I hope you’re well. Spring has finally come to Colorado, thank God, and I can feel it breathing life into everyone living in our house. 2010 is finally starting to look like the year I knew it was going to be, though I’m still stuck making Ruebens for stingy old couples. Oak Creek’s struggle to find consistent musicians to play with persists, as our drummer and bass player are still in New Orleans, with their other band. However, I feel very optimistic about this summer. My priorities are to play as much as possible and record a CD. PEOPLE NEED TO HEAR OUR SONGS. Jenna and I have so many songs that I’m beginning to feel a bit waterlogged creatively; it’s hard to create brand new songs when there is so many already in the mix that we haven’t even begun to develop for the band. I guess there could be worse problems, though, we just need to release them so we can get them out of our blood.
We’ve also been playing with a stand-up bass player who has a lot of booking connections. We haven’t worked with her too much, so I’m not sure where its going to go, but its always exciting to dive into opportunities like this. She doesn’t like our name “Oak Creek” though so we’ve been reevaluating our band name. Better to do so now rather than later. Although I’m more than willing to change the name to something we like better, we haven’t come up with anything that matches or top “Oak Creek” just yet.
Things are going slow (by my standards), but steady. Its important for us to look at all we’ve accomplished though and realize that we’re just laying the foundation right now. Great things are headed our way, I can feel it. I hope we can release an EP soon. In the meantime, you can come get a sandwich from me and I’ll slather thousand island dressing on both sides of your bread.
I hope your well. I wanted to firstly remind Sedona people that my band Oak Creek will be performing in Sedona at Studio Live on Dec. 26th at 7:30pm. It’s going to be a great show. Jenna Cunningham and myself will be performing with amazing local rhythm section Zirque Bonner and Eddy Barratini. Jake Payne will also be opening for us and he is great! You can get tickets for $10 at Golden Word Book and Music store, which is located on Dry Creek Rd.
I would also like to remind everyone to count your blessings this holiday season. Be conscious of how much you love the ones you love. The decade is reaching its final days and it has been a crazy one. We had Ubur-prosperity followed by a big-time recession, which of course began the minute I was set to graduate college and entering the world. While my inability to get a real job has forced me to work my ass off in a crappy food service job, it has encouraged me more to work on my music. I can’t help but find the blessings within these times of struggles of. I’ve almost played more shows in Denver since I moved here in July than I played in Los Angeles my entire four years that I went to school there.
Another example of riches to rags that has resulted in what I consider a blessing is the demise of the record industry. I always knew that signing to a major record label was not for me, but when I began my music recording career in 2006 this was still the path one had to take to achieve any kind of success (or so I thought.) I really struggled with this fact and I remember taking my demos to a “big shot” producer who replied to me that the singing and songwriting were good, but we would have to re-record everything with studio musicians for the record labels to listen. And that I couldn’t use jingle bells in my music if it wasn’t a Christmas song. I decided to go with my gut and produce the record myself and I that was the best decision I’ve ever made. I used the jingle bells too.
The record industry is now all but dead, and people are no longer being force fed music by record labels. Instead, a natural equilibrium will begin to occur where music, if it is good will slowly (or quickly I suppose) diffuse over the internet until its own tide runs out. Live music will now rule once again. This is all good news for me and offers me a channel through which I can make a living doing what I love the most. I feel very blessed to at least have the opportunity to try, which would not have been an option ten years ago.
So follow your gut, count your blessings and get ready, the 2010’s are going to be some great years. I hope to record an Oak Creek album in 2010.
Love,
D
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So when i first came to Denver, my mom and I saw this band called “The Wheel” who opened for Bon Iver. Apparently, “The Wheel” is pretty big in Denver and they are really great. Anyway, I bought a CD, talked to the stout lead singer of the band at his merch table and asked him where some good places to play around town were. Oak Creek has now played all of them except for Meadowlark. But we just got booked there for Dec. 16th and are opening for Canadian folk artist Brydan Smith (www.myspace.com/brydansmith) I’m very excited about it, its a big show for us. So if your in the Denver area, or know someone who is, send them that way. Other than that, Oak Creek is practicing tomorrow with our new piano player, playing our first show in boulder, producing beats for some local hip-hop artists, and scoring a short animation. FUN FUN FUN!
Also, here’s a video some of my best friends made. Their group is called “General Delight.”
