Greetings and Happy New Year friends. I hope this early 2012 finds you filled with optimism that everything you desire comes easily, friends and loved ones are healthy and that our world is filled with Peaceful cooperation. Or at least things stay steady. We had an unusual snow early in December. It was beautiful though shut down the county.
Feb. 3rd I’ll be performing a concert at the Branigan Cultural Center 501 North Main St. downtown Las Cruces. The concert is to kick off the 15th annual For the Love of Arts Month here in Las Cruces where arts definitely take on front and center stage during February. My concert will be 5-7pm. It is free so I hope to see you there. The Downtown Arts Ramble will also be taking place that night which we have every first Friday of each month. I’m still updating my calendar for 2012 and always open to performing House Concerts, festivals, flute circles etc. Email me with suggestions or questions.
I released my album Pura Vida-This is Pure Life in 2010. My partner was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer that year; I was the caregiver until he passed in March of 2011, moved into new home, selling his old home, settling his estate etc. In other words a full-time job of mostly love and duty. I had to put my music career on hold as well as promotion of the new CD. So slowly I’ve edited videos and released them on YouTube. I’m so very excited to announce the release of the video for Hallelujah from that CD. It is my version of the iconic Leonard Cohen song. It took me a while to come to this song because of the reverence I have for both the song and the songwriter. My version is the culmination of my life as a musician with all the exotic and magical instruments I’ve begun playing since 2004 when I bought my first Native American flute. This version has the Halo, guitar, bass, flute and vocals. I’m proud of the song and the video.
Making videos as an independent musician is strange in that you have no budget but also no record company execs telling you what focus groups think you should do in your video. However it is a total DIY undertaking. I had a good friend Randy Garcia, from the Chicago area out to visit me in New Mexico and he did the filming work after we talked about storyboarding and the mood I was envisioning. I think he did an astonishingly creative job. Videos, to me, are about telling a story that compliments the song. But they are also about building your image as a performer. There is nothing egotistical about this. Some musicians I meet give me a hard time for always promoting, what they see, as “Myself” incorrectly. Being a musician IS my day job and my night job and my passion. Making a living so I can continue to produce the music the best to my ability is the goal, the means to an end so to speak. That is nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed about. It’s been a serious challenge to recover from the hit last year did to my career with fewer rebookings, fewer festival invites, less airplay because I didn’t promote the CD etc. I’m still struggling and selling instruments and equipment on EBay under the handle guitarpoetnm. I’ll get there and am working on my new album already. Forwardly on!
If you enjoy this video please share it on Facebook, twitter, in forums, message boards, with all your friends and family. It will help build a buzz and possibly gain more exposure for my music and my sales. We can hope. Thank you friends and a prosperous new year.
Randy
