december 24, 2010
every7days will be back after christmas!
thank you
december 17, 2010
This week I offer two short piano sketches inspired by the christmas.
One was inspired by this idea: wouldn't it be great to have some happy little worker elves around the house? Why does only Santa get those?
This is a hand carved miniature workshop,
12 inches wide, made by the craftsman at wolfscraft.com
The other is inspired by a very early childhood memory of listening carefully on Christmas Eve for possible reindeer hoofprints on the roof.
You can listen to both holiday inspired sketched here.
december 10, 2010
When you write a song every week for a year, inevitably the results will vary.
(not representative of actual results)
You will see what I mean when you click here.
december 3, 2010
Many songs were written specifically for a certain singer.
For example, "Old Man River" was written specifically for Paul Robeson.
And Lady Gaga's song "Telephone" was originally written for Britney Spears.
I wrote this week's song with a famous & beloved singer in mind:
Jiminy Cricket, as drawn by Toby Bluth circa 1939
I had lots of help writing the harmonies for this song from the wonderful Adam Shulman.
You can listen to it (and imagine Mr. Cricket singing) here.
november 26, 2010
When you are a piano player, you can't take your instrument with you to gigs or recordings.
I mean, maybe you can if you're Elton John or something, and you have a fleet of moving trucks and an unlimited budget.
Usually you just play whatever instrument is there.
Sometimes it's a gorgeous concert instrument that has been well cared-for and meticulously maintained. Sometimes it's a saloon piano with beer stains on the keys and broken strings inside. Either one might be perfect for a given song.
Recently I recorded a new album (due January 2!) on a piano that belongs to George Winston.
George and his engineer, Howard Johnston, were incredibly generous with their time and the studio, inviting me to come hang out with them while they were working, and to come in on my own to practice on the instrument.
george's piano
What made this extra special to me was that when I was in high school, I was completely obsessed with George's music. For awhile, his albums - December, Winter Into Spring, and Autumn were all I would listen to.
Making a recording on the piano that belongs to a musician who was once your idol, who you have spent hours listening to and trying to copy, is such an incredible experience. I really can't express how much it meant to me.
So I made a thank-you song for George and Howard, based on the chords in George's song Thanksgiving. (It's on the December album - buy it!) You could call it stealing, but I prefer to think of it as a tribute.
The lyrics were inspired by the way Howard records George - with the piano's lid removed. You can listen to it here.
november 19, 2010
from I Saw You: comics inspired by real-life missed connections
This week's song is inspired by missed connections. If you don't want to miss it, click here.
november 12, 2010
Sap!
not only does it come from trees.
It can also be found here.
november 5, 2010
This little website was featured in the East Bay Express this week, thanks to the very kind Rachel Swan.
State Penn by Sage Vaughn mixed media on paper, 2006
So yes, undoubtedly this site will soon be full of paid product placements and noisy pop-up ads.
But for now you can still listen to this week's song, in peace and free of charge, by clicking here.
october 29, 2010
This week: a song for a friend who must go.
It's called So You Must Go.
(But not to all these places.)
You can listen to it here.
october 22, 2010
This week the wonderful & talented Adam Shulman and I decided to make a song together inspired by autumn.
It is both my pleasure and my privilege to be able to collaborate with Adam. Thanks to him, I think you'll notice how much richer the harmonies are on this song than what you might normally hear every7days or so.
You can listen to our Autumn song here.
october 15, 2010
So. I may not have mentioned it, but you know how Every7days was away for a few weeks? Well, it's because I was in beautiful Italy!
Tropea (southern Calabria)
While I was there, I ate several pounds of gnocchi. I also took several hundred photos.
I ate all of these. (Not really.)
I also made some rough field recordings on my cell phone. Really rough.
Basically when I heard something interesting, I whipped out the phone and recorded.
Some of the cool things I heard just didn't make viable recordings, unfortunately.
Alas, this awesome parade in Palermo
was
waaaay too loud for my cell phone.
But some did, and I compiled them into a sort of song collage. Which you can listen to here.
october 8, 2010
This week's song was inspired by getting an amazing gift of a brand new laptop.
Then watching my cat knock a full glass of water onto it, before it was even a week old.
Then being told by the manufacturer that it needed a new main logic board, and the water damage automatically voided the warranty.
But, just this once, they would make an exception to the rules and fix my computer.
For free.
You can imagine how astonished I was. But you don't need to, because you can listen here.
thank you for listening
every7days and I are on vacation!!!!
I will be back October 1.
xoxo
katy
september 10, 2010
This week's song goes out to everyone who has a birthday this year: hooray for you!
Most specifically, it goes out to the Septemberistas: Kara, Amber, Carey, Janine, Sol, Mark, and many more.
"Don't Invite Morrissey To Your Birthday Party" from nataliedee.com
This song wishes us all a happy birthday. Although it does not actually mention anything about "happy".
You can listen to it
here.
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