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(thanks to Dave Miller for the photos from Red Clay Music Foundry!)
Greetings, friends and fellow music lovers!
Well I’m staring out the window at a peaceful snow-covered scene here in Portland! It’s a rare snow day and I love how it slows everything down. Here’s hoping you are warm wherever you are!
I just have a quick update for you. Oddly, I don’t have shows in February, but I do have lots of fun things to tell you about. So here goes!
1. GRATITUDE…Special thanks to these folks for making January so wonderful: all at BlackRock Arts Center in Germantown, MD, Marc Douglas Berardo and Susie Markland and all the folks at 49 West, Bob & Trisha, Muddy Creek Music Hall, Sarah Siskind, Louise and all at Isis Music Hall, Family Felty, Cat, Eddie and Shalom and all at Red Clay Music Foundry, Niki and all at Lincoln City Cultural Center, Jamie and Tom O & Lisa.
2. THE NEWS…Well folks I am quite beside myself. I found out last month that my poetry book “Ladder to the Light” is a finalist for the Oregon Book AwardsStafford/Hall Prize for poetry!! This is astonishing and thrilling and I soooo excited to see what new opportunities for learning and growing and meeting new people this brings! I am deeply humbled by this honor and excited to be grouped with so many great writers. If you’d like to learn more about the Oregon Book Awards, click here. The awards ceremony will be here in Portland on Monday, April. It’s open to the public and anyone can attend! Here is the link if you have interest in attending.It might be entertaining just to see the smile plastered on my face for hours on end. And finally, there is a Reader’s Choice Award and you can vote! Here is the link if you’d like to cast your vote!! You can even vote in your jammies. (Please note you can only vote once.) Thank you to all who have encouraged me and cheered me on in all things poetry. I am so grateful and so exicted to deepen my word-nerd tendencies, and I’m already dreaming of my next book of poems! 🙂
My second big piece of news is that Starbucks added my cover of Paul Simon’s “Slip Slidin’ Away” to their coffeehouse playlist!! You can find it here on Spotify, or you can go to one of their stores and sit there until you hear it in person, ha! More great news is that they will be adding “Where I Go” and “Leaving” to their country playlist next month. I will keep you posted. All these songs are from my new album THE LONG ROAD and this is such a great way to get new ears on my music!! Thanks to Jeff Heimann and the 2Jeffs for making the pitch!
Speaking of new albums, Ara and I are so close to sending off our new Stand and Sway CD to the manufacturerer! We are now accepting pre-orders for our duo album called DEEP BLUE. If you sign up to pre-order, we will email you a preview track now, and then you will be among the first to receive our new CD when it comes in! We are setting our sites on April or May to have CDs in hand. And we are planning a Portland CD release celebration for June 7, so stay tuned for more info on that! Here is the beautiful album cover featuring a watercolor called “Lost at Sea” by Alexandre Becker-Black, and with special thanks to Malachi Graham for graphic design brilliance! Click here if you would like to pre-order!
Oh there are some really fun developments on the teaching front! My friend Suzan Lundy has invited me to lead a week-long songwriting workshop in Guanajuato, Mexico!! I am over the moon excited for this and I can’t believe how lucky I am to be invited. We are working on programming and figuring out other staff as we speak. It is a beautiful location and there will be plenty of time to explore the area as well as focus on creativity. And each person participant will get to make a music video! You can read more about Suzan’s vision for Crossing Borders International Songwriting Retreats here… I hope you will consider joining us!
Also on the teaching front, I had a great planning session with the amazing Sarah Siskind for our Songsmith Gathering Song School in beautiful Brevard, NC in May! Our song school is a day and a half and takes place right before the awesome Songsmith Gathering songwriters festival held at the Brevard Music Center. Check out Songsmith here!
And finally, one of my dreams has come true. I got a dog!! I’m sure you have all been wondering when this dog crazy lady was gonna get her own dog! I have been searching and dreaming and hoping for many months now, and I am so happy this sweet spirit has come into my life! So everyone, meet Bailey!!
And please forgive me for the tons and tons of dog pics I’m gonna share from here on out, but I can’t help it. 🙂 Bailey is a 10 year old chocolate lab and her person had to move overseas for work. Ara found her listing on Craigslist and I knew from the minute I saw her that we were supposed to be together! Her favorite things are balls, food, and snuggles… in that order. Her full name is now Fetchin’ Bailey Snuggle-Pants Wood. She has wonderful manners and her person did such a great job teaching her how to be a good dog. Bailey has already been on one road trip to Lincoln City as tour manager with Stand and Sway, and she has a very nice laid-back management style. (Thank you to Tom O and Lisa for opening your home to us so she could come with us!) My heart is bursting!
3. UPCOMING SHOWS… none in Feb… but here’s some in March!
Fri, Mar 1 – Stand and Sway @ Concerts at the Barn – Kingston, WA
Sat, Mar 2 – Stand and Sway @ Chicken Barn Concerts – Whidbey Island, WA
Sun, Mar 3 – Stand and Sway w/The Aurora Chorus – Portand, OR
Sat, Mar 9 – Private House Concert – Medford, OR
Fri, Mar 15 – Old Kitchen Rug Brewery House Concert – St. Louis Park, MN w/David Stoddard
Sat, Mar 16 – House Concert – Waconia, MN w/David Stoddard
Mon, Mar 18 – BW solo @ Harmony for Mayo – Rochester, MN
Fri, Mar 22 – Casa DeVilbiss House Concert – Colorado Springs, CO w/Edie Carey
Sat, Mar 23 – Swallow Hill – Denver, CO – w/Edie Carey
Sat, Mar 30 – Stand and Sway @ Peninsula Arts Center – Long Beach, WA
check out my website for more spring shows!!
Oh man I had so much fun at Blackrock Center for the Arts! Thanks to my buddy Dominic Cicala for sharing some great pics!
and then we had a blast at 49 West in Annapolis, MD with Marc Dougals Berardo and my buddy Bob Klein!
Amen, Muddy Creek Music Hall!
Oh the harmonies wtih Sarah Siskind…I have chills just thinking about it! We loved playing at Isis Music Hall in Asheville!
and more lucious harmonies at forgeous Red Clay Music Foundry…
we mighta had a little fun back stage!
Singing it to the rafters, y’all!
haha nice poster! What a great night we had at Lincoln City Cultural Center!
and the next night at Doverlaff House Concerts tiki lounge was EPIC.
our new our manager Bailey…
she’s supervising some beach time in Lincoln City.
adn I tried on my new Sarah Siskind t-shirt and so she licked my face. 🙂
4. THE FUTURE…I am so looking forward to this month at home, and to all of the adventures to come! As always, thank you for reading and for being a part of my journey. I am ever grateful!! Hope to see you soon. With much gratitude from your fan,
Beth Wood
PO Box 10141
Portland, OR 97296
www.bethwoodmusic.com
www.standandsway.com
Holler at me: bethwoodmusic [AT] hotmail.com
Here I am with my face on Facebook.
I barely know how to use it but I’m tryin’ on Twitter
Find me on Instagram! @bethwoodmusic.com
For the love of Pete, somebody please help me with Youtube!
Down the road a piece…
Apr 1 – Songwriters in the Round @ The Vault – Portland, OR
Apr 5 – HPPR Living Room Concerts at the Chalice – Amarillo, TX
Apr 6 – House Concert – Lake Eufala, OK w/Tom Faulkner
Apr 12 – House Concert – Kingwood, TX
Apr 13 – Clear Creek Harbor House Concerts – League City, TX
Apr 14 – Backyard at Gruene – Gruene, TX
Apr 26 – Stand and Sway @ Northwind Arts Center – Port Townsend, WA
Apr 28 – Private Event
May 16-17 – Songsmith Song School – Brevard, NC
May 18 – Songsmith Gathering – Brevard, NC
June 1 – House Concert – Lowell, OR
June 7 – Stand and Sway CD Release – Portland, OR |
