Fabulous Music Industry Weekend

Thank you fellow Musicians for a FABULOUS Music Industry Weekend at Bosch!!!

  

What a pleasure it was to see my old friends and make such great new ones.  And how satisfying to see some of our hard-working servants of the Bahá’í Faith finally get the chance to un-wind with musician brothers and sisters!  On Sunday, I thanked Irwin Anolik (superb drummer for 2B1) for his selfless service as the duty drummer for the weekend.  I want to add a thank you to Nelson LeDuc and David Cedarquist for their services on bass.   And a big hug and thanks to dear Jean T Quinn who supplied many of our percussion instruments. 

  

It was really great to see Van Gilmer again and Russ Salton from up in Gig Harbor, Washington.   And my dear friends Jeff and Maya Bohnoff who always put on an excellent performance.  It was a treat to finally meet Chris Ruhe whose music and energy I have enjoyed for years! (and thanks for the birthday song my friend).  Jerry York, down there in Houston, TX - you were a great addition. And David Hunt - a consummate professional – was a delight to meet and hear and see perform! There really were just too many great folks to mention.

  

I want to say that while our annual event has always been rich in talent, I think this 5^th rendition had to be the best ever.  The caliber of musicianship and performance was top-notch!  I’ve posted some photos on the “Music Industry Weekend Scrapbook” Page.  Have a look and if I’ve misidentified anyone, please post a comment with a correction.  

I now can really appreciate the amount of work that Michael Eissinger of RadioNUR poured into this event to get the ball rolling since the beginning five years ago.  Michael, you’ll be pleased to know we paid attention and managed to pull off a great one on our own.  Do well in your studies Michael and rejoin us when you can!

  

Oh, you’ll all be pleased to know that Alan James’  house was indeed still standing and quite cool when we made it back to San Diego last night. (I think they could hear the sigh of relief up in LA!)

  

For those who could not join in this year, don’t despair!  We’re on the Bosch schedule for next year. It will be October 30 through Nov 2, 2008 (Thursday through Sunday). 

Mark those calendars now!!

 

///Darrell 

Darrell Rodgers                                        

Singer, Songwriter, Performer, Humorist

http://darrellsongs.com

 

Surviving Fires and Smoke

For those of you living beyond the borders of San Diego County, California, you’ve likely seen on television the devastation suffered by many of our residents down here.  Where I live, Imperial Beach, we were not in any immediate fire danger.  Our problem here was smoke and soot and ash falling like snow, choking our breath, and seeping into every imaginable opening in our home.

 I’m pleased to report that my good friend Alan James (singer songwriter and performer extrordinaire) was able to return his home which was thankfully spared by the heroic efforst of neighbors and some wonderful firefighters on the ground and in helicopters.

 For you high-bandwidth users, this link provides a video that documents the situation of last week for many friends in this area:

Sign-on Sandiego Fire Video

Deb and I escaped for four days to Bosch Baha’i School in the mountains above Santa Cruz where the air was fresh and the music was outstanding.  More on that in my next post.

 ///Darrell

Fun Show in Tucson

 

 I had a great time performing at the Tucson Baha’i Information Center this week.  It’s a cozy little storefront near the Univeristy of Arizona in Tucson. 

My dear friend Sarah Taraz asked if I would do a show there, and well, travel plans just worked out fine.  Another bonus was getting to see, and sing with, my daughter (also named Sarah).  She’s a sophomore at U of A.

I did quite a few songs from my “Darrell’s Birthday Party” CD as well as few others that folks had not yet heard.  I had a great time.

 My thanks to all of you who came to see me and to those who purchased a CD!  I hope that I can come back again sometime, perhaps on a Friday night, and do it again!

 ///Darrell

Learning about Web-based promotion from Jarome Matthew

My friend Jarome Matthew is a record producer in Vancouver, BC, Canada.  Not only is he a skilled recording professional with a great ear, he’s also pretty saavy with regrad to music business promotion on the web.

He has some radical ideas about the new evolving music industry, and I think he’s right.  If you’re an “Indie” or “Do-It-Yourself” artist, do yourself this favor:  Check out Jarome’s site http://www.jarome.com  and look into his new course on building your music business.

 ///Darrell

Music Industry Weekend at Bosch Baha’i School

To all you Baha’i musicians and recording engineers and producers out there:  We’re getting ready for the Fifth Annual Baha’i Music Industry Weekend at Bosch.  It runs from Thursday evening , 25 October through Sunday noon, 28 October.  If you haven’t registered, get on it!  This will be fun.

 We’ll plan future collaborations, and share some lessons learned about performing, recording, producing and promoting our musical art.  We’ll explore not only how to make money with our craft, but also how to be more effective as musicians in the Baha’i community.
  And of course, we’ll jam a bit too, and perform!
  You’ll hear some of the best Baha’i music coming out of the community and meet some fantastic talent. Young and old, country, folk, jazz, blues, pop, hip hop, techno, all types will be there.  We’ll have “Open Mic” nights on Thursday and Friday giving everyone a chance to perform.  On Saturday morning we’ll all vote for our nine favorites to perform in a show on Saturday Night for the public.

  In years past, Baha’i musicians and producers from all over met and collaborated after the weekend on some of the most amazing music.  “Unrestrained as the Wind”, the wonderful and eclectic Ruhi Book 2 music CD, was born at this event.  Perhaps you too will become part of a great musical project after attending this year at Bosch.

  So Please join us at Bosch!
  Although we have the whole campus, SPACE IS LIMITED!  All housing, and great meals are provided at the wonderful Bosch facility in the forest.

  Call or email the school today to reserve your place at this wonderful event.  If you can’t stay the whole weekend, come for the concert on Saturday evening!

  Bosch Baha’i School, 500 Comstock Lane, Santa Cruz, CA 95060-9615
  On the web at:
  http://www.bosch.org/Site/Sessions.html

  Phone: [831] 423-3387
  Fax: [831] 423-7564
  E-mail: bosch@usbnc.org

Weekend Update.  Here’s some update on the Music Indutry Weekend:

We have Jeff Bohnoff scheduled for “Home recording with personal computers”.
Alan James is scheduled to do “Performance Workshops” (2 of them), and
I’m planning to do another “Songwriting Techniques and Song Circle” ( in
which I anticipate Alan’s help unless there’s a big demand for a third
Performance session)  Vic Salvo is coming to present a workshop on Music Composition – chord choices for evoking moods.  I will also present a workshop called:
“Building your business in the Web 2.0 world”.  It was prepared by our great Canadian Producer Jarome Matthews.  It has some cool things to say about blogs.

Jean Quinn will do a Friday-morning group presentation about: 
“Teaching Teachers” – how to support core activities by teaching group harmony singing
and back-track production.  And Kim Bowers of the “Workshop for the Arts” in Texas is coming to tell us about their next big collaboration project – Devotional Music.

ALSO:  Don’t forget to bring your CDs to sell or trade.  Let me know of your “new releases” you’d like the group to hear.

Even though the workshops are great, the best part for me has been meeting and playing music with all of you.  I hope we can do it again!

///Darrell