Blossom in the Sun - April Newsletter

Hi everyone,

My feature set at the Parish Center for the Arts open mike was so much fun. I saw people I hadn't seen since the "before times" and I got to hear a wide variety of music from all the open mikers, which was great. It felt so good to be back in the game, so to speak.

I have two more live shows this month and info is below. One is in Vermont, so if you know folks in that area who would enjoy an afternoon of original music, please send them our way! I am also looking forward to other upcoming events. In June I will be playing a house concert on Cape Cod  stay tuned for more info coming soon.

I have a title for the new album! It will be called Blossom in the Sun, which is a lyric from the song Green-Eyed Daisy. You can have a listen to the final mix here. The songs are being mastered as you read this, and graphics are being designed. We're getting closer and closer!

Thank you, as always, for your interest and support! Hope to see you out there soon.

:) Kirsten

Upcoming Shows

Sunday, April 10
Kirsten Manville and Tim Foley
Stage 33 Live
3:00 p.m.
33 Bridge St, Bellows Falls, VT
stage33live.com

This is another gig that was supposed to happen in the spring of 2020. Tim Foley and I will each play a separate set, while also helping each other out on a few of our songs. We are looking forward to heading out to one of our favorite states. 
There is a $10 suggested donation.

Friday, April 15 (rescheduled from Jan. 22)
The Sweet Janes
Walnut Street Cafe
8:30 - 11 p.m.
157 Walnut St, Lynn, MA
 
Lori Wadkins, MaryBeth Maes and I will be back for an evening of music, laughter, and most likely some sass. We'll play our usual mix - solo and together, originals and covers. Hope to see you there!

Creative Musings

"One of the most powerful and common ways to hone creativity is to set aside time throughout the day to do irrelevant and mindless tasks that let your mind wander. Yes, you read that right: irrelevant and mindless tasks. Basically, chill."
 
The above quote is from this article in Psychology Today. And I admit that I am not good at chilling. I always feel like a should be doing something productive. I could be writing, planning, folding laundry, practicing, food shopping, weeding, running errands - this list is endless. So the idea of chilling makes me feel guilty and like I am (gasp!) WASTING TIME! Oh no! 

I guess I have to change my outlook, though. I, like the rest of us, have been conditioned to believe that wasting time is BAD. It turns out though, it's actually good and necessary even, if you want to be more creative. So I am going to try to incorporate more idle time into my days. We'll see how it goes!

Good Stuff

I received the book Switched on Pop a couple of Christmases ago, and started to read it, but then I got distracted by the other books I had under the tree. (I received a lot of books that year). So I am picking it back up again. I have always been fascinated by what makes music (of any kind) "work," ever since I started to study music theory. This is an in-depth but fun and easy to understand explanation of the various tools pop songwriters use (whether planned or just intuitively) to compose those songs we can't help but bop along to in our cars, on the dance floor, or just cleaning the house. I covers songs from 2000 - 202o, so my all-time favorite pop song Come On Eileen by Dexys Midnight Runners (I love the fiddle!) won't be analyzed, but that's OK. What are your favorite pop songs?

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