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!!!!

Day 160

Day 160 of ANNIE B.'s D.I.Y. MAGAZINE (Post #9)

Today we had a VERY productive rehearsal, and yes, we will be ready to rock the House of Bricks tomorrow night in Des Moines. 9 songs, 3 of which are VERY new (I have to memorize the lyrics for 2 of them tonight!!!!!) and the trip will be LOADS of fun! Mapquest says the trip is 6 hours and 4 minutes but with it now being "construction season"...

I still have to burn a bunch of CDs so I have product to sell tomorrow night, too...

So, I will meet Theo in maybe an hour at our rehearsal space to run through these songs one more time with him... he needs one more run-through.

FINALLY got the CDs mailed for our GAP performance for "Born To Play" on Aug. 20th, and e-mailed the posters. That GAP manager Joey Deitz is a swell guy, very helpful and totally excited about having us!

I better get back to work, just wanted to say HI!
:)
A

Day 1 (actually, Day 2)

Ok, it's actually Day 5706 on my way to winning a Grammy... which is one of my 5 major career goals. I promise to post blogs here until I win a Grammy, and when I do win a Grammy, YOU can say you followed me all the way there!

I will hopefully keep blogging here even after I win that Grammy, but I am now obligated to blog here until I do win one. I have made a public statement, and I will come through.

So, like I said, it's probably more like Day 5706 (somewhere between 15 & 16 years) since I wrote my first song that I actually kept and recorded, and considered myself to be a bona fide artist... (That song was called "Follow Your Heart," and I wrote it in the summer of 1993. I could probably still sing & play that song today if I needed to. I have since written well over 300 songs. Some of 'em are pretty good, some are great, and some are not so good and you will never, ever hear them.)

That's when it all began, when I first started dreaming of winning a Grammy, and having my other 4 career goals. Those would be (1) hearing my songs randomly on the radio, (2) headlining for an audience of 10,000 or more, (3) going on a world tour with a real tour bus and real riders and hotel rooms and all that stuff, (4) I actually forgot the other one, but I will let you know if I remember what it is. Those first few are the best indicators that I've "made it," I guess you could say. I have actually toured the U.S., but it was in my car and most nights I did not know where I would end up crashing. I crashed in my car a lot that year.

Perhaps I have already "made it," since I only play music for a living. Isn't that reason enough to celebrate??? I also get some hosting gigs, but that's also being in the spotlight, so it kind of counts. (Sorry about the narcissism/need for attention. Maybe I didn't get enough attention as a kid, being 5th out of 6?)

Anyhoo, so I'll call this Day 1, since it's Day 1 of Blogging 'Til I Win A Gammy. Even though it's really Day 2, since I'd like my "start date" to be March 1. That will make my life easier... to have Day 1 on the first day of the month.

So I'll be writing about the things I am doing to "make it." The little tasks I perform every day or every week, what I am doing to get bigger and better gigs, other things I am doing to move my career forward towards that Grammy and my 4 (today it's only 3) other goals.

It's kind of like getting a chance to be behind the scenes and say "I knew her when..." in case I really do make it to the "Big Time." Wait a minute! "In case"???? Nope. That stops right here. Half the way to success is attitude and believing in yourself. Actually, it's more than half.

So, WHEN I make it to the big time, you can say you knew me when I was on Day 1 of my Blogging 'Til I Win A Grammy"!!! How fun would that be????

OK, so let's get started...

What did I do today?

Well, I slept at a friend's place last night (still trying to decide if this guy is my boyfriend... ??????) and he had to be at work at 6:15 so I was up at 5:50 and home by 6:30am which is very unlike me. I did get a lot accomplished today and that's because I got a huge jump-start on the day.

I helped shovel snow and had a great breakfast (like I do every morning... not the shoveling part, the breakfast part!!!) Had to be at a producer friend's house to edit a promo for www.milwaukeeartbeat.com - Milwaukee Artbeat is a new artist showcase I am producing and hosting. Fun stuff. Please visit the website for more info.

Got done editing around 2pm but then I got a call from the place where my parents live regarding my pop. He's got dementia and that can lead to aggressive behavior for some. Oddly enough, the video producer I am working with (www.xfactafilms.com) is also a social worker so he knows all about it... we talked about stuff for almost an hour.

Then I headed over to Bukalou, our web people for Milwaukee Artbeat, so they could upload the video. Hopefully they'll be able to do that tomorrow or sometime this week.

Send me an e-mail when you see our trailer up at www.milwaukeeartbeat.com, will ya?

Got home around 4 and sent out a few e-mails. I am trying to get 88.9 and the local arts/entertainment papers to sponsor Milwaukee Artbeat so I left a few phone messages, too.

Ate a turkey sandwich. An exciting day so far!

Also waiting on word from the House of Bricks in Des Moines to see if I can open for G.B. Leighton when he comes through. I know, Des Moines is 5 hours away, but I am headed down to L.A. for a Shut Up Marie reunion show at the end of April, so I'm trying to make that part of my trip down.

Went to the bank, they let me sneak in right as they were closing.

E-mails, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Last.fm, and Eventful came next. How can people keep up with all the online networks you have to do these days? Bugsy and I agree - it's a 40-hour a week job!!! And guess what....... now I have ANOTHER thing to do online... my "Blogging 'Til I Win A Grammy" blog!!!!!!!!!

Next up will be laundry (that's a break for me - most of the evening I am at my computer). Then I need to create a cool loop for the trailer. We're trying to fix the audio on the trailer, and that's my opportunity to put in a different loop for the background music. I enjoy that stuff... actually doing MUSIC instead of promotion, e-mailing, press kits, and all that jazz.

Last thing is to make my "to do" list for tomorrow, and I'm trying to read a little from "The Prophet" before I hit the hay these nights.

UGH!!!! I forgot to get a Thank You card for Nick at Sunny 97.7 in Fond du Lac!!! He interviewed me on the station last Thursday morning. Thanks, Nick!!!!!!!!

Have a great night. See you again in a day or two!!!!!!!!