Nevertheless, outside of family, I spend much of my time working on music…teaching it, writing it, playing it. It should be pretty natural to talk about it outside of my kitchen.  In a joyous celebration of how much I love this one thing I’ve loved my entire life I have 3 lists: What I did: what I’m doing and what I’m planning that I may or may not get to:

2010:

4 combos. Great relationships. New folks listening. I love everything from Meathawk to the Shows with Matt McCain where I get to play with songs and hear his voice. On Matt’s advice, Ron Donavon joined Chad and Justin and meself this last spring. Debbie Does Covers has been fun and is going well. I wrote a lot of songs for Tuesdays. A lot of them I liked. Even more of them disappointed, but all of them teach.

2011 (for real).

I have a thing going on. I’m going to continue Tuesdays. I initially had no plans beyond 2010 to keep it going. It’s been a bitch trying to do something every week and life gets in the way. I need some life. So here’s how I’m going to do it:

I’ll have something every Tuesday, but only twice a month will it be a song. I’m not promising new content, I have a lot of songs laying around that I want to work out. Here’s my other change to my rules: some of this will be sketch work. I want to share some of the unfinished stuff and some of my ideas as opposed to something I made into some realization. Other Tuesdays where a song doesn’t show up I might share something else I made or something wonderful but also a song from someone I met or know. I have a few plans to share some folks with you.

I’m putting out 4 EPs this year. They will all be handmade and they will all be very limited.  I will have 6 or 7 new songs every few months and something I hope is wonderful in the way of presenting them.

I’m going to play a lot and hope you show up. Meathawk will ride again.

2011 (would be cool)

I’d like to work with people in a way I haven’t for a few years. I took up drawing. I want to work with some new folks and find some new things. Strings.  Accordion crimes.  Banjo. More mandolin. Very loud folk. Some electronics. Duos and work with folks out side of the medium I typically use.

All things that have been on my radar for some time, but I am a coward. Here’s my biggest hope for 2011:

I hope to be less of a coward this year.

Love y’all tons. Thanks for sticking around with me.

kt

The mission, the vision, the thing I do is the same. the way is all kinds of different.

Mr. Padilla told me in high school over and over again that if I have a fall back plan, I’ll fall back.

Well, I don’t have one anymore. I’m out of ideas. I don’t have any real job skills and I don’t want any. “I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don’t want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don’t want to do that. ”

The only follow up? You know it: “What I really want to do with my life – what I want to do for a living – is I want to make up songs and play them. I’m good at it.”

No news to some of you. I appreciate that. I love that this is hum drum to you. It means you believe in me and I love you for it. I know this is dramatic as all hell, but this is a big deal to me. To you, this is just something you read that you just might care a little bit about, but ot me this is a major paradigm shift.

Ok. Enough of that.

Next…what’s this mean and what am I doing? Well, watch the calendar because it means I’ll be out more. I would love some of your kind word of mouth. I have to grow and I have to make this a living. In exchange I’m going to bring you what I do. Music, man, songs. A lot of them. 21 to be precise.

As of next week the Tuesday project returns and this time it’s original. Last time I did a cover a week for a little over a month, this time I’m bringing one of my songs once a week until the end of the year, every Tuesday.

Every week I will write, record and post a new tune. I want you to find them, give them a listen and, if you would, share.

In the mean time, thanks for your faith and your following and all of that. To go see, there’s me solo, duo and trio – starting Saturday at the Oswego Taphouse with Matt McCain. There’s Meathawk and now Debbie Does Covers. To hear, well, Meathawk is going in the studio, there’s an unreleased Small Shiny Things album that Matt and I swear is going to happen. And wait until Tuesday.

Lots of Kevin. Please stay in touch.

Some of this stuff works, but it’s more for things we have a right to be indignant about. You have power to change things by force only when you have the permission of a moral society; when people are ready for your tea party or your revolution it will gain traction, other wise you’re gonna get your head smashed. “Capital P” People are very strong. Look at our amazing ability to enact either good or evil on a planet when we have a good idea or we’re greedy.

Not the point. What I’m talking about is not the act of showing people their own hearts. Social change will always be that. Everyone knows that you shouldn’t try to take away someone right to get into a losing contract with another human being just because they’re gay. We know that. It’s already mapped out in our hearts not to be mean to the different kid because we’re the different kid, too if you change the room or dig a little into us. We know this. Gay marriage will happen because if you say the right thing enough eventually the bastards on this planet will shut up. As a married guy, I look forward to sharing this dubious agreement with all members of this world. Best of luck and enough on that.

My point is that if you want to make a movement to save a community or an old building or a theater company you’re not going to do it by force.

Nope. If we want a better world or a community we have to make it fun. We need to play together. We need to make a movie. Write a song or figure out a lipsync/dance thing to Men Without Hats. There’s gotta be money, but there has to also be what this guy calls church:

There’s a video here if you’re getting this on a feed…sometimes wordpress just makes me mad. Not the point. The point is 5 minutes in when he gives us the best blueprint I’ve ever seen for saving the world:

Make it fun. Bring some joy, some glee and a lot of excellence. Remember to care about the people involved if you want them to care about you. Remember to miss them when they can’t be there.

Let’s make a movie. Let’s grow a garden and let’s celebrate the hell out of it.

If you missed the movie click here or here for the original post.

Seems obvious, but every utterance is a 2 liter pop bottle that takes forever to go away unless you make it into something. I said a simple thing on facebook (the word made flash) and I take it as a treaty and I will do something with that plastic wreck of a sentence:

“Kevin Trudo wants to find an incredible way to tell this story”

Oh and Sunday I said “Kevin Trudo you can’t ask any one to care about you if you don’t care about them.” I think all of this belongs here and I’m going to try to say it right.

Mostly this has to do with February.  Some folks Make new years resolutions, but I like to wait. I’m an editor and a very slow mover about some things. I make not so new years resolutions. I’ve had a month and a half to get it right. Last year I made them all in January and that was way too soon, I only hit a few but laid the groundwork for them to happen this year…Either way this is the resolutions for 2011 as of Feb. 2010 (it takes a while for me to get shit done):

I want to play the shit out of these songs. The ones I have and the ones coming. I have some things in place now, and I want to fin an incredible way to tell my story. Ignoring completely that a lot of it is made up crap. It’s a story and it’s mine so shut up. It didn’t have to happen. Also, it has to be incredible. Not good, not great, not even awesome….incredible.

I want to speak at TED. I don’t care if you think it’s dumb or far fetched. I could do it. I could rock it. I have some steps in place but I’m not sharing them. I just will.

I will make Video. Y’all don’t like it when songs don’t have words and when the words aren’t written down and when pictures or faces don’t go with them, do you? I do, but I quit playing for me when I decided to get up naked on these stages and tell this story and when I decided to tell the story the best way I know how. No, I will not be coming to you with things I think you will like. I can’t do that and the work would suck and if 35 years old has taught me anything it’s that I have no damn clue what people like. I’m not gonna guess. But I’m going to spell out the words and I’m going to make it visual somehow.

I’m going to write things and do things personally, professionally and musically that scare me. I’m going to care when you laugh, but I’m also not going to quit.

That’s plenty.

But you need to know that the birds eye view of this whole thing is that I’m more than willing to look ridiculous. I’m willing to dance even though I know I’m terrible at it. I will not get better wanting to dance and I will not be awesome without scaring the crap out of myself.

And I’m going to be awesome.

If you hate reading and I’m too wordy skip to the end. I’ll highlight the last thing to read:

We made up the best songs we know how to make up. I tried to say it right; make it something you can relate to; say it well. We rehearsed. I think we’re playing a fair amount of tunes I’ve tried to get you to listen to before, but just in case we learned a cover so you wouldn’t feel like we threw strange songs at you all night. We told everyone we could think of. We told them again. We contacted newspapers and websites and facebook about it (just in case you haven’t heard). Then told everyone we knew to come and to tell everyone they knew to come. So you’re coming. Wonderful. I’m nervous. I want to put on a great show. I want to sell these tunes to you. I want to connect. I want this to be fun. I mean, I’m gonna have a good time, but it’s kinda more fun if you do, too.

Ultimately, though, It’s gonna be fun if you have fun. If you have some friends out and hear things you like. We got the tunes and I hope you’re bringing 10 of your closest buddies. We’re gonna have an amazing time. I want you to be there and I want you to like us, but mostly I want you to drink a couple and enjoy each other and laugh a whole ton. Come laugh at me and find Justin dreamy and marvel at Chad’s beard. We are our own sideshow.

We’re gonna do the best we can. I can’t wait to see everyone. This is an oddly huge night for me.

One thing I definitely want to recommend to you, I have a friend Maureen Gasek who is an amazing visual artist and who has been kind and welcoming and let me and Chris Bauler play in her living room then gave Chris a painting. she’s helped me out tremendously and introduced me to some great people I hope to introduce you to. But these are the reasons I love her. You should go to the Paramount arts center and fall in love with her work. Say hello from me, I’m not sure I can get there with our load in time. I will be missing a lot about it.

See you Saturday,

kt

So, Everything is against this. I hate to sound that way, but it is. I’m old. Not elderly, but too old for this. there’s just not a ton of folks out there that are going to reinvent the Great American Song or start a rock band to play said songs in their mid thirties. I feel a little like Anvil. Not completely, but the long view is that it feels a bit silly sometimes.

Then there’s the geography. I live and I’m proud to live in Aurora, Illinois. It’s big town, but a still a suburb of Chicago. Historically it’s not the best place to play in a band that plays songs they wrote.

What goes over in Aurora, Illinois is the Tribute Band.

But still I refuse to believe that we’re all just a dumb bunch of hicks out here in the sticks. I look at the people I know and they’re not all tied to going out every weekend to hear something they know. The safe choices.  A lot of them are still pretty hungry to find something that moves them. I’m trying.

Hard.

I don’t much care if it’s a Quixotic endeavor to write the Great American Song. I’m gonna try any-ol-how. It’s what I do.

I had a brief conversation with Mike Heaton last week and it’s good to know that there’s a few of us doing it. There’s Side of Beef and Groove Ethics and Sitticus and Noah Gabriel and Matt McCain and sometimes Loukeelium and a whole lot more. I can’t think of them all, and I’m sorry if I forgot you, but the point is there’s a lot and everyone – me, too – needs to get out and see them and support the ones we love and try out the ones we don’t know and encourage them to make their own music. There’s gotta be a support group and a business model in this place.

I’m way too stupid to quit. I’ll keep on no matter what.

Hope to see you on the 13th @ ballydoyle. We hit @ 8:30 and have two of the above to follow.

Thanks so much for the love and for what’s coming. I can’t do it alone and none of the guys above can either and neither can the people I hope you name in the comments and who are your favorites. Coe out and we’ll make the best music we know how.  Connect with Me + Meathawk and keep us up on what we’re doing right and screwing up.

Thanks. Just….thanks.

Either way, Bono, you know well by now that the soapbox is a prop for a target. I’m not going to do that kind of archery, I simply disagree. I read your op-ed here and I’m on the bus with your dissentors.

I get your concern for intellectual property, I really do. I think of myself as an artist. I have a different vantage point, though: I cannot allow myself the luxury of believing my hype – I don’t have any.

You stated “The immutable laws of bandwidth tell us we’re just a few years away from being able to download an entire season of “24” in 24 seconds. Many will expect to get it free.” and “A decade’s worth of music file-sharing and swiping has made clear that the people it hurts are the creators — in this case, the young, fledgling songwriters who can’t live off ticket and T-shirt sales like the least sympathetic among us — and the people this reverse Robin Hooding benefits are rich service providers, whose swollen profits perfectly mirror the lost receipts of the music business.”

I cry bullshit. I’m a songwriter. I’m a performer and I’m a goddamn artist. I’m not starving, nor have I been unable to find ears for my voice because thet profit has gone out of CD sales. In fact the opposite is true, I find some barriers fallen with the financial aspect taken out of the equation. I think I write more directly and sincerely knowing that I have to win an audience loyal enough to purchase tickets and merchandise. I write songs as songs and not commodities. I think it’s done me a world of good. Excellence is commonplace – I have to be better than that. I have to be better. I hope you’re not afraid that the bar raised when they lowered the price of admittance. I do not believe a market corrects itself, but I believe that value is a social contract.

Last I checked your shows attracted a lot more people than mine and you command $100+ plus a seat; I get about $15. The money is not being Robin-Hooded from you, Bono. You’re one of the last players not giving the songs away or asking people to set their own value on it, but that fails to surprise as you’re also one of the last major players to hold onto your label.

You spoke later on about the power of people and the upside down pyramid. How can you not take your own advice? If these people are smart enough to criticize a corrupt government then it follows that they can accurate set the value of a collection of music. Try not to be offended when you find that value of your recorded music is zero.

Mine is, too. So are the sounds of Gould playing the Goldberg Variations and the images of Picasso and Cezanne. It’s all out there for free.

We’re fine, though. Not only are you in good company, your arena shows still sell out. My sales increase. I constantly find a new audience. My ticket prices are going up. Don’t be scared, man. There’s great songs in you. People will steal them – but they will pay dearly to hear your words from your mouth.

Things change. Be grateful

I sound like me. I have the genre thing on it, I’m adult contemporary/ adult alternative. That’s if I care about XRT and I only care some…..on the internet anything goes and even looking in the specialized niches I find I’m not a fit.

First things said: before I submit to a radio program or podcast I listen to it. I want to know it’s well done and cared for, I want to know if I fit. Passing that test is rare and time consuming. Very time consuming. I dunno precisely what I do. I call the music I make “loud folk” which I’ve been all proud of myself for having come up with on my own, because it’s two things I wish to be defined as: Folk Music and Loud. I have an intense and well planted love of the idea of “folk music”, just not so much the execution.

“Folk Music” as a genre sucks. It’s political or poorly written as a lump, and I don’t know when it became something pure and hokey, but it did. I understand folk music as music by a people. Seriously, it’s a lot of songs about how life is like some body of water and having to kill their true love. Lame.

to me folk music is best defined as the music of a people. Like us, midwesterners and such. We have our lives and our cultures and our art lives in a body of song that is well written and tells our story. It’s none of that shit. It’s our music.

Loud scares people, but I’m loud. I feel that some of the old folks like me are a little intimidated by the adjective, but it’s stuff you’ve heard. Loud is good. I love the sound of air being moved by amplifiers. I love guitars and I love to play them. I grew up on the Beatles and Zeppelin. I’m gonna play that way. Loud and dirty.

It’s just that for a long time the loud songs sucked and the good songs often ignored the primal.

So. January is gonna bring this new trio, Meathawk. Justin and I already started recording and we’re integrating this loud folk thing a little closer now with Chad. I’ll have some recordings soon and I hope to see you in January. In the meantime..if you hear of a radio station or a podcast where I’ll fit, let me know….

kt

Yes, I linked to myself. I think you should join anyway, but I would appreciate you giving a listen to the guy who sent you. It’s free and good way to hear new music. I have this issue a lot of the time where I hate the music being sold to me – you know the stuff I’m talking about – the abject shit I feel I’m being asked to like: Smegma such as Cobra Starship and The <shudder> Black Eyed Peas.

I have been asking myself lately who I am. I’m writing another dumb post about that…I’ll get it out eventually (I wish you all knew how slowly I actually get things done) but the thing I can’t seem to find is folks like me. I say that about music of course..

I’m anything but revolutionary as a song writer, but I see a lot of groups playing out, but very few that I could comfortably share a bill with…I’m working on that…but the question is: “where do I find those people?” I won’t describe the process, but the place I found the other day is The Sixty One.

Just give it a try, it’s slowly turning into my radio when I’m working. I just find so much I like – and it’s a mix of indy and semi-indy artists – that I need to set up a straight user account, I’m not able to heart from the artist account.

The thing to come in the wake of that is the Tuesday Project (and there’s one tomorrow) and that I can reach out and get feedback and somewhat interact through Facebook.  I like that better. I’m easier to get rid of in your life and we’re just a hair closer with the whole facebook fan page. Well, I just made it a lot easier to be a friend and a fan! Go Me!

Try this on the next time you have a burning itch to find out what I’m up to….IHateTheKevinTrudo.com – It’s that easy!  Go on now! Have a better life and connect with me!

Tell a friend!