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Permalink Reply by Dan Adkins on February 26, 2008 at 9:20am

Heather,
Is this just for performing musicians, or are you interested in others - producers, songwriters, composers, engineers, etc.? I perform rarely, but I songwrite and have songs running around the countryside. I'd be interested in hearing about other songwriters and performers, as well as good studios, engineers and others to find out about the recording community in IN. Does that work for this group?

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Permalink Reply by Heather Lapham Kuhn on February 26, 2008 at 10:05am

Hi Dan, welcome!

This is for anyone and everyone involved in music. I shouldn't have used the word "performing" in my initial post. I think it would be great to have a dialog between people involved in many ways - I'd love to learn more about what others are doing, especially since I don't know that much about some of the other sides of the music business.

I guess the only limitation I imagined was that I'd hoped people who are not involved in the production of music in any way (purely music lovers) might not join, allowing this to be a forum for those out doing & creating. I certainly have nothing against music lovers, but those who are not intimately involved in the creation of the music, whether it be as songwriter, performer, engineer, or something else, have a different perspective and understanding from those of us who are.

So, tell me more about your writing! I'd love to hear more about what your doing, what genre(s) you work in, artists you work with...

I'm looking forward to the conversation!

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Permalink Reply by Dan Adkins on February 26, 2008 at 10:31am

Thanks for such a swift reply, Heather. I have two of my songs posted on my SI site. They're a bit different - one being a big production, flag-waving kind of song, the other being a rock song. "Carry On" has had some air time on Sirius radio, but very minimal and we're still trying to get it picked up somewhere. "Shelter" was released on a CD in Sweden that was contracted with my co-writer, the amazingly talented Mitch Malloy, and is a highly produced rock song. The particular version that I have on SI is actually recorded by a Christian artist who's name I can't remember. Mitch did an amazing version as well, similar to the production on my site. I'm trying to download some others that I've written/co-written, but most are not in MP3 form, so I'm working on converting them for upload.

I've also been a composer on a number of very small indie films and play out with very little frequency - particularly after moving to Bloomington, as I don't have a great deal of time and I don't know much about the local scene. It is, of course, much more youth oriented, as well, so my stuff is not necessarily what's happening around here. My son, on the other hand, is getting his career going and has some popularity around here and other parts of the country in the indie pop/rock genre.

Tell me about what you do, musically and otherwise! I'd love to hear more.

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Permalink Reply by Daniel Andrew Young on February 26, 2008 at 4:15pm

Heather, thanks for starting this. I have been a part-time, semi-pro musical performer for a long time. I have a lot in common with Dan Adkins, apparently. Writing songs is my #1 art form. I play guitar and keyboards (not terribly well), but am primarily a singer, performing jazz & pop standards, ballads & swing. I used to play original songs on gigs sometimes but there wasn't really a market here for what I do. I have some home studio recording capabilities, and have finished a couple of new song demos recently. One is on my page, the other I will upload ASAP. I did all the parts myself. I write arrangements in MIDI; I used to write my own drum tracks from scratch, but not being a real drummer, they're not that good. Lately I've just been using rhythm patterns & fills from my keyboard.

I had a busy couple of years recording my jazz album (ten standards), "A Place to Dream," with pianist Ken Fary and some great session players. It came out about a year ago; Chuck Workman at WICR gave me some airplay and an interview, and we did a CD release show at the Jazz Kitchen. I performed with the Ken Fary Trio at the Chatterbox three times in 2007, and at the Indianapolis Museum of Art a couple of times, and some other solo gigs. I used to play once a week for a couple of years at Brix in Zionsville (restaurant/wine bar) but that ended a year ago and they're out of business now, I think. I also played at Deano's Vino in Fountain Square once a month until recently. But so far in 2008, I've got nothing on the calendar for performing. I ran out of energy trying to promote myself all over town, and I've hit all the possible venues already. Again, not a big market for what I do. Anyway, I'm working on my next CD, a bunch of piano-based, arty pop songs, plus these 2 Latin-rhythm, guitar-based jazz-influenced pop tunes. One of them I wrote for Elizabeth Souza of the band, IPANEMA (Brazilian & Latin jazz). She was going to write Portuguese lyrics for it; she has the demo, so time will tell, she's very busy...

I'm going to re-post some of this and add some stuff on my regular blog. Music is Life!
DA

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