Kobalt Night at The Listening Room Cafe!

This week I had the privilege of playing a set for Kobalt Night at The Listening Room Cafe. I was absolutely thrilled to be a part of the lineup of incredible singer/songwriters: Ella Mae Bowen, Steve Diamond, Elenowen, Steve Seskin, Steve Moakler and the lovely Shannon LaBrie to name a few! Major thanks to Jeff Skaggs and Chris Blair for inviting me to play!

PS. Shannon LaBrie officially landed one of her songs in the movie Cobu!!!! SO proud of her!!

Busy Bee

It's been a VERY busy week here in Nashville. Wednesday's show at 3rd and Lindsley was so much fun and then Friday's Zod Night was amazing! Pictures below:

On Saturday morning at 7:00 AM we began shooting the music video for 'Green.' Really excited for you all to see it in the next month or so!

3rd and Lindsley

Shannon LaBrie is playing a set tomorrow night at 3rd and Lindsley in Nashville @ 7:30. Zodlounge is backing her up and I'll be singing harmony! Shannon is an INCREDIBLE talent and such a fun friend. Here's a video of us from a few weeks ago...this should provide some insight into how great she is.

Back in business!

BACK IN BUSINESS...

Alright everyone...this time I'm serious. Although my past track record for blogging has been pretty lackluster, I'm going to give this another go. A lot has been happening on the music front and several remote friends have requested that I reinstate the blog as a means of keeping them in the loop. Since I'm not necessarily good at keeping up on the phone either, I'm happy to oblige this way.

For those of you who didn't know, the Zodlounge Crew went on a crazy trip to SXSW last month. We had the privilege of performing 3 shows right off of 6th street in Downtown Austin. It was an unbelievable experience, and I'm already looking forward to going again next year. (See some pictures below).

In other exciting news, I'm thrilled to announce that I'm writing/recording the 3rd Album. This time we're compiling a full record, and I'm so PUMPED about this project. I'll be releasing more information about how to get engaged on this endeavor in the next week!

Lastly, if you're in the Nashville (or surrounding) area, please come out on Friday April, 13th for a show at 12th and Porter! Shannon LaBrie, Charity Vance and I will all be singing some sets (similar to what we played in Austin) so you'll definitely want to be at this show if you can!

The past few weeks!!

Again, I apologize for the amount of time that has lapsed between the last post and this one, but I always forget to blog!! Here's a recap of the last few weeks:

I played an acoustic show at Hotel Indigo and LOVED IT!! It was my first time accompanying myself on guitar during a show which was exciting/terrifying at the same time. I write all of my songs on the guitar, but I waited a little while before I started playing during shows so that I could get used to this new way of performing: singing with a full band in a bar is QUITE different from singing with an orchestra down in a pit at a theatre. So anyways, the show went really well and I had some wonderful friends in attendance!

I found out a few months ago that I was going to be endorsed by M.A.C cosmetics and would soon thereafter be receiving some free products in the mail...low and behold:

SO EXCITED!!!! It has been so fun getting to try all of the new products, thank you M.A.C!

I was asked by a friend to sing the National Anthem at the annual event "Relay for Life" and was absolutely thrilled to participate! It was amazing to see the number of people who turned out for the event that were struggling with, or had survived some form of Cancer.

I went on an impromptu beach trip with my friend Lindsey for her annual family reunion! On the road trip down, we stopped in Auburn for one night to spend some time with our best friend, Sarah Beth. Along with some other friends, we went to this bar/music venue in Opelika, AL called '8th and Rail' since we knew they'd have live music. We got to talking with some people in the audience who ended up being friends of the band onstage and somehow word traveled to the lead singer that there was a 'singer/songwriter from Nashville in the bar, and she'll be coming up in a few to play a song' NEWS TO ME!!! I started panicking (as usual) but kept my composure and somehow managed to get onstage, borrow the guitarist's acoustic, and play/sing 'Green'. 

Lastly, I played in another Zod Night at 12th and Porter! These shows are always so much fun to play, and I'm so grateful that the Zods are willing to accompany all of us. We had a great turnout that night, so a big thank you to everyone who came out!!

Updates...

I apologize for the amount of time between the last blog post and this one, but I've been swamped. I'll try to break this blog down in bullets...that should help.

-In the past couple weeks, I've been writing/recording the rest of the album...and I'm really excited about the anticipated Summer release! 

-CINCO DE MAYOOOO! (Clearly this required its own bullet) 

-I got to celebrate the Engagement and 23rd Birthday of my Best Friend Sarah Beth!

-I've played 3 shows since the last post, and am so thankful for the Jaszcz's/Zodlounge Crew/Family and Friends that have made these shows possible!

-The next show is tomorrow night at 7:00 at Hotel Indigo (Union Street)...and we've booked a BMI showcase in Atlanta for July 21st!!

-I found out this morning that a radio station in Canada has been playing the songs for over a month!! How 'bout that eh?? (lame joke attempt), but seriously...GO CANADA!

-MTV's 'The Real World' will be playing a 3 minute instrumental of 'Cave In' on their latest episode tonight at 9:00 so be sure to tune in! (I can only imagine what drama will be going down in Cancun for them to use 3 minutes of this song...jail time? break up?)

-Lastly, the fan-made video of 'Cave In' has yielded over 15,000 views!! Apparently 20,000 is the magic number with youtube...so let's see if we can get it there!

Okay, so that's a basic rundown of the latest news...If you made it all the way to the bottom, I'll be sure to hug you next time I see you! 

Never saw that coming!

This blog is going to be broken down into a few events:

1). Watching the initial airing of 'Cave In' on MTV:
So on Wednesday I had NO idea when the song, or even what part of the song was going to be played during the episode. So you have to picture me sitting around with some of my closest friends and my mom with our eyes fixed on the screen waiting for the moment when it would say 'Cave In'. Sure enough, about halfway through the episode at one of the climactic moments...BOOM! We all start screaming so we can't even hear it. My friend Leah cranks up the volume which made the little vol. bars scroll up over the name and song title so we didn't see that either, ha! It was so fun. It was over so quickly, and everyone settled back down...I was so thrilled and thought to myself 'wow, that was awesome...too bad that it's already over...'

2). Just when I thought everything was settling down, my phone started beeping like crazy with messages from people all over the country who had heard the song and wanted to know where to buy it/what the lyrics were...and several people that said incredibly sweet things about how much they related to it. I was STUNNED. I apologize for blowing up people's facebook and twitter feeds with retweets and reposts, but I wanted to show my unending appreciation for all of the nice words and encouragement. I'm well aware that all of this could be over in a snap, but it's MORE than enough. So, thank you.
Here are two videos that people made to 'Cave In' since there weren't any available on YouTube!

3). So then on Thursday my friend Lindsey (who was in town visiting) and I were taking a much-needed nap after we had partaken in WAY TOO MUCH cheese dip and chips at the one and only 'Panchos Mexican Restaurant' ...mid snooze my phone starts bleeping again and it said something about itunes. In my confusion, I read the message to Lindsey and she said "OH MY GOSH CHECK ITUNES!! Maybe you're listed!!" So both of us snap awake and grab my computer. Sure enough...there it was...under the new and noteworthy section on the main page of itunes. I could not believe it. I called all of the Zods and John Jaszcz to tell them the news, meanwhile Lindsey did a little more itunes searching on her phone. She screamed 'YOU'RE IN THE TOP TEN!!!!!" ...Of what I thought??...until I realized she was waving her phone at me with the EP listed in the top ten songs under Singer/Songwriter and #11 album. Now I'm sure all of this had to do with the number of downloads/purchases within a certain period of time, but we snapped a picture anyway so that when it was gone we could at least say it was once there!

4). Enough of the sappy stuff and back to business. I'll be playing a show tomorrow night (Tuesday, April 19th) at 12th and Porter in Nashville. A whole slew of talented artists are playing so you definitely shouldn't miss it if you're in town! The show starts at eight and you can find out more information here!

In other exciting news, the website is up and running!! Check it out at http://www.kreewoods.com.


Kree