Rained Out and Postponed

Well, in five months of preparation, I knew that there would be several xfactors where the Cd Release Event could be postponed or delayed. Rain was always the biggest concern, especially since we were planning it in Aug, the height of Hurricane season. What we feared happened and a small tropical disturbance churned all day south of us and the forecast was for rain.

Our sponsors, Budweiser and La Careta, did not feel comfortable holding the event with the forecast being what it was. So, around 2:30, we decided to postpone to Sept 11th. The real work began after that when we had to spend the entire evening letting people know. It was crazy and not at all the day that I was expecting. I woke up Sat excited about the event and full of anticipation only to end the day pretty bummed out.

There are some advantages to pushing back and we did hear from a lot of people who said that they were glad that it had been moved because the new date, Sept 11th, worked better for them.
We have a lot of work to do to prepare for the 11th but a lot of the production work is done because we were set to go yesterday.

I will make several appearances on local radio over the next two weeks to keep the promotions up and I am booked to play in New Orleans this weekend. I will go ahead and play the New Orleans show this weekend.

I want to say thank you to those of you who made plans to be at the release party. I hope that the 11th works for you and I look forward to FINALLY releasing Weightless.

In other news, I released my first music video today on youtube and facebook.

Here is the link! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SXOW3UYTSc

Have a great day!!!

Dang....That is my Song Playing!!!

Hi everyone. So, yeah, I know I promised to blog more this week but whew.......this has been the craziest week for all of us preparing for the Cd Release Saturday. There has literally been something to do every hour. Having said that, I had to find a few minutes to blog tonight about my experience today.

I went yesterday to Tangi 96.5 and taped an interview with a wonderful guy, Al Toups, who DJs as The Bayou Wolfman. Al agreed to have me on and to play Louisiana, from the new cd. I met him about 5 P.M. and we recorded the interview. Al set up the time for the interview and song to play where my schedule would allow me to listen.

So, after my fourth hour class exited my band hall, I grabbed my keys and headed out to my truck. Because I was in Denham Springs, the station was going in and out. So, I drove around in our parking lot until I found a place where I could listen and hear the signal clearly. I am sure that some people must have been mused by me driving around the parking lot seemingly with no purpose. When I stopped, I turned up the volume and listened to Louisiana. I can't describe the feeling of sitting there listening to my song play on the air waves. It was awesome and it charged me up to get ready for a huge marketing campaign which will include us pushing Louisiana and the project in many different directions. After sitting there today, I am energized to work even harder. I got a taste of what that felt like and I liked it a lot.

Tomorrow is the big day and months of planning has gone into preparing for this event. I hope the weather holds and everyone who comes out really enjoys their evening at the Weightless Release. Hope to see you there.

Gregory

Final Approach

Hey Everyone! We are almost home and I am feeling it for sure. The days are filled with so much to do before the release and I am literally having to plan each day very strategically to get everything done. From Sound and Lighting systems to press submissions to rehearsals to invitations.......the list just goes on and on.

Budweiser picked up my event and is now our sponsor along with La Careta of Hammond. This is awesome because they will bring out all of their nice covered tents and canopies for the event. I was very pleased to get this news yesterday.

Yesterday, my brother-in-law emailed me and suggested that we may need an alternate version of Louisiana for Radio Format and play. So, I emailed my engineer with the idea and within a few hours we were contacting Ben Manuel to help us track the radio version to Louisiana. We started tracking about 8:30 and I drove into my driveway this morning at 4:00 A.M. Needless to say, I am very tired today but I had so much to do that I just had to keep plugging along. We were able to get a good alternate version of Louisiana and I will have it played this week on 96.5 and 107.1 in Hammond, La.

This week ahead will be filled with interviews, TV Shows and printed press submissions in preparation for next Saturday's release. After a whole summer of hard work and two years of writing music, I am almost home. At this point, I am really looking forward to playing my music and getting all of the busy work done. Tonight, I got the opportunity to perform Macy's Dream for about 40 Teenagers who were totally zoned into the song and the lyrics. I played my new Manuel Patterson Cedar Top with no amplification in a smallish room. It was perfect and just good music without any artificial additions. That is the way I like it.

Ok, I have several things to do before crashing and preparing for the week ahead. I will blog throughout the week about the developments as we draw closer to Saturday. Pray for good weather and make plans to come out and celebrate with us. See you soon!

Gregory

26 Days and Counting

Wow, it's been an incredibly busy and eventful summer for me. I am off to prepare my new band hall at Juban Parc for the new school year. After working in administration for four years, I am very excited about the opportunity to teach again, especially music. I don't know this for sure, but I get the picture that a lot of people get up everyday and do things they just have to do to make a living. I have always been very lucky in being able to do something that I love so much, which is music. I am also excited about having the opportunity of teaching now that I have pursued my songwriting and music with all of my energy. I really launched myself into the music right about the same time that I went into administration so it will be awesome now to be able to share my story and stories with the students that I am honored to teach. I hope to be a living example to them of what they can do if they follow their dreams and passions. I can't wait!!!

After a full day of prep at the new school, I will have a short break and Casey and I will go back to work on Weightless tonight. We are close to being done with three songs, Disappear, Ghostly Writer and Time. All three of these are very close to being done. Believe it or not, we are just 26 Days from the release of Weightless. I pushed back a week and I am opting for a quicker pressing turn around in New Jersey in order to give Casey adequate time to work his magic in mixing the project. We put so much into the production of this that I am determined to get the mixes where we are both very satisfied. As I stated before, you could have the finest musicians in the world play on your album but if the mix is bad, then the album is bad. This project turned out to be huge in scope with all of the people that I brought in to play on it.

So, this will be a tough week for us to work the seven songs remaining in a very limited time frame but we will get it done. Gotta run, busy day ahead!

Before I go, just a line for you from a new song that I am writing:

Stop and think it over,
Before you waste away the day
And when you swim in the ocean
Always look for diamonds along the way!

Jesse Hayden, my grandfather, was and still is legendary to me. He was absolutely the biggest and most positive influence in my life. When I would be running my race each day, occasionally, I would stop for coffee with him. I would begin to tell him about everything that was going in my life and he would so eloquently say......."Boy, You Need To Stop And Smell The Roses".

Well Said Pop!!!! Thanks so much!!! Your words are with me everyday!!!!

Gregory