Day 164

Day 164 of ANNIE B.'s D.I.Y. MAGAZINE (Post #10)

Hello, Hello! Working today on getting all those long-overdue THANKS YOU's out to all the Artbeaters! Also need to send out that e-mail to all the new Des Moines fans from our show last Friday. Did sell a few CDs but I will be happy if we get paid better next time since we did not even get paid expenses (and that was actually part of the deal). But we did really have a GREAT time on the drive out - lots of laughing and bonding. The three of us work well together in the rehearsal studio, and now that I know we can get along fine on a 6-hour small-car drive, that's really a good sign. The show was great, not a HUGE crowd, but a decent crowd... again, sold some CDs, collected some e-mail addresses... moving forward in Des Moines!

Anyhoo, got an e-mail from Kandall Polster (welder artist from the last Artbeat) who is helping me get a show at the Harley Museum restaurant, Motor. Also got hooked up with a gig at Momo's in Austin through a contact there - John Doughty. Scott Berendt also hooked up a gig at the Coach House since he double-booked himself. (Oops!) But it feels REALLY good to be getting offers and calls now instead of always having to solicit the gigs, make the cold calls, etc etc etc. I guess hard work really DOES pay off!!!

New this week: my artwork for The Kiwi Cafe being done by Jesse Engelbrecht (gallery artist from the April Artbeat). His sketchwork would be PERFECT for the Kiwi Cafe album cover, so we are to talk about it tonight over the phone. (TOTALLY excited about putting out the album the way it should be, instead of burning copies for my shows every time!)

Also, I am no longer working with Ralph from Active Artist Management. I guess that's no surprise, since we have been butting heads since almost Day One. He is a good guy, but I know that we do not belong working together.

Thank goodness the dry songwriting spell over the last 3 years or so seems to be FINALLY OVER! Those 3 new songs we started working on at rehearsals are definitely worthy additions to the set!

Theo started e-mailing venues all over the Midwest last week so the band can start building a regional following. So far, we have been getting a pretty good response, but there is a great need to build an online database that we can use to communicate all activities, and find people's e-mail addresses quickly, since I notice that most responses do not indicate the venue/town they are representing. ANOTHER project!!!

I ALSO need to start working on contacting publishing companies for "What Do You Do"... since that song just does not seem to fit in with what we are doing right now. When I am going to find time doing that, I am not sure... but I hope to fit in in somewhere soon!!!!!! Anyone who is interested in interning for a record label based out of Milwaukee, please give a shout: anniebbaby@gmail.com. I know a LOT about the music business and I know how to make things happen, but with everything we've got going on, it can't all be done by just a few people! We need interns!

Have a beautiful day and NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR DREAMS!!!!