News Archives

Tom Kimmel April 2007 News

1. Greetings!
2. News: Nashville Book Reading, Alabama Book Festival, Songwriting Retreats...
3. Drawing Board: New album's progress...
4. Recommended: 2 great films
5. Perspective

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1. Greetings!

Welcome(!) [That makes for the shortest Greeting in the history of TK newsletters!]

2. News

a. Music News

i. The first festival of my season is coming up -- The Susquehanna Music and Arts Festival in Darlington, MD -- and the festival director is offering an exclusive discount to fans of the performing artists. Print out the following "coupon" and bring it to the festival... or just mention with your online registration to receive your discount. Check it out:

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Susquehanna Music and Arts Festival
Darlington, Maryland
May 11-13, 2007|| Special Coupon
$5 off daily ticket|| $10 off weekend ticket
www.smaf.info
Camping, hot showers, cabins, singer-songwriter contest.
===========================================================

b. Book News

i. for NASHVILLIANS: In celebration of National Poetry Month, TOMORROW (Sunday, April 15) I'll be reading from my book of "The Sweetest & the Meanest" at 2:30pm in the West Reading Room of the Downtown Library (615 Church Street). I'll be joining fellow poets Alvin Knox, DeAnna Vaughn and Peggy Duke Smith for poems, questions and discussion. Moderated by novelist River Jordan.

ii. for ALABAMIAN FRIENDS, FANS AND FAMILY: Next Saturday (April 21) I'll be reading, signing (book) and performing (songs) at the ALABAMA BOOK FESTIVAL in Montgomery, AL. This invitation means a lot to me, growing up as I did in Alabama. (DETAILS BELOW UNDER 'TOUR DATES.')

iii. I want to share a little something personal here: One of my long-time favorite singer/writers is Mark Germino, and he has been an inspiration for many years with songs like his classic "God Ain't No Stained Glass Window" and the ever timely "Poet's Lament." Recently Mark sent me an email message after reading my book, which reads, in part:

TOM,

Excellent book of words! Denise cried when she read 'MaMa's Table.' I said, "My goodness honey, it ain't that good, is it?"

I've read the whole book once and it is inspiring and altruistically tangible in addition to being a great tableau of family memories polished off with your capturing of some of their good ole-fashioned idiosyncratic conduct. Truth is, you are a person (much like myself and exactly like my brother Mike) who appreciates not just the goodness and harmlessness of great people's actions, but the unmitigated ridiculousness that they demonstrate while attempting to claim (or assume) they are normal. And what the heck is normal, anyway?

Tom, I love that shit when it happens and I love it when it's escorted out into the world as someone's form of art, like you have so expertly done. That ain't all either. --- Poem's like 'Lost Causes', Walking Behind You', maybe even 'Cast Iron Skillet', take a moment or an object or a person e.g. (a woman's world class ass) and treat it reverentially. I do appreciate that shit too. So, accordingly, in my little world over here in West Meade, a decent book will always get at least one food stain on it somewhere. Yours already has one, and so, all I can say in closing to you, is, thank you, and.....well done, boy!

Blessings,
M. GERMINO

c. Teaching News

i. I greatly enjoyed teaching a lyric writing class last month at Sandhills Writers Conference in Augusta, Georgia. Thanks so much to Anthony Kellman for the invitation. A professor at Augusta State University, Anthony is a fine poet and singer/writer.

Check him out: www.anthonykellman.com

ii. Speaking of writing and teaching, summer songwriting retreats are coming up soon. I love the community of a retreat -- so much happens when we're untethered from the day-to-day... This summer I'll be teaching at the following retreats:

* Cedar Run Workshops in Madison VA, July 8-13 --- great teachers (including Pierce Pettis, Kate Campbell, Sloan Wainwright) and small classes (8 student limit per class). Check it out:

www.cedarrunworkshops.org

* Swannanoa Gathering/Contemporary Folk Week in Asheville NC, July 29-Aug 4 --- The granddaddy of writing retreats coincides with Swannanoa's Guitar Week so students can take courses from each school. Beautiful setting, too.

www.swangathering.org

* SummerSongs in Ashokan NY, Aug 3-10 --- A Northeast tradition of warm, big-hearted songwriters and students.

www.summersongs.com

3. Drawing Board

a. New Album: The new (still unnamed) album of songs featured in film and TV! Recording is complete (I'm pretty sure) and Cliff Goldmacher is currently mixing the tracks in NYC (perhaps even as I write this). I'm lining up photo shoots etc. and soon will be planning promotion for a late summer release. In the meantime I am greatly enjoying putting this one together and am very excited about sharing these songs. The oldest recording is the one of "What Can We Do When We're Too Young To Go To School?" which ran on the Captain Kangaroo Show for 4 years(!)...and one of the most recent is "When You Know," which was featured in the film "Serendipity" and in the TV soap "As the World Turns."

(The album will feature 11 songs that were in film or TV along with 5 of my favorite "rejects.")

b. Podcasts: Beginning next month, a series of free monthly podcasts beginning with songs from a special Boulder, CO concert I played on a cold night early this year (with Michael Lille on guitar). More soon on that.

c. Web site overhaul. (We'll keep you posted. But we're geared up for it.)

4. Recommended

Last week I saw the Oscar-winning "Lives of Others." What an extraordinary work! I want the world to see it! I loved "Pan's Labyrinth" so much, and I couldn't imagine what could have topped it for the Foreign Language Oscar... but now I understand the competition. I'm glad I didn't have to choose; they're both extraordinary not-to-be-missed films.

5. Perspective

"You know we've had to imagine the war here, and we have imagined that it was being fought by aging men like ourselves," an English colonel says in [Slaughterhouse Five]. "We had forgotten that wars were fought by babies. When I saw those freshly shaved faces, it was a shock. My God, my God, I said to myself, It's the Children's Crusade."

--from Kurt Vonnegut's obituary (NY Times)

"[I realized that] any ideologue has to shut out his feelings altogether in order to pursue his goals. Suddenly... I understood that this is the true essence of ideology: the total dominance of principle over feeling. It became clear to me that one of the biggest challenges in life is finding the balance between principle and feeling when confronted with a moral choice."

--Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck, Director of "Lives of Others"
(2006 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film)