Travis Dickerson Recording Studio Forum

Bet you thought you'd never see me again! At least, not here.
Just wanted to weigh in with my compliments on this album, it's been in my player a lot recently.
I hope there's more new stuff in the works.
Cheers!

Anyone else doing NaNoWriMo? (http://www.nanowrimo.org) It\'s taking all my time this month, but after doing it last year I just had to again. Cranking out 50K words in 30 days might seem like a chore, but it\'s actually quite liberating! So I\'m just curious to see if I\'m the only one here doing it.

(Might seem a little off-topic for this forum, if so this post will die a natural death!)  

I\'ve been taking lessons from a voice coach for several years now, and am interested in trading stories and hints with anyone else trying to improve on their voice production.

I know most people around here are instrumentalists, but there are surely a few other vocalists?

To get the ball rolling, my teacher suggested I read Renee Fleming\'s "The Inner Voice". Now, I\'m not an operatic singer, nor do I want to be   but the fundamentals of voice production apply across the board, and she has some really interesting hints for visualizing tones and voice maintenance, among other things. Anyone else read this book yet?

I\'ve had the good fortune the past 3 years to accompany a marvellous one-man show where the actor, John Huston, impersonates Charles Dickens reading "Scrooge", otherwise known as "A Christmas Carol". I\'m one of a quartet singing Yorkshire Pub Carols in between the staves. Great fun! And I get to brag that I\'ve "played the National Arts Centre" (even if it IS the community stage... )!

We just finished our 3-day run. Music for the weekend days is provided by the eclectic folk trio Finest Kind (who are!). Our two groups share a bass, Shelley Posen. He\'s the glue for quite a few singing groups around here.

Finest Kind & John Huston have just put out a CD (Feasts & Spirits) with excerpts from the show (although there isn\'t that much overlap with the music my group sings there is a bit, & it\'s all much the same flavour). It was selected CD of the week by Wisconsin Public Radio.  

I know this isn\'t quite the usual stuff Travis features, but hey, it\'s all good music!

Links, for those interested:
http://www.nac-cna.ca/en/whatson/results.cfm?EventID=4283
http://www.finestkind.ca/finekind.html
http://www.ottawafolklore.com/seconds/ofcpub2.htm

I\'d be interested to hear if anyone else has season-related gigs, too.  

I didn\'t actually watch the Grammy\'s, but was pleased to hear that the Dixie Chicks won big, not least because I not only enjoy their music and style, but also because I saw their movie last fall. Kudos to them for surviving a concerted effort to put them out of business, all because of a chance remark that was taken out of all proportion by a paranoid regime and its sycophants.

While I\'m not a big fan of award shows, it is nice to see recognition going to good performers. Particularly since the mainstream types in their own genre chose to ignore them.

Quite a good article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/13/arts/music/13gram.html?_r=1&8dpc&oref=slogin

Anyway, I\'m so sick of all the bad news the papers publish that it\'s nice to see something good for a change.  

to congratulate our cousins to the South on the recent vote for change. I hope that this means that many of the negative internal and external policies can be reversed.

Good luck to you all!  

As the week has gone by and I\'ve watched the horror increase in a place I love, I have scanned the news from all the sources I could think of to learn of what was being done to help. I even did my tiny bit by making a donation to the Red Cross, since I can\'t be on the spot to lend a hand.

One of the most moving pleas I have seen both specifically addresses NOLA/Katrina and more generally addresses the current political regime in the USA.

The good folks over at Perceval Press say in their contact instructions that they don\'t want to be contacted over anything but publishing matters. However, I think their efforts deserve a wider circulation, and today\'s message posted by Viggo Mortensen really struck to my heart.

http://www.percevalpress.com/home.html

Travis, you know Viggo. The next time you see him, please say "Thank you".

"On June 28th, Bill C-38, titled Law on Civil Marriage, passed a final reading in the House of Commons, sailing through in a 158-133 vote. Supported by most members of the Liberal party, the Bloc Québécois and the NDP, the vote makes Canada the third country in the world, after the Netherlands and Belgium, to officially recognize same-sex marriage." (quoted from cbc.ca)

My thoughts? I\'m expecting to get some wedding invitations in the mail before too long!  

It\'s a busy time of year. Lots of pressure on our time. I\'m taking a moment to think calm thoughts and wish all my friends on-line a very pleasant Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzaa/Solstice or whatever else you do or don\'t celebrate at this time of year. Plus, Happy 2006!  

This is what it looks like in my part of the world right now. Perhaps a little more snow & ice -- this was a week ago & we\'ve had a cold snap & a big blizzard since then:

This topic has been moved to [link=http://www.tdrsmusic.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=TDRS;action=display;num=1101937496;start=0]TDRS artists, music and related topics[/link] by Travis.

Just got my copy of in-VINCE-ible today & it\'s in there now. Downloaded the Piano Solos album last week.

Whoa, what a difference in sound! I had only listened to a few sample tracks so I wasn\'t as prepared as I thought. The Piano Solos are all mood pieces & fairly low key so I was totally blown away by the first cuts on the CD (Training Montage, Dawn of a New Day) - I really like it, but it was a shock!  

The CD is a super mix & Vince is a certified keyboard wizard! (most of you probably already knew that, but I\'m a Vince newbie, not having been into Transformers).

Great stuff!

Just popping in to see if you\'re going to be selling Canciones de Invierno here, Travis. I hope so! You have so much more reasonable out-of-country shipping costs than Perceval Press does...

Cheers!

Travis, I heard some scuttlebutt about a new Viggo Mortensen CD while in Toronto for TIFF again this year. Any news on when &/or where this will be available? Just from Perceval, or from TDRS too? I\'m really keen on his piano music; Please Tomorrow was great. I know the man is busy making films these days, but if he had copies of this CD to hand around the industry in Toronto, I\'m hoping that means sales of it will start soon!

Thanks for whatever info you can get on this one.

btw folks, if you haven\'t seen the latest Cronenberg/Mortensen collaboration yet ("Eastern Promises") what are you waiting for? It\'s terrific!!

I hadn\'t been into the store for a while, thinking there would be nothing I hadn\'t already seen. Big mistake!!  

There are 2 Tony Gilkyson CDs available, both Sparko and a new one, Goodbye Guitar. I already had Sparko, but immediately ordered Goodbye Guitar & am looking forward to it immensely!

If you don\'t have Sparko in your collection, I recommend it highly! Even more interesting if you\'re into his sister Eliza Gilkyson (who will be at the Ottawa Folk Festival again this year, YAY!), Exene Cervenka, or Viggo Mortensen. Why? Because 3 of his songs on it  were covered at one time or another by each of them. He\'ll Miss This Train by Eliza Gilkyson, He Wanted (as "She Wanted" & co-written) by Exene Cervenka and Home in Angelino by Viggo Mortensen. I find the different musical choices by each performer of the material fascinating.

Tony Gilkyson has a great way with words and tunes, and is a dang good guitar player to boot! Believe me, those aren\'t the only songs of note on the CD...but why not buy it & find out for yourself! Oh yes, and Travis produced it & plays keyboards on at least one cut  

Thanks a bunch, Travis, for having more of his product in your store. As you can tell, I\'m really excited!

Hey Chris, sounds great, put lots of details in that report!

Question for Travis:

Any chance of either "Sparko" (Tony) or "Misfits" (Eliza) coming back in print?

Hey Chris, can\'t comment on lists 2 or 3, but I\'ve got both of Vince DiCola\'s and I enjoy them both.

If you\'re looking for an intro, I\'d suggest IN-VINCE-IBLE. Why? Because there\'s a lot of different styles so it\'s a good look at his range. But, if you\'re looking for something in the Transformers vein, then you\'ll enjoy Falling Off a Clef. Either way you\'ll get a good one.