Dear Friends,
Ready or not, we all are launched into 2024! In between tasks and things I listened to predictions, astrology, and the latest news. Everyone says things like, "Buckle your seatbelt!" Well, I look to the stars but John keeps looking and buying guitars!
Yesterday we met a young guy with a beat up old car who had a fascinating and funky 1970's Stella industrial styled Ukraine guitar. It needed work but John bought it knowing it will be profitable to sell or at least interesting to own, plus he loves the repair challenge. It's got a gold pick guard and black background, 10 switches, 4 pick ups and a thick whammy bar. It reminds me of a soldier from the early 1900s. With all those gizmos on it, it already hints of unusual tones and soon will come its very own Muse. Stay tuned for new music! Already John has it working well enough and has an introduction to a new song. I love to witness this process. It fills me with creative energy and awe.
I was busy working on the website. I took 37 tracks and videos of John's best work and put them on the website listed under genres tabs. Now curators, radio DJs, and visitors to the website can find genres that interest them more easily. Next task: finishing the press kit, and contacting as many relevant radio stations as I can this year.
Last night I had the first zoom meeting with four grad students from Worcester Polytec Institute who will be acting as our professional marketing consultants from now til late April. All of them are getting their masters there and all of them are from India. Two are musicians, all have extensive training in marketing, IT, and so on. They were so sweet, enthusiastic, articulate and helpful that tears of gratitude and joy from meeting them overtook me after the meeting. I gave them info about John and I to help them understand us and what we are hoping to accomplish in the next 3 months. I know this is going to get our show off the ground in some way. It would be my highest pleasure to see John's dream of reaching others with his music materialized in a real way. Selling our tracks, the album, videos, and merch will demonstrate this to him. He deserves this so much!
The youtube channel continues to climb in 75K views and close to 4K subscribers!
And soon I'll be learning how to make "shorts" on facebook reels, tiktoc, youtube, etc.The main purpose will be to interest people in the "longer" 3-5 minute videos, educate people about soul music, and get to know our work. The team will help me with this in a few days.
I finally completed a dozen or so posters but have to follow through and put them on Printful. Everything I do is a huge learning curve, but I love art so much that it was fun. I posted them below for your review. Soon they'll be for sale. Please, please, give me your opinion of them via email, BeggarsForSomeSoul@gmail.com
Do you know people that would love our music? Please share and send them our way. New visitors can grab a free track of Luv On Fire when they sign up for this newsletter.
We really want to hear from you! You can comment on youtube, or our facebook biz page, or shoot us an email.
Remember that you get a 15% discount on anything at the website! Also, if you'd like me to make a special playlist of tracks for you or as a gift, let me know.
Sending you love, art, and music to accompany you in 2024. Sing your heart out like nobody's listening!
John and Judy