celticfiddle

New York City at its best!

2012-02-10T16:32:00.000-08:00

There are days when New York City is absolutely magnificent, and this video captures that for me.
The background music is our recording of "Foggy Dew" (Electric Green CD)

Cady Finlayson Band Showcase at Arts Presenters Conference

2012-01-19T22:31:00.001-08:00

Here is the real live version of the showcase we did at theArts Presenters Conference in New York City. If you can get past looking at the very sexy "EXIT SIGN" in the background and imagine a real theater with lighting, you get the idea. It was such fun to have Irish dancing as a part of it.

Pencil drawing of our APAP set 2012

2012-01-12T23:15:00.000-08:00

Vita and I played the Arts Presenters Conference at the NYC Hilton.
In this pencil drawing video you'll Cady on fiddle, Vita on guitar, and Tim Alworth on the bodhran.

2011-12-21T08:19:00.000-08:00

This is a photo I just came across of my band at the Blackstone Valley Celtic Festival.
Fast forward to 2012...
We're getting ready to do showcases at the Arts Presenters Conference in New York City, complete with Irish dancing!
Saturday January 7th 7:40 pm, 9:20 pm and 9:40 pm
Hilton Hotel, 1335 Sixth Avenue, New York City.
Morgan Suite, 2nd floor.
No tickets necessary.
Conference attendees can visit the Irish Coffee Entertainment Booth #131 for bookings, Irish coffee recipes and New York City coffee recommendations.

December 2011

2011-11-27T12:43:00.000-08:00

A lot of news for events coming in december, so stay tuned.

Coming soon... a new Irish fiddle app for android where you can be up-to-the-minute with all Cady's news and shows.

Coming soon... a new company partnership helping to put on all kinds of Irish fiddle events...that will include one of my favorite beverages...

I'll be making the announcements at our next show, which is part of the Sixth Street Sundays Series
Sunday
Cady Finlayson & Vita Tanga - Spirited Irish music with a Global Twist
Dec 11th 3 pm in New York City.
and we'll have two workshops before the event (2 pm)
1. Tips and tricks of Irish fiddle (how to give your tunes that Irish lilt)
2. Spice up your guitar playing with Global Guitar styles.
So come on by, 325 E. 6th St. in Manhattan http://sixthstreetsynagogue.org/special-events/6thstreetsundays/

A photo album our travels and gigs: Cady Finlayson & Vita Tanga

2011-08-14T14:16:00.000-07:00

Irish Night at Caramoor: Cady's favorite video clips

2011-07-18T10:18:00.000-07:00

I had great fun watching the kids during the Caramoor show. ...dancing, coloring, trying the instruments...
Irish dancer Lauren McGarrity was there to get them started on the reel and the jig, and everyone seemed to get the "JUMP" part! Family Program Designer Katie Kresek made sure all the kids had something fun to do, and even led them in a spelling contest (Who can spell the name of the Irish drum? ...BODHRAN (the winner got a complimentary Harp and Shamrock cd).

See some of my favorite shots here....

Dancing to "Pumpkin's Fancy"

Vita and the Guitar girls

Cady shows a page from the Celtic coloring table.

"...and the Bog Down in the Valley-oh..."

Celtic Coloring

Tim gets going on the Bodhran!

The beauty of Caramoor.

Visit Caramoor,org for their whole season.

Celtic fiddle at Caramoor

2011-06-03T05:32:00.000-07:00

I went to Caramoor last weekend to check it out since we have a concert there June 29th. It's beautiful!

From the gardens to the architecture to the woods.Of course I had to pull my fiddle out and play a little. Afterwards we checked out the town of Katonah, the part by the train station. It's very cute and even though it's only a few blocks there was a music store, so I thought that was a good sign!

Check it out for yourself Caramoor.org

They have concerts all summer long and there's a picnic area with lots of trees. Our show is part of the Dancing at Dusk series - a 5 pm show that includes activities for kids. We'll have an Irish dancer (Lauren McGarrity) too, so that will be fun.

As someone who lives in a big city, it's really nice to have places to go and feel like you are in a completely different world. Caramoor is one of those places.

A Night at the Long Island Violin Shop

2011-04-17T21:22:00.000-07:00

Vita and I played at for Irish music and Poetry Night at the Long Island Violin Shop. We heard poetry by Claire Nicolas White and Annabelle Moseley,... and saw all the work that goes on in the shop, which is run by violinmaker Charles Rufino.

We met lots of nice people, and heard a variety of poets at the end when they had an open mic. Of course my favorite part was finding a blue violin that matched my dress!

Playing some Irish tunes...

Autographing cds...

Poet Claire Nicolas White read some of her beautiful poems and also "The Fiddler of Dooney" (Yeats)

I found a violin to match my dress!

Refreshment break...

Gearing up for Easter!

Long Island Violin Shop, Algonquin Seaport Theater, and Celtic Guitarist John Doyle in Brooklyn

2011-04-02T20:22:00.000-07:00

I survived March and actually I kind of miss the craziness of totally different gigs every day...

there were definitely some new ones, like doing the parades, which were a lot of fun. Plus we did a lot of new songs, some of which are keepers and others are great for St. Patrick's Day, but probably won't make the regular set list. I also had two green bagels at the Park Slope Parade, courtesy of Marty Markowitz whose people were handing them out.

April is time to figure out the next big project (West Coast tour? Christmas recording? Collaborations with various musicians? Composing new tunes?) - whoever said life didn't have choices wasn't talking about my life.

In the meantime, the shows coming up are going to be nice ones-

April 16th 5 pm at the Long Island Violin Shop "An Evening of Irish Music and Poetry". With real poets no less - all the details

http://www.stringpoet.com/2011/03/irish-music-and-poetry/

http://www.liviolinshop.com

The Long Island Violin shop is turning out to be a nice community shop - lots of events and cool colors for instrument cases....(anyone for a pink cello case?)

The other news is that I checked out the new venue where Vita and I are playing May 24th.

It's called the Algonquin Seaport Theater, and it's worth checking out for the view alone. It's at South Street Seaport, on the 2nd floor of the Seaport Mall, way on the end, so it overlooks the water, and you see beautiful views of the Brooklyn Bridge right behind the stage.....

We're playing for one of the Tuesday Acoustic Nights, which start at 7 (we're first) and continue into the night with a variety of acoustic musicians. It's $10 and the best part is, all ages can come AND wine and drinks are served...so come on down May 24th 7 pm! www.algonquinseaporttheater.org

Lastly, if you haven't had a chance to hear Irish guitarist John Doyle, guess what, he's playing in Brooklyn this month (Sun April 10th at the Brooklyn Historical Society). Worth checking out!

http://www.brooklynhistory.org/visitor/calendar.html

Trenton St. Patrick's Day Parade:Cady & Vita on Parade Float

2011-03-13T18:21:00.000-07:00

St. Patrick's Day in New York City: Irish music month

2011-02-19T10:19:00.000-08:00

Getting ready for the great Month of March.... If you've never seen a fiddle/guitar duo in an Irish parade, this is your chance ! Vita and I are going to be in two: the Trenton NJ St. Patrick's Parade (Sat. March 12th) and the Robbinsville NJ St. Patrick's Parade ( Sat March 19th). We are even going to be on a FLOAT for the Trenton Parade! As you can see from the photo below I'm getting ready to go green, complete with fingerless gloves that you can wear while playing jigs and reels on the fiddle.

Here is what we have so far ....all of the ones listed are open to the public

March 3rd 2:30 pm Mitchell-Linden Library A Celebration of Irish music (Cady Finlayson & Vita Tanga). One-hour show, admission free. 29-42 Union St. Flushing, NY www.queenslibrary.org

Thurs March 10th 6 pm Playing for a Meet the Author event at the Hudson Park Library. 66 Leroy St. New York City. The author that evening is Julian Gough how has a poetry book: Love, Sex Chocolate....

Sat March 12th Trenton Parade NJ 12:30 pm trentonparade.com Featured playing on a float in the parade!

Mon March 14th 6 p.m. Middle Village Library,72-31 Metropolitan Avenue, Middle Village Queens NY www.queenslibrary/org admission free

Wed March 16th 7:30 pm The Brecht Forum

"Pulse Harmony Progress: Music for International Women's Month

Irish music starts the program and then it's a

double bill with the fantastic Los Mas Valientes playing music from every corner of Latin America

451 West St. New York City, 10014 brechtforum.org for tickets.

3/17 St. Patrick's TBA

3/19 Vita and I will be playing in the Robbinsville NJSt. Patrick's Parade, Robbinsvilleirish.org

APAP 2011: Cady & Vita do the Arts Presenters Conference NYC

2011-01-18T20:31:00.000-08:00

Conferences are always interesting to me, each one has its own feel and the Arts Presenters Conference in New York City (APAP) definitely feels like one of the more hectic ones, taking on the mood of the city. There is a combination of dance, theatre, music, comedy, just about everything -except for maybe Heavy Metal (I quote from a musician I met there,,,,"this doesn't seem to be the place for a Heavy Metal band".... (hint: it's not!).

People are selling their shows, their artists, and in some cases their souls...

We had a booth in the exhibit hall, did three showcases, and couldn't resist a few photo ops with the beautiful Taipei Li-yan Peking Opera Theatre performers, and a vampire from Scorpio Dance Theatre.

I also had a chance to hear a few showcases from other musicians - a beautiful lute/vocal concert by Morriongiello and Young, fascinating and beautiful songs from Colombia by Calle Sur, an energetic set by Eileen Ivers, local favorite The Prodigals, even a pop-type group called 425, that combined singing and acting - making all the instrument noises with their voices. They also gave out twinkies.

I tried unsuccessfully to get Vita to try one (he has never had one) insisting that eating a twinkie was the final step in celebrating his green card, but apparently there is some book or movie about twinkies that dissuaded him from ever trying one.

Other highlights -

1. Reading a book I got from Ken Waldman (Alaska's fiddling poet) called "Are you famous". kenwaldman.com

2. Meeting a former clown (Michael who now books the Bindlestiff Family Variety Arts) and hearing the real scoop on the circus. 3. Staying at the Hilton Hotel and not having to deal with the MTA for four days. (BONUS!)

So that was my APAP conference experience. It's not quite as fun as the police conferences I go to when I play with the pipe band, but it is a great chance to see what's going on within the industry - and to let people know about us and set the groundwork for future concerts.

A few days after APAP I went to Tulsa, Oklahoma to visit my grandmother who is 97 years old. Just hanging out in the nursing home was a good antidote to APAP. It reminded me that life is really about the people you love and if you can have them with you as long as possible, then you are really blessed.

Being the top or bottom enchilada at industry events isn't really that important in the scheme of things.

Creating beautiful music that means something is important and reaching people in ways that only music can, that's why we do what we do. The other stuff is just gravy.

Celticpm3s.com Top cds of 2010

2011-01-04T20:19:00.000-08:00

Celtic Mp3s.com came out with a list of top favorite cds of 2010 and I am happy to report that our Electric Green cd is mentioned. Check out all the artists here...
http://celticmp3s.com/2010/12/top-14-celtic-cds-of-2010/

Vita and I will be doing showcases at the Hilton Hotel for the Arts Presenters Conference Sat Jan. 8th and Sun Jan. 9th in New York City. All details on our showdates page (fiddleandguitar.com).
Getting ready for the conference has kept me busy, so more on the news of 2011 after the conference...
there will be news about our new shows, our Christmas show, new music coming out and the usual adventures one comes across in the music business.
Happy New Year!http://celticmp3s.com/2010/12/top-14-celtic-cds-of-2010/

Cady Finlayson & Vita Tanga - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen: Irish blessings for the Holidays

2010-12-12T12:18:00.000-08:00

Wishing everyone the best for the Holiday Season. Remembering too that it can be a difficult time for people, as that Irish saying goes...""Ni thulgeann an seach an seang"(the well-fed person doesn't understand the hungry one").
The Irish blessing I'm sending out to you is. "May your home always be too small to hold all your friends"...
and may you always have music in your lives....
Happy Holidays!

The Gnome in Kerhonkson, NY

2010-11-14T21:03:00.000-08:00

November 14th, 2010
This weekend was NERFA, which is a big folk music conference in Kerhonkson, NY.
I'll be writing soon about all the great music I heard there, but first ...here's a tourist attraction for Kerhonkson, NY. I'm told it's no longer the largest gnome in the world, maybe the 2nd largest.
Of course I had to stop and play a tune in front of it and when it's ready it'll be on my youtube channel (www.youtube.com/cadyfinlayson)

Defining yourself as an artist/musician

2010-10-15T14:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Vita and I were working on a video - a promo video for concert presenters. We wanted something that shows what we do -"Spirited Irish fiddle with a Global Twist" ,the audience reaction, and really a very personal visual statement about this musical journey we're inviting people to take with us. A journey that includes great respect for both traditional Irish music and the Global flavors of the world.
After working for several hours (video takes forever!) putting clips in order, deciding what to say etc. , Vita says...
"I now see exactly what it is that we do".....
and we both laughed, but it's so true-
sometimes you're so busy doing what you do, you don't even SEE what you do.
When you finally do see it,
you realize the magnitude-the beauty - and the special individual contribution every human being has on this planet. You hope that we're all given the chance to give what it is that we have - whether it's music or kindness or inspiration to others. The video we're making is supposed to be for presenters. Ironically, it reminded me of exactly what it is we do as artists, why it's important to define this for ourselves and others, and how "SEEING' what you do puts it all in perspective.

Tornado in Brooklyn and band videos

2010-09-20T08:16:00.000-07:00

For the last 9 weeks, my blog has been about the "Music Success in Nine Weeks" blog challenge. The challenge is over, but I'm continuing to be inspired by the ideas in the book. I'm still writing my "5 daily successes", which is inspiring and something I recommend for everyone!

The big news is that we had a tornado in Brooklyn. It's funny because just the other day I was in Times Square shopping for my niece at one of those Broadway stores and they had a magnet with Dorothy's shiny red shoes (Wizard of Oz). I wanted to buy it, but didn't give in to the impulse purchase, and now I'm definitely going to get one!!

I totally missed the tornado (I was on the subway), but when I visited Vita's street, it really became clear. A lot of the brownstones lost roofs on his block, plus a lot of big trees down.

On the music front, Vita and I have been going through video footage so we can put a sample together for presenters. We've also been watching other musician videos to get ideas.
I hadn't realized how many venues we'd played in until I started going through DVDs (and a few VHS!). The next challenge is choosing what to say about our music and how to tie it all together. And do so in a few minutes!!

One highlight of video watching was seeing the workshop/concert my band did with Third Street Music School in New York City. When you're in the midst of it all, you don't always realize how incredible it is, but to see hundreds of kids playing Irish music for the first time really brought it all home. I hope to do more of this projects in the coming year!
Here's wishing everyone a good start to fall and all it brings - cady

Music Success in Nine Weeks: Blog Challenge Week -Creating a Contiuum Plan

2010-09-05T07:33:00.000-07:00

Last week of the Music Success in Nine Weeks Blog Challenge! It goes so quickly and you realize how much you can get done in 9 weeks when you keep your focus and put your mind to it. I also like having a road map, which Ariel Hyatt gives you in her book.
Chapter 7 (last week) the focus was on live networking. I just returned from the WAA conference (Western Arts Alliance), where I tried all the suggestions, even the one about touching your head and repeating to yourself the exact things you want before you go into a room. I did this in the restroom before my pitch session and the woman that walked in did give me a weird look (maybe people don't talk to themselves as much outside of NY?!), but I soldiered on and felt good about the "pitch session" (they give you 2 minutes to let people know about your group). Now that I'm back, I'm doing the last step which is the follow-up - probably the most important and also the easiest to slack on....

Moving into Chapter 9 - Creating a Continuum Plan.
My first reaction to this was - NO MORE SELLING. This is of course the opposite of the point (the point is to think about what you can offer your fans that they can buy on a regular basis). Starting with a free mp3 for joining the mailing list, going to 99c downloads, full album, song per month club, special events, private shows, custom songs, aligning with charities, etc.

Then I actually started brainstorming about what would be fun, for both me and the people who enjoy our music, The idea of creating events that would help foster that sense of community. It brought me back to when I did the "Fiddlers on the Loose Show" with a funky-jazz fiddler (DaPhat Funk) a Greek fiddler (Elektra Kurtis) and our Irish set. That was such a nice night and several people came up and said they might not have bought a ticket and gone to hear one of those genres on their own, but they loved all of them and were so glad to have it brought to them.
So my ideas on the consortium for us are:

1. Do some theme shows for our fans that involve other artists-
Thinking about Valentine's Day or other holidays, but maybe some obscure ones.

2, Have a 12 days of Christmas club and those that join will receive a video and/or soundclip of us playing our version of our favorite Christmas melodies. (Can you tell I LOVE Christmas?)

3. Bring in some other people to make it an event. In LA, they were talking about t-shirt companies that come to the gig and make t-shirts right there. Maybe we could have jugglers or pipers or face painting.

4. Write and record a tune just for you. You can have your own Planxty! (the Irish tunes the harper O'Carolyn wrote and dedicated to his hosts were called Planxty ______ as in Planxty Sullivan or whatever their name was. Fill in your own name!

I'll of course keep you posted when we roll all this out, and if you want to be the first to know, join our mailing list/newsletter. You can also write me with any ideas you have, what we can offer you that would be fun.

SO TO RECAP:
Music Success in Nine Weeks is a deceptively small book that packs a big punch. It's not something you read once and put away, it's a program you follow and build on and revisit! Having the framework is helpful and if you need some extra accountability, you can do as I did and join the blog challenge.

The suggestion in the book that helped me the most and one I highly recommend is writing down your 5 successes every day. I have a notebook that I labeled FIVE SUCCESSES and I've been doing it faithfully since I started the challenge. It's a great motivator!! Writing down your successes makes you evaluate what you are actually doing to reach your dreams. It also reminds you that those big moments happen because of all the daily little moments. That's inspiration to keep going with all those daily moments.

Music Success in Nine Weeks Blog Challenge: Chapter 8 Real Live Networking

2010-08-28T10:54:00.000-07:00

This week's chapter is about "Real Live Networking" (i.e. making those connections in person).
It's timely chapter for me because I'm going to the Western Arts Alliance conference next week (a presenter's conference) so I'll get to put Ariel's tips in action.
I'm reviewing the networking reminders in this chapter
(Be memorable, ask about THEM and thinking how you can be helpful to this person, your focus, etc.).

I'm also thinking of the great networkers I know, and what it is about them that makes you want to have them in your circle and be connected. I have a friend, Monty, who is a great Irish mandolin player. He and I played together in various bands over the years. Monty would call now and then to say hi - and I think this also reminded me that he was around so when I was looking to add an extra musician to something, I'd have him in the front of my mind. Also though, if he thought of someone I should meet or run across something I should know about, he'd let me know. Monte moved to the South a few years back and I knew I'd miss playing with him. Several weeks after he left NY,thought, he forwarded a "help wanted" ad from a NY restaurant 2 blocks away from my apartment. They were looking for a musician. So Monty really got the "How can I be helpful to this person" side of networking.

The other "work a room expert" is a little girl I know who's 6 years old. She seems to remember something about everyone and arriving and leaving school is always an event. "Bob, I like your shirt", she says. "Karen, how was your knitting class, did you get a chance to try that new stitch you were talking about?". It's a genuine interest in people as people, and the truth is, we like to work with people we like and enjoy as people too, right? I know I do.

Since I'm somewhat shy, I'd always rather talk about the other person anyway, so that part isn't as big of a stretch for me as it is for some musicians (you know those types that run up to you at networking events and immediately want you to sign their mailing list and don't even ask what kind of music you like or your name). Or that immediately dismiss whatever you do as irrelevant to them since you're in Irish music and they're in "Subversive hip-hop with a twinge of metal".
I learned not to make these assumptions when I did a workshop in Nashville. I was paired up with a musician named Saturn who was a gay Afro-American guy from Baltimore that did a lot of music shows with homosexual themes/dancing, original music with a pop flavor etc. Saturn ended up being the one to tell ma all about the Irish scene in Baltimore- you never really know what people will bring to the table.

So we'll see how it goes at the conference. I have the business cards/outfits/Ariel's tips ready and am going with the intent to explore and meet people as people. There will be a lot of concert presenters (it's a presenter conference after all!), and that can be a little intimidating as a musician because there does seem to be a gap somehow between presenters and musicians. Plus that whole idea that "if you're not represented by an agency, you are not qualified" ...

But there is a quote on my mirror that I cut out years ago, I wish I'd saved the source, but it was a pop artist answering this question

"What is the most difficult thing you have overcome?"

ANSWER: "Waiting to be "discovered" by the entertainment industry. One day I woke up and chose to discover my own damn self!"

So that's Chapter 8, I'll let you know how it ends up, using all the tips in the chapter.

Continuing with writing down Five Successes every day, here are some of my top ones for this week.
1. Worked/negotiated to establish a fall schedule that will give me more chunks of time to work on both the performing/creative aspects and built-in office hours to do the business aspects of music.
2. Put on a concert in a "classical series" that also included some Irish music and found ways to blend them for new audiences.
3. Experimented with some new "smoothies" with vegetarian protein (one of my goals is to be more healthy)
4. Contacted my mentor to get advice on the 2 min. pitch/presentation I'll be doing
at the conference.
5. Started brainstorming about a video series I could do on my youtube
Exploring potential topics from Irish music ideas to "A day in the life" to "Helpful info to parents whose kids will be studying instruments".

site-(www.youtube.com/cadyfinlayson)

Two other books to recommend:
ONE: The Music Teaching Bible has lots of ideas for presenting art/school presentations, etc. It's a serious book that asks a lot of those "what is valuable about what we do" and how to bring this to people in a way that combines it with what they know already.
TWO: "Making Music and Enriching Lives": A Guide for all Music Teachers. This one is a very in-depth book about teaching (with a focus on private teaching/studio teaching, but the ideas can apply to any situation). What I loved about it is that that there are a ton of very specific and helpful examples for teaching and it is also inspiring to read.

Music Success in Nine Weeks: Chapter 7 How to Build your Mailing List

2010-08-19T08:25:00.000-07:00

Chapter Seven in Ariel Hyatt's book is "How to build your mailing list". There is a box in this chapter that says: Building your Fan Base = Building your e-mail list AND the size of your e-mail list = the size of your income.

This is a reality check for me. My mailing list is one area I haven't spent a lot of time on in the past and one of my financial goals is to earn enough to do a music video, so seeing it like that, I'd better get on it!

A few months ago I signed up to do my newsletter with reverbnation, (www.reverbnation.com/cadyfinlayson). I like it because it's easy (easy to add music/photos/widgets, etc. ). I took the Music Success chapter to heart and have been more consistent and regular about sending it out (those were the other points mentioned).

So this week,drum roll... I set weekly "office hours" to work on the mailing list. My goal is to do it once a week for one hour for the next 6 weeks. I decided not to worry about how many people join just yet, only that I'm inviting people and considering it a regular part of my business (by the way if you'd like to receive the newsletter list, sign up already. (on the front page at fiddleandguitar.com and on celticfiddle.blogspot.com on the right panel).

This got me thinking about the whole "office hours" thing and working for yourself. Being both a little bit of a workaholic (ok, a lot!) a pretty good procrastinator, and often over-extended, I think having a plan about all my music business activities might be in order. I started writing down all the things I'd like to set aside time for. I also looked at the list and saw that it was too much.

Musical
1. Daily time to write music
2. Daily time to practice violin (warm-ups/maintenance practice)
3. Weekly time to practice violin (exploring new tunes/possibilities)
4. Daily time to practice singing while playing and using octave pedal. (even 10 min)
4. Rehearsals with bandmembers (2x a month?)

Music Business
3. Weekly time to add to mailing list.
4. Weekly time to concentrate on booking gigs/applying to festivals.
5. Weekly time to concentrate on music licensing (sending out material/contracts, etc. )
6. Weekly time for mailings (cd's, applications, conference prep, etc. )
7. Weekly time for organizing gigs (calling bandmembers,publicity sending music, mapquest, etc.. )

I started thinking about which things I could hire someone else to do. I decided for sure that I could commit to the practicing and the mailing list (baby steps!).

I also was inspired this week by another to-the-point remarkable book called "The Truth about Getting More done" -written by Mark Fritz. There was one quote in there "If everything is important, then nothing is important". Kind of makes you think, doesn't it?

So to recap, as Ariel points out, your mailing list is your most valuable asset. It's your income potential! It has been a goal to build it for a while, but now I have a specific hour to work on it each week. For a little extra inspiration, I am taping a $20 bill to my computer during my mailing list office hour! And I'm going to try the other suggestions about having a "Live Show Bonus".
It sounds like a good way to get the word out about the new Electric Green CD without feeling like a commercial car salesman!

Music Success in Nine Weeks Blog Challenge: Connecting with fans via Newsletter and conducting surveys

2010-08-13T08:15:00.000-07:00

Week 6 already in the blog challenge, hard to believe how quickly time passes.
My very-productive morning started with an 8:30 am phone call from my Visa company regarding unusual activity and what they thought might be a fraudulent charge on my account. It was a 99cent download from itunes!
Please let me sleep in until at least nine if it's about such big expenditures...!!

This week's Chapter of Music Success in Nine Weeks is all about Connecting with fans- newsletter list and surveys. Who are your fans?, What are there hobbies?, Where do they go when they're not out hearing live music, What interests do you have in common with them that you can build upon in your newsletter? (coffee? tapdancing?)
Just fyi, the ideal fan minimum is 1,000 (http:wwtinyurl.com/1000TrueFans)
but don't panic if you're not up to this yet... the fan building info is in the next chapter)

I do have a newsletter, and since I've been on the blog challenge, I'm being much more regular about it (making sure it goes out every month) and also thinking of things that might interest people that have nothing to do with music. Just for an example, when Vita and I played for the Celebrate Fairfax festival in VA, there was a football player there signing autographs (DeAngelo Hall), and he's a "cornerback". I asked on a few of my sites what a cornerback was, and boy, did I get a lot of mail. It seems my fans know all about football. Who would've guessed!

This month's newsletter goes out next week . (Sign up on the right panel of the blog). It has my smoothie recipe (as featured on the Backstage Gourmet Radio Show with PJ Grimes), the latest update about Vita and his bike accident (he's going to be ok), and a "Call for action" (looking for people to rate/review our Electric Green CD on itunes).

I'm continuing to work on my goals and writing down 5 successes every day. I was a little bummed to see that I didn't meet one of my goals (by August 6th to have 1,000 people on fan list), but I did gain a lot more than I would've without that so I'm going to look upon it as progress.

On a more positive note, one of my goals for the summer was to tackle some of the things that make me uncomfortable. I took a class on "reading a teleprompter" which for me was more about being comfortable in front of a camera. I learned to cook several healthy dishes (in preparation for the Backstage Gourmet radio show), and I started going to some sort of exercise class at the Y every single day. Including ballet, where I like to pretend I am very elegant while I can see that I am not!

But the biggest takeaway from all this, is that the more I do these things, the more comfortable they feel. I've always felt very comfortable playing the violin, performing, etc. it's like a 2nd skin to me, but it's not the only skill you need as a musician, so I'm taking these newfound skills, and the confidence gained with them and saying, "Yes, I can do this!". and that's the biggest motivator there is.

Checkout the interview Vita and I did with our recipes...
http://healthylife.net/RadioShow/archive.htm

P.S.
Just an aside note, nothing to do with Music Success in Nine Weeks or the blog challenge...
If you like tapdancing, my cousin's wife is on that show "America's Got Talent" Tues Aug. 17th 9 pm NBC with the Hot Shot Tap Dancers. They are incredible dancers and could use your votes! NBC.com will have all the voting instructions for e-mail voting and phone voting that night...(you can actually vote after the show is over all night long!)

Music Success in Nine Weeks Blog Challenge: Week 5 Blogging

2010-08-06T10:32:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe we're already in week five of the Music Success in Nine Weeks Blog Challenge. In just five weeks, I've got my blog, organized/social networking, a habit of five successes every day, and I know how to cook Quinoa!

Chapter Five is all about blogging - the importance of having a blog, reading other blogs, and participating in the blogging community. There are tips for searching blogs to find ones that resonate with you. Ariel's book mentions a NYU study that found that if 40 or more blogs were posted before an album's release, sales ended up being 3-4 times as high.
The link to the actually study seemed to be expired, but I found some comments about it here.

http://www.coolfer.com/blog/archives/2008/02/blog_posts_help.php

As with any study, there are a lot of variables, but from personal experience I can say that there are a TON of people reading blogs. On myspace for example, I was surpised to find there are often more people reading the blogs than listening to the music.

So I got to work making a blogroll as suggested ( this is actually the point of this book, to do the work not just read about it!!).
-A blogroll is a list of blogs that you read or like, that cover your genre of music
So I did that. Then I also synched my blog here with my fiddleandguitar.com site (at hostbaby) so people can get to it without me having to cut and paste.

Finally, I joined mybloglog.com. This seems to result in a lot of "friend requests" of all sorts, so the jury is still out on that one.

Mostly though I think the key in this chapter, once you get into the blogging and all, is that you can maximize all your efforts by linking them (doing a blogroll, adding your blog to your other sites, etc.).

So to sum up Chapter 5, blogs are a great way to find the community that loves and supports your music and interestes, and to become a part of it. The tips for searching blogs, linking blogs, really getting out there are all in this chapter.

I did want to mention on a more personal note, that there is another benefit to blogging. I actually started my blog when I was feeling the challenges of being a bandleader. I would write some of the adventures down when I was frustrated, and all of a sudden they were sort of funny and crazy and "who has a life like this anyway??".

So it helped me to put it all in perspective and see that, if the car breaks down on the way to a gig and the Triple A tow truck driver sees you and drives right by because he "saw these people playing music by the road and they looked too happy to be stranded", and you end up waiting 2 extra hours because the Boston highway has a new bridge and highway traffic is stalled, etc. etc. , it's going on your blog and you'll laugh about in the future.
(this was a gig I did with Welsh singer Jodee James that we laugh about to this day).

Search Amazon.com for Shines Like Silver

Music Success in Nine Weeks Blog Challenge Wk. 4: Social Media for Musicians

2010-07-30T11:20:00.000-07:00

Music Success in Nine Weeks

This week was the real challenge because I was traveling and getting used to a new phone. I guess I'm not an early adapter, but I finally got a phone that can do internet and all this social networking that is outlined in Chapter 4 of Ariel Hyatt's, "Music Success in Nine Weeks". I have to confess my 8-year old nephew helped me figure out how to turn the phone on and off....

So forging ahead, I started working on linking my social networking sites (did you know you can go to tinyurl.com/selectivetweet.com and choose which tweets go to your facebook?). A lot of the chapters talk about the importance of social networking and getting on flickr/twitter, etc. and I am convinced of that now. going full-steam ahead and starting to enjoy the online aspect.

Twitter is my favorite because it's quick and to the point.
and it works! Here's an example. Last year I was in a coffee shop in my neighborhood called Naidre's. I had signed up for twitter at the time, so I had an account but didn't really know what it was or what to do with it. So I'm buying my salad to-go when I hear someone ask "Does anyone know what song that is playing on the radio?". I turned to see Derek Sivers (music business expert and original founder of CDbaby - now involved in sivers.org) who I had met once before at a music conference. I didn't know the song but I introduced myself and he asked about my website (fiddleandguitar.com). Then I left. When I got home just ten minutes later, I had an e-mail from a great guitarist who teaches at my school (Pat Bianculli_. who apparently follows Derek on twitter. Pat wrote and said, "I read about your website on twitter". I live in New York City, and at this moment I felt like I lived in a small town. THAT is the power of twitter.

So now that I'm convinced, this has been a week to link everything and you'll be seeing more of it on all my sites (follow at twitter.com/celticfiddle).

I also had to chance to share the Music Success book with my father, who will be starting his first blog (about the upcoming revised edition of his Chemical Engineering book). We skipped ahead a little to chapter 5 which is all about blogging - and really there is tons of info that applies to anyone, not just musicians. We both got in the brainstorming mode, and now I'll be writing some tunes to accompany the blog - all with Chemical Engineering themes and titles. You see what happens when you get the mind thinking in both the creative and business sides !

FIVE SUCCESSES
Lastly, I continued with my 5 successes every day. I'm being interviewed on the Backstage Gourmet (August 9th) and will be sharing Vegetarian recipes, so my sister and I measured everything out for a really tasty recipe that uses Quinoa. That's the photo at the top!

I got my Dad on the writing-down-five-daily- successes too, but was a little concerned when it was only 10 am and I found him scribbling his 5 successes already. I seemed to have missed the efficiency gene there.

In conclusion, Chapter 4 of the book confirmed that I was on the right track (doing all the media sites) but helped me to link them and USE them in new ways.

Music Success in Nine Weeks Blog Challenge Week 3: Optimizing your website

2010-07-20T23:57:00.000-07:00

It's week three in the blog challenge and the habit of writing down 5 successes every day is really helping me focus on my goals. One of my non-music goals is to get in shape and today I woke up early (by accident) and decided to check out the 8am ballet class at the Y. If you know me, you know I'm not a morning person and need at least one cup of strong coffee to even get dressed -so the fact that I was attempting bar exercises in a ballet class at 8 am would probably be my biggest success of the week. I have to say though that just stretching and doing bar exercises is a really nice start to the day.

So the Chapter of the week (Chapter 3) is all about "Optimizing Your Website": how to Capture Fans who are landing on your site, making your websites consistent and making them something people will want to visit often.
Ariel suggests offering a giveaway to people who sign up for the monthly newsletter. Luckily Reverbnation makes this very easy with their widget, and so now...drum roll...when you go to our fiddleandguitar.com site and sign up for the newsletter, you will receive a free MP3 instantly. (and we will never sell or give out your name).

For the future, I'm thinking of giving fans some mp3s from live shows. There are some electric moments that only happen live and my Zoom recorder does a pretty decent job of capturing them. For now though, I chose a giveaway track from the Electric Green CD, and this one features Vita on the wah pedal. I think this track (Itchy Fingers electric) would be good in a cartoon.

I'm still trying to make ALL the websites consistent. The twitter/youtube/myspace are purple but I haven't found a purple option that works for me on the fiddleandguitar.com site. It's like when you look at bathing suits and they say, "This one is for people with hips, this one is for people with short legs, this one is for people who need a bust". Well sometimes the categories/choices don't exactly fit what you're doing (what if you need ALL that in a swimming suit?). So I'm thinking a little more on this.

Music Success in Nine Weeks

Music Success in Nine Weeks Blog Challenge: Week Two: 'Perfect Pitch"

2010-07-16T17:59:00.000-07:00

It's week two, and I'm in the chapter of "Music Success in Nine Weeks" called "Your Perfect Pitch". It's not about baseball or people that have perfect pitch (actually I do). It's all about branding yourself online and offline. There are lots of tools to help you do this (i.e. go to www.15secondpitch.com and test out your pitch).

My pitch is "Spirited Irish fiddle with a Global Twist" and I've had that for a while. My sister helped me put my musical thoughts into words (maybe that's why she's a writer) and it felt right from the very beginning. Ariel does mention in the book to practice saying it in the mirror and see if it's comfortable for you. It is! In fact, Vita (my guitarist) often asks about it during rehearsals, "Where's the twist?", he says. Sometimes I think he's the twist...

But back to the challenge,
Thanks to some professional help (nothing like hiring a professional) I coordinated three of my sites so they have a similar look and have the pitch. And yes, they are purple! Here they are!
www.myspace.com/cadyfinlayson
www.twitter.com/celticfiddle
www.youtube.com/cadyfinlayson

I also took an even bigger step and signed up to deliver a 2 minute pitch in person at the Western Arts Presenters Conference (westarts.org) which is in Long Beach CA the end of August. This will be a real challenge for me and extra inspiration to be able to articulate what we offer audiences in our show. One of my favorite quotes is "Talking about music is like dancing about architecture" but I'm going to put that aside since people need to know what they're hiring and what to expect.

So I felt good about pitch week.
I'm still writing my 5 successes every day, and actually this was especially helpful this week because it was one of those weeks when everything seemed to go wrong and sometimes it was 11:30 pm and i felt like I only had 4 successes, so knowing I was going to write them down spurred me on to complete that ONE MORE THING that could bring me closer to my goals.

Music Success in Nine Weeks: Irish fiddler starts the Ariel Publicity blog contest

2010-07-09T11:04:00.000-07:00

Today I'm starting the "Music Success in Nine Weeks" Blog Challenge. The book is written by Ariel Hyatt, who is a Cyber PR expert (Arielpublicity.com) and the challenge is to complete each chapter in the book and blog about it (the winner receives a publicity campaign from her company).I decided to take the challenge because I knew having deadlines and making a public statement would get me to actually do everything in the book, which is really the point (if any of you like to sit on the couch eating chips and watching programs on healthy eating, you know what I mean).
So here goes...

Chapter one is all about Getting Mentally Prepared. Setting goals!
I've read just about all the literature out there on goal setting, so I'm familiar with the stats (writing them down means your 10x more likely to achieve them/give dates and write them as if they're already happening etc. ).

So today I started on my list of 6 focus areas (the book offers several suggestions) and I went to Staples to get a notebook and colored pens so I can write them in pretty colors and post them all over. That was the fun part, especially because Staples has finally added a deep purple (my favorite color) to their color palette. Somehow writing in purple gives me confidence that my goals are reachable!

I did get a little overwhelmed on the lifetime goals - thinking about what you'd like to do in your whole life really brings up some complicated questions (why are we here, what is my purpose in life? how long am I going to live?), but luckily there are also short-term goals to balance those. When I started making my lifetime list (play music in Africa, hear Dolly Parton in concert, to name a few), I realized that it does help you see if your daily actions are going anywhere near that direction.

As far as the short-term goals, one of the things as an artist that we all need to do is "build a fanbase" (How many times have we heard that!), and my other more personal goal is to balance the music business work with the being-an artist/creating-part so I'll just start by announcing two of my goals...To be done by August 6th)

1. It is August 6th 2010 and I have 1,000 contacts on my reverbnation page (those come from everywhere - facebook, twitter, myspace etc. ) Notice I finally figured out how to put the reverb widget on my sidebar so you can sign up there...
and 100 subscribers to my Fanreach newsletter which goes out once a month.

2. It is August 6th 2010 and I have written 2 more tunes to be licensed and scheduled a recording session to record them.
There it is, DID IT! I now have two of my goals officially in the universe for everyone to see.

The last thing I wanted to say about Chapter One of the book is that you're supposed to write down 5 positive things you do every day and keep them in a notebook. Two of them need to be career related, but you can include other things like exercising, etc. Not sure if getting up in the morning counts...

The day has only just started, but my first success is that I started the contest and am feeling hopeful and inspired to navigate that complicated creature called the music business.

Celebrate Fairfax: Cady and VIta go to Virginia!

2010-07-07T13:43:00.000-07:00

Vita and I played at this festival in Virginia called Celebrate Fairfax and this is a video of the event ..see Vita with the Camel, the rides, the carnival and if you watch past the closing credits, you'll see what I think of the new McDonald's frappe....
After Fairfax, we went to DC and did a little quick video by The White House. Very quick! I'll let you know when that's one up

Live show: Cady & VIta play reels at Sound Off for Haiti

2010-06-06T20:15:00.000-07:00

http://video.yahoo.com/watch/7599745/20163532

House Concerts: the new trend

2010-04-01T14:45:00.000-07:00

It's April first and I could not have asked for a more beautiful day in Brooklyn.

Vita and I did our first duo house concert last weekend, and it was a lot of fun. I've heard about house concerts, but except for the African drum/fiddle moment I did in DC years ago, I've never done one. My image was that they are geared to singer-songwriters, but having had such a nice experience, I will probably do more in the future. We were on a double bill with artist Steve Robinson (stellarob.com) and the best part was being able to listen to music with an audience that is really listening - I think that's a lost art these days and I loved that part. He sang one song called Every Minute that was about a guy who really loves his wife but doesn't really articulate it, saying "But don't let the silence fool you, my love is going out to you every minute of the day". It was very romantic and also so true... (we all know guys like that, right?)
The place had a little stage and spotlights and terrific sound, so it felt like the best of both worlds (intimate and also a concert setting).
House Concerts can be trickier in NYC (people live in apartments more than houses, noone has a zillion chairs...) but I now endorse them. It's like the new club but you don't have to be in noisy crowds, or wait in line, or buy x number of drinks....
I'm a member of Concertsinyourhome.com and Fran (who runs the site) has been encouraging house concerts for years. Well know I really know what he's talking about....
See photos of the concert here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/robertberkowitzrsbimageworks/sets/72157623628640313/

Electric Green

2010-02-10T14:23:00.000-08:00

It's Electric, It's Green and it's finally here!
I think I might be entering this century because I'm actually doing a digital release. That seems to be the way music is going these days.
Although to be honest, I miss having something to open and look at and read the credits....am I the only one?

The inspiration for this project started one night at a GoGirls Event at Otto's. If you don't know Otto's, it's this total dive bar in New York City. They have funny cups and a photo booth.

Vita and I weren't sure how the trad Irish stuff would go over at Otto's, so we tried something new -an electric set, with Vita's salmon- colored guitar and wah pedal. Our set was a hit, and when we listened to the tape after (yes I did have an actual tape recorder!), we just had to go somewhere with this electric guitar/fiddle concept.
That's not to say that there aren't some of those beautiful acoustic tunes on there too. It's a mix!
Vita took his funky guitar influences, his North African rhythmic influences, some rock, some Rhumba and some of that pretty fingerpicking stuff. I wanted so badly to record something with the bagpipe and piper John Bradley came over and the "All set for St. Pat's" was born.
Vita thinks some of tunes could be in a cartoon, they do make you laugh.
We'll have a few samples at fiddleandguitar.com and then in March it will come out for real to online stores.
When I think of Electricity I think of all the usual things like lights. I also think about that electric feeling coming from the audience during a great show, and that electric feeling between two musicians who love what they do.
I hear it in our new cd, and I hope you do too!

Touring is like dating: Planning our irish fiddle/guitar tour

2009-06-23T23:22:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year, time for a tour. After spending much of last year on tour with the Almost Heaven show, and then being home, I'm ready to go out again. I guess I'm not a homebody after all!
This time, Vita and I are going to do a fiddle/guitar West Coast Tour- Seattle, Tacoma, Portland and Bellevue WA.
It's funny getting ready for these things, but it's sort of like going on a first date.
You're introducing yourself to new audiences and you have to decide what part of you or in this case what part of your show, you'd like them to see....
So for me it means looking through all the music sets we do and deciding what is "the perfect set" for each show, and what tunes to leave out...

It means figuring out what you're going to say, or in this case mention on stage.
Just like a date, the stuff you're not supposed to bring up right away like how you come from a family of psychos and want to get married TOMORROW (not really!).

and of course there is always the question of what to wear (especially when your guitar player is a French fashion plate).
We'll figure it all out eventually (hopefully before the tour) and it's going to be a lot of fun.

See all our tour dates at www.fiddleandguitar.com
Kicking it off July 13th in Tacoma WA at the Mandolin Cafe and finishing July 20th in Seattle...with stops in Portland and Bellevue in between

Good Coffeehouse Music Parlor

2008-05-26T21:56:00.000-07:00

I'm just noticing that my last post had a coffee theme to it, and it seems to be inescapable.
Last week my guitarist VIta and I did a very electric fiddle/guitar set at Otto's Shrunken Head, which is a dive bar in New York City. We were playing for GOGirls Night and every set was 20 minutes, so it was just enough time to try something new- electronics and foot pedals. It was different and I was surprised how much I liked it, especially since the electric guitar isn't in my top ten favorite instruments. Even Vita kept saying, "On paper, this shouldn't work" but like most of life, it never happens on paper!

Now that I'm all excited about the electric possibilities, we'll be doing a completely acoustic concert at a great listening room in Brooklyn called the Good Coffeehouse Music Parlor. The best part is that people go there to hear music (not so common these days!). Even though the coffee isn't exactly Italian espresso (I'm from Seattle so I do tend to like strong coffee), it's a pleasure to play there and I'm looking forward to it.
(Friday June 6th 8 p.m.Good Coffeehouse, 53 Prospect Park West in Park Slope Brooklyn bsec.org)

I don't know what the future will hold. Should we have an electric/edgy set for the whiskey crowd and an acoustic version for the coffee drinkers?
I do know that we are having fun creating new sounds, and that is one of the best parts of being a musician.

Irish Coffee

2007-02-13T07:56:00.000-08:00

The first time I had Irish coffee was the night before my sister got married. The town closest to the wedding had a downtown about 3 blocks long, and the groom and his guys were at the other bar, so we (the girls!) ended up at this Irish place. They had a woman there playing the djembe like you've never heard it before, and wailing away the whole time. She seemed to be enjoying herself, and although musically speaking it was scary, you had to admire her for being in the moment. The three of us ordered Irish coffee...
I don't know if we knew then what was in an Irish coffee, but I do know that they were so strong that we had to ask the waitress to frequently come back and add more cream.

Fast forward 10 years later and that's the name of my upcoming album. It's Irish fiddle "with a global twist" and it's at the manufacturing plant as we speak.

I think the music captures my influences (Irish fiddle, African drums, American Folk) in a way that I couldn't have predicted. and when it's done....we'll definitely be going out for Irish Cofee.

Thoughts for the New Year

2006-12-18T21:09:00.000-08:00

To be honest, I haven't even had a chance to think much about Christmas yet, so it seems a little premature to be writing about the New Year, but since this is not a historical blog, here it goes..

I have been thinking about the New Year a lot lately, mainly because my band has a First Night Show (New Year's Eve) and I wanted to make it a special night for the audience and for us. With all the logistics of gigs sometimes, the good part- having and doing a show - sometimes gets lost in all the preparations. I was thinking about how I wanted the show to be, and what we should or should not change, and then I got this Christmas card in the mail today from my friend Dehconte. Dehconte is a musician - really great djembe player who also sing and plays guitar.
See if this inspires you to make a good year for 2007...it inspired me!

"Our goal on this path of awakening is not to change who we are, but to remember who we are. Are you a chicken or an eagle? Were you born to scratch in the dust, or soar in the heavens? In your answer lies your destiny."
- A. Cohen

TAXI Road Rally

2006-11-18T20:43:00.000-08:00

I made it to Hollywood! I have to admit, although I am a member of Taxi (a screening organization, -helping with placing music in film) and I'd heard that their annual conference was great, the fact that it was in LA was an extra incentive to go.
Seeing the Chinese Theater and all the prints of the actors over the ages was inspiring...
and the Taxi Road Rally was inspiring, informative and a great place to meet others in the music business. I went to several classes on music business topics, but my favorite one was about "groove"...

I've always enjoyed playing fiddle tunes with different rhythms underneath them - everything from Irish bodhran to African beats to Brazilian percussion.
Last year I had a heart test (just checking on my heart valve) and I was amazed when I saw the heart on the screen and heard a Brazilian rhythm. I guess this explains why I have such an interest in the groove...

Storm King Arts Center

2006-09-25T07:57:00.000-07:00

My band did a show this month at the Storm King Arts Center which is a 500-acre museum in Mountainville, NY that celebrates the relationship between sculpture and nature (ww.stormking.org). The sculptures are HUGE - and the trees are beautiful.
One of the tunes I played at the concert is one I wrote and haven't been able to think of a name for it. So I asked the audience for ideas- I've never done this (is it sort of like asking someone else to name your child?) but I was really delighted by the number of people that had ideas and that had a visual image during the song. Not being very visual, I don't usually picture things when I hear music, but obviously, some people do.
Some of the names ideas were: The Muse, Cozy Cottage, anything with the Storm since we were at Storm King, Isle of Clover, and "Breath of the Sculpture in C".

Recording and choosing a musical identity

2006-09-22T21:53:00.000-07:00

I've been working on a new recording project recently and something about having it "on the record" feels sort of ultimate. All of a sudden I'm checking to make sure the music is really "me" and then it goes back to that essay question they used to give you in Jr. High - "Who are you?" Choosing a musical identity is tricky. Maybe it's because I"m a Gemini, but some days I want to go for a real world rhythm sound, other days the Irish influence seems most important, and then I listen to some of the tracks and a few of them sound very orchestral, but not in a bad way. I guess we all aren't just one thing, but since an album is supposed to be some sort of cohesive unit, figuring out what that is, is a project in and of itself....

Celtic Sisters, Dunkin Donuts, and the tow truck on the road

2006-07-30T09:27:00.000-07:00

The new show we're doing, Celtic Sisters, officially kicked off in MA. It was an auspicious beginning. Jodee James, our singer extraordinaire likes to stop at Dunkin donuts for coffee. In fact, she seems to do the tour routing based on the locations of these places. Some people do mapquest, some people do donut places... whatever works.
When I told one of my violin students I was going on tour this summer he said, "Oh, like Rock Star". I guess he watches tv...
After the car overheated somewhere in MA and we were stuck on the highway for 3 hours due to the traffic jam, waiting for the tow truck, I decided it's not exactly like Rock Star, but probably infinitely more interesting.
We did the Glasgow Lands Festival, and later the Blackstone Celtic Festival (as the Jodee James Band)...
Audience members at the Blackstone Festival came out in pouring rain to support Celtic music and that was fantastic....they had groups of sheep running around too, which made me laugh.

Cleveland Police Memorial

2006-05-27T18:26:00.000-07:00

In May I have the opportunity to go to Cleveland for the Police Memorial service and Tattoo (Concert). The Tattoo (show) is a highlight for me - it's all Police pipes and drums, plus the Marine band. The band I play for is from NJ, and they're a great group. There's something really magical about playing with the bagpipes....

Celtic Lullaby Album

2006-04-06T20:12:00.000-07:00

I'm collecting lullabies for a celtic lullaby album. I'm asking everyone for their favorites. Any beautiful melodies...

and anyone who has some tunes to recommend from some of the less common Celtic Nations...for the Celtic Sisters show I'm looking for some nice tunes from Galicia, Isle of Man, and Cornwall in particular....

St. Patrick's Month

2006-03-03T07:14:00.000-08:00

Before I started playing Irish music, I thought of St. Patrick's Day as one day. Now I know better. It's a whole month of festivities and parades and events. In New York, they stagger the parades, so each city might have theirs on a different day.

It's exciting to be a part of all these things, and at the same time part of me is thinking, Irish music is here to stay, it's here to be listened to all year, not just this month. March seems to be the month the mainstream media pays attention to Irish music, so I guess we just have to go with that!

I saw the film The Emerald Diamond, about the Irish National Baseball team. They used music from my Harp and Shamrock CD, as well as several other Irish bands, so I was looking forward to seeing how they used the music. The film is very funny and inspiring and I highly recommend it. Visit www.irishbaseballmovie.com for a full schedule of screenings across the country.

Upcoming projects include a new show I'm doing with Welsh singer Jodee James called Celtic Sisters. We are featuring spirited music from Seven Celtic Nations - Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, Isle of Man and Galicia. That is a research project in and of itself! But seriously, there's something for everyone in this show, and we're looking forward to sharing it with the world.

2005-12-11T19:54:00.000-08:00

The holidays are approaching and it's a very busy time to be a musician, but in a good way, as there is a lot of work! For those of you who are looking to celebrate New Year's in a new way, my band will be performing in Bridgeport CT as part of their First Night Celebration. It's a family-friendly event that takes place all over Bridgeport from 4 pm on, (no alcohol served in venues) and buying a $7 button admits you to all venues. We will be at the Playhouse on the Green (Playhouseonthegreen.org) with two lively Irish music shows at 8:30 pm and 9:45 pm. More information about the show at www.cadyfinlayson.com on the show dates page.

On another note, I went to a great workshop yesterday about music in film. It was presented by Mark Northam, who runs filmmusicworld.com (you've probably heard his music if you watch tv at all!). There are so many music workshops out there, and this one was very informative, realistic and also fun....I met some great musicians and film composers as well...

Happy Holidays!

Ireland meets Africa

2005-10-04T08:30:00.000-07:00

This weekend I had the pleasure of performing in Washington DC with Liberian singer, Dehconte. I have used African drums on my recordings, but not in a live performance, and this was my chance! The highlight of the weekend was playing a fiddle and talking drum duet with Master Drummer Joseph Soh Ngwa of Cameroon. This drum blends so nicely with the fiddle, and I think it's just a preview of what is to come...stay tuned for more fiddle/drum collaborations! Photos from the show will be posted on my website, www.cadyfinlayson.com

Fiddlers on the Loose: multi-genre show in NYC

2005-08-15T21:42:00.000-07:00

What do Irish fiddle, funk and jazz have in common?
They will all be a part of our multi-genre fiddle show in NYC August 24th!
I met fiddler Darrell Looney at 2MNC (a great music conference! ) in Nashville. We were surprised to find that we both lived in NYC and both fronted bands that featured the fiddle.
So we had to do a concert together, there was no getting out of it.
We joined forces with world-jazz fiddler Elektra Kurtis and there you have it....our first multi-genre fiddle show. Wed, august 24th at the Under_score, 1733 First Avenue in New York City 7 p, $5
We had a lot of fun rehearsing our grand finale, and the funky band, Da Phatfunk Clique, let me try some Irish tunes with their rhythm section. Only in NY!

Harp and Shamrock Tour

2005-07-03T07:18:00.000-07:00

After having such a great time on the road with the Welsh band, I decided to book a tour of my own. Since I'm from the West Coast originally and enjoy visiting there, that was the logical place to start. Or it seemed logical at the time... All the music books tell you to tour within a 100-mile radius of where you live, and I had already broken that rule by about 2500 miles, but once it was decided, there it was, the Harp and Shamrock West Coast Tour.
Forty-five phone calls later, we are playing everywhere from nice listening venues such as Portland's Backstage Gate (Artichoke Music on August 6th), to the Thurston County Fair in Olympia Washington - on the Schwab Tire stage, for those of you who are into tires.

What has impressed me the most is how many people have offered to help with the tour. I guess when you've been in the music business a while, you're often dealing with club owners that have to worry about their bottom line and get approached by way more musicians than they could possibly hire. I forget sometimes that there are regular people out there that love music and want to be a part of something bigger....

On the road with Ffynnon

2005-06-09T07:55:00.000-07:00

June 2005

This week is a road trip with a band from Wales called Ffynnon. It will be a 9-hour drive for two of us, getting there in time to load-in and hopefully run the music a little. So much for the glamourous entertainment business. I think a lot of those 9-hours will be listening to their music, since we haven't played most of the music with them before.

Last night I met with two fiddle players that also front their own bands, which actually is kind of unusual. We are planning a fiddle show in NYC in August, that will be a mixture of funky-jazz fiddle, world-jazz and celtic fiddle. It was nice to sit down with people who have their own groups going on, and I'm getting excited about the show.

A day in the life - celtic fiddle productions

2005-05-14T22:10:00.000-07:00

I went to the Global Entertainment and Media Summit today in New York City. They had panels on various topics, one of which was blogging, so I decided to start a blog. The standard music business tips presented at many of these conferences is probably most relevant to people that are in certain musical genres-ones that follow the standard pattern.
I decided after listening to several sessions, that my life as an Irish fiddle player and working musician had a complete other set of challenges, and that by writing about them, I'd at least be able to keep a sense of humor about the whole thing.

I came home and began dealing with the challenges. The main one for this week is that I have three major upcoming shows booked in the same week, and due to the various musicians and dancers availability,plus a singer with bronchitis, I am having to put together separate bands for each gig. To start with, there is the scheduling nightmare of who can rehearse when,
and that is really just the beginning.
When I used to be in classical music, it wasn't hard to find people to fill-in, because there were a lot of musicians that could play the style and were fairly interchangeable. Not so with Irish music. There are just not 500 uilleann pipers in Manhattan (those are the Irish pipes, played like bellows). So you go with the best musicians you can find, that know the style. The challenge is that certain instruments have limitations (i.e. highland bagpipes can only play in Bb or Eb and don't have all the notes), so if you're going with different instruments for each group, you have to change everything. It's like starting over, which would be fine, but is a little stressful a few weeks before a big show.
The exciting part, though, is that I'll get to try all sorts of combinations. Putting together a really hot band requires a certain chemistry, and it takes time to find that group of people that just blend.
I know more now than when I first started. I used to think that playing with great musicians was the best thing. Now after a little experience under my belt, I have decided that playing with great musicians is still great, but it is so much sweeter when they are also people you enjoy as people and can have a great time on the road.
While I was dealing with all my business transactions - writing letters, answering e-mails, dealing with booking agents, etc. I put on some music and it reminded me why I'm going through all this. The music is, after all, worth some challenges.