Ken Yates twenty-three | Home In Maine

Website: www.misharamusic.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH2uZ6OT_Tc

Apr

A World Apart – literally / Maine Maple Syrup / The best music you haven’t heard & a set list to long for! The Marcrescue blog – life in Maine with an 8 year old

Greetings all,

Been about a month since I last blogged about this and that…..and it seems in that span of days lots has happened.

You may remember that not so long ago…..our world here in Maine was all about ice, snow and cold.

So much so that I now have “Popeye” like arms – more than any other time in my life – because it seemed that every 7 minutes I was hauling, moving, stacking and then carrying wood upstairs to fuel up the woodstove and keep us warm in this much colder than normal winter.

Add in all that shoveling and I was tightening my belt one more notch.

Time to let it out again.

A few weeks ago I managed to stop to take a photo of the last ice fishing hut on the water near us:

It’s open water now….hope they got it out in time.

And it means it’s Sunday breakfast time with fresh from the tap pure Maine maple syrup:

That’s because we spend Maine Maple Day (it happens every March) touring our favorite maple sugar houses and stocking up on lots of syrup (seriously – if we time it right we get it hot right out of the tap) and various other maple syrup treats.

Hard to believe that it all starts with old buckets on even older trees:

It’s a party at all our favorite sugar houses and we see friends everywhere we stop.

First off we hit Sparky’s……as soon as you walk into the sugar house you get that unique aroma in the steam filled room from the boiling sap……perhaps my favorite scent of all time:

Sparky’s also has the best honey around – we buy big jars of his pure raw honey – nothing like it.

Then it’s off to Bradstreet – the most picturesque sugar house you’ll ever see:

Mark Bradstreet is the friendliest guy in the Maple business and when he’s not tending to the fire he’s smiling and showing off his fresh syrup:

And then the next moment he’s teaching everyone about how it’s made and about the different types of syrup:

They’re got live music in the corner:

And samples of waffles with fresh syrup and the best maple walnut fudge you’ve ever had!

We pick up some “Extra Dark Amber” syrup and fudge at Bradstreet and then off to Simmons & Daughters for more treats:

The Simmons eldest daughter was running the maple cotton candy machine and once you’ve gone maple cotton candy – you’ll never go back to cane:

At Simmons we picked up a half gallon of “Dark Amber” in a mason jar – so hot out of the tap we had to let it cool a bit before we could pick it up……out on the deck back at home…….it looks like the liquid gold it is:

Then it’s off to our last stop of the day – Kinney’s Sugarhouse….for some specialty maple items (maple cream among the items)…..and oooh the maple donut holes are to die for:

More live music:

And the final treat of the day – fresh maple walnut ice cream made with Kinney’s syrup by our friends the Chamberlains from Stone Fox Farm Creamery and served out of their “Mobile Cone”:

If you’re an ice cream addict like I am……I’m sorry – even though Stone Fox Ice Cream distribution is growing rapidly – it’s still local…..you’ll have to come visit to get some…..and it’s sure worth it.

My favorite “Salted Caramel”

And if you come visit – we’ll start with a main course before dessert.

Whadda think?

Burger?

Nah

Mac & Cheese?

Nah

Baked Potato?

Nah

Oh I know…..how about a Lobster Roll?

Sorry – couldn’t resist – it’s right before dinner time as I write this and I’m hungry……and the Mobile Cone will start hanging out at our local Farmer’s Markets which start shortly – at the same time all the local lobster shacks open for the summer.

Yum.

It’s been a long winter.

So while we’ve been wandering around Maine sampling maple products – two of my friends – who both have new albums out – been wandering a bit farther afield.

Peter Bradley Adams – who’s latest album “The Mighty Storm” moved up to 81* on the FMQB Non-Comm (Public Music Radio) Album Chart has been touring in all places – Mainland China!

The poster is great – I have no idea what it says but it sure looks cool:

And Connor Garvey – who’s new album “Meteors And Beating Hearts” debuted on the same radio chart this week (a great album and I love the artwork on the cover):

ConnorGarvey-MeteorsAndBeatingHearts1600x1600

Has been traveling almost exactly 1/2 way around the world from Peter.

Connor’s been skiing in the mountains in Alaska:

That’s hardcore.

Connor’s from Maine…..and I find it interesting that after one of the coldest and snowiest winters we’ve had in a long time – he went off to find MORE snow.

One of the songs on Connor’s new album is called “Old House” and it’s one of my two favorites on the album.

It’s the story of the house that Connor and his girlfriend bought this year and are in the process of restoring.

It’s a love song about the girl and the house (with a very tasty “Dire Straits” feel and guitar for about the last two minutes of the tune) – and the only photo I’ve seen of this house is this one……he did a FB post about the snow he had been shoveling this winter (as we all have):

The man loves his snow.

And I’m right there with him on that love of winter and snow.

Because of the severity of the winter this year – many of my friends in Los Angeles have been asking when we were moving back???

Not a chance.

Here’s my thoughts about cold vs hot.

It’s easier to get warm when you’re cold – than cold when you’re hot.

You can always layer on more clothes until you’re warm.

But you can only take so much off when you’re hot…..and the worst part about that…..it seems that too many people go beyond the limit of what they should take off – especially the older they get…..it’s scary sometimes.

By the way – my other favorite song on the Connor Garvey album…..is the last track on the album – a song named “Tattered Shirt”.

Lately I’ve noticed that “Tattered Shirt” and “Old House” have become the best researching tracks on the album and I love that – both creative and original songs. “Tattered Shirt” is unique in that Connor wrote the song with a female character speaking….and yet sings it totally straight. I suspect that twist in the lyrics really surprises people to start and captures them and then they find they love the lyrics, the story and the gorgeous melody.

Here’s a listening link on YouTube to “Tattered Shirt”:

And a listening link to “Old House”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUFyu58UKIA

Let’s talk about concerts for a moment.

I’m headed to a Connor concert later this week – looking very forward to it – he’s great live

…..as a reminder…..here’s his live version of “Irish” that I wrote about on St Patrick’s Day:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y_6qP4qXw4

A live album “Before The Meteors” – with “Irish” on it – available now at his live shows – will be released shortly on iTunes and Amazon…it’s a companion piece to “Meteors And Beating Hearts”:

I just saw Chris Ross at the Camden Opera House:

…..the first time I’ve seen him play since he won this well deserved award:

Here’s one of his new songs “Drunk Women” – coming this summer on a new album:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjZ83iFturk

Speaking of new albums and concerts – I get to see Barnaby Bright AND Ken Yates together in concert in NYC on May 8th at Rockwood……and BB are in the studio!!!!!!

Can’t wait to hear the studio version of “Just The Same” – which is perhaps the best adult realistic love song I’ve ever heard.

Check it out on this amazing live 9am performance at WNRN radio in Charlottesville:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibrnxU2F_n8

And did you ever hear the Ken Yates song off his recent album “twenty-three”…..

…..that John Mayer blogged about after hearing Ken play it – it’s a masterpiece – “I Don’t Wanna Fall In Love”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPWxk4JDEv4

Can’t wait to see Barnaby and Ken together in concert next month.

I feel very fortunate to be able to work with such talented artists.

But music has always been a part of my life.

Have you ever been to www.setlist.fm ?

It’s a wonder – people have posted the setlists for way over a millions concerts from over 60,000 artists and it’s a great way to relive your favorite shows.

Lotta talk about Springsteen lately…..and I thought “Hey is that first show I saw of his up on the website?”

Here’s the story – about a year after I got to LA…..I was a newbie in the record biz and had no contacts to get tickets to special shows in LA….but…..luckily a friend of mine realized that the night after Springsteen was playing what turned out to be a bellweather show at the Roxy in LA…..he was playing in Santa Barbara at UCSB in the gym……and it was easy to get tickets.

So we drove up and saw one of the great shows of all time in my experience.

Now just looking at the setlist and reliving the show – I realized how amazing a concert it was – my memory of it is strong – very strong.

I sure do wish someone would invent a concert time machine so we could all go back and relive those magic moments – especially when the distance of time confirms how truly special those nights were:

This one was truly a night to remember:

Check out Setlist.fm – it blows me away every time I think to look up a show.

I’ll post something else next time I write – already have something in mind.

One more note about winter.

Now that it’s over – and the snow has disappeared almost all over town…..(not everywhere yet)…..weird things have been spotted coming out of the ground……we’re trying to identify them……some people are convinced they’re alien pods……so if these blog posts suddenly stop coming…..or if they start taking a very different tone…..(for instance….short, timely and totally business like)…..run for your life:

But then again……we might be safe after all – saved by Mother Nature……so much for Spring and probably Summer……I think we missed them.

Here’s what happened this week:

No wonder – I’d packed the snow shovel off to the shed….foolish me.

Marc

PS I posted a lot of great songs up above……if you like what you heard – we give away songs by Peter, Chris, Barnaby and Ken and a bunch of other artists on our free song page at www.misharamusic.com/freesongs

PPS We also have over 50 free songs on our Amazon samplers – easy to download at:

http://tinyurl.com/AmazonFreeMisharaSamplers

People seem to like them:

PPPS Ever wonder how we find all those sugar houses in the back woods of Maine?

Don’t need no GPS…..we have great street signs:

Marc Ratner

Mishara Music

Website: www.misharamusic.com

https://www.facebook.com/TerraOptimaFarm

Jan

Maine winter snow & ice photos / life musings and a farm report you must read! Life In Maine With An Eight Year Old – The Marcrescue blog

Greetings,

Welcome to the New Year.

(Special note….I discovered the 100% best guaranteed holiday weight loss plan this season and will be sharing it at the end of the email……guaranteed……absolutely fool proof……you can bet on it!)

A lot of snow & ice has come (and some gone) since I last wrote.

Sure there’s music in my life but there’s so much more.

Let’s discuss the “so much more” for a bit.

Let’s start with a farm.

Not my farm.

Terra Optima Farm

It’s somewhere in Maine…..somewhere near us.

A woman named Cheryl runs this farm and a local farm store.

I’ve never met her…..don’t know exactly where the farm is and have never visited the store (although a visit there is on my “gotta do soon” list).

But I feel like I know Cheryl.

Because I wake up with her every morning.

Cheryl does a “Farm Report” on Facebook every morning – usually around 4:30am.

She’s working earlier than morning dj’s and I would think a lot harder as well.

A lot of people dislike Facebook for being a wasteland of useless information but I have to be thankful in this one instance because it’s a forum for some of the best writing I’ve seen in a long time.

Here’s Cheryl’s post about her Grandfather:

If you only click on one link in this post then click on this one:

Starting your morning reading Cheryl’s Farm Report will make your day.

And the next time we chat we can discuss Lancelot the rooster who’s in love with Charlotte the pig….and all the other scandals in animal land.

A reality show I finally can be truly interested in.

In other news – you might have heard that we had some cold weather recently.

If I remember correctly – there were days and days when it never got much above zero:

I think it went like this – snowstorm, snowstorm, ice storm, snowstorm, snowstorm.

And the weather never pays attention to your schedule.

We went to NYC for a couple of days – our annual holiday trip.

When we got back – I had to find my car – I think this was it:

But it was worth losing my car for a while to spend a couple holiday days in NYC.

We covered the top holiday spots this year!

Did you know they have real USPS “Spongebob” mailboxes in the big apple? Quite cool if you’re 7 years old:

You can’t beat a before opening hours tour of FAO Schwartz – the world’s coolest toy store (thanks Joanna, Roy, Steve and Anthony for our tour):

Can’t beat Macy’s windows at Christmastime:

Inside Macy’s – in the line to see Santa – they have special “Miracle on 34th Street” windows – one of my favorite things from the entire trip:

And how can you not see the Holiday show at Radio City Music Hall:

And of course “the tree”:

Before we knew it we were back on Amtrak leaving the city on our way back to Maine:

Back in Maine we celebrate the holidays in a more downhome style.

We have a holiday parade – not quite Rosebowl type floats – but big fun and very creative:

When the parade is over – virtually the whole town walks up to the library hill:

We all go there for the town tree lighting!

A great time is had by all.

But even with all the celebration winter can be pretty rough in Maine.

During the cold snap we had – Cheryl was posting on her Farm Report about how tough it was on the farm animals.

I never thought about it – barns aren’t heated.

It was interesting reading.

And the tough times were brought even closer to home to us when a friend called and asked if we’d be able to fill in a for driver for the local “Meals On Wheels” program.

Kim and I immediately said yes – and we both took a day off to deliver 19 meals – during a snow storm on one of the coldest days of the year.

Because of the storm – Ethan’s school was closed – so he came with us and helped us deliver the meals – an important thing to do and a great life lesson for a 7 year old.

Here’s the temp outside as we started our deliveries:

The way the program works – the recipients receive one hot meal each day Monday through Friday.

No deliveries on the weekends.

The people we delivered to were all elderly – mostly alone, a few couples.

The last delivery we made was to a nice woman who lived in a very tiny house at the end of a long driveway.

She had a bit of trouble walking so Kim asked her if she could help her put the little mini carton of milk in the refrigerator…..and she said……”No, that’s okay…..I think I’ll eat it now thank you”.

A small meal, a tiny milk carton like you used to get in grade school, a small container of chocolate pudding, a roll and some sort of hot meal in a container.

I thought about that on the drive home…..a number of people we delivered to were surprised that we were out in the below zero temperatures in a snow storm – they hadn’t expected to get a delivery that day. We were told by the program people that if we hadn’t been able to help – the recipients would have been called and told to eat the “emergency” meal in their freezer.

That last nice lady was apparently eating her last hot meal until the following Monday delivery…..on Friday at about 2pm.

In a snowstorm, in minus 5 degree weather in an area that very easily could lose power for many, many hours.

It’s not just the animals that have it tough.

Later that night I watched a movie that brings me to tears every year…..and thought how wonderful it is that we live in a town where people help and look out for each other…..just like Bedford Falls:

And I thought about how lucky I am.

Don’t make anywhere near the money I used to make as a VP in the big time record biz in Los Angeles.

But I have a great family, great friends and at a moment’s notice we can say…..”Yeah…we’ll take the day off to delivery some meals on wheels”.

And I’m happy I’ve made the choice to work with music and artists that I love.

Don’t need much else.

Speaking of music.

Loving our two newest albums.

Ken Yates “twenty-three”

So much I can say about the album but it’s best to just hear the music.

Here’s a YouTube Listening Channel for the entire album – an easy way to listen:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLs9y9Hs3XzleIObqXBT6Vg

Our newest release is Connor Garvey’s “Meteors And Beating Hearts”

Connor Garvey Meteors And Beating Hearts Twitter size

Here’s the YouTube Listening Channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGC891t3QjRzGB0hbN29k5Q

Even better than having this music in our company is having the freedom as an independent music company to give a bunch of it away. And on our free song pages there’s no nonsense about having to give up an email or register in any way. Just click, download and enjoy….and share it with anyone you’d like.

Want a free track from Ken Yates?

One of my favorite tracks on the album is “The One That Got Away”

http://misharamusic.com/free/kenyates/

Want a free track from Connor Garvey?

“Old House” has me mesmerized – I listen to it over and over again!

http://misharamusic.com/free/oldhouse/index.html

In fact – want a link to over 50 free tracks from Mishara Music (and some great company friends)?

Head on over to Amazon.com to our five Mishara Music Free Amazon Samplers:

Here’s the link:

http://tinyurl.com/AmazonFreeMisharaSamplers

And let me share two videos that are hints of what’s to come this year.

Chris Ross is writing for his new album and just posted a new live acoustic song on his YouTube Channel (which has over 300,000 views now)….it’s a song called “Burns” and a couple signs of how people are liking it – it almost immediately had over 2000 views and someone has already covered the song and posted their own YouTube video of it……but let’s watch Chris’ version……Taylor Swift has nothing on Chris – he writes way better break up songs:

youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMJPij5MpqE

And Barnaby Bright has been on tour all fall and winter and have been playing some new tunes that will be on the new album……here’s a live version of “Sail”:

2014 is going to be a fun year.

Even as dangerous as the extremely cold weather, snow and ice can be it also can be very beautiful.

This year with the peculiar way the snow and ice storms happened we had some especially wonderful winter views:

But don’t take winter for granted.

For instance – when you’re running out of wood for the woodstove:

And you realize that you never got all the wood stacked this year because of the snowstorms while you were out of town and it’s time to deal with the……frozen solid wood cave:

That’s a wood cave made out of snow….more snow….then ice….then two more snow storms….and then some melting and freezing.

Aughhhhhhhhh.

But finally you’re back inside….warming up….and reminded of the wonderful Amtrak trip to NYC:

And also reminded of the wonderful music you get to work with all year long:

And of course you’ve got the great birthday card you received from Ethan in early December to remind you that you don’t have to be on top of everything:

Because you’re not in charge!

Best of all – no matter how much eggnog you had – how many holiday cookies you ate and how much you have indulged yourself since Thanksgiving……you know you didn’t gain any weight at all…..matter of fact…..you lost quite a few pounds.

You feel really good about it.

As long as…………

You never weigh yourself…………

Except……….

………..On the scale they have at the Natural History Museum in New York City.

The one that gives your weight as if you were standing on the moon:

29 pounds?

Think I’ll have another cookie.

As Cheryl at Terra Optima Farms says:

“Just Be Happy”.

Marc

Marc Ratner

Mishara Music

Website: www.misharamusic.com

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLs9y9Hs3XzleIObqXBT6Vg

Nov

Life in Maine with a 7 year old – don’t need much, a little music & a lot of imagination & family – the Marcrescue blog

Greetings all,

Back at the computer writing again.

With lots of photos of all our latest adventures and some new music.

(And note…..many, many of these photos – particularly the artistic ones were taken by my wife Kim. She’s such a great photographer that I would be crazy not to up the visuals in this blog by not using her photos….but if I continue to do it without giving her credit….I’m in big trouble…..almost as much as I’ll be when she see’s the photos of her coming down the hay bales down the post a bit).

It’s a pretty simple life here in Maine but don’t ever confuse “simple” with “slow”.

Especially when you run an independent music company while your seven year attempts to monopolize all your time and money.

For him life much of the time is all about Legos.

The financial world of a seven year old is simple.

Money exists to buy Legos.

You think Legos are cheap plastic toys?

Only if you don’t have young kids.

I’m sitting here thinking about all that goes into building a house and how expensive it is – but if they were made out of Legos – houses would be way more expensive.

Probably 1000 times more based on how much those little suckers cost.

Of course when you’re a kid – you don’t have house payments, car payments and food comes out of the refrigerator or the pantry so your allowance can all go towards Legos:

But we’re very glad we live in Maine and can try as often as possible to take advantage of our surroundings and get away from the ever commercialization of childhood.

There’s definitely snow in our future…..it’s not here yet but you can see and feel the change in the air…..the leaves are gone. Even without snow it looks like winter now:

Leaves are gone winter is coming 11-08-2013

But before they left we had some wonderful colored leaves in the trees. (Note – it’s hard to capture the scope of the fall leaves in a photograph – so some of these photos use a special filter to bring out the color).

Out the back window, (with some visitors in the lower left of the yard going after the fallen apples from the apple trees):

On our way back from upstate New York visiting family we took this photo of leaves past their peak in Vermont but wonderful nonetheless:

Looking out over Hosmer Pond:

One of the advantages of living in New England is being able to visit multiple apple orchards and pick your apples directly from the tree:

Another great use of the outdoors……and usually a free occupation (outside of the small fee at the local state or federal parks) is hiking which we love to do.

We hiked a great park in upstate NY while visiting family – absolutely visually stunning:

There’s a great trail no more than 1/2 mile from our house which takes us up “Bald Mountain”:

One of our other autumn adventures is the corn maze at Beth’s Farm Market.

You really can get lost:

Who needs expensive amusement parks when a few hay bales will do just fine:

Haybales Beth's Farm Market October 2013

For that matter – you don’t even need the hay bales…..a back yard with some leaves is even better:

One of the great ways of reducing the commercialization of music……is to give it away.

At Mishara Music we do that quite often.

Both on our website and at Amazon.com

At Amazon we just released out 5th free music sampler:

I think this one is the best ever.

And it’s doing quite well:

It’s a combination of Mishara Music artists and friends of the label – some newer unsigned artists and some experienced – Rebecca Loebe – a “Voice” Adam Levine team member a year ago – and very established – our pal Grant-Lee Phillips.

15 tracks by 12 artists:

Here’s the link to the sampler on Amazon:

http://tinyurl.com/MisharaMusicAmazonSampler5

It’s been a while since I worked in radio (my first industry job) but to my ears it’s a pretty great hour of music.

It includes some very new music – specifically I’ll mention the new albums by Ken Yates which just arrived at radio stations around the USA this week and a new album coming from Connor Garvey.

Ken’s free track on the Amazon sampler is “The One That Got Away” which is soooo good and from his album “twenty-three”:

Of course Ken’s had a wonderful friend already turn a lot of music fans onto his music via the second track on his album “I Don’t Wanna Fall In Love”.

Two years ago when Ken was attending Berklee School Of Music in Boston the guest speaker at one of his classes was none other than John Mayer.

At the end of the class John asked the students to play him songs and flipped over Ken’s tune.

So much so he blogged about it…..on his personal blog and it was then picked up and reblogged by all the John Mayer fan sites.

Ken put up a rough mix of the tune on iTunes and ended up selling thousands of downloads which has given him a great fan base for touring even before this album was released.

Here’s the post that John Mayer wrote about Ken and “I Don’t Wanna Fall In Love”:

The album is every bit as good as that first tune that John wrote about and if I mention one track – I’ll have to mention quite a few……hard to choose.

The first track “In The Middle Of Heaven And Here” ends with the most amazing harmonies I’ve heard on record in a long time. “23” the title track is all about the unknown future. Perhaps the track that might get played the most on radio is “The One That Got Away” – as I mentioned it’s the free track on our Amazon sampler above. But I also love “New York Rain” and “Get Me Out Of Hollywood”…..a track I take to heart after leaving Los Angeles myself after living there for 35 years and moving about as far away as you can possibly go in the continental US – to the coast of Maine. Can’t go wrong with this album.

Wanna hear the entire album? Check out the YouTube listening channel where you can hear every song all the way through:

Connor Garvey’s new album is “Meteors And Beating Hearts” and will be available at iTunes and Amazon on Tuesday November 26th as a “Thanksgiving” present to the world:

12 new songs that show why Connor keeps winning the grand prizes at song festivals (2012 Winner Wildflower Festival Performing Songwriter Competition, 2011 Winner Maine Songwriters Association Annual Songwriting Competition).

There’s no better start than to listen to “Old House” which is the 3rd track on the Amazon sampler and is a stunning love song about a relationship & an old house and ends with an extended guitar piece that will take you right back to Mark Knopfler’s guitar playing with Dire Straits.

Here’s a direct link to the free track on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00G2ULT0M/ref=dm_dp_trk3

Other Mishara Music artist news includes the fun of reading the tweets about Barnaby Bright as they tour the country with Vienna Teng…..you get a sense of “see them once – and you’re hooked”:

I still can’t get enough of this new song “Just The Same” that will be on the new album after the first of the year…..if it’s this good in a radio interview at WNRN in Charlottesville at 9am in the morning…..I can just imagine what the finished recording will sound like:

Also from Twitter I keep seeing amazing tweets about Clarensau – and the song that’s starting to show up more and more is “Dance With Me” in connection with weddings:

If you’re a wedding dj (or if you’re not – it makes no difference) and are always looking for that special song to play at a wedding – check out “Dance With Me”:

Lastly in the music world….I’ve been on the road a bit lately with Chris Ross and the reaction to him live is just amazing.

“Mostly Sober” continues to generate response for Chris that I find to be way beyond what you would expect and shows around Veterans’ Day saw “Your America” bring tears to the eyes of people that have lived that difficult but essential life.

Here’s live house concert versions of both songs.

“Mostly Sober”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7kH6fvpfq0

“Your America”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS7uPID-yoo

And of course Chris is better than anyone at documenting his life on Facebook….here are some of my recent favorite posts – you never know what’s going to come next (and it gives you an idea of why his songs are poetic masterpieces):

And lastly about Chris…..on one of our recent trips I happened to glance at floor of his car by the right back seat and it says everything about being a traveling musician on the road……such a romantic life…..this is just how I found it:

It really sparks your imagination.

Which I think is important for adults these days and if you’re seven years old and your parents can keep you from being glued to tv or video games or the computer….there’s no telling what you might come up with.

Like a birthday party for a stuffed animal with cards (mom and dad also had to make a card):

Presents for Fireball – made out of dad’s empty cd boxes:

And of course all of Fireball’s friends got together for the party:

The guest of honor:

And what family doesn’t need their own newspaper….or “nespaper” – he’s not shy about raising money for those Legos:

Family days are the best in Maine.

Whether it’s time to get our pumpkins for carving for Halloween:

Which we bring to the town library for “Pumpkin Night” on the library steps:

And after a hard day’s apple picking you get to have a candy apple:

And the whole town turns out for a special showing of a classic film at our old time movie theatre that was built in 1923 (and totally restored now) and showed the film when it was new:

You can’t beat Halloween though……when you get to be an X-Wing fighter pilot:

Which is made even better because Mom has a friend who can knit the coolest hats:

Speaking of caps……I had a great time recently pulling out my four favorite baseball caps…..one for each series win:

It’s been a classic fall for sure.

We don’t need much in Maine…..as long as we have each other.

Surprise someone – hug them – they’ll love it.

Marc

Marc Ratner

Mishara Music

Website: www.misharamusic.com

http://www.youtube.com/user/CaitlinGoldenHour

Aug

Life & Summer in Maine in photos, Caitlin Canty – a great way to listen, Don’t Go In The Basement & Music Conventions – the Marcrescue blog

Greetings All,

It’s been weeks since I’ve written..

We’ve been trying to make the most of summer and we’re horrified that it’s almost over.

We had so many plans, hopes and dreams for the endless stretch of summer days when school got out last June…..and now Ethan goes back to 2nd grade in about a week.

So…..no summer cleaning of the basement and garage…..they’re still scary places full of things we don’t need but don’t have time to get rid of.

How does that happen?

What were we thinking when we thought we had to have all that stuff…..when will we ever learn?

The good news… there’s a local Facebook “Garage Sale” sale page started by a friend of ours.

You can post things you want to get rid of…..and if the price is right almost everything sells.

A great way to clean out and de-stuff.

Except of course – you sell your junk…and end up buying someone else’s…and it ends up in the basement.

It’s just constant movement from one person’s house to another.

I’m sure beyond a doubt that one of these days we’ll buy something on the garage page….get it home and realize that it used to be ours in the first place.

But we’ll get a deal on it!

Be safe though….don’t go down in our basement!

So let’s wrap up the summer.

First new music and then summer in photos….and just the last part of summer…who can even remember back to the beginning.

Music.

Mishara Music by next week will have released three new albums this summer.

Early summer was Caitlin Canty’s “Golden Hour”

Acoustic, etherial and haunting.

Once you dig into the lyrics you’ll find an intensity that you didn’t expect.

I’ve always known that music attracts but lyrics are the emotional bond that really connects us to the artist.

Here’s our YouTube Listening Channel for the album – an easy way to listen to the entire album:

Caitlin Canty Golden Hour Cover 1000x1000

Mid-summer Sam Brenner released an acoustic guitar, vocal EP “Here At Home”. There’s nothing better than hearing an artist with just guitar, vocals and songs.

It’s pure, enchanting and hard to do.

It’s tougher than you think to make a “simple” acoustic album – check out “Here At Home” on it’s YouTube Listening Channel and see how he did (while he’s working on his full album with all kinds of cool instrumentation):

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgzz0N-FJm71aOw2q2pBO_g

Our last Mishara Music album of summer is from Canadian native and Berklee School of Music grad Ken Yates and his album “twenty-three”

It’s our end of summer album and highlights Ken’s songwriting which was written about in a blog post by none other than John Mayer.

John spoke to Ken’s class at Berklee in Boston and after hearing Ken’s song “I Don’t Wanna Fall In Love” he wrote about it on his blog and among other kind words said this:

“Want to hear a great song? (I mean a REALLY great song?)” – John Mayer, one forty plus

Wanna hear it? Check out twenty-three’s YouTube Listening Channel here:

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLs9y9Hs3XzleIObqXBT6Vg

Mishara has YouTube Listening Channels for almost all of our albums….I’ll post a bunch of them at the end of this letter.

On to summer in Maine with a 7 year old.

With my broken ankle (detailed in an earlier version of this blog – read them all at www.marcrescue.wordpress.com) it seems I’ve taken fewer photos than normal.

Hard to do with both hands on crutches (thankfully I think I’m finally off of them).

But my wife Kim has taken more than usual and any photo that you think is particularly cool, interesting and artistic…..you can probably bet she took it…..and I haven’t given her proper credit.

Swimming.

Nana’s apt has a pool:

We’ve been sneaking out at the end of the day lately to our favorite lake swimming hole at Barrett’s Cove:

Movies

In the seven years since Ethan was born I think Kim and I have seen only two movies that weren’t animated and oriented for kids.

Thankfully kids movies are a big business these days and pretty great.

We loved Despicable Me 2:

The flyer for the movie had cutouts for kids…..and no self respecting seven year old wouldn’t try them out:

Wild Maine Blueberries.

Every year local farms open up on a certain day for self picking and we always go:

Later as all the blueberries ripen we always buy 20 pounds of blueberries and freeze them for smoothies all winter:

They harvest a lot of blueberries:

Our 20 pounds:

Baseball.

Every summer we buy tickets for 4 Portland Sea Dogs (the Double A Boston Red Sox farm team).

This year we hit both fireworks night:

And “kids run the bases” after the game day. Didn’t get a good photo of Ethan running the bases but we got to take pictures standing in left field by the “Green Monster” wall at Portland’s Hadlock Field – which is an exact replica of the “Green Monster” at Fenway Park:

Nothing like singing “Take Me Out To The Ballgame”….”And it’s One, Two, Three Strikes you’re out”:

Conventions.

During the summer there are two radio / record business conventions that I attend every year

The great advantage of going to music business conventions is that the music companies bring artists in to play for the radio programmers and it’s a great opportunity to see wonderfully talented people up close in a setting that we’d never get to have any other way.

One of my favorite stories of how the professional and personal worlds can intersect happened a few years ago at the Boulder AAA radio / record gathering.

We had lunchtime and late afternoon mini concerts in a big tent set up in the back yard of the hotel. This particular hotel was situated right by a river and running path used by the public.

There were no security fences or anything of that sort.

At this particular lunch meeting we were delighted to have a private concert by Patty Griffin. A personal favorite artist of my wife and I.

I was standing by the back of the tent…..and watched out of the corner of my eye as a woman running on the jogging path…..stopped as she heard the music….and walked up the tent and peeked in and stood there in shock. She told a couple of us standing around after the performance ended that her favorite artist of all time was Patty Griffin and that she was running along and heard music from the tent and thought – “Wow, whoever that is they sound so good….and they’re doing a great version of one of my favorite Patty Griffin songs”.

She of course thought it was some local singer doing a Patty Griffin imitation…..and then looked in the tent and was dumbfounded…..there was her favorite artist performing in a tent at lunchtime in downtown Boulder.

We explained the circumstances….she said thanks and continued on her run – still in a bit of shock but with a big smile on her face.

It was so much fun to see how music can make such a difference in someone’s life.

It’s why I do what I do.

This year in that same tent you would have heard and seen “The Courtyard Hounds” – who if you don’t know are sisters Emily and Martie – two thirds of the Dixie Chicks – who have been performing as the hounds with two albums released since the Dixie Chicks went on hiatus in 2007.

The other convention I hit every summer is The Conclave in Minneapolis.

It’s more of a business meeting than musical and unlike so many meetings at conventions The Conclave specializes in having speakers that you can actually learn from.

This year was no exception.

I had three favorite moments this year in Mpls.

First the longtime director of The Conclave was retiring and as he was giving his farewell speech after having been given an award for his long service to the industry…..he noticed that his wife in the audience wasn’t paying attention and was doing something on her smartphone. He stopped the speech and asking her what she was doing…..she was texting a friend.

That got the best laugh of the meeting.

For those of us guys who think we’re so darned important……our wives can put us in our place in a fraction of a second.

Lesson learned….which I’m sure I’ll forget again….and again….and again.

BMI – which is a performing rights organization for songwriters sponsored a session with Randy Bachman who was both a founding member of The Guess Who and Bachman Turner Overdrive.

He told some great songwriting stories and demonstrated on acoustic guitar. Randy talked about finishing the song “Takin’ Care Of Business” actually on stage during a performance when he substituted the line “Takin’ Care Of Business” into the chorus instead of what he’d previously written after hearing a local dj use the line to start his radio show that afternoon.

You never know where inspiration comes from.

The best talk of all was given by the former COO of American Express John Baker. His discussion about his book “The Asking Formula – Ask What You Want and Get It” was one of the best presentations I’ve seen at any convention ever.

Ever!

But my favorite photo from either convention was from Colorado on a quick trip away from the meetings for breakfast with a friend in the mountains.

On the way back we noticed this sign – on the road next to a rushing river right along side us:

Easy for the sign people to post….not so good for people still on crutches (as I was at the time).

I’ve never tried rock climbing on crutches….but I guess there’s always a first time for everything.

Thankfully the weather was dry.

Concerts.

As I mentioned on the last blog post – we took Ethan to see Paul McCartney at Fenway Park…..and 47 years ago my mother took my sister and I to see Paul and his first band in the Boston area as well.

Photos, stories and set lists from both concerts on the last blog post which you can read at:

https://marcrescue.wordpress.com/2013/07/16/then-now-pics-summer-mccartney-shows-47-years-apart-life-in-maine-with-a-7-year-old-the-marcrescue-blog/

The one thing I forgot to mention on that last post was what Paul said after he finished playing “I’ve Just Seen A Face”.

He said that at every concert people hold up signs and he has to keep reminding himself as he’s trying to remember chords and lyrics….”Don’t read the signs, don’t read the signs”…..and of course he can’t resist and reads the signs and then has to try and remember where he is in the middle of the song.

They turned the cameras on a number of the signs in the audience so we could see them and the two I remember reading were:

“I’m a Maccaholic and there is no cure” (For those that don’t know “Macca” is a long time Paul nickname).

And

“The guy behind me can’t see”.

I googled that one and it turns out that’s been an annoying sign at concerts of all sorts for quite a while.

What some people will do to get attention.

It’s a wonder that Paul got through the song with all he had to read in front of him.

A fun story and an excuse to post another photo from the concert……so much fun:

We all hear the rumors every time he tours that this is the “last” tour….and at 71 how many more can there be?

One of my favorite moments of the show was when he walked to the front of the stage and stood there for a moment not saying anything just watching the crowd cheer….and he finally said….”I just wanted to take a moment to take this all in”.

An interesting comment.

At 71 Paul knows that this won’t go on forever as well.

I feel lucky to have witnessed these moments. Paul and his Liverpool mates are such a big reason I ended up in music as a career.

Although to be fair to myself – before the Beatles came to America I was already involved in music – at that point having studied both classical violin (I played in the Mpls Youth Symphony Orchestra) and classical guitar.

In a completely different setting a few weeks ago Kim and I drove to Portland to see our new artist Ken Yates perform – opening for one of our favorites – Liz Longley.

Ken was terrific live…..both as a singer-songwriter:

And a storyteller:

I know both sides of Ken’s performance worked very well…..because after the show it took me a while to say hello…..he made a lot of fans that night:

Liz Longley was great as always and my wife and I had a great rare date night out.

One of the very few times we didn’t take Ethan with us.

Fenway Park or One Longfellow Square in Portland – live music is always a joy.

Lobster.

Every July is the annual Lobster Festival in Rockland Maine – next door to us.

Nothing like fresh lobster:

A sidenote here…..I know I never had my own lobster until I was long into adulthood…..growing up in Maine as a kid sure has it’s advantages:

More live music – this time The Nutopians:

Nothing beats the bungee jumping:

We’re always among the last to leave – we love our family adventures:

It’s been a summer of adventure for sure……witness our mini superhero telling us on a camping trip this past weekend:

“I’m pointing to adventure!”

Super Ethan Pointing To Adventure 08-17-2013

I hope you all had the adventure of summer in your lives as well!

One final note – if you like what you read here – you can sign up on the right hand side to get a notification email when I publish a new posting….or just sign up for my Twitter account – that’s where I notify people of new posts, free songs and post more photos.

www.twitter.com/marcrescue

Marc

Here are a few more Mishara Music Listening Channels:

Barnaby Bright “The Longest Day”

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheLongestDayBB

4 Panel Digipak Tube Pocket D1003 [Converted]

Chris Ross “Halfway To Wonderland”

http://www.youtube.com/user/HalfwayToWonderland

Clarensau “This One’s For You”

http://www.youtube.com/user/ClarensauThisOnesFor

Connor Garvey “Where Ocean Meets Land” (New album coming this fall):

http://www.youtube.com/user/WhereOceanMeetsLand

Kat Maslich “The Road Of 6”:

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheRoadOf6KatMaslich

Peter Bradley Adams “Between Us”:

http://www.youtube.com/user/BetweenUsPBAdams

Enjoy…..and remember – free songs from all of these albums are available on the Mishara Music website at www.misharamusic/freesongs and we never ask for an email address or any kind of registration;

Mishara Music Free Song Page August 2013

And

More free songs are available on our free song samplers at Amazon.com:

http://tinyurl.com/AmazonFreeMisharaSamplers

Marc RatnerMishara MusicE-mail: marcrescue@gmail.comWebsite: www.misharamusic.comWordPress: www.marcrescue.wordpress.com