days 93-96 "the making of....."

well, this week was not what i completely expected it would be. for one, i didn't make it to the club on monday, too tired. also, didn't meet with jp, but that was cool. he actually sent me mixes of all the tracks with percussion on them, they are all sounding really good. now, he's going off to new orleans to see jon cleary, amazing guitarist/keyboard player who played on my songs. he's back on tuesday next week. we will convene then and figure out what needs doing.

on wednesday, i went to sit in with some friends, jimmy vivino on guitar [conan o'brien, tonite show], rick reed on bass, barry goldberg on keys and also scott healey, also from the conan show band. i had big fun sitting in with them, doing my clapton co-writes. jimmy is so sweet to have gotten them all to learn my tunes. he is a great musician; he works every day taping the tonight show and still wants to play a little gig at a small club, just for the love of it. i do believe he is the hardest working man in show business and i could even venture to say he probably loves music and performing more than me-that's A LOT!! he is one of the finest guitarists i've ever played with-I've played with some pretty good ones too!- and it's always a pleasure and honor to work with him.
so, had communication from someone today with more release options. still, "nothin's final till it's vinyl" as they used to say in the old days, meaning, until it's a "record" you can't count on it happening.

and that my friends is the end of this week nearly. if there's anything new to report, i'll put it out there, if not, i'll wait till monday. oh, one other thing, albeit vague; had a cool idea tonight for some kind of interactive thing with my fans on my site. early days but i will talk about it with more specificity very soon.

ah, bed,,mmmmm...zzzzzzzzz

love;

always;

marcy xoxoxoxoxox

days 90-92 "the making of......"

well, weekend over, onto another week of fun and not so frivolous. tomorrow, i'm going over to jp's to discuss what else needs to be done on the songs. oh, forgot to say, yesterday i met jp at the studio and we had this great percussionist, lenny castro, who has played percussion on nearly every record known to man, play on the songs. sounded great! he played shaker, congas, and some tambourine. one of the shakers was actually about 8 beer cans joined together with some kind of gaffer tape with some kind of beans or something inside! yeah, i got a picture. it sounded very cool, smooth, but fuller than an ordinary shaker.

so, we shall see tomorrow what more needs to be done. I think I'll bring my Dflat harmonica to put on one of the songs, i can probably just put it on tomorrow.

should be an interesting week. i think i'm going to see a friend of mine play tomorrow night at this interesting club on sunset called "the libertine". the band is very funky with a great rhythm section, horns, you name it. look forward to hearing that. last time I was there it was a great night; the place was heaving, people were dancing, just having a great time which is pretty unusual at a club here in l.a...what a concept!

nite 4 now.

love always;

marcy xoxoxox

day 89 "the making of...."

woah, so thrilled, I played tonight and did 4 of my new songs at a songwriters showcase. they seemed to go over very well!
talked to jp today, we are going into the studio on saturday to have someone put some percussion on the tracks. very happy about that, moving along. also, i'm going to meet with jp on monday to discuss what else needs to be done.

now....i am tired.

so i say, good night!!! more news tomorrow.

love always;

marcy xo

days 86-88 "the making of...."

well, not much to report. jp sent me an edit of one of the songs with a guitar he put on a few days ago. it sounded very good. but i've not heard from him since monday. tried calling today but he wasn't there. something must have come up. we are very close to being done, only a few more things to add. it's all sounding great, i'm very happy with it all.

i'm sure i'll have some more news tomorrow. been practicing my new songs. i've been invited to do a little songwriter's gig which I'm doing tomorrow, thursday october 22 at a place called arnie's cafe in tujunga. always a good crowd. it will be interesting to see how the new songs are received.

nite for now. as john lennon once said, "I've got blisters on my fingers!!!!"

but, really, I've got callouses and their getting even bigger now!

love always;

marcy xoxoxoxo

days 82-85 "the making of....."

woah, where is the time going???? mid october already. been kind of hectic since i returned on tuesday. i was exhausted in every way, so didn't keep up with the blog again. but, hey, i'm here right now.
not much has happened this week, since i was not really able to do anything till wednesday. but i've been in communication with jp. he took it upon himself to do some technical stuff with one of the tracks, he's still working on it. once that's done, we're gonna get together and listen to the guitar he put on it; i may play some guitar on it too. it also is the last song to need background vocals. i did the background vocals for the other 3 songs on my own; but this last one feels like it needs other voices than mine, so we will organize that very soon.
meanwhile, i picked up a Dflat harmonica to play for one of the songs. it's actually a Hohner, "blues harp"; i haven't played one of those in a while, but it sounds good. i usually play a hohner, "marine band" or a "lee oskar" [harmonica player from the band "war" who developed his own line of harmonicas which I really like too]. so, we'll put that on this coming week too.
i have been rehearsing for a little giggy-poo that i have this coming thursday in the l.a. area. just me, accompanying myself; gonna play some of my new songs that night, should be a fun night. i'll post some info on it in the next day or two here in case anyone wants to attend show me some love baby!!!!!
gotta make some calls this week, see some friends that have come in from outta town, should be a fun week.

hasta luego!

love always;

marcy xoxxoxoxoxox

days 73-81

where have I been??? wish i could have kept up with the blog, but i had to leave town for a few days to tend to a family emergency, sorted thank goodness.
well, where was I..... got back yesterday, and pleasantly surprised to see that jp had sent me some mp3's of some ruff mixes of the background vocals we did just before I left. everything is sounding really good; he added guitar to a track too. i may be seeing him on friday to put my harmonica on one of the songs. we are going to have someone put some percussion on the tracks too. that will happen v. soon.
back tomorrow for more news. going to have to pick up a harmonica in the key of Dflat [Csharp] for the song. they're holding one for me @ guitar center, yahoo!!

love always;

marcy xo

days 69-72 "the making of"....

well, been busy the last few days, parties, guest appearances at my friends' benefit. not getting enough sleep! such is life, mine, anyway.
saw jp today. we listened to the work he's done on the songs, all sounding good. he put a great guitar solo on one of the songs. he's coming over tomorrow to help me put some backing vocals on the songs. that will be fun, I always love doing that. once that's done, we'll see what we should do next. most likely, it will be some more guitars, some percussion.

got to go, later than I thought!!

love always;

marcy xoxoxo

day 68 "the making of...."

interesting; today someone contacted me on facebook and asked, "if i had never heard of you or your music before, how would you describe yourself as an artist?" good question. my response was, i think what i am doing now describes me better than anything i've ever done: earthy, soulful music with a message. i also said i've always been part of someone else's dream, which is very true; doesn't mean i didn't or don't have dreams of my own. of course, I've done some amazing things in my life and i'm so grateful for that, and i've had lots of success which is truly incredible! i am truly blessed to be able to do what I love to do and sustain myself after all this time. weird, but, i just never felt i achieved the kind of success i've always dreamt of, the kind on my terms. that is the clincher. when i first started out, i was lead singer in a few bands, then got into doing backing vocals for many notables and that was great. in a way, i think doing that for a major part of your career puts you in a niche so to speak and it's hard to break out of not only for yourself, but for other people who are very eager to judge and compartmentalize; in saying that though, i obviously realize, it's not been so terrible for me, i've been lucky as hell on one hand and on the other, music is what i've devoted my life to! but, my advice to anyone beginning their life in music: follow YOUR dream. if you don't, it can have a tendency to slip away from you. be true to who you are, follow your heart and all that good stuff. it's so so easy to get sidetracked. once you do, it's very hard to see which way to go; you can lose yourself if you're not careful.
sometimes you just gotta pontificate! anyway, on another note, i spoke to jp today. we made a plan to get together tomorrow to talk about what to do next. unfortunately, he called me back tonite to say that he forgot he already had something to do tomorrow, so we pushed it to monday which is fine for me. tomorrow, i have some work to do here. i am going to start rehearsing and practicing for some live shows i will be doing soon. so, time to build up those already 1/2 inch thick calluses on the fingers of my left hand. i used to have a little night club set up in my living room complete with p.a..[well, actually, i was just singing through one of my guitar amps!] and it worked fine. but then we decided to remodel/recycle our furniture in our living room and voila, we now have a much more aesthetically pleasing room to hang out in. my baby grand takes up a lot of the space, but we managed to cleverly move things around and make the room appear as though it is not dominated by the piano, so that's a good thing.
so, tomorrow, aside from some writing, i will set up all my gear in my studio and start rehearsing songs i will be doing for the next onslaught. should be fun.

got a fun gig to do with a good, old friend of mine, shaun murphy. she is a powerhouse! we sang together with bob seger and clapton doing bv's. shaun is coming to l.a. to perform at a benefit for the great drummer of little feat, richie hayward. he's been diagnosed with serious liver problems, i.e, tumor, cirrhosis, you name it and he now needs a liver transplant AND hes' got no health insurance!!! oh dear, dear dear, poor richie. does anybody know how much it costs to have a liver transplant? feel free to have a guess! the person who gets it right first will be declared the winner and will be mentioned in my next blog! exciting eh??!
back to the benefit. it's at a place called the canyon club in the san fernando valley this sunday october 4th. I'll be doing some vox for shaun, she starts at 9pm. I may also be jamming with jimmy vivino who is heading the major jam with the amazing steve lukather at midnight. i think the whole event starts at 5pm.

so, that's it for now. got to get some sleep. i am such a nite owl...

love always;

marcy xoxooxoxo

days 64-67 "the making of...."

well, again, a bit of a break between blogs. i was away for a few days taking a break from it all. not much to report except that jp called today, i missed his call unfortunately, so will try to connect tomorrow. things are about to get hectic: parties, gig, another gig or 3, who knows. n e way, it's all good. just want to get these 4 songs done. i listened to them tonight. i'm really liking them a lot, can't wait to hear how everything sounds when it's all done. sounds very earthy because it is earthy!! nothing too artificial about it; it's almost like being a trapeze artist and performing without a net... but i think that's a good thing.

sleep is calling.

more news tomorrow.

love always;

marcy xoxoxoxo