Posted Sun, 01/31/2010 - 21:33 by charliecheney
Charlie's Tour Blog 1/31/2010
On the Metro North train from NYC to Beacon, heading up to spend some time at Chez KETP with Kelly and Tim, play some songs, eat some food, laugh a bunch, excited. The train is skirting the Hudson River and the sky is bright blue today, sunshine glittering off the ripples in the center of the river and ice chunks on the sides. Beautiful day.
Posted Thu, 01/28/2010 - 12:06 by charliecheney
Today I'm outside of Philadelphia. I've been doing the radio show now for 11 straight days, played two shows in Cleveland, writing code on the train rides. Stayed in Pittsburgh with Burr & Natalie Settles Sun/Mon and visited the Carnegie-Mellon and Pitt campuses.
The part of these tours that I truly enjoy the most is when I get to have these cool discussions with artists and thinkers along the way. I've discovered from previous tours that the best discussions generally last about three hours each, and cover topics like artist lifestyle, faith, or the process of creating art or some other craft (like software for example).
Posted Wed, 01/20/2010 - 21:20 by charliecheney
A few days ago http://artistdata.com launched a complete revamp of their website. Fo those of you who don't know about ArtistData it's a REALLY awesome service for musicians and performers who need to enter their performances onto calendars all over the web, I mean, it ROCKS. I've been using the beta for months and have been telling anyone who will listen to go use it too. Look at my Tour calendar and MySpace page as examples of what it can do.
Posted Mon, 01/11/2010 - 20:09 by charliecheney
I'll be traveling the USA doing shows, seminars, and a daily call-in radio show for FAWM. Please call in!! I look forward to meeting you and speaking with you while I'm on the road. I'll be traveling almost completely by Amtrak train so please feel free to hop aboard and ride with me on any part of the tour, or make plans to stop by the train station for a quick photo as I pass through. If you'd like to meet with me, set up a seminar or gig in your town, or be on the radio show please contact me anytime at 231-225-0468.
Charlie's Tour Itinerary
1/19 (Tue) Fremont, MI - Kicking off the tour from the home base
1/20 (Wed) Chicago, IL - TBA
Posted Sat, 11/28/2009 - 12:18 by charliecheney
Fri Nov 27th, 2009 4:15pm
Los Angeles Union Station
I just hopped the Gold Line down from Pasadena and I'm waiting for my Amtrak train to Irvine in about an hour. I came down a little early so I could switch some tickets around. Amtrak is so awesome, I had two tickets I didn't use on my way to Seattle and they let me pay for my ticket from Columbus WI to Grand Rapids MI next weekend with the tickets I didn't use last week. They treat unused tickets just like cash for up to a year after the initial reservation date. Can you imagine an airline doing that? Amtrak rules.
Posted Sat, 11/21/2009 - 19:19 by charliecheney
I'm over half way through my fall tour and wanted to jot down a few memories before they all slip away into the ether. This whole trip has been amazing, I'm so blessed with friends and people I've met along the way, experiences. I figure I'll gaze back in reverse chronological order here for a bit to give myself a few of the memories for later. Right now I'm on the Amtrak "Coast Starlight" train from Seattle to Eugene. The train is stopped for a moment just outside Olympia WA and the trip so far this morning has been quite pretty, as we make our way down along the Puget Sound.
Posted Sun, 10/18/2009 - 16:54 by charliecheney
I haven't written a blog in forever. For those of you who follow me on Twitter and/or Facebook you've seen the changes happening little by little, and now all the work from the last three months has come to a head and I'm going out on a 6-week tour of the midwest and the west coast with 20 shows set up already and a bunch of seminars too.
Tour Schedule:
Oct 22-24 Green Bay, WI
Oct 25-31 Sturgeon Bay, WI
Nov 1-3 Madison WI
Nov 4-8 Los Angeles, CA
Nov 9-11 Sacramento, CA
Nov 12-14 Portland OR
Nov 15-16 Seattle, WA
Nov 17-18 Eugene, OR
Nov. 19-20 Santa Cruz, CA
Nov 21-23 Los Angeles, CA
Nov 24-26 San Francisco
Nov 28-29 Santa Ana, CA
Nov 29-Dec 2 San Diego, CA
Dec 4 Madison, WI
Dec 6 Grand Rapids, MI
Posted Sat, 06/20/2009 - 14:42 by charliecheney
Greg Roteik and Geri X foreground with Lumberjack Cash, Wally Ingram, Travis Kasperbauer, Delaney Davidson (with trombone), and Steve Hamilton background
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Posted Thu, 06/18/2009 - 10:55 by charliecheney
Monday morning, June 8th
At some point I rolled over to the Finnerty's house (home of Kathleen and Nora) to sleep on their couch. I don't think they were up yet, but it must have been close because Nora had to go to school that morning and I think she left around 7:30am or so. I'm pretty sure I got up around 9:30am or 10am or so and I I may have hung out with Kathleen for a bit over coffee, but I can't remember exactly. Hold on, she may have already left for work because I remember poring some curdled milk onto a bowl of cereal, throwing that all away, and making an omelette for myself. I think I finally rolled down to the Holiday around 11am.
Posted Thu, 06/18/2009 - 09:27 by charliecheney
I want to jot down some notes on my recollections from SBSF5 to see if I can start to synthesize it all a bit and remember more. Another spectacular year there, truly the best festival anywhere in the world for me... it's all about the writing and I love that.
Posted Mon, 06/01/2009 - 08:14 by charliecheney
I just read this in an email from Michael Laskow the CEO of TAXI and thought it was really good.
Michael runs TAXI at http://www.taxi.com
I'm totally re-posting this without permission, so please understand that all rights are reserved by Michael Laskow and TAXI, and NOT me. Thanks.
*****************
I don't write to you about music and production often enough. I'll try to do that with a little more regularity in the future.
My wife and I went to a fundraising banquet for a charity we donate to every year. Singer/songwriter Colbie Caillat was scheduled to perform, but she didn't show up because she had a throat infection. As we were leaving they were giving away some of Colbie's CD, Coco, that came out last year.
Posted Mon, 05/04/2009 - 20:28 by charliecheney
Blip.fm has a cool ability to stream your songs and post your songs to Twitter and Facebook. I also just found twt.fm which appears to do a very similar thing.
In any case, I want to test the blip.fm embed widget, so here it is:
Posted Sat, 02/14/2009 - 22:00 by charliecheney
FAWM TRIP BLOG
2/14/09 10:25am
I'm on the Amtrak train and just passing through New Buffalo Michigan, the final intermediary stop before I arrive in Chicago. I caught the train in Grand Rapids MI this morning at 7:35am, 2-3 inches of fresh snow on the ground.
I hosted the radio show last night from Allison's uncle and aunt's house in GR and then Ralston picked me up in his SUV (that smelled like radiator fluid) and drove me over to Denny's for a midnight rock n' roll grand slam breakfast and some great conversation. He shared his story with me again of meeting a bunch of UK Fawmers last year at a post FAWM meet-up in a pub in London. It was fascinating to hear his perceptions of the event and of FAWM in general... really set the table for me in a lot of ways for this trip.
Posted Mon, 12/15/2008 - 16:54 by charliecheney
My fellow citizens:
I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.
Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often, the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forebearers, and true to our founding documents.
Posted Sun, 12/07/2008 - 09:09 by charliecheney
Coming up this month is our third anniversary of moving to Fremont Michigan. I've been thinking about our move. It was an adventure. We rented a U-Haul truck and a tow along 12-ft trailer as well, so we were assured of an adventure in moving.
There was throwing up involved, scrubbing tile on my knees, 1000 miles of driving, a trailer popping off the trailer hitch (several times), an angel, dogs in the front seat, the shearing off of a trailer hitch 10 miles from our destination, and much more.
Back soon to tell you more.
Posted Tue, 12/02/2008 - 14:29 by charliecheney
I'm starting a cool new weekly radio call-in show at 8pm Eastern time at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/charliecheney and I need you and your music on my show!
"Charlie Cheney's Music Exam" will host a spirited discussion on current musical hot-topics such as social networking, digital distribution, touring, self-promotion, and beyond. I'd love you to join in the conversation, so call-in won't you?
Last night we discussed the theory of "Tribes" and how tribes affect our success with music. Joel D Canfield author of "The Commonsense Entrepreneur" (http://www.indieseminars.com) joined me and I would love it if YOU, yes YOU, would call in to the next episode too. The call-in number is (914) 338-0421 and the show is free.
To kick off the series I featured some songs from a fun Portland artist named Josh Belville (http://www.zornog.net) and the band Arden of Eden (www.maryardencollins.com)
If you'd like to submit your music for future episodes or want to suggest a specific topic for discussion please send me an email with your ideas and links to mp3s and I'll take it from there. Look forward to hearing from you tonight and every Monday at 8pm!
-Charlie
Posted Wed, 11/26/2008 - 18:56 by charliecheney
Charlie Cheney's "We Can Have Pie!" song in mp3 format
All right kids and kiddens... it's time to make great pie crust. Why? Because we love pie! So, here is the ultimate instructional tutorial to help you make home made pie crust right there in the comfort of your own... home. Hooray! OK, let's begin.
Start with the basic ingredients and tools. Flour, shortening, salt, ice water, mixing bowl, tablespoon, and two knives to cut the dough.
Posted Sun, 11/23/2008 - 20:55 by charliecheney
Oooh look, I have a shiny new Facebook badge.
Come be my friend. Yay. I've become addicted to scrolling through Status Updates and leaving comments lately, lol.
:-)
Posted Fri, 11/14/2008 - 09:32 by charliecheney
I'm addicted to Twitter and it is ruining my blog. I've lost interest in writing more than 140 characters at a time. But at last I'm back in order to write a longer missive. About Twitter, of course.
Here's what I just discovered... the Twitter search feature has been disabled due to abuse... so as I searched around I found these handy work arounds, enjoy! (p.s. I found these here: http://getsatisfaction.com/twitter/topics/people_search_has_been_disabled)
Alternatives for User Search that might help in the meantime:
1. To search by topic, try http://search.twitter.com
2. To find friends through the address book of your webmail account, try http://twitter.com/invitations
The above are Twitter features. There are also third-party services that may help:
3. To search by name or bio, try http://twitdir.com or http://tweetscan.com/usersearch.php or http://twellow.com
4. To search by location, try http://twitterlocal.net
5. To search by profession, try http://twitterpacks.pbwiki.com
6. To search for companies that use Twitter, try http://www.socialbrandindex.com/twitter
Posted Sat, 10/18/2008 - 07:14 by charliecheney
Last night I was flipping channels, back and forth between the usual "guy talk and drama" channels of ESPN, Golf Channel, some movie channels, when I happened on WGVU the local public station and Bill Moyer's program.
This guy Michael Zweig was on:
http://www.sunysb.edu/workingclass/
His description of the "Distressed Worker" encapsulated my whole existence for the past 9 years and the existence of many of the characters in my songs. As I've said since 2002 or so, I write songs about conflict and the choices people make during times of stress.
I have a new direction and focus today. $700 Billion bailout indeed. More later.
