Thinking 2010

Well our strategic planning is underway for next year. I'm a firm believer in that ole' saying, "if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail." In my many years of being involved with strategic planning, I've learned that the more you enter the year focused and with a path, the more likely you are to exceed your own expectations.

I'm very excited about 2010. Not only because of the fabulous projects that are on the table, but also for the opportunity we will have to help out the music community. Not being limited to the Kansas City market will be a huge step. Unfortunately, it takes either regional or national success sometimes to hit in your own back yard.

So far, I'm communicating with my primary partners and artists to ensure that their objectives are aligned with my objectives. This prevents anyone from becoming distracted with conflicting interests. So far so good.

The planning sessions will run now through September 20, 2009. Much hard work!

Progress Report on "Chasing Daylight"

Greetings. Well most of the tracks for Chasing Daylight, the forthcoming album of mine, are done in their basic form. Now it is about finding soloists for those tracks. As expected, I'll be using some of the finest Kansas City talent available. This last week I dropped a copy of the raw tracks to Caleb Aldrich, a very talented sax player who currently performs with the Brian Ruskin Quartet and the Night Owls.

August and September are the recording trials for the remaining solos. An interesting note is that the final track for the album is a composition titled "Us". Conceptually, this track will be built around a simple progressive, but will featured an amazing myriad of artists and friends. I will use additive and subtractive techniques to build tension. The cool thing is that it will include individual tracks of "1st time ever's". For example, this may have Heather Thornton playing guitar. Not exactly an instrument she plays, but musicians can always come up with something.

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Progress Report - Heather Thornton's new album

So far we've got about 6 tracks in varying stages of completion. However, the big news this week is the preliminary mastering of "the Damage is Done". This is one of my songs that Heather desired to sing and include on this album. All the early feedback amongst our constituents and random people who have heard it has exceeded my expectations.

Great job Bree Plaster, your drumming is so intimately perfect for this track. Great job Jeramy Johnston, the upright part is exactly the tone needed to blend with my acoustic guitar foundation. I expect this track will be finalized this week. Can't wait to shop it around to the larger entities. Heather & I need a Grammy!


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