NEWS and ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Holiday Party! We will have our annual holiday gathering next month. You
are encouraged to bring a finger food or beverage, and of course, a song to
share. This will also be a time for the annual White Elephant Gift
Exchange. This fun little activity involves wrapping up some kind of
unwanted, possibly re-gifted, or ridiculously useless item, and playing a game
of gift exchange. This item should be of the low-cost or no-cost
variety. Each person wanting to participate should bring 1 wrapped item.
The meeting will be on our regular 3rd Tuesday of the month (December
15th) at 7:30pm, so be sure to mark your calendars now!
Music and Memory: The Indiana Veterans Home has a relatively new program called,
“Music and Memory.” Music Therapist, Charis Vander Plaats
explained that many veterans that have Alzheimer’s or dementia can instantly
make connections through music. If you are interested in performing songs,
helping to create ‘playlists’ for these veterans, or just finding out more on
this exciting program, contact Charis Vander Plaats at
charisvanderplaats@msn.com.
Unitarian Universalist Church Art
Fair Music: The UUC is holding its annual art
fair on Friday & Saturday, December 4 & 5 at the UUC Fellowship Hall,
333 Meridian Street, West Lafayette. UUC is looking for musicians,
singers, performers to play in the Fellowship Hall, where much of the art is
displayed, from 5-9pm on Friday, 10am-4pm on Saturday. Each set would
likely be about 45 minutes; any kind of acoustic music is fine, it does not
need to be Christmas music, but seasonal music would be nice. A sound
system will be provided. There is no pay for performers, but there would
be a chance to sell CDs (70% to performer, 30% to UUC). Please contact
Joe Peters (joedaiwarriors@yahoo.com)
if interested.
RECENT CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOP:
The TAXI Road Rally in Los Angeles: SAMI members that went to this year’s Road Rally were, Bette
Anderson, John Lacy, Joe Peters, Gilbert Gordon, Briagha McTavish and Neil
McTavish. The conference features top music industry people giving break out
classes and panels on various topics. The main objective might be boiled
down into “How do you get your music placed with artists and music libraries
for film and TV.”
Gilbert Gordon had a particularly
successful experience and shared that his instrumental tune was played for
Music Supervisor, Chas Ferry and accepted into his library!
Congratulations Gilbert! What a great first time trip to the Road Rally!
Joe Peters also attended TAXI Road
Rally this year. Joe shared two of his songs on Open Mic stages, and
interestingly to Joe, his song Low Down Funky Mood really seemed to connect
with listeners this year. A highlight for Joe all three nights was the
Collaboration Room, where a revolving cast of characters shared mostly original
songs, and much jammin occured.
Be sure to ask one of these SAMI
members to talk about their experiences in Los Angeles. I'm sure there
are fun stories and good info to be shared.
The First Annual CD Baby DIY Music Conference in Chicago: Cheryl and
Amanda Fletcher came back with tons of ways to monetize online streaming and
web presence, plus collecting various royalties for your songs. This
conference was focused on, “Now that you have your recordings, (CD’s or
singles) uploaded onto CD Baby, here are the ways to make money from it.”
One of the most exciting topics had to do with monetizing YouTube and micro
sync licensing. Like the TAXI Road Rally, it was amazing to have 1,500+
musicians and artists in one place sharing and learning from one another. The
information, inspiration, connections, and camaraderie made this conference one
to attend next year!
The 21st annual Lamb's Retreat for
Songwriters was held November 5-15,
2015. It is held every November at the Birchwood Inn, Harbor Springs,
Michigan. Joe Peters went to week 2, and totally enjoyed the experience,
the camaraderie, the songwriting, songs, songwriters, song circles. In
short, this retreat is all about the song! On the first day, director
John Lamb gives every attendee a songwriting challenge/prompt, and the morning
of the last day is devoted to the sharing of each of these brand new original
songs. This year’s staff included: Joel Mabus, Laurie McClain, Claudia
Nygaard, Pierce Pettis, Edie Carey, Tim Grimm, Natalia Zukerman, SONiA
disappear fear, Penny Nichols, WT Davidson, and more. Since this retreat is
open to all songwriters, their friends and family, wouldn’t it be fun to arrange
to have a group go next November?
Member news:
Scott
Greeson and Trouble With Monday will have
various shows utilizing various configurations of their band members. Be
sure to catch one of their shows. Also check out the band
and current info at scottgreesonmusic.com:
December 13th at 3:00
pm Annual Battle Ground Christmas Concert @ The Battle Ground United
Methodist Church, 201 Tipton Street, Battle Ground, IN 47920.
December 17th from 4:00pm-7:00pm at
the Indianapolis Airport Commons.
December 19th Christmas with
Scott Greeson and Trouble With Monday @ The Eye Opener Cafe at 8:00am,103 North
Street, Battle Ground, IN 47920.
Joe
Peters will perform at Fuel Coffee Shop, 1005 Main Street,
Lafayette from 6-8pm on Monday, November 28th. This is a laid-back little
coffee shop, thus a great listening room. Joe will share a set of songs
from his new CD, Big Fat Liar, and encourages the audience to build a second
set song list from Joe's other recordings. The event is free.
Joe will also perform sometime
during the UUC art fair.
