The Longest Day | Home In Maine

Website: www.misharamusic.com

http://tinyurl.com/AmazonFreeMisharaSamplers

Sep

Finally, a photo wrap-up of summer in Maine 2014 / the Marcrescue blog “Life in Maine with an Eight Year Old & an Appreciation of Music”

Greetings All,

A few notes before the attack of Maine summer photos:

1. If you’d like to make sure you receive this blog all the time – either sign up on the right hand side or if you’d prefer to receive via email – email me at marcrescue@gmail.com
2. You’ll notice during my music notes that we’ve made it extremely easy to listen to the music via Soundcloud and Spotify – whichever you prefer. You’ll also notice no sales links. Yes sales are important and if someone wants to purchase any of our songs – they’re always available on iTunes & Amazon. The key to building our audience however is getting the music heard. Music has to heard to be appreciated.

Summer happens.

In our family and in our community here in Maine everyone makes the most of it.

Not because the season is short and winter is just over the horizon…..we love winter as much as summer.

But because there’s a spirit here about living life and everyone we know has been out and about.

The last time I checked in with everyone – we had just passed this milestone:

Then summer took off like a rocket!

Are you ready……we’ve going to cover a lot of ground here and quickly.

It’s officially summer – how do we know? Because the people down the hill put out their annual summer sign…..which perhaps wasn’t written out exactly the way it was intended…..I sure don’t know any kids that play slowly…..but then again – it grabs your attention:

Gotta check the local swimming hole after a rainstorm:

Before you know it – “Coach Pitch” baseball is all over already and it’s time to get your end of season medal:

Harvest time for wild Maine blueberries – got to pick up our 10 pound box…..we freeze them and have all sorts of blueberry treats all winter:

Whew let’s take a breather & cool off – how about some Lemon Sorbet for Ethan and Coffee Heath Bar Crunch for dad on Father’s Day from Camden Cone:

Can’t beat Maine for summer camping:

Especially when you can take your morning camping coffee to the bench 20 yards away overlooking the ocean:

We take our eating seriously when we camp.

Some leftover beef brisket from the nearby BBQ place from the night before makes some mighty fine beef brisket hash for morning breakfast at the campsite – and yes it was every bit as good as it looks – not everything in Maine has to have lobster in it to be great:

But that said – Searsport Shores – our favorite ocean side campground takes eating seriously. Their Saturday night lobster bake makes it awfully tough to hike back to your campsite:

Fourth Of July…..bummer no fireworks…..rained out…..but how ’bout the nifty homemade popsicles that mom made:

Now let me take a moment here to say….during all of this…..work never stopped.

It never stops.

And some swell stuff happened this summer.

Chris Ross has spent the summer writing songs for his new album which he’ll begin recording shortly. He makes acoustic YouTube videos of each song when he’s finished writing them.

Can’t wait for the full band studio versions of these.

“Blame”:

“Burns”:

“You Can Have Mine”:

“Drunk Women”:

You can hear “Halfway To Wonderland” – Chris’ last album here on Soundcloud:

Or on Spotify:

One alternative to writing the new album….is spending the summer playing the new album at festivals.

That’s what Connor Garvey did.

Seemed to be a good plan.

Here’s where a partial list of where he played this summer:

Here’s how it went – one of those summers where you need to get an extra suitcase to take home the awards:

Wanna listen to both of Connor’s new albums…..easy to do…..just posted both new albums on Soundcloud & Spotify.

“Before The Meteors” – the live album that mirrors all the songs that are in the new studio album is here:

Also on Spotify:

The studio album “Meteors And Beating Hearts” is here on Soundcloud:

Spotify:

There’s another way to spend the summer – recording.

Both Ken Yates and Barnaby Bright have been spending time in the studio.

Ken has been recording some new songs and filmed one of the tracking sessions.

Here’s “Once More To The Lake”:

Here’s Ken’s last album “twenty-three” on Soundcloud:

And on Spotify:

Don’t have anything to share from the Barnaby Bright album recording sessions yet – but coming soon.

The whole Barnaby Bright fan universe is anxiously waiting to hear the studio versions of the songs they’ve been playing on tour breaks all summer.

Including this gem – “Just The Same” – recorded last year at WNRN in Charlottesville:

“The Longest Day” their last album can be heard in it’s entirety on Soundcloud:

& Spotify:

I’ve been very busy all summer preparing new releases for this fall. More about that in a moment.

I’ve always been a believer in contributing to society in one way or another. Many might remember that I volunteered on a mountain search and rescue team for over 20 years while living in California.

Now in Maine I’ve found a new way to help….using my knowledge and long association with the music industry….I’m involved with our beautiful local historical opera house.

Built in 1894 and totally restored in the 1990’s…..I find myself during the Camden Opera House’s 120th anniversary….on the town board of directors.

Something I can do to help…..but unfortunately…..even after years and years in the music business…..I still can’t figure out which photographer is taking the photo…..arghhhh:

The Camden Opera House is such a great place for artists to perform…..lo and behold here’s Barnaby Bright playing there this summer:

As a special encore – Becky and Nathan stepped away from the mic’s – because the acoustics are so great….and sang at the front of the stage joined by special guest Liz Longley….what a great night:

This being Maine one can’t go too long without mentioning lobster again. As always we had a great time at our annual local “Lobster Fest”.

Here’s something you probably haven’t seen before unless you live in Maine.

The lobster trap race at the festival.

How many times can you make it back and forth across the harbor running on the lobster traps without falling in?

If you’re a kid most likely your favorite part of Lobster Fest is the bungee jump attraction…..where you get to dream of being some sort of superhero while you’re flying in the harness:

We always end our day at the festival riding the ferris wheel:

You cannot believe how many lobsters they serve during the five days of the Lobster Festival….here’s the count near the end of the last day – that’a a lot of lobsters:

It was also a great summer for gardens……here’s the first of many batches of cherry tomatoes:

At the end of the summer we get a carton of heirloom tomatoes from our favorite vendor at our local farmers market:

Lo and behold – they magically (with a lot of hard work by Kim) turn into the best sauce I’ve ever had in my life. It’s gonna be a wonderful winter:

But we’re not there yet.

First a little mini-golf…..and this time Mom got the hole-in-one:

Next up a day trip to Portland to check out the Jason Spooner Band performing at the Old Port Festival (they were great as always – as is the new album “Chemical”).

Just across from the stage we found this fence along the harbor (there’s always a cool discovery every time we got to Portland) – next time we’re bringing a lock.

If you look closely every lock has a message written on it. And they’re locked there by the people that put them there. So there they stay. Totally cool. What a great idea:

On the way back from Portland we’re legally required to stop at LL Bean’s Flagship store.

It’s open 24 hours a day / 365 days a year.

You meet the nicest people there at 3am:

Summer time for us is not just about eating…..although it might seem that way.

The town library sponsors summer movies in the amphitheater next to the library.

Bring a camp chair and a blanket:

Our local Bay Chamber Orchestra takes over downtown for an afternoon and dispatches classical players to storefronts, street corners and shops to perform for us. I caught this great duo at Zoot Coffee:

Of course there’s the beach.

A good place to catch up on Harry Potter:

And contemplate the beauty of nature (credit report here – many of the artistic photos in this post including this one were taken by my wife Kim. Every time I see one of her photos like this – the first words out of my mouth are “I’m stealing this one for the blog”):

Had to get in some hiking:

One of the sessions at summer day camp is theatre….there’s nothing like hearing your kid singing “Kids” from Bye Bye Birdie….”Kid’s? Whatsa matter with all these kids today?…..Why can’t they be like we were – perfect in every way….” (they even designed their own costumes):

Of course after a hard afternoon of summer theatre – it’s time to cool off with a Sno-Kone at River Ducks:

As we seem to be back at food again……how ’bout some fresh Maine raspberries….so sweet:

Another trip to Portland to see the Sea Dogs (Red Sox Double AA Farm Team) win in the bottom of the 10th:

What a surprise on the way down to Portland…….an annual gathering of VW campers of all ages…..all stopped at a rest stop to say goodbye to each other until next year’s meeting.

I had one identical to the beige one just to the right of center (arrow pointing at it) back in the 1980’s.

I never should have sold it.

The group even has it’s own t-shirts:

Kim’s told me getting another one is now on our bucket list.

That’s a good addition.

Better get crackin’ on some new music if I’m going to get Kim her camper.

I fell in love with a song called “Rain” a number of years ago by an artist named Meggan Waltman.

Almost had the opportunity to release it….but stuff happened and never did get it out.

So I just obsessed about the song for years.

After Mishara Music (www.misharamusic.com) was established as a label……I went looking for Meggan.

She’d vanished.

Phone disconnected, no Facebook, no Twitter, no search results.

Zip, nadda, nothin.

Bummed I was.

One day out of the blue……an email in my inbox.

“Hi Marc, It’s Meggan….I’m back doing music again”.

Oh Happy Day.

Turns out she’d moved to Japan for a number of years.

That’s why I couldn’t find her.

So – this time I didn’t hesitate.

Didn’t pass “Go”.

Didn’t collect “$200”.

Got a Meggan Waltman EP titled “Nomad” out in record time.

A digital release to start.

8 tracks from 3 different recording sessions over a period of years.

“Rain” is the first track.

And I want everyone to hear it.

So it’s free download.

No email required, no registration required.

Nothing like that.

Just click, download and enjoy:

http://misharamusic.com/free/rain/

Wanna hear the entire EP?

Soundcloud:

Spotify:

“Rain” will also be included in the next Mishara Music Free Song Sampler on Amazon.

This will be edition # 6.

You can get all five of the previous samplers anytime on Amazon.

Over 50 totally free songs by Mishara artists and friends of the label.

Here’s a number for you.

That’s how many free songs have been downloaded off of the Mishara Free Song Samplers on Amazon.

I’m looking forward to 2 million.

The passion here is sharing great music.

Next up.

A gem.

A songwriter (with a degree in English no less)

With songs the likes of I’ve never heard before.:

You’ll meet her in the next blog post.

In the meantime.

The sky is changing – the seasons are changing – it’s getting darker earlier:

But the cycle of life is always a surprise.

What’s new becomes old….becomes new again.

Ethan found our old antique dial phone (from the 1930’s) and insisted we hook it up for him.

He makes all his calls on it.

(He only has 3 numbers he can call – his dad, his mom and his nana).

No smart phone this…but so totally cool:

And of course we end where we started:

Best,

Marc

Marc Ratner
Mishara Music

E-mail: marcrescue@gmail.com

Website: http://www.misharamusic.com

WordPress: http://www.marcrescue.wordpress.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/marc.ratner

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/marcrescue

Jul

The Parent’s Lament – As Time Goes By / The Marcrescue blog – life in Maine with music & an eight year old

Greetings,

Are you a parent?

If not – let me explain a few things you probably don’t realize.

Before you have kids you might think you understand the concept and the reality.

I can only say this based on my experience…..maybe it is different for other people….

But….basically….before I had a kid….I didn’t have a clue what it was like being a parent….and I thought I did.

Even being a kid doesn’t give you perspective on being a parent.

Assuming you’re a fortunate parent and you have a good kid (/s) and life is basically good…..then you have….

….The Parent’s Lament.

Something I had no concept of.

Let’s start with – you get no sleep.

Less than you can imagine.

I remember my business partner in LA – Hugo – coming to the office looking a bit tired and he’d say….”Violet was up last night”.

She was two at the time.

What I didn’t realize.

He only mentioned it once in a while.

Basically kids are up every night.

Our son is eight.

All these years and he still wakes up at night.

Not as much as he used to – but enough to keep us from getting any sleep.

Not a week goes by when he still doesn’t wake up……because…….

……water, bathroom, nightmare, can’t sleep etc.

Even when he sleeps the night through – we’re not sure.

“Is that him? Is he awake? Did he just call us?”

“I’ll go check.”

So….no sleep for parents….ever.

I figure he’ll start sleeping through the night just about the time when we have to start worrying about where he is at night when he’s not in bed – not home yet.

Is that The Parent’s Lament?

Nah.

Losing sleep becomes no big deal pretty quickly.

You get used to it.

Of course I have an overwhelming urge to ask surgeons, airline pilots and anyone else with my life in their hands…..

“Do you have kids?”

“Is that a SpongeBob Square Pants button you have there?

If they answer in the affirmative – I know they haven’t slept and want to turn and run in the other direction.

But I know they’ve managed to deal with no sleep.

We’ll be okay.

What other problems are there?

Is this the right school?

Is this friend a bad influence?

Too much TV?

How do we get them away from video games?

Doesn’t any commercial food establishment have anything besides junkfood for kids anymore?

Ever look at a “Kid’s Menu”?

Even an elegant restaurant that serves local farm fresh organic grass fed wild caught food……has a kid’s menu that’s basically a hot dog, mac & cheese, french fries and sodas.

Arghhhhh!

(More about that in a minute).

Are any of those things The Parent’s Lament?

Nah.

They’ll survive all that.

So what’s The Parent’s Lament?

It’s simple.

Times goes by.

It kills you.

The babies are so wonderful.

Suddenly they’re in preschool.

Making friends.

You make great friends with the preschool teachers and all the sudden – it’s off to kindergarten.

Here he is waiting for the bus the first day of Kindergarten:

Not a moment has passed……we think…..and all the sudden it’s the last day of second grade:

They have to grow up – but no one understands how hard it is on the parents…..it’s heaven and hell at the same time.

Everyday we want to freeze the moment.

Although the joy of watching them grow up & learn how to out negotiate their parents is stellar as well.

I haven’t won an argument in our household in years.

Ethan started out-smarting me at about 2 1/2….and of course I’m married…..we just celebrated out 10th anniversary…..so figure I haven’t won an argument for at least 12 or so years – except for about a year from when Ethan started talking to when he hit 2 1/2.

I don’t miss losing arguments.

I just marvel at how I’m outsmarted almost every day.

They say elephants have great memories.

They got nothin’ on kids.

They never forget anything you’ve ever said….AND….they have ears that hear as well as elephants ears are large.

Married with a kid.

I got no chance.

But I miss those days of innocence.

Eight going on sixteen – he’s already discussing his first car.

I’m scared – I’m very, very scared.

But daily life is all about the wonderful moments.

Can’t beat walking down the street after our 2nd grade graduation dinner – Ethan’s choice?

Sushi at Suzuki’s.

Sushi?

At 8 years old?

I wouldn’t even eat the fish sandwich at McDonald’s when I was 8 years old.

Another sign that times change.

Something that all those “elegant restaurants” should take note of…..kids don’t eat just hot dogs and fries anymore.

Thanks to my wife for capturing our walk after our sushi dinner in a beautiful photo:

Thankfully the photo gives me that moment in time.

My kid is growing up faster than I can imagine.

How do I entertain myself?

As I always have….with music.

Dad might work in the music business all day long.

But I’ve never lost the joy of music and love going to concerts that have nothing to do with my company.

We bought tickets to see Patty Griffin in Portland a couple weeks ago.

Then we realized it was Father’s Day?

What did we do?

Bought a third ticket for Ethan

He’s 8 years old – we end up buying him a lot of tickets.

We love to take him with us.

He just saw Patty Griffin.

Last summer he saw Paul McCartney.

He’s been to Jazzfest in New Orleans 5 times.

He’s been to the American Folk Festival in Bangor 5 times.

He saw the Beach Boys 50th Anniversary concert.

His favorite song of theirs is “I Get Around” – very appropriate – I took this shot during that song:

Here’s a shot of Patty Griffin’s wonderful show…..I always love the solo songs:

Of course he hears about music all day long in our household.

What’s happening at the moment?

Barnaby Bright have just finished the major tracking on their new album.

Don’t have anything to play from the new recordings yet – but both of these concert favorites will be on the new album:

“Just The Same” (just about my favorite “couples” love song ever) – here’s a live radio performance version:

“Sail” – here’s a live version from a concert in Portland, Oregon:

Becky and Nathan are pretty jazzed about the new album and also that their Pledge Music campaign has done so well…..still plenty of time to donate before the album release and it’s already past their goal:

They’re not shy and not “precious” either – here’s the selfie photo they took in the car while on tour when they found out they passed their Pledge goal:

How can you not love people like this?

Here’s the link to their Pledge Music campaign. Remember it’s much like donating to a public radio station and the great thing is that you always get value returned. For $10 you get a digital copy of the album BEFORE release date…..(cheaper than iTunes)…..and for $25 you get the pre-release digital copy AND a signed cd sent to you when it’s released.

Such a deal.

http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/barnabybright

This guy:

Chris Ross…..just started his new Pledge Music campaign.

I showed him the Barnaby Bright intro video and Chris said “I better up my game”.

He did.

Here’s his link – click on his intro video…..I guarantee you’ll be surprised and entertained.

Guaranteed!

http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/chrisross

Here’s a couple tunes that’ll be on Chris’ next album:

“Easier Said Than Done”:

“Burns” (Chris seems to write about relationship troubles quite often….this song is the polar opposite of the Barnaby Bright tune “Just The Same” linked above. No matter if your relationship is workin’ or not – we’ve got you covered):

As I mentioned above – I love live music.

So how excited are we that Mishara Music just released our first live album?

Very.

Connor Garvey’s “Before The Meteors” which is a companion album to the studio recorded “Meteors And Beating Hearts”:

Wanna hear something great?

Here’s “Irish Song” from the album….so much fun:

What’s better than an absolutely free song?

Not much.

Here’s the live version of “Tattered Shirt” from “Before The Meteors”- absolutely free and easy to download – no email or registration required – just click and save, enjoy and free feel to share with anyone you’d like:

http://misharamusic.com/free/tatteredshirts/

Aw shucks.

I feel like Monte Hall at the moment – (if you’re old enough to remember him that is – if you do – ask me about my Monte Hall story someday – it’s pretty weird) – so let me give away another free song.

Seems like a whole bunch of people have been getting married lately which reminded me that our trio Clarensau has a song titled “Dance With Me”.

It’s the perfect “first dance” song for a wedding – so here’s a Clarensau / Mishara Music wedding present – a free download of “Dance With Me”. Again – no email or registration required to download the song – just click and enjoy:

http://misharamusic.com/free/dancewithme/

Back to The Parent’s Lament for a moment.

Sometimes we get so caught up in our lives, the moment, this & that…..we truly have no perspective.

Until it comes sailing right into the harbor.

As two ships did into Camden Harbor this week.

We get all sorts – yachts, schooners, kayaks…..even a visit from a US Navy ship once a year.

But this was a first.

Replicas of two of Columbus’ ships.

Yup – THAT Columbus – the Christopher Columbus guy.

Some enterprising person had the wonderful idea to recreate the Nina and the Pinta (why not the Santa Maria? It never finished that famous first voyage).

The two ships now tour the world – stopping at harbors large and small all over the world.

A history lesson that comes to you and gives great perspective on life.

Here’s the Pinta (the black ship on the right):

Doesn’t seem very big does it?

(This copy is actually 15 feet larger than the original).

Here’s the Nina (which was smaller than the Pinta):

Which is exact size.

Note the rowboat right next to it.

Here’s the roster of the crews that sailed on that first Columbus voyage:

24 people sailed on the Nina – which was about the size of four or five rowboats.

I spent some quiet moments thinking about the lives those men lived.

I think I’ve got it tough?

Hah.

Geez – the water at our favorite lake beach nearby was a bit cold on the first day of summer:

Yup – we’ve got it rough.

But – again perspective.

Lots of people complain that the music business isn’t what it used to be.

Can’t make as much money as we used to.

I never did it for the money.

It was always about the music.

My biggest joy for our business these days?

Getting the new monthly figures and seeing how many free songs we’ve given away on our Mishara Music Free Song Samplers on Amazon.com.

We’ve put out five and number six is coming soon.

What’s in a number:

Here’s one:

That’s how many songs we’ve given away.

Here’s a review I just read on Amazon – posted about sampler # 5 a couple days ago:

I have no idea who that person is….but we’ve made their day….with music.

That makes my day.

Doesn’t get better than that.

Here’s the link for our Mishara Music Amazon Free Song Sampler # 5 that “Ozietwin” wrote the review about:

http://tinyurl.com/MisharaMusicAmazonSampler5

Try it.

Enjoy it.

Share it.

In the meantime…..as much as learning about the past helps teach us about ourselves and potentially about the future…..

It’s a new world out there…..the adventure may not be about sailing across an uncharted ocean…..someday hopefully it’ll be about sailing across an uncharted universe…..but in the meantime we’re just looking to the future and hoping to keep our perspective in focus a day a time:

Marc

PS Speaking of discovering new worlds. This letter started out years ago as a business letter to radio programmers. I still send it out as an email to programmers. But the perspective changed over the years. I became more interested in writing about life than business. There’s still business in the post – but it’s muted and it focuses on what I love – the music. A few years ago I decided that I’d post each letter on a wordpress blog site and let anyone, anywhere discover it and read it. Now the letters get read every day – all over the world – by people I don’t know, have never met and probably will never meet. Hopefully they’re finding some joy in the writing and especially the music – and if our free song stats tell us anything – they are.

Here’s the blog link:

http://www.marcrescue.wordpress.com

A week or so ago I checked to see where it’s been read in the past year. I don’t look very often and imagine my surprise when I saw the details.

I guess these letters could be my “Nina” – on a voyage of discovery.

Here’s the list of countries where the letters have been read in the past year:

Marc Ratner

Mishara Music

E-mail: marcrescue@gmail.com

Website: http://www.misharamusic.com

WordPress: http://www.marcrescue.wordpress.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/marc.ratner

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/marcrescue

Jun

A Day @ Jazzfest New Orleans / Last Year – This Year…what a difference / The Best Photo of All – the Marcrescue Blog – Life in Maine with an 8 Year Old

Greetings,

(If you don’t have time to read through the entire post….and who does? Jump ahead for the “Big Finish” – the best photo is there!)

Since my last posting – the snow is gone and the black flies have arrived in Maine.

Lucky us.

Camden harbor is looking pretty spiffy as it fills up with ships and sails:

Gives you that easy peaceful feeling:

Everyone has been busy.

Barnaby Bright is in the studio recording:

Here’s a song – “Just The Same” – that will be on the new album – recorded live at WNRN Charlottesville:

Chris Ross has been playing a lot of new songs in concert – preparing for his new album – recording to start momentarily:

Of course – all those new songs written by the 2014 New England Music Awards “Songwriter Of The Year”:

Here’s a new tune from Chris – “Burns” – that will be on his next album:

What the heck – here’s another new Chris tune “Drunk Women”:

I’ve been on the road for much of the past four weeks.

Saw Connor Garvey in concert in Portland:

Once again Connor has won another award – he’s been raking them at festivals all over the country and this past weekend he was a winner at the Kerrville Festival in Texas. How cool is this award? John McGue the music director at WNKU in Cincinnati clued me in when I told him about it by sending me the Wiki bit about the award – whoa – nice company Connor!

Connor’s live album “Before The Meteors” – recorded in Bozeman Montana – will be released on June 17th. It’s a companion album to his latest studio recording “Meteors And Beating Hearts”:

“Before The Meteors” includes live versions of all the songs from the studio album – with different arrangements…..and has the wit and wisdom of Connor on stage….and also includes the only recording of his live masterpiece “Irish Song”…..which you can hear here:

It also has a wonderful live version of “Tattered Shirt” – one of the most popular songs on the studio album:

I traveled to NYC to see Ken Yates open for Barnaby Bright:

Ken’s in Nashville at the moment – recording some demos for his next album.

Here’s one of my favorite Ken tunes “The One That Got Away”…..which is available as a free download – details below:

And just about a month ago (with Kim and Ethan in tow) I was at my fav music work festival – Jazzfest in New Orleans….and what a difference a year makes.

Last year I hit the rainiest days the festival has ever had where they didn’t cancel the day’s festivities…..this year was exquisite.

With 12 different stages – there’s a whole lot of music going on all day long – including some mighty big players on different days on the two big stages at opposite ends of the festival (this year had Clapton and Springsteen among others on the big stages). We tend to avoid those crowds and enjoy some amazing music that may be out of the limelight but excels nonetheless.

Here’s how one day went.

For us – a family with serious food allergies – there’s no better place we’ve ever found for vegan & gluten free foods than “Meals From The Heart”. The best thing about it – even though you can get your order vegan & gluten free – you’d never know it. We’d eat here everyday even if we didn’t have any allergies. Roland is waving hi….the best counter guy you’ve ever met in your life:

On to Jazzfest (yes the sign is correct – this was their 45th year!):

Right off the bat we hit the Peoples Health Economy Tent and saw the Louisiana Repertory Jazz Ensemble:

Now I find this interesting…..this is the only stage (out of twelve stages) where I spotted this sign posted. When you look at the acts playing this stage….and the people attending – note the guy with the sun umbrella dancin’ up a storm – it appears that the most unruliest crowd is the senior citizens…tsk tsk:

Our two favorite venues this year were side by side – the Jazz tent and the Blues tent.

Here’s Marlon Jordan in the Jazz tent:

Next up was my favorite act this year – Stanton Moore – his trio was very reminiscent of the Dave Brubeck Quartet minus the Paul Desmond saxMarN

Next door at the Blues tent Johnny Sansome was holding court:

Then we made our way across the fairgrounds to the “New Orleans Fais Do-Do Stage” for Rosie Ledet & The Zydeco Playboys. What a difference a year can make – the same stage a year apart – sun vs rain:

Back to the Blues Tent for Luther Kent & Trickbag:

Then (after a quick listen to Marcia Ball who we’ve seen a number of times at the Fest) off in another direction to the Congo Square Stage for The Wailers (with one original member from the Bob Marley years still playin’ strong). Lots of dancin’ goin’ on:

Ahhh…it’s food time!

One of the great traditions of Jazzfest is that – even though it’s held at the New Orleans Fairgrounds – there’s not a corndog, prontopup or tube of cotton candy anywhere around – the rules for the fest are that the food purveyors have to be local and serving traditional Louisiana fixin’s – check out those signs:

Two of my favorites – Crawfish Boil and Fried Green Tomatoes:

The food was just as good but the experience was a bit different last year:

Then we’re right back to music…..and a rush of acts to see.

We stopped for a moment for Lyle Lovett – but we’ve seen him before:

So we were off for a quick stop to check out Banu Gibson with special guests The Pfister Sisters (maybe they were the act they the organizers were worried about the audience moshing for – ya think?):

I loved the New Orleans Nightcrawlers on the Jazz & Heritage Stage – and what a difference the sun made this year as opposed to last in the rain:

Our last two acts of the day were back at the tents – first the Blues Tent for the Bernard Allison Group – some great guitar playin’ here:

Then next door to the Jazz Tent one more time for the Dr. Lonnie Smith Trio – there’s no one better on the Hammond B3:

Ahhh now the walk out of the festival back to the various transportation sites…..(more on that in a minute).

This is what it looked like last year in the rain:

Though the day’s events at the fest are over at 7pm – (so people have plenty of time to enjoy the New Orleans nightlife) – on the walk back to transport the party continues on – the people in the neighborhood set up street parties.

This group was as good as many of those inside the festival:

There are a number of ways to get back to the French Quarter area – where all the tourist hotels are.

There are pre-bought shuttle bus tickets – sorta pricy – and the line is somewhat long.

Or you can get into the line for taxi’s…..it’s hugely long – at peak times it can be a 45 minute wait….and it’s pricey and you don’t get your own cab….they pile in as many people as they can…..and everyone gets charged individually.

Or – as we discovered a few years ago – you can walk up and get right on a city bus that takes you right to your hotel….and costs $1.25 per person.

Took us a few years but we finally got smart:

Time for some wanderin’ around the French Quarter

Jackson Square has great people watching:

After a number of years we’ve now discovered and revisit our favorite local food hangouts…. that aren’t quite as tourist oriented……our choice for oysters is Felix’s:

And of course – eventually everyone ends up sooner or later at Cafe Du Monde…..we prefer later…..something so special about late nights there:

But too soon another great trip to Jazzfest and New Orleans ends – we say goodbye to a great sunset over Jackson Square and hope to be back next year:

But as we all stay busy living our lives – things happen, time does pass and things do change.

For instance.

Recently a horrifying event occurred that has happened so quietly that most people probably have missed it.

Not a horrifying news event in the traditional sense – we have way too many of those.

Which is why not a single tv newscast covered this disaster – but it’s happened nonetheless.

A quality of life issue.

Sometimes – even with the best intentions – we’re just too darn concerned about our health.

Ben and Jerry’s are so careful about their ingredients that they’ve decided to discontinue Vanilla and Coffee Heath Bar Crunch Ice Cream.

They’ve replaced both flavors with their own “toffee” because they weren’t happy with some of the ingredients in Heath Bars…….and reports are not good.

It’s not the same…..not as good…..not even close.

Luckily a friend warned me……he’s a Vanilla Heath Bar Crunch fan and bought up all the remaining VHBC at the local grocery store……I made a mad dash…..and bought the last four remaining containers of CHBC in town.

Safely locked away in our freezer:

But what do I do now?

You have to understand….this is my ciggie……my whiskey……my heroin.

I don’t smoke.

I don’t drink alcohol.

I don’t do drugs.

I do Coffee Heath Bar Crunch.

Four pints.

That’s all there is.

That’s all there is…..sighhhhh.

I guess once it’s gone I’ll have to drown my sorrows with cafe au laits and beignets at Cafe Du Monde.

And once a year I do get to go to Philadelphia for WXPN’s Non-Comm Public Radio music meeting.

Another amazing benefit of being in the music business……a meeting of the minds of wonderful smart music fans from both the radio and record sides of the biz…..where I learn something important every time I go and have the chance to see a whole host of music acts close up performing for the attendees…..and no special treatment here…..almost all the showcases are open to the public as well.

A great time is guaranteed for all…..and I get to sneak out with a couple radio friends for our yearly treat from Jim’s Steaks.

Here it comes:

Our annual Philly cheesesteaks:

So I guess it could be worse.

And it has been.

Much worse.

Again just a year ago.

If you remember last year’s blog post – my wife’s cousin ran in her first Boston Marathon.

We were there to cheer her on and just after she passed the finish line my wife took this photo:

See the blue arrow?

That’s where the first bomb went off 60 seconds later.

We saw them both explode.

We weren’t hurt but a lot of people were and so was the county and the entire world….one more step into insanity.

We went back this year.

Many of us wearing our special caps:

Everyone came back and brought their friends and family.

The spectators jumped from a half a million last year to a million this year – all to show support.

We were there to cheer the runners and each other.

Security was much tougher but everyone had a friendly smile and I didn’t observe a single incident of any kind – just a lot of supportive friendly people of all kinds:

Our cousin – from Ohio – made special notes for her run:

Her time was a bit off from last year……even though she was capable of a faster pace this year……because as she said “I kept slowing down to highfive all the kids along the race route”.

This was a joyful year:

When I said everyone came to celebrate – I mean everyone:

But joy is not just a year to year thing.

As much as this letter has been about “last year – this year”.

If you do it right – it’s ongoing.

I’ve posted lots and lots of photos over the years……but this one is the best.

I didn’t take it and neither did Kim.

How could we?

We were both in it.

Ten years ago last Friday.

You want my favorite photo?

You got it:

Doesn’t get better than the last ten years with my honey!

I wish you all the same joy in your lives.

Marc

PS Please share in our joy of music.

To help spread the joy we give lots of songs away.

Both on our free music page @ http://www.misharamusic.com/freesongs (Get the Ken Yates track from above free on this page).

And on our five (soon to be six) free song samplers at Amazon.com -.we have given away in the past couple of years – at last count – 1,029,484 free songs.

Over ONE MILLION free song downloads!

Songs by the above mentioned Connor Garvey, Chris Ross, Barnaby Bright, Ken Yates…..and from lots of other Mishara artists and friends of the label as well.

All free to enjoy and share.

Have fun:

http://tinyurl.com/AmazonFreeMisharaSamplers

Marc Ratner
Mishara Music
E-mail: marcrescue@gmail.com
Website: http://www.misharamusic.com
Wordpress: http://www.marcrescue.wordpress.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/marc.ratner
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/marcrescue (The best way to keep up with these blog posts – join me on Twitter)
IM: marcrescue

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”:

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

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.youtube.com/watch?v=yJkenk2jtRY

Feb

Toboggan Terror (my own w / video) / books / Valentines / Creative 50 – the Marcrescue Blog – Life in Maine with an Eight Year Old

Greetings All,

I can never seem to get these letters written as often as I’d like……if for no more reason lately than it’s hard to find things to write about and take photos when you’re clearing snow an average of 3 hours every third day.

But how good an excuse is that? More about that later in the letter.

Also as you might have figured out – once I start writing – I have a hard time stopping.

This time I have it figured it out.

You’ll know when I’ve reached the end!

That photo was taken at the beginning of winter…..since then my snowblower, snow shovel and I have become a good team.

We have two large driveways & a long deck that need to be cleared after every storm and then I head down the road and help out 4 neighbors with some cleanup (I’m the only person in the neighborhood with a snowblower – and some of our neighbors have some issues – medical and otherwise – that won’t allow them to use a shovel themselves).

I feel like I’m 14 years old again…..and going from house to house……shoveling snow……and making my weekly paycheck……I think I made about a buck a house back then……now I do it for free.

It takes three to four hours to get all the snow clearing done if we have a six inch snowfall….and we’ve had a lot of snowfall lately.

So what do we do in-between the snowstorms?

Play in the snow of course.

Ethan loves to sled down the road before the plow comes:

And you can certainly say about us – “the family that stays together – snowshoes together”:

We walk up the hill a couple hundred yards and step into a beautiful trail:

But every February we really look forward to the US National Toboggan Championships which take place at the Camden Snow Bowl – 1 /4 of a mile down the road…..we just walk down the hill:

This year was the 24th annual Toboggan Championship and as always there are three kinds of participants.

1st – are the serious racers…..they come from all over the country.

Their sleds are customized:

They win nifty trophies:

The second group of participants are the ones that compete for the “Best Dressed” prize

Here’s the “Rocket” team:

The “Eat More Kale” team:

The “Willy Wonka” team:

The “Presidents” team:

The “I Have No Idea What They’re Called” team:

And the “Royal Danish” team (who usually win the “Best Dressed” trophy each year):

The third group of participants are teams put together by locals otherwise known as the “I Can’t Believe My Friends Talked Me Into This” team (I’m second from the left):

Because we don’t have our own specially made and waxed toboggan – we have to use a town owned sled that hasn’t been waxed since it was built 20 years ago…..we don’t make the finals – it takes a time under 9 seconds to do that……and as you can see “The Sliding Grundels” actually got slower on our second run:

But we did that run down the ice chute two times – think of the bobsled / skeleton ice track at the Olympics and then dial those expectations down about 1000% and you end up with a shaky wooden slot with hard ice on the bottom – (no temperature problems here – it was about 18 degrees this year as we made the run).

First you have to hike up the hill with your sled:

Then you approach the load in slot:

And – zoom – the longest and at the same time the fastest 9 seconds of my life….that’s us passing in front of the timing shed:

Why can’t you see me? Because of the way we set up on the toboggan – I’m third on the sled and flat on my back looking directly up at the sky – couldn’t see a thing.

BUT…..the reason we set up that way was so our guy on the front of the sled could take movies of our run on his “GoPro” camera – once in each direction.

So here’s your chance to ride along with us…..the camera facing forward……you can hear our yells:

And now with the camera facing backwards…..at the end of the run you can see me release the legs of the last guy on the sled and he falls off (intentionally):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-FKekMrdH4

That’s what we do for fun in the middle of winter.

Speaking of nice runs – Connor Garvey:

……has just released his second album on Mishara Music titled “Meteors And Beating Hearts” and he’s been having a great time since his last album was released.

He’s been traveling to music festivals all over the country and winning all sorts of prizes.

He started by winning the songwriting Grand Prize at the Maine Songwriters Association in 2012 and then soon afterwards he won the songwriting prize at the Texas Wildflower Festival:

He just was voted “Most Wanted” for the 2014 Falcon Ridge Festival:

Connor Garvey Falcon Ridge Most Wanted 2014

And this upcoming Saturday night – he’s up for “Performer Of The Year” (or “Perfromer” I guess – oops) at the New England Music Awards”:

Connor Garvey New England Music Awards Nominee 2014 - 2

When you win all those awards for songwriting – you can bet the album is terrific:

I love “Bright Morning”…..I love “Old House”……I love “Willow”…..I love “Spark”……arghhhh……I love the whole album……here’s a great way to listen to all the songs……a YouTube Listening Channel:

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

Please enjoy this wonderful album.

Concerning other subjects – let’s talk about books for a moment.

I love to read and always have a stack of books in line to read:

I just finished the latest book by Michael Connelly:

I hate it – absolutely hate it – when I finish the newest book by one of my favorite authors.

Why?

Because mostly likely it’ll be a year before their next volume comes out.

I can’t stand the waiting.

I wish they could be more prolific.

Which reminds me of a couple things.

First – like I mentioned above – I have trouble writing a simple letter on any kind of regular schedule..

Second – the 50th anniversary – we just celebrated – of the first American visit by these guys:

(The first visit that is except for George – did you know he visited America the year before to visit his sister who lived in the Midwest….and actually sat in one night with a local band at a club? Imagine their surprise the next time they saw him…..true story – there’s a book about it.)

But what really got me thinking is that all of the music they recorded was done in a 7 year period – from 1962 to 1969.

All of it.

That would be like one of my favorite authors writing – what? 50 novels in the same timeline?

Amazing.

Prolific.

I can’t imagine anyone else doing something like that.

With one exception.

When I thought about 50 years……I thought – there’s one example of artistry that even exceeds The Beatles.

You can’t imagine?

It’s true. I looked it up.

50 years of work….by one man – he did all the work all by himself…..that we enjoyed every single day……7 days a week…..365 days a year for 50 years.

With arguably an even bigger impact on society.

Here’s my favorite character of Charles Schulz’ work – you know all the others:

Take a moment and think about it – he did a Peanuts comic strip every single day for 50 years – 7 days a week – 365 days a year.

Whew.

Let’s talk about Valentines’ for a moment.

We went out for dinner and I got two great gifts.

One from my wife…..who knows me well…..never had a t-shirt from this band before…..so 50 years later:

Beatles TShirt Valentines' Day 02-14-2014

And can’t beat a great “Dragon” drawing from Ethan:

Ethan got a great present – he got to go see “The Lego Movie” in 3-D:

Dad and Mom enjoyed it too.

One of these days – Dad and Mom will actually go to a non-animated movie…..I think we’ve seen 3 in the last eight years.

Thankfully the new generation of animated movies is pretty great….although I could have done without “Chipwrecked”…..really-could-have-done-without-it.

One other Valentines’ Day note – for our Mishara Music mailing list I put together a list of my favorite “Valentines'” songs from our artists. Some nice listening – enjoy:

As Connor Garvey says – It All Starts With a “Spark”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjC9TElfWeU

Clarensau titled the song “Love”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KctD6Y0cqMs

Barnaby Bright has a song for the heartbroken “Made Up Of:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDrEh6Wrl9I

Ken Yates is firm about it – “I Don’t Wanna Fall In Love”:

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

Chris Ross when asked about his heartbreak will only say that he’s “Mostly Sober”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9B2x5ZC-84

Peter Bradley Adams says it’s all “Between Us” (amazing – this video version has over 2 million views):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_dvakUl9wA

Clarensau invites you to “Dance With Me” (this song is starting to show up as a “first dance” wedding song – how cool is that!):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIdb-NjziWw

Connor Garvey is coming for you driven by the “Western Wind”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_43tauGYX8

Kat Maslich says it all in “March”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpNcm_bR1AQ

And lastly as this is a “songs” Valentine – Barmaby Bright wonder what would happen “If I Came Back As A Song”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNRz7d9BALY&feature=c4-overview&list=UUs86_Y37cd3e29pavhWRHkw

Remember you can download free songs by all these artists (including some of the above songs) at:

www.misharamusic.com/freesongs

There are also more free songs on the Amazon.com Mishara Music Free Song Samplers – 54 totally free songs for you to enjoy:

http://tinyurl.com/AmazonFreeMisharaSamplers

Enough of all that – I think now I’ve finally reached the end of this letter.

How do I know?

Remember those great costumes at the Toboggan Championships?

Here’s one more:

It’s definitely time for the “END”:

Marc

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

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

Nov

The “Day After Thankgiving” what I’m thankful for post. Now that the meal is over – Life in Maine – the Marcrescue blog

Greetings all,

So yesterday I saw all sorts of posts with beautiful roasted turkeys and great meals with family and friends.

They were all terrific.

I thought I’d do a “day after” post that wasn’t so much about the food (with one very important exception!)

So here’s what I happen to be thankful for at the moment.

Having time yesterday to fix a Lego problem:

We always love starting the day watching the parade together!

And ending the evening with our annual Peanuts viewing….”Charlie Brown – don’t let Lucy fool you again”:

The woodstove sure is important this time of the year:

First wood stove fire of the year 10-30-2013

It’s winter here – not much snow yet – but everyone is battening down the hatches:

I very much appreciate that I love what I do as a partner in an independent music company.

Being independent means that we can work with musicians that we like with music that we love (and that is our mission statement – “Music we love – People we like”).

Our newest release is “Meteors And Beating Hearts” by Connor Garvey.

Love the artwork:

Connor’s a great guy:

As seriously as he takes his music….he knows how to have fun and not take himself so seriously:

And at Mishara Music we get to do things differently.

If we want to give away an unbelievably great song from Connor’s new album – a song called “Old House”…..we can do that…..and we can do it the right way…..you don’t have to give us an email address or register in any way to get the free tune.

What we’re thinking……if you love the song and Connor……you’ll get involved……if you don’t – no email address will ever be useful.

Why make it difficult?

So we don’t!

Matter of fact – we like giving away songs so much…..that not only do we give them away on our website:

www.misharamusic.com/freesongs

We really up the game with our five free song samplers on Amazon.com – 54 different free songs by both Mishara Music artists and friends of the label:

http://tinyurl.com/AmazonFreeMisharaSamplers

At last count – before sampler # 5 released a couple weeks ago – we had given away over 890,000 free songs through Amazon.

A great way to sample new music.

Here’s the song listing from new sampler # 5 – a great hour of listening:

http://tinyurl.com/MisharaMusicAmazonSampler5

Amazon Mishara Music 5 Song List FB size

We also make it easy to sample our music.

Don’t you just hate it when people post 30 second clips of their songs?

Who can listen to that?

That’s why we have YouTube Listening Channels for almost all of our albums.

An easy way to listen to the entire album – song by song.

Here’s “Meteors And Beating Hearts”:

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

(More Listening Channels at the end of the letter).

But enough about music….let’s get back to some more immediately important day after items.

As I mentioned I saw lots and lots of postings on Thanksgiving with plates and plates of food.

But at the end of the day…..here’s what really counts!

Number One – A sink totally free of dishes – (can you believe I finally found a way to include a photo of the kitchen sink in one of these blogs!):

Number Two – The dishwasher filled and washing:

And perhaps the most important thing of all……

Number Three – A huge container of leftover turkey:

But if there’s one thing I’m most thankful for waking up the day after Thanksgiving…..

…..It’s that it’s break week at the Y and thank goodness there was no spinning class at 8:15am this morning.

After what I ate yesterday – this cruel, inhuman instrument of torture would eat me if I had to face it today:

I’m sure not looking forward to spinning class Monday morning!

Which means I’m very, very thankful for this weekend!

Marc

PS Wanna hear some great music?

It’s easy – here are a few more YouTube Listening Channel’s:

Here’s Ken Yates album “twenty-three” (our previous newest release that is currently building up a huge amount of radio play):

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

I still laugh at how hard it was to get to him to say hello at his show in Portland Maine a few months back….he had some great fans:

I always keep going back to Chris Ross’ “Halfway To Wonderland”

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

Chris is perhaps the most poetic lyricist I’ve come across in many years and as serious as his songs are – he brings that same poetic creativity to his FB posts like no other – only with a wicked sense of humor:

Clarensau – a trio – records songs that emotionally connect with people in a way I haven’t seen before.

I constantly see tweets about “I Would Trade” from the “Until Our Lungs Give” ep and “Dance With Me” from the “This One’s For You” album:

“Until Our Lungs Give” ep:

https://www.youtube.com/user/UntilOurLungsGive

Tthe album “This One’s For You”:

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

And lastly let me remind the world about Barnaby Bright – the husband and wife duo – Nathan and Becky Bliss:

More and more I see comments like these on Twitter:

Here’s “The Longest Day” album:

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

4 Panel Digipak Tube Pocket D1003 [Converted]

And the “Gravity” ep:

https://www.youtube.com/user/GravityBarnabyBright

Enjoy them all – it’s free and easy listening!

Oct

Why Music? Why Maine? I make a case for both but not for computers! Life in Maine with a 7 year old – The Marcrescue blog

Greetings,

My last post was in August.

I guess you can’t accuse me these days of being much of a spammer.

But that’s not a bad thing.

Somehow I seemed to miss the month of September on the computer.

Not entirely of course – I was working – but life seemed to get in the way.

That’s not a bad thing.

I remember a poll taken in the 90’s that I saw the results of…..it asked what the biggest time saving device was…..and what was the worst time saving device.

You might think that the computer is a time saving device but it was # 1 on the time losing side of the poll.

As it turns out – although it does save so much time for many tasks…..because it opens up so much more opportunity to do things…..it was far and away the worst device for time saving.

It’s the truth.

I enjoy having the three computers I have on my desk and the opportunities they give me….but let’s face it – computers get in the way of life.

Let’s go back to the beginning.

Before computers.

Growing up all those many years ago I remember we always had a record player in the house.

TV was black and white and didn’t seem to be on much when I was a young kid.

But music was always there.

My first musical memory is of these three albums being in top rotation in the house…..there’s a special place in my heart for all three:

What a great beginning for a musical education.

I was hooked.

I became a musician – first classical violin, (I even played in the Mpls Youth Symphony Orchestra).

Then classical guitar.

But rock and roll was starting and I was there.

It began with lots and lots of records.

Then came concerts.

Boston was a great place to grow up because all the great artists came through and played.

Someday in one of these letters I’ll list the shows I saw.

But today as I highlighted the three records above that mean so much to me I’m going to highlight three concerts that also changed my world from three artists that in their time changed the entire world.

They happened in reverse order

The first began a life long love of live music.

The second helped me understand the birth of rock and roll.

The third blew away my arrogance about one type of music being more important than any other and brought me back to the idea of the those three albums above – completely different but all a part of the family of music.

It started on August 18th, 1966.

Bless my mother – she took two kids – my sister and I to a concert that I had to see or I would just die.

It’s what parents do.

Thanks mom!

Not more than 25 minutes on stage and only 11 songs. But never to be forgotten.

Not that many years later I had just started in radio as a music director at a Top 40 radio station in Boston and the local RCA rep – Don DeLacy – came by the station not long after I started and said “Hey, I’ve only got one ticket….you want it?”

I said “Sure”.

Not sure what I was going to see and appreciate.

He was still at the peak of his powers this night – his only performance ever in Boston – November 10th, 1971:

Elvis Presley Boston Garden November 10, 1971

Mindblowing.

Elvis Presley Set List November 10th, 1971

By the late 70’s I was in Los Angeles working in the record business and a friend from another label called up and said “I’ve got a pair of tickets to the show – want them?”

Being very curious I said sure…..this will be fun.

I knew what I was getting with The Beatles.

I had a reasonable idea with Elvis.

But as I said above – this concert blew me away because I went in so secure in my comfort with rock and roll and it forever smashed any pre-conceived notions that I might have had about what music is cool and what isn’t.

It brought me back to my parents house and the musical education that I had as a young child – where all types of music counted and were important.

June 14th, 1979

Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles when I was still an open air concert venue:

(Sorry about the photo – I’m amazed at how few Sinatra in concert photos are out there on the internet).

As bad as the photo is – is as great as the show was.

63 years old and the show was perfect.

Frank was charming, funny, engaging – the singing was perfection.

All that I’d heard about him was true.

Especially the phrasing – better than anyone before or since.

The next day I called my friend Ron Fell at The Gavin Report who I knew could tell me what Sinatra albums I should buy.

His top recommendation was Sinatra At The Sands:

I love it….but it still doesn’t capture how great that evening was.

So I try to remember all sorts of lessons from all of that.

My love of music is ever expanding.

I make no decisions about what I’ll like before I hear it.

I’m always surprised.

I’m not concerned about cds vs digital files or how the music comes to me.

It’s all about listening.

And as much as my computers help me listen – they also keep me from listening…..when I’m working and music is on in the backround – I don’t really hear it.

Music deserves it’s own time.

The other key from above is about parents.

How important they are in a kid’s life.

My parents music is my music.

My mother took me to see The Beatles.

It’s a lesson I hopefully learned well.

Ethan is seven – we do all we can to live life in Maine and keep us all off the computer.

Maine is perfect for that.

We love the annual “American Folk Festival” (Don’t think “folk” think “world” music) in Bangor every summer:

Dance to the music!

We love taking Amtrak from Portland to Boston to see a Red Sox game…..gives time for dad to take a nap:

Even baseball can be about music…..everyone loves “Take Me Out To The Ballgame”…..and everyone loves when Ethan sings it:

We have a great time at Fenway – even if I haven’t quite figured out the “take our own photo of us at the game angle” yet with my camera:

But I did a somewhat better job of catching my horror at being talked into getting on the “Tilt-A-Whirl” at the Union County Fair with Kim and Ethan – another Maine event we love every summer:

Tilt-a-Whirl Union County Fair 08-23-2013

Our last ride of the night is always the Ferris Wheel:

We also love the “Common Ground Fair” put on by the Maine Organic Growers and Farmers:

No fancy fair rides but a kid can have a great time jumping off some hay and sliding down a hillside on cardboard – it’s all about imagination:

Summer was fun:

But autumn has arrived in Maine:

The leaves are changing:

Every morning we’re out waiting for the school bus:

Our small Maine town has a most amazing film festival – the “Camden International Film Festival” or “CIFF”:

Now in it’s 9th year and recognized by “The Academy” (you know – those Oscar folks), filmmakers come from all over the world to screen their documentaries.

An amazing event that we love.

As I love the music and artists at Mishara Music.

Lots of shows lately.

Caitlin Canty played in Portland – such a great show. Do not miss her in concert:

“Still Here” is getting much of the radio airplay at AAA radio – have you heard it yet?

But I find I keep going back to “Southern Man” on the album – if I were to pick a favorite track this would be it – such an exquisite song and performance:

You can hear her entire album “Golden Hour” here:

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

Caitlin Canty Golden Hour Cover 1000x1000

Ken Yates “twenty-three” is our latest release on Mishara Music:

You can listen to the entire album “twenty-three” here on our YouTube Listening Channel:

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

Ken’s a great songwriter and we’re not the only people that think so.

When he was a student at Berklee School Of Music a few years ago – John Mayer came and spoke to his songwriting class and asked the students to play him some songs.

He flipped for “I Don’t Wanna Fall In Love” by Ken – so much so he blogged about it and all his fan sites reposted John’s blog post:

Now the song is out on “twenty-three” on Mishara Music. Here’s the specific link to hear “I Don’t Wanna Fall In Love”:

Here’s a tease about what’s coming next:

We’ve been working hard with Connor Garvey on two new albums from him coming soon.

A live album of new songs called “Before The Meteors”:

It has a partner studio album with great recorded versions of all the new songs “Meteors and Beating Hearts”:

Both will be out soon.

In the meantime you can hear Connor’s last album “Where Ocean Meets Land” here:

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

Barnaby Bright are on tour with Vienna Teng all over the USA and from what I hear the shows are amazing!

One of the ways you can tell that an artist is getting viral is by watching Twitter…..when the posts are more from fans than the band itself you know the world is catching on.

Here’s a collection of Barnaby Bright comments on Twitter that I collected a couple of weeks ago:

Wanna hear some Barnaby Bright?

Here’s the last album “The Longest Day” on it’s YouTube Listening Channel:

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

Want to learn more about them?

Here’s a great radio interview from a week ago at WJCU Cleveland by Karoline Kramer-Gould the music director at the station with Becky and Nathan with two great performances – “Reverend’s Son” from their “Gravity” EP and a preview of the next record – an amazing “couple’s love song” called “Just The Same”:

http://www.wjcu.org/2013/09/25/barnaby-bright-interview

Speaking of Twitter – Clarensau is another Mishara Music band that seems to be talked about constantly on that social media:

You can hear their “Until Our Lungs Give” album here:

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

and “This One’s For You”:

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

One note about “This One’s For You” – the first track is called “Dance With Me” and it’s starting to show up at weddings….as the official first dance! A perfect song for that. Here’s the direct link:

Our other new artist Sam Brenner has a great acoustic guitar & vocal release “Here At Home” on Mishara Music while he works on his next full studio recording. It’s like a up close version of the songs.

Here’s the YouTube Listening Channel of “Here At Home”:

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

Lastly let me mention that Mishara Music artist Chris Ross whom I consider to be the most poetic lyricist I’ve heard in years and years is beginning a new program of live concerts on www.stageit.com – the first Sunday of every month….the first would be tonight as I write this (October 6th, 2013).

You can watch it from the comfort of your home on your computer – live! And it’s interactive – you can message Chris during the show and he’ll be doing requests and some special songs. He promises a brand new song every show.

Here’s how to watch Chris Ross on Stageit (YouTube instruction video):

And here’s a YouTube Listening Channel for Chris’ album “Halfway To Wonderland” which includes his masterpieces “Mostly Sober” and “Your America”

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

So it’s been busy.

But not so much that we don’t get out and enjoy Maine and music.

As I mentioned three special concerts in my life above – Ethan will have three to talk about when he’s an adult.

Imagine the tales he’ll be able to tell when he’s 63 – the same age Frank Sinatra was when I saw him in concert.

It’ll be 2069 – the 100th anniversary of the breakup of the Beatles.

And Ethan will be able to tell people about his first three adult concerts.

The Beach Boys 50th Anniversary tour with Brian Wilson, Al Jardine, Mike Love etc / A James Taylor concert and Paul McCartney at Fenway Park – my mother taught me well:

But let me say.

It’s not just about the kids.

The adults need their music moments as well.

Don’t think I ever did as well with a birthday present as I did when I surprised Kim with a pair of tickets to see a favorite artist of hers – Michael Buble – a week or so ago in Boston.

Music keeps a family happy and Kim sure is better at taking a family self photo than I am:

Next – it’s on to Halloween:

Stay off the computer – listen to music!

Marc

PS A reminder. Lots of totally free songs on the Mishara Music website @ http://www.misharamusic.com/freesongs

Mishara Music Free Song Page August 2013

PPS One of the other great things about Maine…..when you’re driving to a concert and you need to stop for fast food for dinner…..we’ve got the best…..nothing beats a lobster roll!

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:

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

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;

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