I have a friend who’s a songwriter. A damned good songwriter.

And sometimes, not always, when he’s working on a song, he catches fire.

The creative spark, lit by a riff, a snippet of melody, a chord progression starts burning, and he becomes consumed in a creative blaze. The song, as it emerges, overtakes him. He can’t stop working on it, listening to it, thinking about it. The flames rage, and my friend burns, happily, almost ecstatically, as the song cooks inside of him.

And sometimes, when he’s in the burn of this relentless creative fire, he’ll break down and cry, overcome by the beauty of what is moving through him and into song. Grateful, humbled, torn open.

I told him that I believe this is where he touches God. In those moments, he melts into The Creative and is lost in Her embrace, Her Swirl. The music moving through him destroys all that would hold him separate from Her, and the exquisite, intimate connection with the Divine brings him to his knees as it lifts him to the heights.

In witnessing this creative consumption in another human being, I realize there is nothing in my life — no activity, drug, diversion or spiritual practice — that allows me access to the kind of Creative connection my friend finds in writing music. And this makes me incredibly sad. It’s as if I’m grieving Something I’ve never known except by its absence and my insatiable craving for It.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve had a fierce, passionate desire for such a connection with the Creative. This desire has led me down many a multitude of spiritual, artistic, and career-oriented paths, some of which I’m still traveling upon. And now I see how even my musical journey has only been a feeble attempt to move as close to the Creative as I can, even if I can never experience Her all-consuming fire.

Oh, and sure, I’ve had moments and full-blown epiphanies where I’ve felt the presence of the Divine. Her grace and love. And these moments that have brought me to my knees in gratitude and awe. But what I’m grieving is the absence of that fire, that unrelenting, all-consuming burn that rushes through an artist insisting they create, create, create.

I wrote this post while in New York City last week. I never finished it, so I’m posting it now.

It’s the simple things that feel so empowering to me now.

Like knowing that if there’s a subway entrance for the 1 train going downtown on one side of the street, chances are the train going uptown is just across the street. To a New Yorker, this is a no-brainer. To me, it’s a celebration. Here I am in this foreign land where the means of movement and expression are strange and mysterious, and yet I’m starting to crack the code.

On evenings like this, when I take the 1 train to Greenwich Village and the subway conductor (is that what you call them?) comes over the loud speaker to say that if you need to connect to the A or B train you need to get off at the 72nd Street station because the 96 station is closed and I actually understand what that means, and I listen to the music of the subway as my train screeches around curves then coasts almost soundlessly into the 14th street station, and I marvel that I’m here, witnessing this wild and wonderful, unexplainably beautiful display of sound and sight, and spent 2.5 hours in a little dive bar in Greenwich Village listening to a jazz singer I’d never heard of before because I needed to hear some vocal jazz BAD and found her style smooth and easy, so relaxed in her phasing, and I talked to the bartender, a big, sweet man named Kirby, who’s a drummer and a writer whose aunt sings in France, and he pours me the last swig of an almost empty bottle of Yellow Tail Shiraz/Grenache and I tip him another dollar before I leave.

Yeah, it’s on evenings like these when I take the subway back to my friend’s Manhattan apartment and there’s a man singing and playing guitar in the Christopher/Sheridan subway station, singing Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, and I slip him a dollar just as my train comes, wishing it would come later.

And as the train bumps from 14th Street to 18th, I look about me and everyone on this subway train looks beautiful. The woman with long strawberry blond hair. The 20-something man holding a plastic bag full of take-out food, the teenage boys who sit on either side of me playing video games on their mobile phones. And I listen to the screech, bump and hiss of the train, until it glides, almost soundlessly, into a station and I think, why isn’t everyone living in this City?

Why doesn’t everyone scramble here where there is such incredible beauty, color and music everywhere — in the subway, in the street, in the sky, in the people? Why would anyone live someplace else? Why would anyone choose not to live in this cacophony of sound and sight that is so achingly human?

Don’t ever let me become immune to this. Don’t ever let me fall numb to the spectacle, the miracle that is New York City. To the beauty of the people, the buildings, the flow, bump and hiss of this organism I find so exquisitely beautiful and overwhelming to me now. Please, let me always find the joy and exhilaration I feel now, being here in this City that is one of the most spectacular, dramatic, incredible creations I have ever witnessed.

I just got a new iPhone.

And I love it. Especially the camera! I’ve never had a camera in my phone before, so this is extra special for me.

Here are a few photos I took today, with my iPhone, as I walked around New York City.

Mostly sky and subways.

One of the views from Shaynee

Just above Bleeker St. in the Village

The 2 Train speeding by

The 1 Train... my train back uptown.

The sky at 72nd & Broadway

I now live between two bridges.
Which feels strangely symbolic… somehow.

I took a long walk in the most luscious Spring afternoon today and took this photo: the view from one of the bridges I live between.

So I’m here. I’m moved in. Mostly. And starting to get my bearings and feel more at home in this city of Kingston. It’s been a rocky emotional journey, for sure, as I leave behind all that is familiar to enter this new phase of my life. Unsure. Uncertain. Yet moving forward.

I’ve been here 11 days. Or is it 12? No, 11.

And the moving van will be here in an hour. Or so they say.

I’ve moved to New York. Upstate New York. About 2 hours north of my new love, New York City. Why am I living here instead of IN the City? Money, mostly. Can’t afford even a shared apartment in Brooklyn, much less Manhattan.

But I must say, now that I’ve been in the city of Kingston for 11 days now, I believe I’m here for other reasons beside cheap rent. It’s a City in desperate need of new energy. And new money. And while I don’t pretend to have even a meager supply of either, I believe in the potential of this place. And others do, too.

Besides, the Hudson Valley rocks. It’s got Woodstock. Bard College. The Omega Institute. Bethel Woods. There is a thriving (though seemingly underground) music/art/techno-geek community up here. And I can’t wait to sniff ‘em all out!

Shoot, kd lang is performing here this month so I can’t be too far out in the sticks, can I?

I haven’t had much time to explore outside the city yet. My car arrived 4 days ago, and I’ve been working a lot at my copywriting biz, which is good. Very good. And, despite what reason tells me, I’m exploring the possibility of representing a handful of local musicians, helping them get gigs, exposure and more publicity. Should be LOTS of money in that!

But for now, I’m waiting for the 80 boxes, desk, bed, chair, dresser, etc. that’s about to show up at my door.

Oh, yeah, BABY!

This Diva is moving across this big, wide, huge country, from one coast to the other, to New York.

Oh, come on! You knew it was coming. I’ve been talking about my Big City fever. And how little, lovely, sleepy Santa Rosa and my home town of Sebastopol has been feeling… well, very, very small. Tight. Teeny.

So, here’s the deal:

After months of flying back and forth from the Oakland airport to JFK, after falling in love with the city that is New York, after feeling myself needing and craving Something I Can’t Name or Yet Know, one thing became clear: “gotta get up, gotta get out, gotta get home till the…” You get the idea.

Needless to say, this decision has come with HUGE consequences, the most obvious being… leaving my husband of 26 years. A community of friends, musicians and familiarity that has sustained me for over 27 years. But because my husband is an angel, an enlightened boddhisatva who knows life is short and must be lived to the fullest, we are working out this strange, unexpected twist of life beautifully. Kindly. Respectfully.

But make no mistake. There have been days and long nights of intense pain over this choice as well. I wake up at 2:00 am (that is, if I fall asleep in the first place) in a state of panic and disbelief. “No way! I’m not going anywhere,” I think to myself. But as the sun rises and I come into the morning, I know I AM going. That I have to.

Just today my husband and I were talking about this Calling, this Thing that tells us what we have to do even if we don’t fully understand why. No, we didn’t come up with any answers or insight. Mostly amazement, a good dose of grief and, for me, the incredible excitement of NOT knowing and doing it any way.

So, I’ve spent these past 6 days packing in earnest, getting quotes from moving companies, changing my mind about where to live and with whom once I get there, and riding the waves of grief and joy, doubt and certainty, love and fear, desire and exhaustion, complaining and appreciating. I’ve said goodbye to my music community, let go of my monthly gig at Upper Fourth (ouch! that hurt!) and told most of my friends, who support me with a mixture of concern and boundless love.

I haven’t told my mother yet. And since she doesn’t read this blog I think I’ll write her a long letter explaining as best I can why I’m doing what I’m doing. She won’t get it, but that’s got to be okay.

So, New York, brace yourself. I should be there by April 15 if not sooner. And Sonoma County, I’ll love you forever. And I’ll visit often. But for now, I got to go.

This post is the third installment of a series on “Music Success in Nine Weeks” — a book by Ariel Hyatt, President of Ariel Publicity and CyberPR, which specializes in getting musicians maximum exposure online.

Okay, I’m sooo late in getting this next installment to you, but that’s because I’ve been in New York for three weeks, during which time I had the extreme pleasure of meeting with Ariel Hyatt, the author of “Music Success in Nine Weeks”

I swear, this woman has revolutionized online PR for musicians. She’s created a software system that allows her clients to know at any point in time who is writing about them, downloading their music or leaving comments or reviews. I’ll be writing more about HOW CyberPR works and why, if you’re serious about your music career, you may want to hire Ariel now.

But on to the task at hand…

How’s your website working for you? Is it allowing you to attract new fans, build a huge email list, sell your music and promote your gigs?

Week Three of “Nine Weeks to Music Success” is all about optimizing your website so that it initiates and nurtures a two-way relationship with your visitors and fans. Because if you’ve still got a cool-looking but static site that does nothing more than act as a brochure for who you are, then you’re missing the boat, my friends. As Ariel says, your website needs to be an interactive and engaging website that pulls people in at first and makes them want to come back often.”

She then offers 6 steps to optimizing your site.

1. Add your pitch to your homepage.
Have I added mine yet? Uh, no. I’m still wrestling with writing one I like. I may ask you all to help me with this one.

2. Make sure your site loads in less than 3.5 seconds.
Check!

3. No flash intros!
My entire site was originally built in flash. And it was gorgeous! But it not only loaded like frozen molasses but it repelled search engines. AND I couldn’t update is myself without becoming a flash or html expert. I had the whole site rebuilt JUST to get rid of the flash.

4. Have a consistent look and feel throughout the net.
This means you should use the same color scheme, fonts, logos for EVERY presence you have online. So, your MySpace and Twitter page should have the same look as your website.

5. Give away an exclusive, free mp3 or video!
Why? Because it’s a great way to 1) get visitors to your site, and 2) capture their email address while they are there, and 3) make your new and old fans feel special, like they have something not available anywhere else. Giving away something free AND exclusive is a great way start an ongoing relationship with your fans.

But you need to make sure you set it up so that your fan MUST enter his or her name and email in order to get the free download so you can send your e-newsletters and announcements to that fan. BE SURE TO MAKE IT CLEAR THAT BY SIGNING UP THEY WILL BE GETTING EMAIL FROM YOU!

Which is Ariel’s 6th Step:

6. Make it clear and set them at ease.
As I said, you want to let people know that by signing up and downloading their “gift” you will be sending them stuff from time to time. Also, be sure to state, next to the opt-in box, that you will never, ever share their information with anyone and that you are dead-set against spam in any form.

This week’s chapter is pretty short, sweet and direct. BUT as I thumb through Week Four… oh, my! There’s about 9 weeks worth of information crammed into that one chapter. Since it’s so dense, I may break it up into two posts. Either way, stay tuned for… Week Four: Musician’s Web 2.0 Guide.

And if you haven’t written your pitch yet, go do it!

This post is the third installment of a series on “Music Success in Nine Weeks” — a book by Ariel Hyatt, President of Ariel Publicity and CyberPR, which specializes in getting musicians maximum exposure online.

As soon as you tell someone you’re a singer, they will often ask, “Oh, really? What kind of singer are you?” Or “What do you sing?” How you answer that question will either give them a clear and compelling reason to listen to your music, or at least ask more questions, or it will leave them clueless and confused.

This question, “What do you sing?” or “What kind of singer ARE you?” has always been my least favorite question because I never felt like I had a good answer.

That’s because I’ve never perfected my “pitch” — that concise, easy-to-understand statement every musician should have in order to effectively describe your music to the average person. I never perfected it because, silly me, I didn’t know I needed one, AND I hadn’t the foggiest idea how to create one. Until I read Week Two of Ariel Hyatt’s book, “Music Success in Nine Weeks.” In this chapter, Ariel outlines the 6 steps to creating and perfecting your pitch.

And she does a hilarious job of giving real-life examples of WHY every musicians must have a pitch and how they miss the boat when they neglect this essential element of their marketing.

Now, I’m more than slightly embarrassing by the fact that I’ve never adequately created my pitch. Especially when I used to teach entrepreneurs how to create their own “pitch” in my “20-Second Connection” teleclass. Except I didn’t call it a pitch then. I called it “an intriguing and immediately engaging answer to the question, ‘What do YOU do?’”

But when it came to applying these same principles to myself as an artist, well, I just never came up with something that felt right or described what I offered in a way any non-musician could understand. That’s why it was extremely helpful to read Ariel’s 6-step process in Week Two of her book. She not only outlines the process but gives some good examples of pitches that work.

One aspect of this process that trips me up is when Ariel asks you to write down all the names of the artists that other people say you sound like. My friend and fellow singer Linda Kosut and I were throwing this around, and we decided she was a jazz troubadour that sounded a little like Chet Baker with a Bette Midler flare. As for me, well, we didn’t come up with anything. But I’m thinking of something like, “If Michael Buble met Julie Andrews in a smoky jazz club…” Hey, I’m still working on it.

And if you don’t have your pitch in the bag you may want to be working on your own! Can you describe yourself as an artist in a clear, concise and compelling way? If not, Ariel’s 6-Step process will definitely get you started and on your way.

Coming up next time… Week Three: Optimizing Your Website!

This post is the second installment of a series on “Music Success in Nine Weeks” — a book by Ariel Hyatt, President of Ariel Publicity and CyberPR, which specializes in getting musicians maximum exposure online.

Goals are easy.
Accomplishing them…not so much.

In Ariel Hyatt’s book “Music Success in Nine Weeks,” the first chapter, which covers Week One of this 9-week journey, is devoted to setting goals… and writing them down with projected dates of accomplishment. And not just your music goals, but your financial and lifetime goals as well.

Now, a lot of what’s in Week One is nothing you haven’t read before. And because of that, it may be the weakest chapter in this book. BUT, from what I can tell, the intention of all this goal-setting is to get you mentally prepped for the rest of the book which is a lot more demanding of your time, creativity and willingness to step outside of your comfort zone.

What I do like about this chapter is that Ariel not only stresses the importance of getting your goals written down but she also hands off some tips on HOW to get those goals accomplished. Because, let’s face it, that’s the tricky thing about goals; they don’t complete themselves while we’re watching “Live at Abbey Road” or dreaming of our next big break.

For instance, “Goal Achieving Tip #4” (on p. 17): Make One Happen ASAP. Ariel advises that you start with the easiest goal on your list and just do it! Or, rather, give yourself a reasonable deadline and then just do it! By accomplishing at least one of your goals, you are more likely to feel motivated to dig into your other goals which aren’t quite so easy. Like calling the guy who books the venue you’d love to play. Or writing your pitch, which Ariel explains in Week Two.

Interestingly enough, since I read the Week One chapter thinking, “Ah, this is just more goal setting stuff. I already know this,” I didn’t actually DO what Ariel suggested. I didn’t write down my music goals. They are always floating around in my head so I figured, why bother?

Well, as Ariel states in the book: “3% of all people have their long-term goals written down and it has been proven that by simply writing down your goals you are ten times more likely to achieve them.”

So… don’t be a fool like me. Go write them down! But first, read Ariel’s “Before You Get Started” Section on pg. 15. There are three excellent suggestions on HOW to write your goals. Oh, and be sure to put a target completion date next to each one!

Okay. I’m writing my music goals down right now.

1. Create a pitch I love — Jan. 1, 2009

2. Complete Phase One of my website re-design by May, 2009.

3. Create budget, timeline and promotion plan for February Show at Jackson Theater — Dec. 31, 2008

4. Create budget, fund raising plan and promotional plan for new CD by March, 2009.

5. Finish new CD by end of June, 2009.

6. Book a show in New York City for April/May 2009! — February 10, 2009.

Wow. My heart is pounding.

While these goals have been in my consciousness forever, I’m surprised by how scary it is to actually write them down WITH DATES NEXT TO THEM. It becomes clear that if I’m going to meet the deadlines I’ve set, I better get a move on. Now.

Next episode: Week Two of “Music Success in Nine Weeks” where Ariel coaches you on how to write your pitch. THIS is where it starts getting really good.

First, a confession.

I want to be Ariel Hyatt.
Rather… I want her job.

Ariel is the powerhouse President of Ariel Publicity and CyberPR, which specializes in getting musicians maximum exposure online. Her background is in what I call old school Public Relations where one’s success is determined by your ability to secure the media’s attention in favor of your client. Years ago, I used to do this same thing in the wine industry, working hard to get wine critics and food & wine media to write features and shining reviews of the wineries I represented.

But what Ariel discovered, as she pushed hard to get her touring bands booked, noticed and written about, was that it was getting harder and harder to get any results using the traditional PR channels. The effort to pay-off ratio wasn’t paying off.

Gradually, Ariel turned her attention and efforts to the wonderful world of the internet and the unique promotional opportunities it offered. By January of 2007, it was clear to her that she could better serve her clients through internet marketing and social networking. By following these new rules of marketing and pr, beautifully defined by David Meerman Scott, Ariel started (and now continues) to teach musicians how to use these “new rules” to increase their fan base, boost their music sales and get noticed. She changed the name of her company to “CyberPR” though she still uses ArielPublicity in her url: www.arielpublicity.com.

So, why am I going on and on about Ariel Hyatt other than the fact that I would love to be her and do for jazz and cabaret artists what she does for her bands? Because I just finished reading and re-reading her book, “Music Success in Nine Weeks.” And it’s so full of information that every musician must have if they want thrive in this world of internet marketing and PR that I thought I’d give this little gem a thorough review here.

Especially NOW, because I feel so many of my singer friends are totally missing the boat when it comes to promoting themselves and their music. They are still operating from within the old world of traditional PR and promotion. And I see them suffering and feeling immensely frustrated because of it.

But instead of just writing a quick summary review of “Music Success in Nine Weeks” I thought I’d dig into each one of the chapters, week by week, so you can get a good sense of all this book has to offer. Better yet, go buy the book and let’s work through it together.

By the way, not so ironically, I discovered Ariel and her company on Twitter, a fact that is sure to delight her since she is such a big proponent of social networking. As you will soon discover when we get into Week Four.

So, go get the book and we’ll jump into Week One next week.