January 11, 2010 – 9:00 am
Hello faithful readers.
Thanks for all your comments and attention. The love is appreciated and requited. A blogger is only another opinion on the internet without someone to read and agree. Momentarily I seem to have fallen off my game. There are no more colors on my pallet and think I need to rejuve, revive, and let time refill my imagination station. Don’t run away and forget about me though. Save me on your bookmarks. I’ll be back in a couple weeks with some newness to restore your love for my words.
Much love,
-Crystal
January 1, 2010 – 12:00 pm
There are special milestones in the life of an artist that mark, shape, and help to define our careers. The truth is, an artist lives in the metaphysical realm of thought. And in this realm passions reign supreme. Most of the time we have more passion than creativity or means by which to make all that we feel become tangible. The huge task in the life of an artist is to somehow make the whirlwind of emotion inside of us become physical, touchable, and translatable to others.
The other part of an artists journey is simply discovering what it is we are trying to say. The best thing to do is to throw it out there, splash it on a canvas, record it on a track, or scribble it onto a page and hope that by some magical means it comes back to us understood and accepted by the world.
Today I feel that. I feel the metaphysical part of my being becoming a bit more, well, real. Like a hovering something just now after 24 years getting it’s toes to touch the ground.
What brought this on? What makes today the day that my muse becomes part human? Well, it’s the day my creations came alive! Yeah, it’s that simple. Thank you Melanie. Thank you Anthony. Thank you God.
December 29, 2009 – 1:28 am
Notes to Self:
* Get out of bed
* Stop ignoring your blog
* Stop getting on the computer to write and then spending all your time on Facebook and Twitter and googling pretty people (one in particular?)
* Pick up your guitar and finish that chord progression before it melts back into the pages of your imagination
* Put down the iPhone
* When the Muse squeezes the tendrils of your creativity machine, stop pretending like you don’t hear her because nothing on TV is worth missing out on her influences
December 23, 2009 – 2:50 pm
Hillo World! I just remembered a video link of proper Crystal Cheatham vocals. My crummy YouTube vids and tracks don’t do justice. Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. Just click here
December 16, 2009 – 7:34 pm
“One cannot tell what it is that keeps us in, confines us, seems to bury us, but still one feels certain barriers, certain gates, certain walls. Is all this imagination, fantasy? I do not think so. And then one asks: My God! Is it for long, is it for ever, is it for eternity? Do you know what frees one from this captivity? It is very deep serious affection. Being friends, being brothers, love, that is what opens the prison by supreme power, by some magic force.”
-Vincent van Gogh, letter to his brother, July 1880
I read that quote in the cover pages of Andrew Agassi’s new book Open. I’ve only begun the read but Agassi’s tale of his rockstar career in sports is coupled with the same life threads as those found in Sapphire’s story of Push. Here we have two compeltely different stories whose main characters are on polar sides of the culture plain, but whose experiences are so alike. In both stories we see how circumstance can both crush the human spirit and raise it to unimagined heights. The success of both Precious and Agassi makes you wonder if their ability to rise above and beyond would be possible without love.
I’ve been stuck on this song by Sara Barialles and Ingrid Michaelson called Winter’s Song. For those of you who’ve heard it I’m sure you understand how addicting the melody is. It stays with you even after the player has rolled on to the next song! But what is even more enamoring than the tune are the lyrics that ride the chorus to a smooth and almost haunting climax. “Is love alive,” it asks and then repeats, “is love alive?” Continue reading →
December 14, 2009 – 11:57 pm
I sang at this gig called In the Round which was all about story telling and the art of words in music. I never had so much fun singing for a college crowd in my life. Usually when I play a gig it’s all about the music. If I play in a popular bar or a restaurant where diners are eating, nobody wants the melodic mood to be broken by the entertainer spilling their guts about why they wrote the damn song. But In the Round has struck upon a chord that I believe both artist and audience can come to appreciate. They are proud to present a showcase where the artist is given the liberty to share the story behind the lyrics.
Because I write my own music every song has its own story and I’m always syked to share where lyrics come from. The birth of a song is a very precious and intricate thing. Not many singer/songwriters sit down and say, “OK today I need to write a hit song about love,” because that would be mega lame . Music is just as organic as life and the way it unfolds in front of us is quite sudden and full of surprises that spark passion, ideas, and the need for more life. Because of how the music market has been flooded with pop artists who rely on “hit song formulas,” to amp record sales I’m convinced that the integrity of ballad music is preserved through small time showcases in which story is incorporated with song. Am I right to say that the experience one can get from a heart felt showcase like the one presented by In the Round is far more valuable than something you can get off a CD or at a Beyonce concert? Continue reading →
