Suede

Happy season of renewal!

What a FANTASTIC night at Sandwich Town Hall last night, thanks to the full house and perfect audience, thanks to Sandwich Arts Alliance!! Fred Boyle, Rich Hill and I had a great, great night being back. Russ Gracie of Robbie Jarvis Sound & Lighting Co. did a fantastic job with sound, making it effortless and a total joy to sing and play! Huge gratitude for my generous fans who contributed $450 to Alzheimer's Family Caregiver Support Center in the pillowcase!! You've made a BIG difference in the lives of people dealing with Alzheimer's and dementia in their families! THANK YOU!! AND, we had a VIP in the house when my dear pal and Broadway star Mary Callanan and her magnificent better half Larry surprised me by showing up! I was stylin' and felt so fancy donning my David Josef Fashions scarf and one of a kind monogrammed towel! Thank you all so much. My heart is full. On to Plymouth, MA and Spire Center for Performing Arts next! Follow us!!!

This. All of this.

Dear music fans, esp my LA area peeps -- sad news and reaching out in case you might be able to help some friends. Karen Hammack is my LA and surrounds pianist pal. She and Chris Conner are amazing musicians and just incredibly lovely people. Three weeks ago Chris was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer and is now suddenly in hospice. Karen wants to keep him at home, surrounded by all he loves, for his remaining time here. If so inclined, a bit of help...thank you.

This. The muse at play. H/t Sylvie ♥️

Because some of you have expressed curiosity about what it takes for we full time musicians out here to keep at it -- Please keep coming to, and sending ppl to, the live shows!! Thank you Ian Tamblyn - Musician, Adventurer and Playwright for writing this, and Janis Ian for sharing it. So true. Every single point made. Incredible to see it laid out chronologically, having jumped in full time myself in 1983.

SAT, 4/13, TOWN HALL, SANDWICH, MA, CAPE COD. NY says she's like Adele meets Diana Krall meets Bette Midler. She was Joan Rivers' opening act. Come see why! TIX: tinyurl.com/y2tzrb4m Sandwich Arts Alliance With Fred Boyle, pno, Rich Hill, bass. Photo by C A Hill Photo

THANK YOU NEW HOPE!!! What a fantastic night to say farewell to The RRazz Room New Hope at the Clarion Hotel. Perfect audience. Great sound, thanks to Tony Darrah - and the privilege of playing with Tomoko Ohno & Amy Shook will have me lit up for days!!! SWOON. ♥️♥️♥️

My red boots don't move like this. https://www.facebook.com/106390299400549/posts/2175891275783764/

THIS FRIDAY, 3/29 NEW HOPE, PA! (SO close to Philly, NYC, etc) Join us as we bid a very fond farewell to this great room!!! 😪♥️ TICKETS: tinyurl.com/y6khqo4g STAY: tinyurl.com/y5fzfm5y (bring your pup!) SPRING IS SPRUNG! COME PLAY!!! With Tomoko Ohno, pno & Amy Shook, bass

Today would have been my Daddio's 97th bday. He gave me my love of Dixieland, jazz, blues, trumpet (it all began with an army issue bugle he handed me in the backyard in VA one day), boats and cars. Here he is in his happy place, rowing his beloved Whiskers, who's now with me... HBD, DADDIO!

And this update from Janis Ian: * LATER EDIT - You're welcome to share this. And think on this - I'm almost 68, I can still make a living performing and writing and doing special projects. What about an 18 year old who has a streaming hit, with a million plays, but doesn't have the touring base I'm lucky enough to have? or who doesn't tour at all? HERE'S THE ORIGINAL POST: Just got my BMI statements, which pay me when songs i write are played. On songs I own 100% of, Amazon Prime paid me $1.22 as the publisher for 6,456 plays. I'm making $0.00018897149 per play. On "Apple Family", I had 4,334 plays, and got $1.05; that's $0.00024227041 per play. Things are looking up! Oh, but for "Apple Student" I had 33 plays and made... $0.01. One cent. Really. Wait! Pandora was huge in my little world - 19,006 plays!! and $2.93 in payment. Pandora Plus, 7,644 plays, and a 91 cent payment. Spotify, Youtube about the same or less. Since I wrote all these songs myself (without a co-writer), I should be paid the same amount again as a writer. People played my songs on Apple, Pandora, and Amazon 37,473 times - and at best, I made $3.18. Sirius XM opposes the Music Modernization Act, and so do a lot of the other companies. In Europe, some are filing anti-trust suits. They don't see why they should have to pay songwriters more, let alone pay the same for streaming as they do for sales. (We're supposed to get 9.10 cents per sale, but almost all the US record companies impose a "statutory license", and you have to agree to receive only 75% of that if you want to get signed.) I said years ago that record companies had to end physical product and only allow streaming, because that's the single way they can control all the money. God forbid you make a copy of a CD to play in your car. Or don't have wi-fi everywhere, or don't have a mobile phone. Or just want to see songwriters, and musicians, and artists in general paid fairly. It's a really complicated issue, but as I sit here and look at my big $3.18 from three of the biggest companies out there, my total earnings for the 37,000+ times people got to enjoy my work, it doesn't seem complicated at all.

Remember a while ago when I shared about streaming services and what $$ finds its way to the artist (close to zilch) as owners of Spotify etc enjoy their huge yachts, etc? Read this from Janis Ian, a huge, well known artist ----- Just got my BMI statements. On songs I own 100% of, I received $1.22 as the publisher for 6,456 plays on Amazon Prime. So I'm making $0.00018897149 per play there. On "Apple Family", I had 4,334 plays of songs I wrote and own the publishing on, and I got $1.05; that's $0.00024227041 per play. Things are looking up! Oh, but for "Apple Student" I had 33 plays and made... $0.01. One cent. Really. Wait! Pandora was huge in my little world - 19,006 plays!! and $2.93 in payment. Pandora Plus, 7,644 plays, and a 91 cent payment. Spotify, Youtube about the same or less. So since I wrote all these songs myself (without a co-writer), I probably get the same amount again as a songwriter. People played my songs on Apple, Pandora, and Amazon streaming services 37,473 times - and at best, I made $3.18. Sirius XM opposes the Music Modernization Act, and so do a lot of the other companies. In Europe, some are filing anti-trust suits. They don't see why they should have to pay songwriters more, let alone pay the same for streaming as they do for sales. (We're supposed to get 9.10 cents per sale, but almost all the US record companies impose a "statutory license", and you have to agree to receive only 75% of that if you want to get signed.) I said years ago that record companies had to end physical product and only allow streaming, because that's the single way tohey can control all the money. God forbid you make a copy of a CD to play in your car. Or don't have wi-fi everywhere, or don't have a mobile phone. Or just want to see songwriters, and musicians, and artists in general paid fairly. It's a really complicated issue, but as I sit here and look at my big $3.18 from three of the biggest companies out there, which is my total earnings for the 37,000+ times people got to enjoy my work, it doesn't seem complicated at all.

NYC friends!! FRI, MAR 22! I'm in town! Join me at Dizzy's Club to hear my insanely talented, swingin' friends Sherrie Maricle & The DIVA Jazz Orchestra!! Shows @ 7:30 & 9:30! Tix: jazz.org/dizzys/events/8831/diva-jazz-orchestra/ Saturday & Sunday too. DO NOT MISS!!

Sláinte!!

For your Sunday - by an incredible gathering of musicians, and women, for whom I have immense respect. I wish you peace.

Hate will not win. Love wins.

When people ask, of all the places I've had the immense privilege of visiting, which is my favorite - without hesitation I respond "New Zealand." It is the kindest, most open, generous, safest, most peaceful, laid back, joyful place and culture I have ever experienced.

Mr. Bayh co-wrote what would have been the 27th Amendment, the Equal Rights Amendment, prescribing equal treatment of women in all fields. Congress approved it in 1972. Sensing that the measure might sink because of opposition in state legislatures — ultimately, it did — Mr. Bayh produced Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments. It banned gender discrimination in schools receiving federal support.

Yikes! My dear pal, comic Mimi Gonzalez, hit some black ice, is seriously banged up, out of work as she recovers, and could use our help, if so inclined. Quick recovery, badass Mimi! ♥️♥️♥️

"But it's great exposure." Great exposure isn't accepted by my mortgage company or Blue Cross Blue Shield, or even Verizon or at the gas pump, etc...

TICKETS: tinyurl.com/y6khqo4g STAY: tinyurl.com/y5fzfm5y

It occurred to Pooh and Piglet that they hadn't heard from Eeyore for several days, so they put on their hats and coats and trotted across the Hundred Acre Wood to Eeyore's stick house. Inside the house was Eeyore. "Hello Eeyore," said Pooh. "Hello Pooh. Hello Piglet" said Eeyore, in a glum sounding voice. "We just thought we'd check in on you," said Piglet, "because we hadn't heard from you, and so we wanted to know if you were okay." Eeyore was silent for a moment. "Am I okay?" he asked, eventually. "Well, I don't know, to be honest. Are any of us really okay? That's what I ask myself. All I can tell you, Pooh and Piglet, is that right now I feel really rather sad, and alone, and not much fun to be around at all, which is why I haven't bothered you. Because you wouldn't want to waste your time hanging out with someone who is sad, and alone, and not much fun to be around at all, would you now?" Pooh looked at Piglet, and Piglet looked at Pooh, and they both sat down, one on either side of Eeyore in his stick house. Eeyore looked at them in surprise. "What are you doing?" "We're sitting here with you," said Pooh, "because we are your friends. And true friends don't care if someone is feeling sad, or alone, or not much fun to be around at all. True friends are there for you anyway. And so here we are." "Oh," said Eeyore. "Oh." And the three of them sat there in silence, and while Pooh and Piglet said nothing at all; somehow, almost imperceptibly, Eeyore started to feel a very tiny little bit better. Because Pooh and Piglet were there. No more; no less. A.A.Milne E.H.Shepard

Or more than three ways. Wish this was a joke.

Sunset, Sat, March 9, 2019, Skaket Beach, Orleans, MA on Cape Cod Photo credit: Liz Grant