An early demo of Set Your Back to the Setting Sun

This is the bluegrass-style demo for this tune which was first published as a choral tune for the suite of songs I was commissioned to compose and arrange for the Rainbow Chorus in Fort Collins, CO. 

It was part of the Beginnings world premiere concert in spring 2000, which was recorded that same year and performed in San Jose at the GALA International Choralfest. 

This demo was in consideration for my recording produced by Ken Whiteley of Pyramid Records, Toronto, Ontario. At his suggestion, we changed the chord shapes and a swinging blues version resulted. 

That is the one that made it to the track list of my 2007 release: a piece of it all which continues to receive radio airplay and charting, 8 years later!

Now it is offered as an example of what will be offered to my patrons on Patreon when I reach the first milestone goal of $50 in pledges a month...only $14 away. What to join me and help put us over the top? www.patreon.com/steveeulberg

Roots and Wings: Vivid Eco-Art!

I was so filled with joy to complete my Artist-in-Residency with Montrose Elementary students in Songwriting earlier this month.  (See this post for an earlier explanation...and then wait for more details to follow.)

BUT!  I was not the only artist to work with the students this year.

Michelle Stitzlein is a visual artist who designed and helped the students install a mural entitled "Roots and Wings"

Here is the detail of "Roots"

"and Wings"

The brilliance of the colors and the composition are so active and exciting--just like the songs I wrote with the 2nd Graders.

But now look more closely:  The material for this mosaic is all injection-molded bottle tops!  All in the original colors of their original fabrication.

The school has been collecting these bottle tops all year because it is estimated that they don't decompose back to their natural components for 500 years.  With Michelle's help, they have removed them from the refuse stream and assigned them a new, beautifying purpose.

AND, each child in the school was able to add at least one of the tops to the art.  And, they can remember which one they added!  "That's mine!" a student proudly says, pointing to a green one near the bottom.

"What's Your Story?" has been the school theme for the year.

This reminds me of the Felice Holman poem, "who am i" that I set to music, a line of which became the title for my 2007 recording.  (Listen and/or download here)

All of us have a piece of the puzzle and together they magnify and multiply beauty in the world!

Soup and Song Concert Review

Here is a very pleasant surprise (and a new experience!)

I have sent recordings and sought out reviews since I began working as a musician.  I have received unsolicited and solicited reviews of performances from venue owners, festival organizers and fellow musicians.

But this is the first time I've had a house concert reviewed by a member of the audience!  Mary and her husband joyously sang along with the songs, and told me about traveling cross-country with "a piece of it all" as their accompanying soundtrack in the past year.  I am humbled and deeply enjoy hearing how music that I am a part of has helped to accompany or enrich someone's life.  But I'm even more moved by the words she shares in her blog about my recent concert in Laurel, Maryland.

http://morahmary.blogspot.com/2010/05/do-small-things.html

It turns out that she had written about my first concert in Soup and Songs' house concert series a couple of years ago:

http://morahmary.blogspot.com/2008/07/saturdays-time-out.html

That reflection included references to books by a third-grade teacher...which has sent me shopping to get and read his books.

Music inspires a writer who links me to a reflective teacher who writes, whose stories I want to know (and probably will share!)  These are the re-weavings of the tattered fringes in our broken world that I both treasure and celebrate!

(And I am certainly gonna ask my Kindergarten-teaching sister if she knows about these books, too.)