News Archives

Tom Kimmel December 2007 News

1. Greetings!
2. News: AUDIO BOOK IS HERE!
3. Drawing Board: Next year's plans, future dreams
4. Recommended: Studs Terkel interview collection
5. Food for Thought: Robin Andrews on art

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1. Greetings!

Nashville is a nice place... and it's loaded with great small coffee shops with good coffee and free WiFi... like Bongo Java, which is where I'm sitting right now. I have to admit I'm glad to find a Starbucks here and there on the road... but at home... well, I like the local flavor.

2. News

a. Book News

i. AUDIO BOOK!!! Hey this month book news comes first, because my long-promised-and-planned-for book-on-CD --- "Selections from The Sweetest & the Meanest" --- is finally here. Actually, it's now so late in the year we've decided to "officially" release it early next year, but heck, you can buy it now!

To order, visit my website --- www.tomkimmel.com --- and click on the "CD Baby" link to purchase a CD for $15... or click on the "Digstation" icon to download it for $9.99. (It will also soon be available at iTunes and other outlets.)

FYI the audio book features 32 selections from the the book (which contains 57 poems). Needless to say, I'm really excited about it.

ii. Gift ideas: Books (including audio books) make GREAT Christmas gifts!

b. Music News

i. Music & poetry videos on YouTube: Earlier this year Steve & Chris Sealy with Denver Film & Digital shot a wonderful music video for my song "If I Fell From Grace With You" (co-written with Lisa Aschmann), and while they were at it Steve shot video on performances of two poems --- "The Sweetest & the Meanest" and "The Man on the Phone."

Steve's now posted all 3 videos to YouTube.com and they're first rate! To watch and listen...

"If I Fell From Grace With You"
click on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=me3R56b_nxQ

"The Sweetest & the Meanest"
click on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tVxvjxApZk

"The Man on the Phone"
click on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnAEFnOI804

...and check out Denver Film & Digital at www.denverfilmdigital.com

Thank you Steve & Chris for the great work... and for so generously sharing it.

ii. Excellent in-depth interview: At the 2007 Folk Alliance Conference in Memphis I recorded a very enjoyable interview for the "Art of the Song" radio show (on Creativity Radio) with hosts John Dillon & Vivian Nesbitt... and the program is now available for FREE download. Check it out:

http://artofthesong.org/listen.html

The show's about an hour long, and my portion of it runs for the first 40 minutes or so (plus they play "Pages" to close out the hour). During the interview Viv and John and I talk about the artist's purpose, the creative process, the challenges of teaching and collaboration... And of course they play some songs. I think you'll like it!

[The show also features Michael Johnson's lovely duet with Suzanne Sherwin of "If I Fell From Grace With You" from his "Live at the Bluebird Cafe" album.]

Thanks John and Viv for the airtime and the shared inspiration.

iii. Early Christmas gift: As I mentioned last month, "When You Know" (co-written with Jeff Franzel) will be one of the tracks on a CD of love songs included with a Special Edition "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" DVD to be released at the end of this month. (See Amazon for pre-orders... and make sure you look for the "Special Edition" version.)

3. Drawing Board

OK, it's near year's end, so why not take a look into the future? I love to daydream about new projects, and here are the various things I'm either planning or dreaming about:

i. New album: Planned for release around March 1st of '08, the album's tentatively titled "Never Saw Blue Like That." It will contain sixteen songs, eleven of which have been featured in films or television shows over the years... plus five of my favorite "rejects" --- that is, songs written for films that, in the end, were "close but no cigar." (Of course these five are among my favorites.) Now that the audio book's done we'll be turning our attention to readying this movie-and-TV music CD.

ii. New Agrarians: As I mentioned here in a recent newsletter, I've formed a new trio with Kate Campbell and Pierce Pettis called "The New Agrarians." We're really just getting started, but we're excited about working together. You'll be hearing more about us in 2008.

iii. TK song book: My friend Jim Moran's got several songs transcribed and tabbed etc, and he says he is waiting for me to drop by and let him video me playing the next batch. I'll be updating you on this again soon... listing songs that'll be included and also taking requests for the remaining slots in the book.

iv. Shallow Water 2: A little further down the road I'm seeing a second album of songs with spiritual themes.

v. Album of new songs: Well, it's got to happen sometime. I've got a small stockpile of unrecorded new songs that I love... and what to do with them?

vi. Country album: Heck, after 30 years in Nashville, don't you think I should record at least one country album?

vii. Rock 'n roll album: Someday I'd like to make another rock and roll record!

viii. Book #2: I've been writing new poems, a story, some short essays... So at some point, maybe another book?

4. Recommended

On my recent road trips I've been listening to a terrific collection of Studs Terkel radio interviews which were recorded over a period of forty years and feature conversations with a grand array of artists, journalists, activists, authors, scientists... including Pete Seeger, Dorothy Parker, James Baldwin, Buckminster Fuller, Woody Allen, Leonard Bernstein, Eudora Welty, Arthur Miller, Bill Moyers and many others... a spectacular collection of thought provoking interviews.

The collection is called "Studs Terkel: Voices of Our Time." (It's a 6 CD set but is reasonably priced.)

5. Food for Thought

"Art is a contact sport!"
-Robin Andrews

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Thank you! Peace, Love & Happy Holidays!
Tom