Hurricane Sandy and The Town I loved so well

Last Friday I went over to the Armory in my neighborhood (my YMCA). It's a shelter at the moment for those displaced by hurricane Sandy.  I was actually in Seattle during the hurricane, so like many people I saw the devastating photos on tv and it was hard to imagine it was really happening.  My Brooklyn neighborhood wasn't flooded at all, and when I see what happened to some areas of Brooklyn, I feel very blessed.
One of the areas that is just devastated is the Rockaways, which is a community that includes a lot of Irish families. I played there for a concert at Fort Tilden several years ago, and I remember how many people turned out to picnic/dance and listen.
The shelter in my neighborhood includes many seniors from assisted living facilities in the Rockaways.  They've set up cots all over the running track, and it's both amazing and sad to see. On the side of the room they have a "wellness area" that offers music, arts, haircuts, knitting etc. every hour. Anything to lift the spirits - . I went to play there and was planning to do some happy jigs and reels , but what the people really wanted to hear was songs.... Danny Boy (several requests), "When Irish Eyes are Smiling", and then the one that got to me, "The Town I loved so well".  This song is about going back to Derry, when it has been decimated by war and bombing.  Sort of a sad parallel for many of those people.
I came home and listened to Paddy Reilly singing it - I love this verison. (song my Phil Coulter).
It reminded me of the power of music.

I have those people at the shelter to thank for reminding me of that.

Irish Music Wednesdays in Long Island City

This photo was taken at 7 am on one of the last days of summer. My friend and colleague guitarist Pat Bianculli took it.  I've always loved the Brooklyn bridge and on days like this, the view is spectacular. If you haven't walked across that bridge, I highly recommend it.

Fall has officially begun in New York City. 
This month, Vita and I are doing Irish music Wednesdays at Two Shotz Bar, in Long Island City.
It's a cozy friendly bar, and right by the R/M train stop to Northern Boulevard.
Spirited Irish Music! Guinness specials $3! 9 pm to midnight.
Their facebook page is here....
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Two-Shotz-Bar-Lounge/439773686040644?fref=ts

Other news...Concerts in your home did an interview with me.  Not the standard questions, so it got me thinking about alot of topics, including Donald Trump and driving.
http://lrnblog.posterous.com/renewal-interview-cady-finlayson

Pencil drawing of our APAP set 2012

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.

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

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.

Electric Green

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!