Field Report: Consonance

I had more fun at Consonance this weekend than should be legal. My show on Saturday went pretty well; there is no audience more receptive to new music, or more forgiving of the occasional bobbled chords or lyrics that sometimes go with new new music, than the good people at Consonance. Dr. James Robinson, the heart and brains of Consonance (who also wrote the Backbone song and Tyrannosaur’s Lullaby), steered a local TV crew at me, though I don’t know if they used any of the interview or footage of my concert. I sold enough CD’s to raise over $500 for Kingsley Elementary, since I’m still singing on their behalf through the end of this school year. Even better, several dealers are now carrying my music at sci-fi and filk conventions, so my music can now go places where I am not. I also got some very insightful constructive criticism from the great Bob Kanefsky, which may lead to several new songs about evolution and genetics. Thanks everyone!

I got to hang out with some of my heroes. People whose music I own and look to for inspiration were giving me a lot of positive feedback and bringing me along on dinner excursions. Seanan McGuire is now my favorite girl genius: her newest book, Discount Armageddon, may be the finest implementation of martial arts, guns, cryptozoology, guns, ballroom dancing, and guns that I’ve seen in one book. It’s what Twilight should have been, if the girl were beating the tar out of the vampires AND the werewolves instead of dithering over boyfriends. I’d call it a PG-13, so be warned.

Meanwhile, we’re still polishing the web site: the links for the videos are now working and, more importantly, we now have buttons in the lyrics windows to make printing lyrics far easier. Next on the punch list: post guitar chords for all songs so people can play them if they want; finish posting academic content standards for relevant songs; more videos.

We may have some new songs up soon, depending on how recording goes in the coming weeks.