What a night!

On Friday, Tony Russell and his wife Rosemarie invited us out, to hear Ben Schillaci sing with Bob Leatherbarrow (drums) and David Moscoe (keyboard) at Barone's. First, of all, Ben Schillaci, where have you been hiding? Ben's sense of timing, his phrasing, his tone, his choice of tunes - an absolute joy to hear. I'll come out to hear him any time, anywhere.

In the 2nd set, Ben invited Tony and I both to sit in, and what a night it was! As Tony said, "When we show up, we make a riot!" Well, that's what we did. Tony told a few (wonderfully inappropriate) jokes, I sang a song, he sang a song, we did a couple of duets, and then the three of us traded choruses (scatting) on a 12-bar blues.

If more people had been at Barone's that night, the authorities would have had to shut the place down. As it was, we made plenty of noise with our friends - Cheryl and Alan Priven, the Brownsteins (who danced all night long), Mel the comedian, vocalist Chadwick, and more. Dr. Kathy Lassiter was also there, snapping away with her camera. If I can track her down, I'll try to get copies of the photos and post some.

Help for the Aspiring Songwriter

My good friend and long-time musical collaborator Chris Cutler has just published a new website for his songwriting demo business, www.yoursongdemo.com. Check it out.

He offers a unique service to songwriters who need help recording their ideas. The good news is, his clients don't have to be professional musicians or even skilled instrumentalists. All they have to bring in is an idea - a line, a lyric, or a melody. Chris then works with the client to flesh out these ideas musically. He creates backing tracks, or - if needed - a vocal as well. This is ideal for beginning songwriters, students in a songwriting class, or anyone who has a great song knocking around inside his head, but just doesn't know how to make it "real". At the end of the day, the product belongs to the client. Chris takes no percentage of publishing or any other claim to the material. And his rates are extremely reasonable.

Right now (on a more personal note) given the current state of the world, I really think it's important to try to make sense of the world we live in. Self-expression through songwriting is one of the ways we can do this. I think there are a lot of songwriters out there who just haven't had the time or the tools to produce their songs.

If you are one of these people (or know someone who is), send them to www.yoursongdemo.com.

"Somewhere in this Room" chosen among Top 25 Indie Releases of 2008 by Indie-Music.com

This is very exciting. I just found out that Indie-Music.com just selected my 2008 release, "Somewhere in this Room" , to be included in their list of Top 25 Indie Releases of 2008. What an honor, and thank you, Indie-Music.com! As a result of this selection, we've been getting additional airplay in the state of New York on WCVF, on a program called General Eclectic. I'm in some pretty good company, too...check out the link below:

TOP 25 INDIE CD'S OF 2008

New Year's in Nashville

I just returned from a wonderful 2-week visit in Nashville. It was so wonderful, getting to spend the holidays, and then some, with my family. My parents throw an enormous annual holiday party (a tradition dating back to 1966 or 1967 - I was an infant when the first one was thrown at the old house on Rolling Fork Drive). Dad would play piano, various musicians would sit in, and you never knew when a singer (country, operatic, or jazz) would show up. It eventually morphed into an annual New Year's Eve party, and when I started singing all those years ago, I was recruited to join in. Pretty soon it became the "Laura and Bill Show", and this year was no exception. It's such an honor to play with my dad - he has such a charismatic style, full of ideas, and always entertaining. Here are a few shots from New Year's Eve (which also happens to be our 4th Wedding Anniversary)!

Sewing in Studio City

I've changed the name of my sewing blog to "Sewing in Studio City". Not quite as creative, but David said "The Singing Seamstress" sounds like "The Happy Hooker" -- not exactly the image I wanted to convey.
So, in case, you're interested in seeing how I've been spending my free time, head on over here:

Sewing in Studio City

What a weekend. For those of us living in Southern California, it was pretty unbelievable. First there was the Sylmar Canyon fire to the north, which tragically wiped out an entire community of mobile homes. Then from the south, the Corona fire followed on its heels, and I watched the TV in horror as it skipped the 91 freeway and raged westward, destroying beautiful homes indiscriminately. I live in Studio City (nowhere near the fires), and still, ash fell from the sky all day Sunday, and everyone was asked to stay indoors and conserve water. All this came just a couple of days after the terrible Montecito fire, just south of Santa Barbara. I've performed in Montecito so many times over the years, and I wondered whom I might know up there who might have been affected.

My heart really goes out to all these firefighters, who have been battling these blazes for days now. I can't imagine how exhausted and stretched thin these guys must be...they've managed to save hundreds of homes, and it looks like today that the fires are at least partially contained.

Not a heck of alot going on....

"It's the economy, stupid."

That must be it. No gigs, no shows, no plans. Everyone's feeling it right now. I'm taking the time to get "re-charged". I was so busy in the months of August and September, working a full-time job and singing all over the place. I think I'm going to start writing again.

And, to tell you the truth, I'm rather thankful that I even HAVE a job right now.

Other than that, I've been continuing with my Russian language classes. I hated to lose everything I learned this year, so I decided to continue. I am now officially an "intermediate level" student at the Beverly Hills Lingual Institute! (drum roll, please...)

Being a singer really helps, beleive it or not, because I've trained my ear over the years to duplicate sounds. My teacher says my accent is "perfect" - can you believe that? She asked me if I had Russian blood somewhere in my past.

That's about it in a nutshell. I hadn't posted in a while, so I thought I'd throw something up here.

I hope I have more interesting things to relay, later!