DWMusic hosts Volcano Music Industry Mixer

Ian Varley offered & I jumped at the chance to host the weekly Tuesday night Music Industry Mixer at the Volcano on Bissonet. Logan asked The Southern Backtones if they would play one of their popular acoustic sets and they agreed.

I'm off to go eat more TGiving food, so for now, I'm just going to post the pictures, but as you can see a good time was had by all.

Most cool, however, was that a massive front blew in while the Backtones played. Hank said it was like the scene in the Wizard of Oz where Dorthy is in the house up in the air in the tornado. It was pure magic!

(Hi to all my new friends from that night!!)

(the other) Dan Workman/Christine Wu

No, I'm not talking about a Mr. Hyde personality, I'm referring to my namesake and co-conspirator in the music scene, (J.) Daniel Workman, bassist extraordinaire.

Dan came to my attention many years ago. People would ask me why I had played bass with some band, or that they heard about 'my' jam session and were hurt that I didn't invite them. I finally figured it out: there was ANOTHER musician named 'Dan Workman'.



I have had the honor of sitting in on Dan's jam session. He is way over my head as a player (true!). He is in a band called Mirror Image, that I am hearing about from several different sources.

Click on the link and check them out. I'll be going to the Dan Electro's show on Jan. 7th. Just maybe, I'll get to work with them in the studio. More will be revealed.

Can you say: 'Christine Wu'? Well, hell yeah you can.



Christine is an accomplished violinist with the Houston Symphony who is open-minded enough to want to work on some avant-ambient tracks with me.



The plan is for us to come us with some material independently and merge ideas a few weeks later. We've been feeding each other some references and I think I may know some guys who are highly evolved enough to perform with us in the studio.



More will be revealed (again).

David Brake

Several, (ok, MANY) moons ago, I mixed a record for Houston songwriter, David Brake. Dave really impressed me with his musicianship, but his songwriting was, and is, transcendent.



David is performing with his band and paying the bills at the moment, but I hope to be working with him sometime this spring. If you have an opportunity to see him live, do it now while you can still get down front without a fight.

You heard it here first.

tl-D

Thanksgiving at DWM & SugarHill & Songwriting with Carolina Bedetta

I started my day in great anticipation of two things: our annual Thanksgiving Day Feast (early, but what the heck), and songwriting with Kevin Ryan and Carolina Bedetta.



Neither event let me down. Each of us made part of the meal. Christi and I smoked a turkey, & two turkey breasts, made cranberry sauce, gravy, and smoked chedder cheese.





Our vegan brothers and sisters brought the right stuff(!) It was actually quite good!:








All the eating took it's toll:



Somehow I was able to remain moderate in my consumption so when Kevin & Carolina showed up we were ready to be creative:









Kevin has agreed to help us songwrite for some of the songs in Carolina's next set. We met for quite a while today to discuss possible coversongs, influences, styles, and genres.

Time to get busy (again)
thelove,
Dan

PopStars and Sarah Sharp

I talked to Sarah Sharp today who was in Greenville, SC on tour. Her song 'Run' is going to be the song of the day (AGAIN) on Garageband.com, tomorrow, Sunday the 14th of November!



Between Sarah's earlier Track of the Day honor, her charting as #1 in the Most Original Pop Song category, and The Southern Backtones Track of the Day, I am ONE PROUD PAPA!

That feeling started during my PopStar vocal session yesterday. Blythe was unable to make it because she was in a show, (We missed you, Blythe!), so Tess and Taylor and I got busy.

First on the agenda was to meet with Kevin Ryan. Kevin is going to be working with me to write a pop rock song for the girls to sing (separately,.... they are soloists, you know).





Logan dropped by to make sure we were doing OK:




After Kevin left with his notes in tow, we busted out the gear to record some test vocals on a very cool R&B song by the songwriting team of Owen and Lilly. Mathew Knowles signed them to a publishing deal, and Music World/Sanctuary's Operations Director, Sly turned me onto their work. We did a song entitled, "Half a Man". The girls did well, but I don't think either Tess or Taylor, or Blythe, for that fact, would be best suited for R&B development.





I was not aware that Tess had never sung in the studio before! She was totally freaked out, but she went for it like a pro. I was super proud--both Tess and Taylor were very supportive of each other while they were under the gun. Both of the girls ran the console for me while I worked with each one at the mic. These ladies are showing some some skills!

San Antonio NARAS BOG & Mixer

Yesterday afternoon, I boarded Southwest Airlines flight 1151 to San Antonio to attend the monthly NARAS Board of Governers' meeting and a NARAS Member's Mixer right afterward. We stayed at the very cool (& new) Valencia Hotel on the river walk. This is the kind of 4/5 star place that has real linen hand towels at each sink in the restrooms! The food was wonderful, I made a lot of new business connections and had a great time while I traveled. Here's the shots of the day:

The meeting. That's trustee Terrry Lickona, and Texas Chapter President, Chris Bell with Texas Chapter staffer, Lucy Ransdell.



Here's some random shots of the event:





Like I mentioned above, the Valencia is a very cool hotel. Here are a couple of natural light shots that really show the vibe:







More random shots, Tex Chapter President, Chris Bell (tall guy) with attendee:



The guy standing up is Casey Monahan (spelling?) who runs the Texas Music Office in Austin. Casey tries to act tough, but he is the coolest!





Here is Wendy Morgan with Ramiro Burr. Ramiro is quite possibly the most powerful person in the Latin Music press in Texas.



My cab ride to the airport was really surreal. I was tired but happy:

Great Dinner

Eileen Faxas came by tonight and brought me a GREAT dinner then played me some of her new songs. Click on the title above to go to her site, btw.

Eileen has always been a great ballad singer song writer, but her new material shows a greater depth to her stories and melodic imagery. Way to go Eileen!!

Local Music Mixer

I am going to be hosting a really cool local music mixer that takes place each Tuesday at The Volcanoe (contact info below). My night is Tuesday, November 23rd. Also with me will be the guys and gals of Dan Workman Music, SugarHill Studios, and Essential Sound. Here's the info:

--------------------------------------
Houston Music Roundtable Update
--------------------------------------
http://www.snipurl.com/musicroundtable


1. THIS WEEK - Mary Jane Hancock hosts a meeting about Houston Media
Source
2. Upcoming Roundtable Schedule
3. Other Events


------------------------------------------------------
1.

This week (Tuesday, Nov 9) at the Houston Music Roundtable, join
entertainment attorney Mary Jane Hancock as she hosts a gathering about
Houston Media Source. Houston has several options for getting your music
on TV, and tonight you can learn about several of them, centering around
Houston Media Source, the local cable access channel. Get on a show, or
start your own!

As always, the mixer is at the Volcano (2349 Bissonnet @ Morningside)
and goes from 7pm until 11pm or so. There's no cover, and the bar serves
drinks at happy hour prices for attendees (plus free appetizers,
usually).

Hope to see you all out there on Tuesday!

------------------------------------------------------
2.

Here's the upcoming Houston Music Roundtable schedule:

------------------------------
Date: Nov 16
Hosted by The Houston Chronicle
Topic: Get your band featured in the Chronicle!

The city's most popular Web site is home to all things Houston,
including its local bands. Want to learn how your band can have a shot
at being featured on chron.com, a site that has more than 1.6 million
page views, on average, every day? Contributing writers Sara Cress and
Joey Guerra will be on hand to receive your press kits and CDs, and to
talk about chron.com/localbands and the weekly Local Bands feature in
Preview. And if that's not enough, come for the free munchies while they
last, compliments of the Chronicle!"

------------------------------
Date: Nov 23
Hosted by Dan Workman
Topic: Dan Workman Music

An informal mixer to meet with Dan Workman of Sugarhill Studios and Dan
Workman Music (www.danworkman.com). Having produced hits for the likes
of Destiny's Child, Dan is one of the more visible (not to mention
friendly) faces in the Houston music scene. Come say hello!

Catch Up

I have been so out of the loop, so this is my atonement.

Images from the Southern Backtones CD release party, (photos by Mandi Clark)







I wish I had been there. I desperately want to work with these guys again, so buy their CD & merch! Please!!


Some guys are making a documentary on tOny Edieveri. They came to the studio to do a shoot and I got interviewed.





Now that I am out of mix mode for the moment, I am looking forward to a lot of songwriting and vocal pre production with Joyce and Carolina (�again!), along with Hollister Fracus (did I spell this right again, Aerik?), Winter Roberts, and a few new projects. First on my list are the PopStars (Tess is calling my cell phone right this second).

Oh yeah! Sarah Sharp is headed toward the old south on tour too! (Crap! I need to call her).

One of my favorite male ssw guys, David Brake, and I have been talking. I am hoping that we get to work together because his new material is very, very good.

OK, I'm going to chill for a while.

TheLove,
Dan

Mixing Carolina Bedetta

We are working on the final song for Carolina Bedetta as I type. It's Steve's turn at the console in our tag-team mixing style.

Carolina came by to approve yesterday's mix and we got a picture while we were tracking the mix to 1/4" tape. Note how Steve Christensen seems to be growing out of my head (isn't that how Zeus gave birth?)



(((Just in case you can't tell, I'm wearing a BLACK T SHIRT)))

Carolina and I are going to be starting 7 more songs just as soon as these are finished. I'm quite lucky that I will get so much of her creative time over the next few months. We will do two more of Joe Bradford's songs, and we will co-write the remaining five. Caro tells me to be prepared to rock. (!)

Sarah Sharp just signed her distribution deal with Red Eye Distribution! Way to Go!

People are STILL trying to sober up after the Southern Backtones' CD release party last weekend.

Well, it's my turn at the console.

-Dan

Thanks For the Love

Many of you heard that I was in the hospital, and sent me encouragement and a HUGE amount of love. THANKS! I'm OK, and I used my recovery time wisely. Here I am chillin' at home editing vocal tracks.



I'm back in the studio tomorrow morning with Steve in SugarHill's Studio A mixing my first three songs for Carolina Bedetta.

Thanks again for caring!