09.11.06
Posted in Uncategorized, music news at 9:30 pm by Deb
Oh well, I didn’t make the finals in the lyric writing contest. I will admit that I’m a little disappointed, but also very pleased to have made it as far as I did. Some of the nominees in the other categories who made it to the finals include Janis Ian (one of my songwriting idols), Freebo, Clarence Gatemouth Brown, They Might Be Giants, Lowen & Navarro, Art Garfunkle, Cris Williamson, Jay Mankita, and many more. One of the lyric winners is Tom Kimmel, who has been writing for other artists such as The Byrds, Linda Ronstadt, Levon Helm, Johnny Cash, Joe Cocker, Waylon Jennings, and more. I’ll get over my disappointment. Meanwhile, I hope I get myself in gear and write more. By the way, here is the lyric I entered.
WITHIN THE GIANT’S EYE
© 2006 Deb Cavanaugh
As a girl, I spent my growing years
On a small Nantucket isle
I climbed up into the lighthouse tower
And looked across the miles
I recognized the birds in flight
They soared across the sky
I looked down at the sea below
From within the giant’s eye,
from within the giant’s eye
As a woman I moved on from there
To a life that was my own
Started working in a factory
Going home with aching bones
I moved into a tenement
In my room I’d sit and cry
I looked down on the city
From within the giant’s eye,
from within the giant’s eye
As a wife I watched my own true love
Work eighteen-hour days
My babies never played out in the sun
They worked their lives away
I watched them lose their fingers
I watched their spirits die
The bosses watched their workers
From within the giant’s eye,
from within the giant‘s eye
Now I go and leave a legacy
Of hope that never dies
Remembering those birds I used to see
They wheeled across the sky
As my life is ending
I encourage you to fly
I look down on your struggle
From within the giant’s eye,
from within the giant’s eye
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08.24.06
Posted in Uncategorized, music news at 8:59 pm by Deb
Just a quick note to let you all know that our songs are now online at our website and also on MySpace. If any of you are on MySpace, add us to your friends. Summertime is hard to do much other than work and play. Now it’s almost over. My birthday is next week and the beginning of a new year. My year always seems to run according to the school year. I’ve been actively parenting for 31 years with school age kids, and celebrating my own personal new year as well as birthdays of two of my three children. It’s become so ingrained in me now, I assume it will continue regardless of whether I’m involved with the school year or not. Anyway, enough of my babbling. Hope you enjoy our music. Please let me know what you think.
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07.26.06
Posted in Uncategorized, music news at 8:48 am by Deb
I realize I haven’t written in a very long time, but life hijacked me. We now have our 3-song CD all done, and I am almost recovered from a very exciting and exhausting festival. One of my co-crew chiefs was too sick to come. She had all of our newly purchased arts and crafts supplies. The festival was very short on volunteers and had moved to a new site. Things were very well run. The new site was set up just like the old site, but there are always things that need tweaking at a new place. I also brought Grandsweetie with me to camp for 4 nights. Rain is always guaranteed at this festival. Sometimes we only get one day of rain, sometimes a quick torrential storm, sometimes off and on the whole weekend. This weekend, we got rain on Friday (a short storm), a torrential rain on Saturday with major flooding and minor sprinkling and dreariness mixed with sun on Sunday. When it’s not raining, it’s usually uncomfortably hot and muggy. Why, you might ask, is this my favorite festival? Well, partly because of the music, of course, and mostly because of the community I have there. This festival attracts lots of other singer/songwriters, and there are lots of opportunities to jam, showcase at campsites late at night, and to network. I brought our CDs, handed some out, and we’ll see what happens now. As a crew chief, I get a pass to go backstage to watch the show, so Grandsweetie and I spent Thurs. and Friday nights back there. Dick came for the day on Sat., so we hung out with him instead of backstage, and Sunday is just too busy to do much more than the Activities for Kids area. Anyway, I’m home now, still not unpacked, and Grandsweetie is demanding my attention, which she’s had little of since we came home. I will write more later. Just one last note on all the help I had with her at the festival. Many thanks to Fyre, Spawn, and many, many friends and crewmembers who made this doable for me. This is a festival I highly recommend to everyone.
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07.15.06
Posted in Uncategorized, music news at 11:12 pm by Deb
We went back to MoonDogEast today and rerecorded Roll On River. Many thanks to Hoby and Peter for all their encouragement and good advice. The finished product will be ready soon. Meanwhile, we played a gig last night, have one tomorrow and spent time recording today. Monday and Tuesday I teach music again, hopefully pick up the finished CD Monday night, make copies on Tuesday and try to get ready to leave for Falcon Ridge early on Wed. Whew! What a life! There is an old Chinese curse: May your life never be boring - or something like that. I’d like to meet the person who gifted me that at my birth. We just saw a great movie, Interstate 60, recommended by Fyregoddess that deals with the granting of a wish, sometimes with an unexpected twist. I’m sure I didn’t wish this, but who knows, maybe as a child I made a wish and it was granted in this bizarre way. Anyway, I highly recommend this movie. It’s the best I’ve seen in a long time. I also highly recommend that you check back here or at our website in the next week or so for a sample of our music.
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07.11.06
Posted in Uncategorized, music news at 3:54 pm by Deb
Well, we did get three songs recorded on Saturday. One of them we’re thrilled with, one we’re satisfied with, and the third is a little disappointing, especially because it was the one I wanted the most. Maybe that’s why it didn’t turn out as well. Oh well, I’m hoping that the final version (after being mixed and tweaked) will be passable. It feels like all of a sudden things are moving forward very quickly. The reality is that I’ve worked toward all of this for a long time with slow but steady progress. The current forward movement is more dramatic, so feels more sudden. It’s akin to a relatively unknown musician finally gaining popularity and everyone saying that they were an overnight success. What?! How many years did it take to get there? There’s no such thing as an overnight success. Hopefully the final versions of these songs/tune will be done fairly soon and I can post at least a taste.
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07.02.06
Posted in Uncategorized, music news at 3:19 pm by Deb
Back in May I entered my song, “Within the Giant’s Eye,” in a national lyric contest and just found out that I made it to Round 2. Out of 505 lyrics, they have whittled it down to 50. Now they will vote to get it down to the 20 final nominees who will be competing for the 2006 Best Lyric Award in Hollywood at the 2006 JPF Music Awards show on November 4th, 2006. Please send good thoughts my way.
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06.28.06
Posted in Uncategorized, music news at 12:00 pm by Deb
We spent the weekend, actually from Thursday night at the Old Songs Festival in Altamont, NY. We had a great time, though it was hard to have Grandsweetie with us. We volunteered, so I basically spent Friday and Saturday days either working or chasing after her. She had a incredible time. Here she is only 2 1/2 and already meeting the bands and hanging out with them. She is not shy of very many people and, like my own children, not intimidated by performers. She lives with performers, so it doesn’t seem out of the ordinary to her. She loved The Wild Band of Snee, and invited them to sit with us at one of the picnic tables. She spent every evening dancing and meeting people during the concerts. I didn’t get to do a whole lot that I wanted to do, but did get to hear the workshop on Social Commentary. Cris Williamson, Peter Siegel, Peggy Seeger and Enoch Kent were all great, but Jay Mankita brought down the house, or rather brought them to their feet, with “They Lied.” I had first heard this song at a campfire at Falcon Ridge Folk Festival 2 years ago. He had just written it and was going around trying to learn it and getting feedback. Since then, it’s become quite popular. You can download it for free. He just wants it out in the world being heard and passed around. I became very inspired to get back home and write more political songs. Now, if I can only find some time…
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06.09.06
Posted in Uncategorized, music news at 1:29 pm by Deb
It looks like we will be starting to record our three song demo at Moondog East Studio on July 8th. I can’t wait! I haven’t worked in a studio in a while and never with Dick. Also, in the past, I worked doing back-up vocals on one project, and then I worked only on Rock & Roll projects. This will be a whole new thing for me. We’re hoping to continue recording after this and release a CD before too long. We’re even thinking of doing a live recording to try to capture more of who we are and what we do in shows.
More news: Dick bought another guitar yesterday. He is well on his way to having his guitar/ string instrument business going. I assume he’ll want to play it tonight at our Moon & River show. Those of you in the area who may come to the show can hear for yourselves what an incredible sound this one has. I am so lucky to have access to all these treasures that he collects. What a blessed life I have.
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06.03.06
Posted in Uncategorized, music news at 8:13 am by Deb
After much frustration and many setbacks, we have finally decided to bite the bullet and pay for recording time. We met with the studio last night, mapping out plans and playing our songs for him. We’re going to start out with a simple three song demo of all originals. How do we always manage to make simple things more complicated. Here we have only three songs, but ended up needing to bring four instruments. Luckily, we each play the same instrument for two of the three songs or else we’d be bringing more. Oh well, we want it to be representative, and we do play many instruments, so I guess it makes sense to have variety on the recording. I’m a little disappointed that Dick doesn’t want to record a fiddle tune. Maybe he’ll change his mind, and we’ll add a fourth tune/song.
On Thursday, we played a freebie for the Local Early Intervention Coordinating Council. It was a picnic with clowns, face painting, pony rides, crafts, lots of food, and us. It was an opportunity for families and caregivers of disabled children with disabilities such as varying degrees of autism and spina bifida to get together for some fun. It felt like an important thing to do. We had a good time and played well, engaging the kids as much as we could. Tonight we play a benefit for the Independent Learning Center where my youngest son, RC2, will go to high school next year. June is already filling up with birthday parties and festivals, not to mention our regular gigs. It’s a good thing we’re also good jugglers.
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04.28.06
Posted in Uncategorized, music news at 8:07 am by Deb
Well, the sound angel came visiting on Wed. to help me figure out how to make my recording stuff work. Even he couldn’t figure it out. Now I don’t feel so badly. I’m back to where I originally was - it looks like it’s recording but won’t play back. Oh well, back to the drawing board. The fact that the angel couldn’t quite figure it out either made me feel much better about my own abilities. I can usually figure this stuff out pretty quickly. Hopefully this week I will start from the beginning again! As soon as I’m successful, I will post some music for you to hear.
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