Welcome. I'd love to know how you found your way here. Drop us a line at marcblackmarc@aol.com.
We've got a show coming up on the Saturday on Thanksgiving weekend at the Kleinert/James Gallery in Woodstock. The band features Warren Bernhardt and Betty MacDonald with Kelligh McKenzie opening. And the theme is 'Thanksgiving Songs'. It's all about gratitude.
Too often we obsess about how tough it is out there, and take our many blessings for granted. And there are so many.
For one thing, Mr. Obama's has given us a moment (and perhaps much more) to cheer about...
I also just found out I'll be featured for a week on an extraordinary radio program, November 24. It's Art of the Song Creativity Radio.
Meanwhile, Mike, Eric Parker and I have been looking for music in all the wrong places. Check out the Junkyard Jam...
Thanks to so many of your for your support for our Stroke of Genius Project, from New York to California. Following our show at UCLA, we sold out an evening at the beautiful Jacob Burn Film Center in Pleasantville on January 3rd. The performances featured live versions of the the songs off the Stroke of Genius CD, a screening of the Stroke of Genius documentary by Bahmna Soltani, and a question and answer session.
I recently weighed in on the issue of the renewal of the Katonah Grill's cabaret license...in song. Singing my point of view to the local Town Board. Democracy in song...that's my kind of government! Here's the song I sang...A Thousand Years.
We are real happy to find our song, Lies in Red White & Blue has been on Neil Young's Living with War Site. It's been has high as #33 (out of over 2,000) and it's been on the chart for about five months, now. This song seems to strike a chord in anyone who has considered the horror and the bullshit surrounding war...in particular, those who lived through the Viet Nam War era. I just got a beautiful letter from Larry Winters, a vet who has made easing this suffering a large part of his life's work. I invite you to click on his name to visit his website and experience some of what he's doing.
As a little summer sidelight, my song about Martha Stewart and her attempt to trademark 'Katonah' (my hometown's name) was covered in Business Week Magazine , Page Six of the NY Post, a host of other print publications; on AOL's opening page, and around the world on cable and broadcast television. We've had over 30,000 views on our Youtube video of the original performance! You can go toYouTubeand search for Marc Black to see the original performance at a town meeting. A more polished version is for sale on ITunes.
I'd like to take a moment to thank the Katonah Museum for a great experience. I had a great time reading and singing to some local kids. I sang Steve Goodman's City of New Orleans and read his adaptation. Also, read and sang He's Got The Whole World In His Hands.
In October, Susan and I were in a little town I like to call 'Rome'. It was my first visit and I'm now officially in love with the place. Elma Garcia, a great friend and director with whom I've worked since about 1994, got married...are you ready for this...in the Pantheon. We couln't have enjoyed this wacky and wonderful break in our schedule more than we did. Coincidentally, we just finished up a score for a commercial that Elma shot for Blue Cross Blue Shield.
And now that winter's upon us, I'm thinking about how great last summer was...
We also accompanied a field full of Kirtan singers and then alternated with them under a beautiful half moon in Woodstock (where else would you do that). And I jammed with Jon Paris at B B King's in NYC to celebrate Phil Demtrion's birthday.
In July, we were at the Pleasantville Music Festival. Mike Esposito and I performed a set... and I joined Hope Machine, part of Tribes Hill , the Hudson Valley folk music collective, to perform 'Amercian Children'... the title song from an album I wrote and produced with my friend, Ed Bialek. It was originally sung by Richie Havens on the CD.
In June, Mike Esposito and I played at Caffe Lena in Saratoga, adn the Brattle Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. At the Brattl show, we also screened the Stroke of Genius documentary.
Earlier, this spring I visited Los Angeles where I was a mentor at the ASCAP I Create Music Expo. And I came home to discover that the Stroke of Genius CD was that week's number one seller on CD Baby.com...and it hit one of the National charts in Billboard Magazine!
By the way, the four songs that are on the player on the top left of this page (and which should have automatically started playing when you logged on the home page) are available as downloads...just $.99 each. These songs are each off different albums.
Thanks to Levon Helm for inviting us to perform at his Midnight Ramble in Woodstock. And to Maureen Neville on WJFF and Gregg Garrine on WDST for hosting us on their radio shows.
And here's a shout out to the great folks at the Larkspur Cafe Theatre in Larkspur, California for hosting our performance in honor of Daniel Pearl in their classic, all American roadhouse. My band, The Accidental Orchestra, featuring Ian Dogole, Bill Douglas, Robert Powell, Vernon Black and Randy Kahn, was stellar. They all made my 3.000 trip to California more than worth while.
And, by the way, the joke's on you! Now you can click on the joke project.com, hear a new joke everyday with a bit of our music before and after.
And speaking of funny, if you'd like to explore the relationship between love and love handles... Fat Man!
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We've also been busy with commercials, We completed a spots for Cobra Golf, Hartford Insurance...and another for one of my favorite toys...Hot Wheels! And our animated campaign for Airheads Candy is still ripping it up on Saturday morning cartoon time.
