The Actions of a few…..

The Actions of a few unscrupulous people are forcing me to take a few steps on the website, at least for the time being.

Some time during the last 6 months, the program that I had decided to use (a plug in for Word Press, called “Ultimate Member”) allowed access to the WordPress system in that it took advantage of the setting of “Anyone Can Register” and spammers began setting up fake accounts, using my server for traffic of online sales sites, fake names and more, and hyper-inflating my real follower count numbers for the album.

How silly to take a man’s dreams – anyone’s dreams for that matter – and mess with them in a way that is incongruent to the real reach of a project.

While I have turned over ALL of the addresses and login information, IP addresses of the accounts associated with the entire site to the FBI and other fraud authorities, I have made the decision to take the ability to register on the site as any sort of user until the album comes out in 2020. You or anyone may check the site, but fortunately my siteguard also blocks out erroneous attempts to circumvent the system.

If you are truly following this project and my movements which are orchestrated to see it’s success, I am very glad to have you hear – however those that are phony or bogus will be dealt with appropriately and in the future at some point I’m sure we’ll have a reputable and verifiable way of assuring these cretins don’t get in to mess up our plans. It’ll be worth the wait.

I sincerely appreciate the love, friendship, loyalty and of course the interest in this project. But I won’t let it be dirtied and sullied by this type of activity.

Thanks,

Kenny

Demo Update on “It’s Alright” – first listen!

I’m super proud of this song – and this is your first listen to the newly added guitar from Austin Kennedy.  We have teamed up for a good amount of collaboration on this project as he is an amazing guitarist and will be adding on most of the material as it nears completion.

Right now, you can hear the updated demo with his guitar added exclusively at Reverbnation.  There will be some adjustments coming still to the rest of the track, but I was so excited at what he’d added that it was only right to share it with everyone!  (Just WAIT till you hear what he’s added on “With Love”; major recording starts on Saturday 8/20/2019 for that song!)

Thank you, everyone, who has followed this project and these songs – they are so near & dear to my heart.  I just cannot wait to share the rest of this music with you.

much love,

Kenny

You’ll be hearing more about Austin Kennedy soon. His site will be at:

www.hotboxstudio.net

A few samples from the album project.

A sampler file is available here with some of the sounds and direction that have come out since this project started nearly 5 years ago, giving a preview to the project “Worth The Wait”. Other links to other sites are below and several of the songs are fully available on multiple platforms in different versions. The sampler file has portions from the following song demos.

-From My Mountain
-Opening Exits
-It’s Alright
-No, Father
-Prologue/Little Me
-Nightwind

Worth The Wait Sampler File 2

 

 


You can hear the full demo version of many of the songs (without most vocals, mainly the instrumental tracks for now) on my Reverbnation account listed below.

Reverbnation Profile & Music:

Reverbnation Direct Link to full files

SoundCloud Link:

There are links to these songs, some in various mixes and versions as they were being written and developed as demos on my SoundCloud link below, as well as many covers from over the years.

Home

SUBSCRIBE!

Writing these days…the change…and the same…

So in the last 3 weeks something really wonderful happened and I was able to get full-time access to the writing software that I use, Logic X. Having this has made a world of difference in my capabilities in technological ways of course, but the boost that it’s provided in stimulation – the “oh boy I can think about writing at home!” feeling – has been amazing. In the last 3 weeks, I’ve worked on 4 songs now and that’s a great feeling.

I tried to explain to Ed last night what’s been in my head about this album, writing-wise. I know two artists who have conceived and put out albums in the time since I first announced “Worth The Wait” and now. In fact, “No Father” will turn 4 years old this May “Officially”. My biggest regret, I’d have to say (and I have) was putting a time stamp on this project at that moment without truly realizing the technological needs I’d have to rise. “No Father”, of course, was a great learning curve and a lesson and the reason I decided to go back to school. What I’ve picked up already at the end of 2 years has been amazing and has changed my life, and put me back on the right track.

But it’s the “way” that I write; and how these particular songs that have truly made the real story about WTW so interesting, in my opinion. What I thought would be the hardest song to write was actually the first (again, NF). “Grace” was the next, so ironically, songs about my parents were the first written solely for this album. “It’s Alright” was included and called for this album because it fit thematically – a song about love. The music still has to be updated for that song.

I had intended on “The Color of Light” to be the recipient of the next intense writing sessions, and that’s when I started getting bogged down mental writing cramp. I cannot sit down and say “I’m going to write this song today.” Mine come in portions usually, mostly the verse and chorus, or just the chorus, and bridges tend to come separately and by themselves.  But each song is like a personal victory of sorts; a psychological breakthrough on it’s own level that allows me to “move on” and therefore I cannot rush the process.  The lull in writing perhaps meant that I had to catch up on some other things before pushing forward again.

The first full song on the album is a song called “Little Me” and it has a very particular feeling that I wanted to convey rhythmically and because of this new software, and the education I’ve been receiving, I was able to sit down and immediately start tracking down this song demo…and it’s exactly what I wanted. This “story” started coming out musically and those moments are magic to me. I will always work on the music first and then a lyric/vocal, but I have the lyric mostly finished on this. So it’s going to be next.

When this album is finished, the plan is for the songs to tell a complete story, and now, at this stage in my life, I no longer care if people don’t like something stylistically, or think it’s not “hip” or relevant or whatever.. this is me, my story, and I will never apologize for living it, how I got here and what it means to me. I can’t wait for you guys to get to hear the whole thing how I’ve heard it. I think it’ll make sense then.

‘Criticism’ vs ‘Ugliness’

Sooooo….let me clear up a few items here….

I submitted “No, Father” to a Crowd Review via a popular music site a few days back, shortly after the official release. Before I go any further I also need to make it crystal clear to everyone that this is a project that is being completely done AT MY HOME. Sure it’d be nice if a producer could come along with a nice band and do the magic on production of this album…. but that’s not happening. When I say “grass roots effort” it’s at its truest form possible. But it’s also part of the story of this project…I was held back so long that the steps I’m taking musically even are steps that I could have been at years ago… “No, Father” sounds rough because IT’S SUPPOSED TO SOUND ROUGH. If you’re listening to the song, the story of the song, then you should have noticed well, it’s not exactly a love ballad.

So, a few days after the initial release I submitted the song for a Crowd review through a popular website where it was reviewed by a large group of people, with each of them submitting individual thoughts on the song. There were approximately 50 of them. While I understand people having different opinions of music, the range was from believable to incredibly ridiculous and a few just downright ugly. Fortunately just very few, but I couldn’t help but initially take a few of them personally. I’ve been doing this stuff long enough to know NOT to let that really get to me, but I was like wow….where does one think like on a regular basis if that’s what they think of on a 3 minute tune?

Some of the reviews slammed the guitars (there are none) and one pegged “his terrible voice” (really?). Some I agreed with: the echo is a bit much; that can be fixed. A few balance issues could be ironed out. I was incredibly rushed on a deadline and it’s probably not the mix I would have ultimately selected, but I was completely 100% Out. Of. Time. It was the best I could give at the time it was eue. And I didn’t give up.

Of course, those listening don’t know me from a hole in the ground and there were a good deal of very nice and some extremely nice reviews and those are great too, and the other benefits that have come since the single’s release have been great, and of course I’m enjoying those. If career improvements keep up and things keep on the uprise, I might adopt the practice of not reading ANY reviews….I’m not sure the balancing scales game is very much fun with it comes to your art. Someone whose opinion matters VERY much to me reviewed the song and was very complimentary, someone who inspired me over 30 years ago and is quite well known, and that one moment of encouragement has lasted and resparked me several times, and more than outshines any clod that brings me down. Maybe that’s why the clods can outshine the diamonds for a brief moment. Or maybe I’m just more of an exceptional human, and that stab of negative energy at my artistic efforts hits a little closer to home. Either way, I’m armed and ready for the next time.

And on we go.

Updated site – 4/11/2015

We’ve updated the site today and will be adding content going forward as we push toward the single release next month for “No, Father”.  Studio is hopping with excitement and production!  The tune is changing everyday!  It’s a fascinating project and a fun process!  Stay tuned and make sure to subscribe to the project website updates to keep on top of everything!