Bartholomew Makes Another Decision - The Music

This week's story is a party story, so there is a partying song from JR and B3DH3D, who are part of Last Triumph Collective.  This song really rocks!  It is a remix of Above and Beyond's You Got To Go.  Sit back, or get up and dance, and enjoy it.

The second song for this week's story is so fresh it is not yet recorded!  Whoa!  Patrick Larkin, of Miami Dolphins, is hopefully be recording Then Came You, originally by the Spinners and Dionne Warwick.  So, I hope by next weekend I will have a dynamite second song for you.  Until then, you will have to wait.

Christmas Wrap! - the Music by Barbara McAfee

Music for this week's story, Christmas Wrap!, is by Barbara McAfee.  These are two beautiful winter seasonal songs.  One is called Holy Cold and the other Simple Season.  Barbara is a singer/songwriter, keynoter, author, and voice coach who merges lessons from 12 years in organization development with the transformative power of music. Check out her website for her many cd's and her hot selling book Full Voice, the Art and Practice of Vocal Presence.  And, hey, have her keynote your conference.  You won't be sorry.  Thank you, Barbara.

Someone to Call Home - Music

This week's music is provided by two different performers: Kelly Jo Roth and Yata!

Some of you might know Kelly Jo from the story reading performance last month at Dreamland Arts.  She played piano, sang songs and was a perfect musical interpreter of the stories read that evening.  Here again, Kelly Jo has written a wonderful song for The Book of Bartholomew.  It is titled Waiting.  Instead of piano, she is on ukelele in this song about waiting for her love to come home.  It is a very catchy tune that will not leave your brain.  I find myself singing it around the house often.

The second musician is Yata.  Some of you may be familiar with Yata from story #2: Gerald Teaches a Life Lesson.  Two of his songs were featured there.  This week's song was chosen for Someone To Call Home by Yata.  We were at a cabin up north with many other artists this last summer.  Everyone took a turn playing music or sharing a poem, etc.  I read this story to the crowd.  After the story was over, Yata wanted to play this song for me because my story had reminded him of it.  It is a song he wrote about his wife.  I was blown away.  A couple of days later we recorded the song in a little 10' x 10' room out over the water.  The violin is played by Terry Elliot on just the second take.  She had not heard the song before - I could tell stories about how amazing a violin player she is, too.

Both of these songs capture so well the feelings I had while writing this story, a sense of longing, a sense of oneness, a sense of peace found in someone you love.

Someone to Call Home will be published tomorrow, 12/14/12 at The Book of Bartholomew.

Claire - Music by Dalia

I think Claire and Dalia are a perfect match.  When I first heard Dalia's music, I thought of Claire.  I had to wait for this story to make this happen.  Dalia's songs appeared in the first story of The Book of Bartholomew.  This story shares the songs Light Years Away and Every Bird Sings.

Dalia is part of a local collective of artists called Last Triumph. Last Triumph includes musicians, artists, multi-media-ists (word?), and designers.  Dalia shares the bill at Last Triumph with people like St. Paul Slim, Chuck U., and they even have their own parkour artist.  How rad is that?  I met JR at an art opening.  JR is the contact for Last Triumph and a really great guy.  Last Triumph is always looking for opportunities to collaborate.  Check them out.

As mentioned previously, Dalia is an independent singer-songwriter from Minneapolis, MN. Determined to not be pinned to any one genre or stereotype, her songs bridge musical gaps from folk to hip hop to ambient. She has been actively performing around the Twin Cities since 2005, and released her debut album, Treetops and Telephone Wires, in late 2007. A true DIY artist, she writes and records all of her music, designs all of her own artwork, and does all of her own booking and promotion. For her second album, Abstract Habitat, which was released earlier this year, she personally hand-screenprinted 250 limited edition copies on recycled packaging. Keeping an arms length from the commercial music scene at all times, she is committed to making music that is real, organic, inspiring and fresh.

Dalia's websites:
https://www.facebook.com/acousticdalia
http://www.myspace.com/acousticdalia

Gerald Teaches a Life Lesson - the Music

The music for the story Gerald Teaches a Life Lesson is by Yata.

With part of the story taking place on an island, I chose two of Yata's island songs, Cocoabutter and Del Mar.  The songs are story appropriate, but I also met Yata for the first time on Mallard Island on Rainy Lake near International Falls, Minnesota.  Yata was leading a creative collaborators workshop and I was a caretaker of the island.  He was gracious enough to let me be a part of the workshop as well.  I soon found that Yata's energy and repertoire are immense, perhaps verging on legendary.  He had gathered an amazing group of people who were ripe for collaborating and, under his fun leadership, it became a magical week.

One participant had read a Walt Whitman poem early in the week. Well, in no time, Yata had written an amazing song that captured the poem, the week and the island.  Here is a snippet of its unveiling.  Yata was as excited as a six year old to share it with us.

Yata is a singer, guitarist and prolific songwriter performing and recording folk music which incorporates the influences of jazz, rockabilly, gospel,country, blues and ballads into his songs.  I'm honored to have Yata providing the music for this story.  He will be back in story #11.  Please check out his website: http://www.yatayata.com/.

The Book of Bartholomew provides two songs from Twin City area musicians with each story published.  To listen to the songs, go to that weeks story at bookofbartholomew.blogspot.com and click on a story cover.  When the story opens, to listen to the first song or second song, click on the symbols:

 

To stop the songs, click on the symbols:

 

You can listen while you read or afterward.