Consultancy: Bringing a Beautiful Voice into Internet View

image by neva

Over a year ago I wrote about my friend Neva:

I wasn’t living in Long Beach when Melissa Etheridge made her breakthrough playing locally at a club called Que Sera on 7th Street (funny that her wikipedia article doesn’t mention Que Sera), but every time I come out and watch Neva I think I’m seeing the beginning of the same thing. – neva rocks taco beach! *video* – May 4, 2008

I don’t remember how long I’d been going to my favorite watering hole, Taco Beach, when I happened to be there on a night when Neva was performing. Nothing formal or flashy, just an acoustic guitar and amazing voice playing over the bar PA, taking the passing attention of the audience between their conversations and drinking. Doing a solo acoustic set in that setting was not for the faint of heart. The audience wasn’t overly obnoxious or disruptive, but I’ve seen pretty talented musicians stare down at the floor, reduced to mumbling through their songs because they couldn’t break through the conversational sound-barrier. Sometimes it seemed to take a whole band to grab the audience’s attention, or at least something electric and loud. Neva had a backing-band a couple of times, but most of the time it was just her and her guitar and she was able to get the whole place rockin’ in her direction.

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Roll Over Beethoven and Copy… Right!

Part of my course at Full Sail is about media issues, you know, stuff like Copyright, Fair Use and Creative Commons. The “M” in our program title (EMDT) is Media and my students, who are in their ninth month of a year long Masters degree program, are expected to stare down this huge subject and come up with a reasonable approach to something that I tell them occupies the life’s work of an army of lawyers, policymakers and troublemakers. As I lay down guiding principles to understanding the moving target that is Copyright/Fair Use/Creative Commons the discussions tend to be quite lively and informative for all participants. One thing that I’ve never fully appreciated is how difficult and expensive it can be for teachers who want to follow copyright law who teach band, or theater or any of the other arts.

One teacher wrote in her class blog:
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Mother of All Funk Chords – Kutiman YouTube Remix

I know something is up when I get a link to the same artist from several completely different sources in one day. Earlier today fellow web-voyager, Linda, sent me a link with the subject line: “Interesting music videos.” Ah, understatement. I loaded the video off of the artists’ site and thought something was wrong ’cause it looked like YouTube but wasn’t. Than this afternoon said artist, Kutiman, was featured on CNET’s Buzz Out Loud podcast, after the crew saw this video posted in Jonathan Coulton’s blog. “What you are about to see,” says Kutiman on the ThruYou website, “is a mix of unrelated YouTube videos/clips edited together to create ThruYou. In other worlds – what you see is what you hear.

According to Coulton, Kutiman is an Israel musician who takes bits and pieces of unrelated musical instruction and amateur performance videos from YouTube and creates something really amazing. Here’s Kutiman explaining how he does it, followed by one of my favorites from his collection:
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Nephew Dan w/ Decrepit Birth on Tour

I was bitching last week about feeling like the only one I knew using the ‘Net to connect with family, so my sister surprised me this morning with this amazing photo of my nephew, Danny, on stage playing with his band. It’s a friggin’ awesome photo. Now that’s what I’m talking about, as far as using the web to share stuff. Kat & flickr (& Danny) FTW! jbb

        

One of these Days is Finally Here Today!

I’m so happy that my friend, Neva, has finished her CD, One of these Days, and now my other friends can enjoy a little taste of what I’ve been enjoying from NevaMusic! I say a little taste because the CD’s six tracks are closer to being an EP than full length CD. I guess the adage, “Leave ‘em wanting more,” definitely applies here. Whether you’ve seen Neva’s amazing solo-acoustic shows or caught her in a rare “band gig” the CD captures all of the energy, emotion and personality of this genuine, talented artist. Add to that all of the harmonies and powerful percussion that you may have been hearing in your own head during all of the solo gigs are there. As I’ve written before, I wasn’t living in Long Beach when Melissa Etheridge made her breakthrough playing locally, but every time I hear Neva’s songs I think I’m seeing the beginning of the same thing. I look forward hearing her next recordings and watch her popularity cut through the crap the labels and Reality TV tries to sell us. Neva is the real thing.

“Seven” by Neva from her “One of These Days” CD