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grit | grace | acoustic soul from austin, tx www.jeansynodinos.com |
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Live Streaming Show Monday Night!
Join me tomorrow (Monday) night for a full set of music streaming live! Use this link to grab a ticket (10 cents or pay what you will). It’s crazy easy to watch from the comfort of your favorite chair. Want to learn more about how these shows work? Visit this page on my website and watch the video. Then join me tomorrow night! YAY!!
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Sweetness & Light at the Kerrville Folk Festival
Last weekend was good medicine, a few days at the Kerrville Folk Festival where I always get to see dozens of good friends and hear hundreds of beautiful songs (for real). This video was grabbed by Janet Pogue Hans who invited me to play a set late Saturday night after main stage at Camp Sweetness & Light. At my side was Brian Kalinec from Houston, TX. Most of us know Brian as a songwriter’s songwriter, but I also know he’s a tasty player who makes everyone else sound better. Thanks Janet & Brian, and everyone who pulled up a chair and listened in!
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Kerrville Folk Fest: Welcome Home
It’s time to get my hippie chick on.
Right now, a couple thousand people have kicked off this year’s 18-day music festival in Kerrville, TX. I went to my first festival 17 years ago, and I don’t make it every year, but I’m headed back tomorrow for a long weekend.
Can’t recommend it highly enough. Yes it’s brutally hot, but it’s incredibly chill.
And if you’re out there this weekend, swing by Camp Sweetness & Light after Saturday night’s main stage shows. I’ll be doing a full unplugged set, a great way to kick off your own campfire/song circle rounds for the night.
And like the sign says: it can be this way always.
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You don’t have to be graduating from college this month to need these words on living a creative life.
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Sweet Lil Down 'n Dirty Interview
A shout out to the sweetie pies at concertsinyourhome.com for checking in with artists to see what they’re thinking of late……
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Five Things To Do Today!
Charles found this actual notepad at CVS last week and brought it home for me. We’ve now got our list up on the fridge.
You can download the track, and five others, for free on Noise Trade right now!
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We’re thinking “Real Renegade” will make a good track in the next collection. Enjoy the demo.
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It’s not just the wildflowers making this a winning spring. Am so happy to have been honored recently with a 2012 Texas Music Award — the Founder’s Award for Artistic Excellence for the new CD Girls, Good & Otherwise. Thanks to the TMA Board and founders Lucky and Jinelle Boyd for believing so much in this effort!
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My SXSW Highlight: Far From the Madding Crowd
SXSW 2012 is but a memory, and I’m a little glad of it. The festival is a wonder—don’t get me wrong—but it stuns the senses to see your city overrun for two weeks.
Here’s a little observation: those attending the first half of the festival for Film and Interactive events were simply perfect neighbors. Smart, progressive, thoughtful, ingenious, well-mannered — you get the picture.
When the musicians rolled into town for the music conference, all hell broke loose. Lots of creative energy, to be sure, but you could see the city’s daily hangover in the broken bottles on the streets and sidewalks downtown, the amazing amount of litter everywhere.
Musicians are my tribe, so it’s hard to reconcile this observation. But I know which type of festival-goer I’d rent my house to.
A big highlight for me was seeing my old friend Henry, in town to promote some biggies from L.A. We’ve known each other since 7th grade. We went to dinner, it was fantastic, and then he shuffled me over to the late night VH-1 Rock Docs party at the W. Swanky, huh? I suppose, but seriously, we saw exactly one person with a smile on her face.
My last SXSW event was a sincerely fabulous “Austin-formal” high tea for Women in Music Professional Society (WIMPS), hosted by Carla DeSantis, a true force of nature, founder of Rockergirl magazine and MEOW (Musicians for Equal Opportunity). When body piercings meet finger sandwiches, the end result is serious fun. More to the point, it was a real celebration of women in music, regardless of genre, regardless of age.
Which leads me to my true highlight.
While SXSW’s official showcases own the downtown landscape, dozens (hundreds?) of unofficial showcases pop up all over the rest of the city. You don’t need no stinkin’ wristband, either.
I played two of these beauties, one lovely (thank you, Ian), and one spectacular. Kiya Heartwood (1/2 of Wishing Chair for you folkies out there) put together an amazing line-up of women for an evening of music at Bookwoman. A lot of women, and ten tons of talent. Every single voice was unique and pure; every artist owned the stage like it had been built for her.
It was a full house of locals, and they didn’t budge for three solid hours. Pins dropped the entire time, and you could hear each one hit the carpet in between the notes.
It was actually the best evening of music I’ve heard or been a part of in Austin in ages. And I’m just giving a shout out to the incredible power of women who know how to write, play, and perform here in Austin. The bar is really quite high.
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Am drafting the songs for the next recording… so I suppose we’re officially in pre-production now! Enjoy today’s simple, rough demo of “This Morning.”
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I was reminded this week of a wonderful project I got to work on last year on behalf of the Safe Schools/Healthy Students initiative. I got to write the music and lyrics, and we recorded a wonderful group of D.C. area high school students and finished the mix back here in Austin. Everything about the project made me so happy to do the work I get to do!
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Fellow performing songwriters — the annual Songwriter Serenade Competition is a wonderful event, if you enjoy a good friendly competition, that is. :-) There is *no* entry fee, there is genuine prize money, and, most of all, the wonderful folks who run the event will welcome you and make you feel like a million bucks. I confess to a little bias, having won the 2011 competition, but seriously — this is a really good time!
If you like the video, check out the website to enter: www.songwriterserenade.com. Enjoy!
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For podcast lovers/Americana fans everywhere
If you fall into the aforementioned title category, you should know about the Freight Train Boogie (FTB) podcast, hosted by Bill Frater out in California. Damed good music, and I was most honored to be a part of podcast #147, along with tracks from Joe Ely and an incredible artist who’s new to me, Kelly Pardekooper (check out this guy — he’s wonderful).
You can listen/download on iTunes or check out the podcast’s website right here: http://freighttrainboogie.com. Yay for podcasting!!
(Source: F_T_B)
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New review from babysue.com
I love babysue.com, a freakishly interesting site that covers music, comics, poetry, and jokes (yes — jokes and poetry together, just as they should be. Love it.)
Babysue has added Girls, Good & Otherwise to its list of January reviews (Will Sexton’s new disc is in the list, too), and here’s a short excerpt:
After spinning Girls, Good & Otherwise a few times we can’t help but wonder how long it might be before Jean Synodinos receives the recognition she so rightly deserves. This talented lady writes and records music that could be easily be appreciated by millions upon millions of listeners…if they could only hear her songs. Jean makes music that is timeless and classic… Eleven classy tracks here and they’re all keepers.
Thanks to the cool cats at babysue.com for believing!
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NotesIt was a full moon last Saturday night. Couldn’t resist playing this song — glad Janet Hans at Urban Campfires caught it. :-)
