I Really Don't Know Clouds At All

Second day of the New Year.  Starting a cleanse.  Scribbling notes for fun & soulful songwriting workshops I hope to lead in 2012.  Watching the sky full of plump, pink clouds moving quickly by, pulling their puffy cotton ball offspring behind them.

Where are they going, these clouds? What awaits them when they get there?

In December, a cloud stopped me in my tracks.  Dark and rainy highway.  On my way to a show of mine in Cambridge MA.  Fog thick as cheese cloth.  A patch of road littered with debris distracted me and then BAM a stopped car appeared through the ground-kissing cloud.  I stomped on the brake.  I hydroplaned into the ditch. I sat breathing hard in that ditch for a long time, bruised and shaken with my heart still going 65 mph.

Aren't clouds supposed to be the dreamy proverbial cushions against harm and fear?

Ah, but maybe I misread it.  Perhaps that low-hanging cloud was actually protecting me from the tough path ahead.  Maybe it fully intended to get me solidly stopped and turned back toward home.  Sometimes our own well-meaning trajectory puts us on the wrong course.  Or at the wrong time.  Or without the tools necessary to be capable of the trip.

And so, white-knuckled and wobbly, I did make my way back home.  Which is where I sit now, watching the clouds glide.  They make it seem so easy, don't they? Shape-shifting and mysterious.  With a watchful eye over my next moves forward.  Ready to prevent the next collision I might unintentionally (or otherwise) create. 

Happy New Year!
Jennifer

PS....Awe and Thanks to Joni Mitchell for the subject line song quote and my soundtrack for this day.

Tenderness and Relief

No matter the path you walk or where you hang your hat, sometimes the wolf is at the door or following close behind.  An illness sneaks in and the creditors won't stop calling. There are no clean towels for guests and the lawn looks like nobody lives here anymore. You can't stop eating the crap food you can barely afford and you no longer recognize what your swollen body has become. You are somehow desired and quite ravenously revered by an older, wealthy gentleman who's pretty creative in the "Let's try this" department, but all you really want through and from any of this is some tenderness and relief.

Sometimes a songwriter like me isn't always inspired by the dark, hidden corners of real life.  Sometimes it's just shitty and difficult to navigate the map of your own making. Sometimes some navel-gazing reality-check reflection and replenishment is required, if you're as sensitive to the world as I unfortunately am.

So for several days you disconnect from the noise, moving fully into the breakdown and pizza binges.  Embracing the lactose-intolerant reactions to some self-inflicted punishment for being a 40-something person who hasn't yet figured it all out.  You wake up knowing you're destined to flip burgers with the college kids very soon and forever if you don't figure at least yourself out, but that thought alone is too heavy to bear so back to bed with you.  You're clearly not done purging the self-pity yet.

The good news is, after a few days of unplugging the phone and feeling sick as a dog, the cloudy poor-me haze begins to clear again. Everything from the first paragraph remains the same, but you and your attitude have started to shift. You notice how wonderful it is to keep finding creative ways to bounce back. You're grateful that in spite of all the belongings you've sold to stay alive, you still have your guitar and lots of places and people inviting you to play it. You realize that your former boss was right.  "You are responsible for your own happiness at work." A sentence that enraged you at the time, but holds such raw and lovely truth.  If you can't find the beauty in what you have and what you do, who can really do it for you?

And so you become aware again that you chose this and that you actually do love this live-moment-to-moment life that happens to allow you to stay in bed for 3 days when the need strikes. In spite of how your waistline has expanded beyond any of  the waistbands in the drawer, you know you are growing more than physically. There is tenderness and relief everywhere and you are learning, sometimes the ridiculously hard way, how to recognize them and sometimes even point them out to the other down-n-outters around you.

You're not quite yet ready to answer the phone, but your guitar is by your hip and your cat is at your feet and the rain out there makes you feel steadier and more safe in here.

You write a blog post about it. You close by wishing your readers lots of tenderness and relief when they need them most, too.

On Being Someone You Might Wish Would Shut-Up

Author/Speaker/Publisher Seth Godin sends out an email to his mailing list every single day.  In fact,there have been 24 hour periods when he shows up in my inbox more than once.  I'm a huge fan of this guy and his ideas about creating your own success and happiness.  Have I ever rolled my eyes at seeing yet another Seth Godin note mucking up my email feng shui?

Yes, by gawd.  Eye roll. Heavy sigh. Even now and then a swift and satisfying delete click right where it counts. 

Yet the day Seth Godin stops showing up in my inbox to share, teach, scold, charm, market, promote, and sell what he's out there fully engaged in selling is a day I hope never comes.  I might roll my eyes sometimes at his passionate persistence, but I'm also doing my very best to learn how to duplicate it.

So this is a letter to everyone I might be annoying on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, via Email, Yadda Yadda Yadda.  I apologize to you if you're already sick-to-death of my endless pursuit of album sales, CD reviews, gigs & attendance, PR opportunities, etc.  The last thing an artist hopes to do is turn off and turn away her audience just because she won't shut the hell up already.

But, folks, here is the thing.  When a singer/songwriter jumps off the very steep ledge of making-a-living-making-music it's a long, loooooong way down if we don't work insanely hard --- and make an annoying amount of noise while doing it -- to stay in the air somehow.  If I sell a few CDs a week and only book a couple of gigs a month, I can't survive.  I want to sell a hundred CDs a week.  Book 20 gigs a month. Get 50+ people to every small venue show, for starters.  Not to mention a label deal, licensing income, and the pie-in-the-sky list goes on.

Thanks for your patience as I try to find the right balance.  As I work toward inspiring more than I annoy.  As I raise both my expectations and my investment returns high enough that I can then hire someone to do all the loudmouth marketing for me.

For now, I'm a one woman show.  And every time I ask for a CD sale, a review, your presence at a show....know that it's because I believe deeply in what I do and would love to keep on doing it.

I hope you feel the same way -- and shout just as loudly and proudly -- about what you do, too.

Best,
Jennifer

PS....Oh, and please buy my CD! And write a review!  And come to my shows! ;) 

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/jenniferhaase2

www.rhymeswithclassy.com

"No More Invitations" HQ Command Center

My Gawd, this album is finally done and sitting in my kitchen, waiting to be distributed as quickly as my package-handling hands can seal & send 'em.  Today is Monday. They arrived from Oasis Disc Manufacturing on Friday. The July 4th holiday weekend has allowed me time to get organized and take several thousand deep breaths before tackling the tasks at hand.

Mail to investors first. Then pre-orders, reviewers, bloggers, radio, on and on and on! 

Since I am CEO, Creative Director, VP of Operations, Publicity & Marketing Dept, Sales Division and Warehouse Manager for all things NO MORE INVITATIONS, it's ultra-important to have a 24/7 HQ Command Center scattered with various lists and "What the hell have I gotten myself into?" affirmations.


NO MORE INVITATIONS Office of Operations

It's also very important to create a working atmosphere that gives as few hints as possible of the fact that I have no idea what I'm doing.  One Woman Show = Make it Up As You Go.

And so.  Off the the races!  If you are an album investor, expect your copy of the disc ASAP.  Will send them in waves over the next week.  Pre-order Folks, you get yours immedately after.

Thanks for the notes of congrats and support!  Every word of encouragement pushes me forward with a smile.

Best,
Jennifer
For CD Pre-Orders, please use the PayPal link on the sidebar of this blog or visit http://www.rhymeswithclassy.com/ Every order is deeply appreciated.

To hear the title track from the album, please click the SoundCloud link below. No More Invitations (Artist: Jennifer Haase) by JenniferHaaseMusic

Design Stage!

Hey, Campers! 

We've finally reached the design stage for my album "No More Invitations" and I couldn't be happier to be working with friend and amazing singer/songwriter Patti Witten as my graphic designer.  

I'm in the thick of typing out final pages of lyrics, album credits, thank you's and fundraiser donor features for the CD package, while Patti riffs on design ideas. 

Please take a look and a listen at Patti's website.   She's another artist you should have in your mp3 player immediately.

http://www.pattiwitten.com/

More news to come!
Best,
Jennifer

FULL ALBUM DOWNLOAD FOR FIVE BUCKS! Now through the holidays 2010

Hey Folk-Pop Music Fans!

If you don't already have a copy of my first album "Listening Chair", it's currently available as a download only and I'm running a SPECIAL DONATION OFFER now through the holidays of FIVE BUCKS per full-album download! 

In order to receive a full-album download of my 1st album "Listening Chair", please donate $5.00 via the PayPal link here on my blog OR ask me for assistance if you have any trouble with that link.   Be sure to include your email address with your PayPal donation so that I can email the album download code to you!

I really appreciate your support.  Your donation helps pay the PR expenses of my forthcoming album "No More Invitations" and puts food on a starving artist's table, too.   It's a WIN-WIN!

Let me know if you have any questions or need PayPal assistance. 

Thank you!
Jennifer Haase

To hear snippets of songs from my album "Listening Chair" please visit:  www.cdbaby.com/cd/haase

To keep updated on my NEW album release set for January 2011, please keep checking this blog AND sign up for my mailing list at http://www.rhymeswithclassy.com/

Two Songs to Go!

Well, we had to postpone our recording session for this past Friday due to the hacking and sniffling emitting from my record producer's sick self.  

However....we're just two songs away from mastering this mo'fo! 

Yes, that's right, folk-pop fans.  Just two more songs to finish and mix, then we can master the album.

Gawd, that's SWEEET.   After 4 1/2 years of highs and lows, stops and starts, and the most AMAZING fundraiser journey I could possibly have imagined we're finally almost done with recording my new album called "No More Invitations."

Oh, there's still design to do.   And then the time it takes for manufacturing.   But we're on the downhill slide now and it's finally becoming clear I'll have an album to release by the New Year.

B-vox on "No More Invitations".......Cello on "3,000 Miles".......a few track tweaks in-between......and we'll be there!

Stay tuned.  The album is almost done but I'm just gettin' STARTED, World!

xoxo,
jennifer