Staying true to yourself...

So last night I went out to see my good pal Shannon Cain do a round at Hotel Indigo. I just had to try out my iPhone video a little more since I haven't used it much. The iPhone 3GS just amazes me every day with it's capabilities. The video is not HD but still great quality and the microphone/audio recording is sooooo much better than the original iPhone. I have not experienced any distortion problems yet. I met with Shannon earlier this week for some beers and had a nice 3-hour chat. It was fun. But I was telling him about the phone and it having a 600MHz processor...... my very first IBM-based computer was 20MHz! That just blows my mind that they can fit this in a phone now. I love technology! :)

Anyway, back to Shannon, he's always been a top notch guy and musician. I love his style of music over all the other cookie-cutter country junk in town. His style is more Americana but actually he's going to be diving into other areas of music with his new material so that's cool. I can't wait to hear what he has brewing! For the past couple of months I've been doing less work in the music scene. It grew really old to me with all the self-centeredness, ass-kissing, and drama. With a lot of musicians it's more about fame, fortune, and becoming the next big star & less about their craft unfortunately. True artists need to focus on their skills, their art, and with becoming a better artist instead of worrying about what everyone else is getting & what they're not. A lot of times those artists who became the next big star compromised their craft in order to get to that place because fame was more important to them than staying true to themselves. Some artists get lucky and are able to have both fame & being true but it rarely happens. And I think for the most part the ones who have that privilege, did it all themselves! 

Anyway, I'm good at rambling on once I get started on blogs. haha..... So I will save that for another blog but as I was saying, I'm starting to work more with other creative people besides musicians. And there are only a handful of musicians that I would continue working with and I'm being more selective about new artists that I work with too. I think this was a good move on my part because it helps me focus my time on the true artists who actually inspire me, believe in, and they actually respect the work that I do. There can only have good results when you're working with great people who have their head on straight about their art and who they are. And Shannon Cain is one of the few musicians in town who I actually respect and would work with in a heartbeat if the timing is right. But ultimately I'm a big music lover, and he is one artist who is true to himself. He's actually one of the few artists in town that I know who actually writes their own songs too. And I don't mean having 2-5 other writers on the same song either.... I mean it's all Shannon Cain! This is a true artist. He's not riding the coattails of someone else. 

The video above was shot on my iPhone, thrown into iMovie last night for a few edits, and there ya go! Pretty simple but it also looks & sounds pretty good being it came from a phone! The song is called "Tri State Ramble" and you can check out Shannon Cain by clicking his name anywhere in this blog or by going to www.shannoncainmusic.com 

As I stated before, he's got some new work brewing and I can't wait to see what he's been cooking. I've been doing the same and I'm slowing planning & creating some creative work. It feels good to do exactly what you love without compromises. The truly great artists know how to change what they do whenever they want without worrying about what everyone else will think. It's always nice to get that shock factor too in my opinion! Some will like it and some will not but it doesn't matter because you're staying true. I would rather have a few people who love my work because it is true than to have a ton of people who love the work that is not true to me. Great artists are always self-improving, daring to be different than others, and most of all loving what they do to the core! 

Fame & fortune does not make people happy in the end...... don't live with regrets, do what is right now! ;) 

-Kevin