Let's catch up!
In January I performed at Folk You! Live at the Horseshoe in Chicago hosted by Larry O. Dean. My friend and superbly talented songwriter Dawn Xiana Moon played that event as well, and we had a grand time. That was a great way to ease into the year for sure, particularly because of the importance of February in my life...
The big deal for me is that I turned 40 this February -- this kind of birthday puts you in a very reflective spirit for sure. You end up measuring your life-to-date: regrets, achievements, accomplishments, disappointments, mortality, family, friends. Good, bad, and all the in-betweens. As an artist is has ended up just being a helpful motivator to write more and perform more!
At the start of February I joined the voluntary craziness that is February Album Writing Month (FAWM.ORG). The goal is to write at least 14 songs over the course of 28 days of February. Some songs will end up sticking, others are experiments, and a few are just throw away. But I'm proud of everything I've scratched together -- here are my one takes, rough and raw first drafts (9 so far as of the posting of this blog update):
http://fawm.org/fawmers/simeonpeebler/
I also continued performing -- two shows so far this month, and another coming up in March. I was the featured performer at Act One Singing for Your Supper hosted by Hannah Frank (and the Chicago Acoustic Underground) on February 5th, and on February 9th I performed at Uncommon Ground (Devon) for a small private birthday gathering (my friends Shelley Miller and Christopher Elam of Shelley Miller & the BCC also performed...they were a hit with the 40 family and friends who gathered to help celebrate my birthday...in lieu of gifts I asked for donations to nokidhungry.org which is a great organizations; we raised over $500 so far for them).
Upcoming shows: In March I am performing at Silvie's Lounge for the ACOUSTIC EXPLOSION -- this will be my fifth time performing at the EXPLOSION, and I hope to have some of my newest songs written for FAWM ready to perform there. In particular I'm excited about a song called "Executive Order" which is about the UAV/drone situation (songwriter/folk singer/novelist/Waterbug record label owner/Folk Alliance Lantern Bearer 2012 award recipient Andrew Calhoun gave me some notes about "Executive Order" which are some great tweaks to the song!).
I also have had a few great reviews come in about my latest album, Missing Anchor, from Cleveland songwriter Charlie Mosbrook and Chicago songwriter Laura Joy. Between that attention and my new writing, I think it's about time to start planning my third album!