Showing posts with label redriver. Show all posts
Showing posts with label redriver. Show all posts

Friday, July 13, 2012

Missed It! (and a music video)





 I just found out (today) that July 8 was World Writing Day.  Waddayknow?  I didn't even know there was a World Writing Day....and I missed it.  I didn't write one single word that day.

Wait.....I might have scratched something on a notepad.  A reminder to myself to do something.  Does that count?

So, in order to actually have a purpose for this post, I thought I would include a music video I did last weekend for a Red River instrumental, called, "Sixteen Summers".



Thank you.  Happy writing, no matter the day!


Saturday, June 30, 2012

Dust


I was looking at some of our old videos tonight, and I realized that I'm partial to this one.  It's the only song that my husband and I sang on together (at least, so far). 

This was from a time when I actually had something to write about.  A bit of Americana.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

A Few Last Glimmers






I've written before about the endless stream of emails I receive, touting the latest music opportunities.

I always click on them....eventually....out of curiosity more than anything else.

For example, the latest Music Dealer's "opportunity" is a song about Grandma.  I think grandmas are great, although I barely remember one, and I never knew the other.  Hence, I have written no songs about Grandma.  I've written a song about Mom, but that isn't what they're going for here.  It does make me wonder, though, about the grandma I never met.  I wonder if she was more like me than my mom was, because Mom and I weren't exactly simpatico, if you get my drift.

But, as always with these posts, I do digress.

Generally, with the Music Xray emails, I just delete them without reading.  Because they're always touting the most recent "opportunity matches" that don't really match in the least, and I don't have the money to toss around like some wild-eyed millionaire anyway.

Not to mention the scathing reviews I received from some of my earlier submissions.  I never even asked for critiques!  What was that?  Just an extra-added soul-crushing bonus?

One guy said something (I actually deleted the email, so I can't reference it) about how tentative the singing was.  Well, yea!  I hate (hate!) recording!  In fact, I'll make up any old excuse just to avoid it.  I'm tired; I have a tummy ache; my voice is shot from all the smoking (which is true, by the way).  I AM NOT A SINGER.  But the fact remains that I have no money to hire a professional singer, so if I want a demo recording of any of my songs, I have to do it myself.

But for some reason, tonight, I clicked on the latest Music Xray email, and it said something about submissions for radio stations, or something.  And I thought, well, let's see.

So, I surfed on over to the site, and I found a particular outfit that shops music around to various regions of the US (because apparently different regions have different tastes; little did I know) and to radio stations in the UK.  The UK thing was somewhat intriguing, because I find that those fine people are more discerning than the dolts that market and/or listen to music here in the good old USA.  No offense to the US, but here, it's all about the cheese quotient, and about the butterflies and rainbows and unicorns; not the actual music (ahh, cynicism is alive and well tonight!)

So, I thought, what the heck?  Why not give it a go?  I could put it on my credit card, so that's not like real money.  Is it?

I'm a big fan of this song by my husband, so I bit the bullet and clicked the submission button.



Then, I thought, well, let's see what else is out there, radio submission-wise.  And I found this place called, "Women of Substance Radio".  Isn't that precious?  Women of substance.  As opposed to what?  Women of Superficiality?

But I figured, hey, I'm a woman.  So, I, in a fit of insanity, submitted this:



I'm really pulling for my husband's song, though.

And I, too, looked at song critique opportunities.  I almost thought about doing it, but then I saw the submission price ($35.00) and thought, why in the world would I pay $35.00 for somebody to diss me, when some of these other guys took it upon themselves to do it for free?

I'm a realist, and yet not a masochist.  My focus now, really, is promoting the other band guys' music; not mine.  Yet, there's still that little self-indulgent side of me that wants somebody to say, "That's a good song!  Terrible singer, but good song!"

Just don't feel compelled to send me a critique, cuz I really don't want one, and I'll just send it to my "trash" folder anyway.





Friday, March 23, 2012

Yes, I Do Write Songs, Too

Unbelievably, I don't just write about music; I actually write music.

Granted, those days are few and far between.  Nevertheless, I do have my moments.  And what better way to disseminate those moments than by video?

I will preface this by saying that this was a scratch vocal.  It was meant to be a guide track, and the actual "real" vocals were going to be recorded later.  For whatever reason, "later" never happened.

This was a FAWM song.  I'm thinking it was 2010.  So, you see how far behind the times I am.  But I always had an affinity for this song, so there you go.  And here you go.

Wastin' My Time Away:

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Goodbye To The Old

As we say goodbye to 2011 (where did the time go?), it has become an annual tradition for Red River to do a bit of reflection, with a video titled, Ring In The Old.

Here is the 2011 edition:

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Thankfulness


Here it is, the morn of Thanksgiving, and I feel like I should write something about thankfulness.

I'll admit, I've not been in a very thankful mood lately, so it's a bit difficult to wrap my mind around the concept, but I'll give it a whirl.

I think, when the big things go wrong, one has to remember the little things.

Here are some little things, in no particular order:

A hot cup of coffee in the morning.


Slapping on a CD of old, familiar tunes (today, I like this one):



Watching a Modern Family episode, and always welling up at the end.


Waking up to see my dog stretched out on her back in the middle of the night, paws up in the air, serene. (I don't actually have a photo of this!)






Expressing creativity with $0.00.



My cat curled up next to me on the bed.


Talking to God.


Finding a book that's so good, you think about it even when you're not reading it. I recommend this one:


A good friend. (That comes before all that other stuff; just so you know!)


Last, but MOST, my husband.


(He doesn't like the publicity.)

I don't really know what to write about my husband that wouldn't sound cliche and superficial.

I guess what I would say is, he's my best friend (really), and he takes care of me. And I take care of him. And he's really smart and really creative. And life hasn't exactly been fair to him, but I was just going to go with the "thankful" stuff today, so disregard that last part. (Besides, who said life was fair?)

So, thankfulness isn't really that difficult after all.

There is a definite dearth of good Thanksgiving songs. I'm not really interested in hearing about a turkey, if you know what I mean. So, every year, I come back to this one.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

It's Rather Hard to Describe

As my husband does more and more original stuff, it challenges me, as the designated videographer, to broaden my horizons.

I find that I'm bored with the mundane. Aren't you?

Maybe that's why I hate new country music so much. It's so boring, so predictable. Everybody is afraid to do anything against the grain. "Ooh, if it doesn't sound like what Kenny Chesney/Keith Urban/whoever the heck is popular now, is putting out there, then I'm doomed. DOOMED!"

But enough about what they call "country music". This is a rock song, and a concept, if you will.

I find it interesting, and challenging, to get inside someone else's head and come up with something suitable.

As someone who relies upon pre-presented photos and little animated GIFs that I find here and there, my resources are limited. I work with what I have, and that's sort of the fun of it.

So, herewith, is "A Black Horse":

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Can You Do Me a Favor?


I never ask for favors. You know me.

But here's the deal: I'm trying to win a free vacation at our favorite resort, Bluefin Bay. It's a rustic place, nestled on the shores of Lake Superior in northern Minnesota.

We've been going there for about seven years now. Josie loves it there, as you can see from the picture.

Bluefin has an annual contest. In the past, it's been sort of open-ended. One could write an essay. One could submit pictures. This year, it's a video contest.

This caught my eye because it just so happens that one year, after we returned from our stay at Bluefin, I was inspired to write a song. I think it was the picture of the pink sky that started it all. (All the pictures are mine, by the way.)

The song came easily because there's magic there. It's not just the loneliness of the endless blue, but it's the smell of the air, the crashing of the waves. The certainty that God has blessed this place, and He is smiling upon it.

So, what I'm asking is this: If you could simply leave a comment on my video, I would be grateful.

I don't know what others will submit. That's really neither here nor there. What I do know is, my submission is a true reflection of my feelings about this secluded place on the lake. So, if I win, I win. If I don't, I have no regrets.

But I think it's pretty good.

Here is the link.

And here is On A Night Like This:



And thank you.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Video Again! An Instrumental This Time!


Yes, I had a bit of time on my hands, so I thought I'd dash off a video of Red River's instrumental, "Josie's Got a Mini Cooper'. (Don't ask. There's really no rhyme or reason to it. It just is what it is. She's got a Mini Cooper.)

So, on this long holiday weekend, here is a quickly thrown-together video of the afore-mentioned instrumental:

Saturday, May 14, 2011

NoiseTrade

NoiseTrade is another of those sites that one hopes will help their band gain new fans.

Downloaders can leave a tip from $1.00 to $100.00 per song. I'm hoping for the $100.00! hahahaha

What's in it for a band? (other than the non-existent $100.00?) Well, if somebody downloads your song, you at least get their email address, and thus, you can spam notify them anytime you have a new release.

Win win, right? Or just "win"?

Face it, it's all about getting heard. I'm open to new opportunities. And if someone chooses to pay $0.00 to download one of our songs, hey, at least somebody downloaded one!


Thursday, March 24, 2011

Goodbye

No, silly, I'm not saying "goodbye" to my blog! Heavens! What would I do with all my pent-up thoughts and crankiness?

No, "Goodbye" just happens to be the latest Red River video.

I really like this one, because:

a) I really like the song;
b) Cats playing the piano make me laugh.

Don't ask my how or why I ended up incorporating piano-playing cats in this video. I think it was divinely ordained. Either that, or my cat, Bob, was sending me subliminal messages, as he pawed me at 4:30 in the morning, trying to awaken me so I could feed him.

Oh, it's not all about food with Bob. Bob is also a music lover. But he tends to prefer those tinkly piano songs; not really my taste, but that's just Bob. He's a jazz cat.

But enough about Bob. I hope you enjoy the video of "Goodbye", and if not, I hope at least that you like the song, because it's one of my favorites.


Friday, January 21, 2011

Last Video - DUST

This is not our last video; there are others. It's just the last video I'll be posting here.

Slideshows are fine for what they are, but it's time to move on. I won't be creating any more videos until I gain some expertise in finding and integrating real video footage. I guess I have some research to do.

It was a fun diversion, and I actually did learn a lot about editing, so learning is good!

If anybody has any tips to share regarding "real" video creation, I'm all ears!

So, with that said, this is the only song that my husband and I recorded together (so far). It's called "Dust".


Thursday, January 13, 2011

Red River Video - TRIPLE SERVICE

I originally did a video for this song, and hated it.

Triple Service was the second song I ever wrote, so it's got that traditional country thing going on, which is okay. What's wrong with that?

When I first began writing, I was heavily into capturing snapshots of my life, and Triple Service is a true story. You can read about it here.

I do also have something to say about being the Keeper of the Stories, but I'll save that for another post.

The first song I wrote was a tribute to my best friend from childhood, who passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. I had never even contemplated writing a song before I wrote that one, and though I had been urged by my husband, I was never inspired...until I got that phone call. Then it all came pouring out.

Anyway, I've talked about that before. My point now is, I think I AM the keeper of the stories, which is a valuable thing. If I don't do it, who will?

If you don't want to read the true story of Triple Service, in a nutshell, it was a place that could never exist today. Because that time is gone and will never return. We're all too jaded now.

It was a time of jukeboxes and three songs for a quarter, and small towns, where everybody knew everybody. And they all got together on a Saturday night to brush off the dust from the fields and kick back with their neighbors, have a beer, and listen to a three-piece country band.

My uncle Howard ran that place, with the help of my mom (Millie) and my aunt Barbara. And my cousins and I lived it, and endured the scorn of the nuns who ran the Catholic school that we attended by day.

I wouldn't trade that experience for anything. I was lucky.

So, being thoroughly dissatisfied with the original video I came up with for this song, I finally hit on the right theme, I think. "Everybody knows and everybody goes".

Here, thence (?) is Triple Service:

Since I'm Posting Videos....Here's One For North Dakota!

I did this one for my North Dakota friends. It's kinda cheesy, but I wanted to celebrate my home state. I wasn't going to share this video, but it actually turned out to be fun.

I was strict with myself when creating this one ~ all the pictures had to be authentic North Dakota pics. There are two photos that are generic, only because I needed them to match the storyline. The rest are from North Dakota.

Yes, North Dakota does seem to revel in kitschy monuments scattered across its prairies, but that just adds to its charm.

You should visit one day. It's not all blizzards and floods, you know.

Here is Let's Go To Town:

My Latest Video Creation

The song is my husband's; the video is mine.

When They Go Down:

Thursday, December 30, 2010

2010 - A Year of Trying



The end of the year lends itself to reflection. I'm a big "reflector". I like it, when I can clear my mind enough of the mundane junk that I deal with every day, and actually take the time to do it.

Since this is, in essence, a music blog, I started to think today about what I have done in 2010, music-wise, and what I would write about that.

I kept coming back to the word, "tried". I tried to do a lot of stuff. Well, not a lot, but a few things that were important to me.

And I learned. Learning is good. It keeps one from becoming befuddled and crotchety. Or at least from becoming befuddled.

I learned that, if one keeps trying long enough, eventually she will become better at something, inevitably, except for math (on a personal note).

I've been writing songs for eight years now (yes, that's all), and I keep trying, and I think I'm getting better. Baby steps. Big long baby steps. I mean, c'mon, eight years, and I'm just now getting better? But still.

I tried FAWM seriously in 2010. I'd done it before, but I never really committed. I wasn't fooling anybody, least of all, me.

In 2010, I became disgusted enough with my lack of follow-through, to force myself to, just once, do it and complete it. And I did. The FAWM challenge is to write 14 songs in 28 days (in February), and I wrote 16, dang it!

I was reading some prior blog posts I'd made about my FAWM success, and boy, I was really full of it. I said something about most of the songs being keepers. Well, that's not true!

I'd say two of them are keepers. The rest are exercises in mawkishness. Yet, not futile mawkish exercises. Because I learned. Yes, I learned how to be a better songwriter, by doing. They're not all going to be winners; rather, I'm lucky if 2 out of 16 are ~ really lucky, in fact. But the work helped me. And the "trying" made me feel good about myself.

I also tried to write songs after February. I tried, in fact, working and reworking, and re-reworking a great song idea that I've had in my pocket for about a year. I learned that some things are better left to die. So, I scavenged the best lines out of it for a different song. I can be mercenary when pushed too far.

Most fun for me, music-wise this year, was that I tried making music videos (okay, "slideshows", if we're being technical). Even if they are slideshows, they still require a lot of effort and a degree of imagination, if one is to do them creatively.

I used to do an updated video each December for one of our songs, called "Ring In The Old". That was the only video I would do each year. I recently looked back at some of these prior "efforts", and they were appalling. I've gotten better. WAY better.

This year I created nine music videos, and I like most of them (I would, however, like to know why YouTube keeps suggesting that I tag every one of my videos with the word "kayak". None of these songs say one word about kayaks, and why in the world would they? I think YouTube has some kind of "bug" or has been hacked by a loose organization of kayak-lovers).

All kayaks aside, I really, really like doing this! I find that I'm a visual person, apparently, and sadly, for a so-called songwriter. Or else, it's just more making up of stories, which is sort of what songwriting is anyway. I think I'll keep doing it until I run out of songs.

I wrote two songs that I really like (see FAWM). One of them is in the process of being recorded, but it won't be done in 2010. It still counts, though. I consider it a bit of weather-related inspiration, mixed with a healthy dose of imagination. Even my husband, the producer, likes the song.

I'm going to spring the other song on him the next time it's my turn to have a song recorded (there are three of us in the band, each with his or her own songs).

So, as lazy as I know I can be, I think I did a pretty good job of "trying" in 2010.

And I'm good with that.