Music Success in Nine Weeks - End of Week One/Week Two

Ok, I set my goals!   I am also working with this coach named Gary Ryan Blair and his "100 Day Challenge" which has you set intense goals from the very beginning.  I wrote all the goals out and am printing them out to post on the wall of my studio.  Some highlights:

- enhancing my YouTube presence by recording a series of video and videosongs
- finishing my next Chris Huff record
- finishing my long-stalled children's record
- relaunching my online guitar lessons website
- creating a soundtrack reel for TV/film backgrounds work
- making more money :-D

Now on to Week #2, which in the book involved creating your perfect pitch.  The pitch I came up with last time through the book was:

Sounds like Bob Dylan and David Bowie jamming in Jamaica

which worked for me, for awhile.  Ariel liked it.  Carla Lynne Hall liked it a lot.  I remember using it at CMJ and this guy from a radio station in Seattle said, "Who are Bob Dylan and David Bowie?"  Most people raised their eyebrows and said, "Hmm, interesting."  But it didn't knock them out.

I want to knock them out!   Need a better pitch and something that is a little more generalized - when you list specific artists, you run the chance of them not knowing

So, following the exercise in the book, here are my lists:

1)  Genres of music played:  Rock, roots rock, reggae, folk, folk rock, country, alt-country, punk, jazz, funk, soul, R&B, classic rock, British Invasion, psychedelic rock, 80s rock, jam band.

2)  Artists people say you sound like:  John Mayer, Dave Matthews, David Bowie, James Taylor, Steve Winwood, Jerry Garcia/Grateful Dead, The Beatles, Sting, U2, Tom Petty

3)  Artists and things that have influenced you:  Bob Dylan, Robyn Hitchcock, Lou Reed, abstract art, surrealism, Beatles, Stones, Who, Bob Marley, Bruce Springsteen, film noir, Morrissey, Robert Smith, and the list is really too long to finish...

4)  Write down all of the feelings and vibes that you want to create or convey with your music.    I want people to experience what I experience when I hear great singers or players:  some sort of transcendent, almost out-of-body experience.  I want people to relax and have a good time, I like a mellow psychedelic (but not out of control) vibe.  The way you feel after meditation or a great yoga class.  Or a couple of drinks sitting in the sun.   And with all that, some cerebral stimulation in a thought-provoking lyric.  Funny, sometimes heavy, sometimes confusing, sometimes strange, sometimes political.   I want to shake people's minds, bodies, and spirits.   Booty-shakin symbolist surrealist spiritual poetry.

Not so sure about the booty-shakin' part lol it's funny, but my new music won't really be like that...

Now I am supposed come up with words and sentences from the 4 above notes that sum me up.   Here's a few I can think of:

I don't like mellow.  My music isn't mellow.  Tuneful and seasoned are 2 synonyms.   People have called me like John Mayer but more soulful.

One thought:  "Like John Mayer if his mom was Grace Slick and he grew up in Andy Warhol's Factory raised by Bowie who forcefed him Dylan records."

It's 2 AM, so I have to continue this later...but I'm going to post this one on the Facebook page and see what happens.  Tschuss!