Yeah, so maybe once a week was a little overzealous. We'll see if I get to blogging once a month :P
I've been spending most of my time in the schools, teaching for the I'll Fly Away foundation. It's been a blast. But working with children, I'm constantly exposed to germs. I caught a stomach bug, which gave me a fever of 103. I was so weak, my mom had to come over and watch Lewis. When that was finally over, I caught a cold, which I then gave to the whole family. Lewis ended up with an ear infection, and he's still on antibiotics for that. We held off to see if his immune system would kick it, but no luck there. Carrying hand sanitizer with me from now on!
So, it's been crazy, and I haven't had too much time to get to blogging. Seeing how crazy stuff happens like this all the time, I'm just gonna say I'll blog when I can.
Teaching in the schools has been going very well. I love working with the kids, and they seem to like working with me too ;) I sing my "Down to the River" song for them before we get started to break the ice, and show them that I'm a capable songwriter. I'm with each class for a week, and they beg me all week to sing it again. They think I must be famous and go home and search for me on YouTube. I wish I had some better, more recent videos on my channel!
Over the course of the week, I teach them about song elements and how to put them together. We write a song about their curriculum, and then an additional song just for fun. Last week, the educational song topics were the tundra, the desert. vertebrates, and story elements. The fun songs were a fictional tale about having a mini dragon as a class pet, building the best Minecraft city ever, how much they love tacos, and a sweet song about the school's secretary.
Here's what the fifth grade did at Pineville Elementary. They call it "The Vertebrate Shuffle."
A news crew came a few weeks back, when I had the cold (of course, ugh!) and filmed us in action, and did interviews of the foundation leaders, myself, and some of the teachers a the school. Hopefully, we'll create some awareness about the program, and it will get picked up in Northwest Arkansas. I'll make sure to post it once it comes out!
I hosted the first House of Songs Songwriter Showcase a couple of weeks back, also while I had that same cold. That was such a cool event. There were two songwriters from Austin, and one from Australia that came to stay at the House of Songs and cowrite with some local songwriters. Jamie Lou, a local songwriter, was also there. Everyone played about 20 minutes. It was such an amazing mix of songwriting styles! I can't wait to host the next one! It will be the first Saturday of every month.
Last Saturday was the Bike Rack Records CD release party. What a great time! I think there were around 400 people in attendance, and each band played such an amazing set. It's a very exciting time for music in Northwest Arkansas, and I'm very grateful to be a part of it. If you're interested, you can watch the Bike Rack Records documentary here:
Listen to the album here! https://open.spotify.com/album/3EHNeXN8BGYy3m7MryoHiV
Download here! https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/bike-rack-records-vol-1/1438244762