February 2015

Monday, February 23, 2015

Window to the World!

Last evening we played our very first online concert through ConcertWindow.com
Holy smokes! What a grand time! We played a 90 min set of music to 7 different countries, Denmark, Czech Republic, Poland, England, Scotland, Canada, and the US! INCREDIBLE! We took requests and were able to shout out to the folks by reading the chat dialogue that was coming in. We literally invaded people's homes! Slippery Pig Brewery in Poulsbo projected the concert in the pub so that the patrons could enjoy it! Several folks made way to their local libraries for free internet to watch the show too! Folks from our previous tours chimed in from distant lands to say hello and send some love. We are so very lucky.

Thanks to all that tuned in, and spent some time with SeaStar. We will be making a youtube video of the concert within the next week or so.
If you missed, do not fret. Just check back at our webpage and find the link.

This show was driven by Ron and his friend Tucker. Thank you lads for a smashin' job!! The lads created the scene, set all the cables and mics, and wrangled the computer technology perfectly. Tucker monitored all the video and audio feeds to give the best sound possible. Things looked and sounded great! A wealth of great feedback came in from the chat feature during the show and after. There were a few cases of internet drop out but we believe that Concert Window held up the video pretty well as those outages were not universal but individual. But we will continue to look into better ways to project the show nonetheless.

What a great afternoon! Thank you soo much for tuning in and watching! We are humbled by the great response!

RPM Madness

Ron and Falcone are feverishly working on completing this year's RPM Challenge. They are doing great!
The RPM Challenge is a good kick in the backside to write 10 songs (or 35 mins of music) in the shortest month of the year, February. I have been brave enough to complete this challenge every year since 2007 (with the exception of 2011 when my father passed). There are no prizes. No one really wins anything. The payoff is that the artist has some great new material to play with. I have found this year very difficult to balance creativity with being a student of Gaelic, my second band Big Hair Shiny Guns, running my studio at 25 students, plus working the business and creative end of SeaStar. There still are a few days but my muse has been very shy.

I am very proud of Ron and Falcone for sticking to their creative guns this month! I am very excited to hear their new music!

Gung Haggis Fat Choy

WOW! Captain and I attended this unique and very successful event. It was an evening celebrating Chinese Lunar New Year and the 256th birthday of Robert Burns, the bard of Scotland. Held at the China Harbor Restaurant in Seattle, complete with kung fu and the slaying of the haggis, the event benefited local youth programs in the Scottish and Chinese cultures. This year event gave a great portion of its revenue to Northwest Junior Pipe Band who has played with us in the past. These talented kids are on their way to Glasgow in August to compete in the World Pipe Band Championships held on the Glasgow Green. We wish them all the very best on their journey!


From our concert at SoulFood in 2013

Hattie's Hat & the Ould Triangle

Thanks to all the kind folks who made it out on a school night to our show at Hattie's Hat on 3 February! We had a great time playing for friends and fans. We love those smaller kinds of shows. Interacting with our fans is completely the best!

After the show we headed over to the Ould Triangle in Greenwood to play at Kelly Blanchard's Open Mic. We shared a few tunes with our dear friend and sang a couple of new ones too. It was great to connect with Kelly and see that our friendship is still as true as the music that we made in SeaStar. Thanks so much, Kelly!

The Grammys

As a voting member of the Grammy Association, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the viewing party at the EMP in Seattle. It was a "rock formal" event with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. We viewed the Grammys on the massive screen of the Sky Church. It was a lovely evening with Audra, my fellow band-mate in Big Hair Shiny Guns, as my beautiful date. We mingled with loads of local Grammy artists and made some new friends. We hope to attend the actual Grammy performance in 2016.

Upcoming Gigs and London

So much coming up!
We play this coming Friday, 27 Feb at The Collective on Camano Island
Saturday, 28 February at the Black Dog in Snoqualmie
Friday, 7 March at Alexa Cafe in Bothell
Sunday, 8 March at the Stone Way Cafe in Seattle with
my dear friends Goh Kurosawa, from LA,
and Clint McCune

And Monday, 9 March, I leave for London and Paris. I have a few wee shows planned. It will be quite the adventure! I will even take a wee journey up to Stonehenge! And I must sip Absinthe by the Seine (as my song Gypsy says I must do). I will be sending updates to my facebook page.

So incredibly thankful for this life. Thank you for coming along for the ride!

With Love,

 

Photo by Dan Niven -- SeaStar live at the Shoreline Library!


Playing at the open mic at the Ould Triangle with Kelly


The Grammy Viewing Party at the EMP in Seattle


Seattle band, Jaded Mary, at the Grammy Viewing Party

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