The gift of another year

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January 2013 arrives and my head is full of all the many tasks I need to do to launch my CD out into the world. This CD “ Beating of the Sun” is the culmination of months of blood,sweat and tears. Discussions, ideas,experimentation, arrangements and tempos, recording techniques, mixing and photos, artwork, kickstarter campaigns, friendships, arguments,angst, laughter, excitement and despair. Quite a potent mix. January 22nd is the date that this baby is officially welcomed into the material world. It’s the christening, the naming ceremony. The time when I shift gears from hiding in my cocoon creating, to  stepping out into the world and sharing the finished work. When I get to see how ‘my baby’ is received out in the greater world. To watch her walk out into the sunshine and spread some love around wherever she goes.

 

I am not actually a goal orientated person. I am process oriented. An introvert by nature who can fake it out in the world as an extrovert for short bursts. (I’m sure there are a ton of us out there!)  So when I think about the year ahead I think about the practical concrete things and the possibilities (because of course I’m a dreamer as well). So of course like everybody else, I want to sell as many records as possible, become incredibly rich and famous by December 31st, adopt and love all the orphans in the world, put an end to war, teach the world to sing (because singing releases endorphins and if we all had more endorphins we’d all clearly be a heck of a lot happier), and do it all in a way that minimizes my footprint here on planet earth because I am an earth loving feral creäture at heart.

 Sooooo… On the more concrete side. I really do want to share my music with as many people as I possibly can in as many ways as I can think of. In April I’ll be in Italy  and the Netherlands. “Beating of the Sun” is being released digitally in Italy on a groovy little label there called New Model.  In June I’ll be touring in Australia. Later in the year I’ll be in the USA and in the UK. So, my feet on the earth head out of the clouds goal, is to be out in the world and visible, meeting new people, exchanging ideas, connecting with friends across the world, inspiring and moving people. Having enough money and material things to have a rich full life. Being a role model for what it looks like to follow your heart, no matter how old you are or what sex you are or what your sexual preferences are, because ultimately, that’s what I do every day. And thanks to Eden Ahbez who wrote one of the most beautiful songs of all time, I cradle this thought in my heart. “The greatest gift you’ll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return.”

 

 A Facebook friend posted this and  couldn’t help sharing it with you…

“Singers and Musicians are some of the most driven, courageous people on the face of the earth. They deal with more day-to-day rejection in one year than most people do in a lifetime. Every day, they face the financial challenge of living a freelance lifestyle, the disrespect of people who think they should get real jobs, and their own fear that they’ll never work again. Every day, they have to ignore the possibility that the vision they have dedicated their lives to is a pipe dream. With every note, they stretch themselves, emotionally and physically, risking criticism and judgment. With every passing year, many of them watch as the other people their age achieve the predictable milestones of normal life – the car, the family, the house, the nest egg. Why? Because musicians and singers are willing to give their entire lives to a moment – to that melody, that lyric, that chord, or that interpretation that will stir the audience’s soul. Singers and Musicians are beings who have tasted life’s nectar in that crystal moment when they poured out their creative spirit and touched another’s heart. In that instant, they were as close to magic, God, and perfection as anyone could ever be. And in their own hearts, they know that to dedicate oneself to that moment is worth a thousand lifetimes.” – David Ackert, LA Times

Here’s looking at an excellent adventure…..

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So here I am, living back in Australia after 22 years in the USA. It’s a new year.My first Summer Christmas in a long time. Am I organized?? No. From here it looks like it was a much quicker process to dismantle a life than to create one. At least in my particular case with the lights clearly marking the exit. All I had to do was follow the glow lights on the floor until I found myself in daylight. And here I am, in bright summer daylight, doing small things every day to make a new life. This new life is very different to my last. I am not the same person I was when I left for New York City 22 years ago. I am not the same person I was when I moved to Austin Texas 14 years ago, and I am not the same person I was when I left The USA to come back to Australia in November of last year. I am a much happier person. I have tamed some of the crazy demons in my head and set some of them free. I can see the sky and the trees and hear the parrots squawk and feel intensely lucky and at peace with myself and the circumstances of my life. I just got an e-mail from a friend and she invoked the words of 2 contemporary philosophers; Ted & Ren and Stimpy.

 Happy Happy Happy

Joy Joy Joy

Here’s looking at an excellent adventure.

Boy Oh Boy

 And I have to say. That is where I stand today……

Hurricane Sandy

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I just returned to NYC from a week of intensive vocal study in France. I totally missed Hurricane Sandy and 5 days of no power, no cell service and no internet in lower Manhattan.  I have been fortunate to be staying at a friend’s apartment in Brooklyn for the past 2 nights because the word on the street was, ‘Good luck trying to get into Manhattan’. So, rather than push my luck for no good reason, I reached out to a friend in Brooklyn who was kind enough to welcome me into her home. No Taxi’s or airport shuttles want to go to Brooklyn. My taxi driver at JFK made a point to tell me he had only been taking fares into Manhattan because he could make more money that way and then proceeded to drive me half way around the world to get to Park Slope. It turned out he made at least as much money as he would have made taking me to Manhattan and then assured me his road choices were an honest mistake…..

 Brooklyn is full of refugees now. All the cafes and restaurants are humming with sound, people walk the streets pulling their suitcases behind them. Gas stations have mile long lines for rapidly disappearing supplies of gasoline. Stations are closed off with yellow tape.

 Later today I will head back to the East Village. Power is restored there now.  The heat isn’t on yet, but that is a small thing compared with the situation of the past week. There is hot water, lights, internet and cell phone service. The new basics of modern living. Perhaps we need to add these things to the foundation of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs…just a thought

Another day older…

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I just turned 49. This is a fact. I don’t feel 49. I don’t even know what that would feel like. I do know that the world in which I live has very concrete ideas about what a woman of 49 can and can’t do.  To a great part of society, I have already become invisible. Simply because I am a woman and I am 49 years old.

 I just moved from Austin Texas to  NYC.

 When I last lived in NYC, I was 27 years old. In the Music business of big dollars and big record sales, youth and beauty are essential. Even at 27 I was aware I needed to lie about my age because at 27 I was ‘too old’. I was also ‘too fat.’ I had a manager who informed me that I could only be an over weight performer if I was African-American. Because I was a pale-faced white woman, it was not acceptable. Fiona Apple was just emerging as a  gorgeous 17year old prodigy and her handlers were using the promotion and publicity angle that she was raped when she was 12, and this somehow explained her talent… I had another (potential) manager tell me that women songwriters were a fad that would soon pass. I noticed that on the radio I would never hear 2 women’s voices singing in a row. There was some unwritten rule that you could not play 2 women back to back.

 I would love to say that this has changed in the last 20 years…. My observation is that this has not changed. In some ways it may even be worse. Yes, the emerging world of home studios and the constantly dropping price of CD manufacture has leveled the playing field in terms of who gets to make a record. But I still listen to the radio in amazement, look at club programs, and tour schedules.  It is still very much a male dominated arena. I know it’s not because there is a lack of women with talent out there. I am not proposing any theories or conclusions, this is just what I see.

 

Mountain Stage New Song Finalist

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The voting has begun for the Mountain Stage New Song Competition. My song and my video are in the Southwest Region. You can only vote once. So pop on over and vote for me if you want to see me perform at The Lincoln Centre in NYC in October.

Plans are moving forward for a release date for “Beating of the Sun” and I am very excited to be sharing this CD with the greater world.

The World is Changing

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I was thinking about my dad who is 93 years old. He has seen so many changes in the world in his lifetime. When he and my mother were first married, they lived in a house with no electricity. They used oil lamps. My mother used to do the laundry in a washing machine she worked by hand. They had a fire and my father would get up very early every morning to start the fire and put the kettle on to make some tea. Water for the bath had to be heated on the fire. Of course this was in Australia and maybe it wasn’t like that here in the USA.

Now my dad has a computer, he uses the internet even though it frustrates him. He can book plane tickets on line. He checks his e-mail (unfortunately it has not made him a better correspondent). He has a mobile phone which he doesn’t check the messages on very often. He still hates leaving voice mail messages for people. He does classes at the University of the 3rd age. Recently he was enchanted by an iPhone belonging to a classmate.

For me … I remember when we only had a black and white television. I swore I would never get a cell phone and then once I got a cell phone I swore I would never get an iPhone. Needless to say, I love my iPhone. My husband forced me into the world of the computer when he bought a PC home. I complained it was staring at me all the time and yes … now I do everything on my Mac book and have to force myself to shut it off. Dial up internet … when I couldn’t be on the phone and the computer at the same time and surfing the world wide web was an exercise in extreme patience.

Yes the world is changing quickly and I am trying to embrace it as it comes hurtling at me. So This weekend I am stepping into the arena of online concerts. I will sit down in front of my mac and stare at the camera. I will play songs for you on my guitar. And I have the potential to perform my songs for people all over the world thanks to the world wide web. I am calling this concert Dipping Toes in Water 2 and here is the link to find out everything you need to know!

http://www.stageit.com/lisa_richards/dipping_toes_2/6531

So meet me there on Saturday @ 5.00 pm central standard time in the USA for a short journey into uncharted territory.