa.com and will ensure your investment is protected.

Please note: Cosmetic and Technical specifications are subject to change without notice.

An interesting product for sure... I'd love to get my hands on one to test it out...

Michael Stipe on Songwriting

From the April 2008 edition of Spin Magazine, there is an article on R.E.M. and an interview with Michael Stipe.

Stipe said he feels much more comfortable about his writing ability now that he is older. The singer started his career writing about himself but now realises he can connect with his audience without baring his soul.

He added: "There are songs I wrote in the past that were gender-specific. '7 Chinese Brothers' was about me breaking up a couple - and then dating both of them, a man and a woman, which is a terrible thing to do, but I was young and stupid. At the time I was writing about what I knew, and what I knew was myself. I found out I'm not that kind of writer. I think I'm better when I write about things that are not me."

That's always a debate - whether a songwriter can capture a universal feeling with the personal subject matter that he/she knows about. I think that there is always some personal in the universal, and some universal in the personal... What do you think?

May the Muse be with you

Lou Reed on Technology in Music

U.S. singer-songwriter Lou Reed has criticized how technology has changed the way people listen to music, the Toronto Star reported Friday.

Talking to a South by Southwest festival audience at the Austin (Texas) Convention Center, Reed discussed digital downloading and inventions like the MP3 player and iPod.

"The trade-off is you have a lot available to you and it sounds bad. People have got to demand a higher standard," Reed said. "People who like good sound are gonna be looked at like some kind of zoo animal. It's like technology is taking us backwards."

As for his songwriting methods, the Star quoted Reed as saying not even he knows how they get written.

"People always ask, 'How do you write a song?' And I don't know. I wish I knew, because I could have done 'Walk on the Wild Side 2' and I would now own an island in the Caribbean," he said.

Some More Songwriting Blogs

Some more songwriting blogs...

Just thought I'd throw a couple of links out for other songwriting blogs that I've noticed:

The Soul of Songwriting, by Joshua Pearl, a music producer and director of the Whole Musician Workshop. The site includes Joshua's podcasts which are interesting and cover a vast array of topics, including marketing and the "soul" in songwriting... Joshua started the blog in January and it is going full steam ahead! Nice job!

Another recent blog, just started in February by singer/songwriter Corey Stewart, is Songwriting Zen, a blog with "Songwriting Tips, Songwriting Help and Songwriting Ideas in one Songwriting Resource". This is also a very active blog with interesting tips for indexing your songwriting ideas. Kudos!

Both these bloggers certainly have the Muse with them... I hope you give them a look and tell them who sent you!

New Website/Contest - ISSA

The Indie Singer Songwriters Association (ISSA) has launched as a resource for (who else?) independent singer songwriters. In the future, there appears to be plans to have an Expo in San Diego in 2009.

At present, ISSA is offering song critiques for $9.95 and has launched its own Songwriting Contest online ($29.95 per song, per category - $14.95 per additional category).

For those who care to dare (or dare to care) about their song-spring, this may be another opportunity to enter a contest and get a little notice thrown your way... Buona fortuna (that's good luck in Italian) and may the Muse be with you...

Musicovery

From a post from freemusicsoftware.org, a favourite site of mine, please pay a visit to Musicovery to discover webradio tailored to your moods and likes... pretty cool as my "dark" 60's mood was hit dead on when Bob Dylan's All Along The Watchtower started playing...

The Muse is with you with this one... now to be able to write like these guys and gals did...

American Songwriter - Lyric of the Week #2

We used to laugh together
and we'd dance
to any old song
Well ya know
she still laughs with me
But she waits
just a second too long

from "Far From Me"
written by John Prine

"Lyric of the Week" is an effort to recall, catalog, harvest and spread the words of those songwriters who you turn to when your own voice strains. What Johnny Cash lyric gets your goat? Does Leonard Cohen know you like a brother? Has Robert Hunter changed your life? This is the purpose "Lyric of the Week" serves: We want to know who you turn to for inspiration. Who are the lyricists and songwriters whose work you mine for new ideas? If you share a lyric that strikes a chord with us and is selected as "Lyric of the Week," then you'll get a guaranteed, extra-cool American Songwriter t-shirt.

To submit your L.O.T.W. send an email to: mshearon@americansongwriter.com

Song Contest Raises Grand Prize, Lowers Fee

ANN ARBOR, MI - As the Great Lakes Songwriting Contest celebrates its
fifth year of operations, the entry fee has been lowered and the Grand
Prize increased.

http://www.GreatLakesSongs.com

This year, the Grand Prize will be $2,000 cash, plus tuition, room and
board at a music retreat, plus a chance to headline the Winners'
Concert in February 2009. And entrants can choose to enter by mail or
on-line, thanks to a partnership with indie music promoter Sonic Bids.

The contest is open to songwriters of all ages and all musical styles
in the eight states and one Canadian province that border the Great
Lakes: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan,
Pennsylvania, New York, and the Province of Ontario, Canada.
Songwriters give up no rights to their songs as a condition of
entering or winning. Eleven winning songs will be chosen in 2008.
Entries must be postmarked on or before Friday, April 25, 2008.

"A lot of great music has come out of our part of the world, from
Motown to Prairie Home Companion to Chicago Blues and Broadway," says
contest spokesman Bill Frank. "It's produced big names like Bob Dylan,
Prince, Madonna, the Barenaked Ladies, and Jars of Clay, just to name
a few. But some of the best music is written by the locally known,
little-known, and unknown songwriters, and that's what we're looking
for."

Past winners have included an organic farmer from rural Michigan, a
retired Marine Corps captain from Minneapolis, a Chicago novelist, a
former child actress, and numerous high-school and college students.
Winning songs have ranged from hard-rock instrumentals to jazz,
country, folk, R&B, Christian, and various hybrids. For the past
several years, the top winners have performed at sold-out crowds at
the Winners' Concert series at the Trinity House Theatre in Livonia,
MI.

Past judges have included Andrea Stolpe, hit songwriter, author, and
instructor for the Berklee College of Music's on-line songwriting
program; Freebo, the singer-songwriter and long-time bass player for
Bonnie Raitt; Chicago's Rich Warren, host of the syndicated radio show
"The Midnight Special;" Nadir, the MTV host, author and prizewinning
songwriter; and Toronto's Jodi Krangle, proprietress of "The Muse's
Muse" songwriters' website and electronic newsletter. The 2008 judges
will be announced when the winners are announced, in October 2008.

Contest entrants are not forced to pick a particular category for
their songs. Each song is judged on its own merits, not by how well it
conforms to the conventions of a certain genre of music. Rules, entry
forms, and information on last year's winners and judges can be found
on the contest website, http://www.GreatLakesSongs.com

The contest is sponsored by Songbridge, the song marketing company
based in Ontario, Canada, which provides a weekly pitch sheet to its
songwriting members and a free e-newsletter with tips and insights on
marketing; Elderly Instruments of Lansing (MI), one of America's
largest mail order suppliers of vintage and new stringed instruments;
Lamb's Retreat for Songwriters of Royal Oak (MI), which holds
songwriting weekends in Northern Michigan; and the CD Seller of
Minneapolis, an online company that has created a CD selling tool for
independent performers. The contest is organized by The Michigan
Songwriters, the Ann Arbor-based cooperative that previously sponsored
the Metro Detroit and Michigan Songwriting Contests. The contest has
drawn about 500 entries each year since its founding in 2003.

Nelly Furtado Free Unplugged Concert - March 29

March 7, 2008
Nelly Furtado headlines Earth Hour - Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto is centre stage as world goes dark

The partners of Toronto’s Earth Hour - WWF-Canada, the City of Toronto, The Toronto Star and Virgin Mobile - today announced that multi-platinum Grammy and Juno Award-winner, and Canada’s own, Nelly Furtado will join Earth Hour as the first Canadian Earth Hour Ambassador. She will also perform a free concert at Nathan Phillips Square on March 29 to celebrate Earth Hour.

Nelly Furtado will join other Earth Hour Ambassadors, including Cate Blanchett, Natalie Imbruglia, Silverchair and Rolf Harris.

As an Earth Hour Ambassador and an advocate for the environment, Nelly Furtado will play an unplugged concert at the Earth Hour community event, starting at 7:30 p.m. The organizers are taking steps to make the event as carbon-neutral as possible - including powering the event with green, renewable energy from Bullfrog Power. People from across the GTA are invited to attend.

On March 29 at 8 p.m., cities around the world, including Toronto, will turn off their lights for Earth Hour to raise awareness about climate change - millions are expected to participate. Earth Hour is a WWF initiative that has grown from a single event in Sydney, Australia in 2007 to a global phenomenon that will occur across six continents and in more than 20 major cities this year. In the heart of Toronto, people gathered at Nathan Phillips Square will witness hundreds of buildings in the downtown core turn off their lights, including City Hall.

"The event has taken off not just in Toronto, but right across the country in more than 50 cities,” said Mike Russill, President and CEO, WWF-Canada. “This is a clear signal that Canadians want to take steps in their every day lives to help the planet, and they want Canada to be a leader in the global effort on climate change."

"I'm incredibly pleased that we are able to add some entertainment star power to our powered-down night under the stars," said Toronto Mayor David Miller. "The commitment of these performers to this tremendously important cause is terrific to see. Torontonians are signing up in droves to support Earth Hour, which confirms and supports our drive to be North America's greenest city."

Millions will participate in Earth Hour and Canada is leading the way with more than 20,000 people and 1,000 businesses, in more than 50 cities, already signed-up at http://www.earthhour.org. Toronto Hydro will measure the impact on the electricity grid during Earth Hour in Toronto, demonstrating the impact we can all make by doing our part to combat climate change.

“Fighting climate change is probably the biggest battle mankind has had to face so far,” said Sir Richard Branson, Chairman of the Virgin Group of Companies. “Earth Hour is an important event that will continue to help raise the awareness of global warming and while governments and businesses have the responsibility to find a technological solution, we as individuals must do our part in the fight against climate change. I therefore encourage everyone across the world to switch off their lights from 8 p.m. - 9 p.m. on March 29.”

“Global warming is the number one environmental concern of Canadians today,” said Bob Hepburn, Director, Community Relations and Communications, Toronto Star. “We hope all businesses in Toronto will join us in participating in Earth Hour. It is a simple way for the Star - and for other corporate leaders - to show that we want to be part of the solution.”

For more information about Earth Hour visit http://www.earthhour.org.

Materials available from WWF-Canada:
1. Nelly Furtado Earth Hour PSA mpg - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GKb5a673b8
2. Richard Branson Earth Hour PSA mpg - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhraQ5Rv5u0
3. Earth Hour backgrounder available at http://www.wwf.ca/earthhour

Media contacts:
Tara Wood, Manager, Earth Hour and Public Relations, WWF-Canada, 416-484-7710, 416-407-0775 (cell), twood@wwfcanada.org
Paula Lash, Virgin Mobile, 416-655-5555, paula@splashpr.ca
Bob Hepburn, Director, Community Relations and Communications, 416-869-4947, bhepburn@thestar.ca
Stuart Green, Office of Mayor David Miller, 416-338-7119, stugreen@toronto.ca