"Summer Love & Music" Tour - Now in its Final Leg!!

So when I say final leg, I'm not talking about a leg of lamb or not even a chicken leg :) All I'm saying is that this is the last week of our "Summer Love & Music" Tour and its been an incredibly inspirational month. I'll recap the whole month and tour in another post when its over, but for now I'll say its been 20 amazingly fun performances so far playing to kids from 1 to 92 (actually I think some were closer to 100 years old). Seeing how playing music for people young and old makes them light up has been such an amazing feeling. It constantly reminds me of why I am on this new mission to help people remember how important music is in all of our lives!

If you're local to the Philadelphia area I invite you to join us for some of our final dates on the tour which include:

• Thursday August 28th (Noon) at The Bourse, Philadelphia/PA
• Friday August 29th (8 PM) at The Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore/PA
• Saturday August 30th (Noon) at Barnes & Noble, Plymouth Meeting/PA
• Sunday August 31st (7 PM) at Coffee Works,Voorhees/NJ

The show this Friday night(8/29) at the Ardmore Music Hall is going to be a very special event and will feature 7 incredibly talented artists on the bill ( okay maybe just 6 incredibly talented artists plus me :)). We've got 12 year old Valerie West singing today's pop tunes like she was already a star, 15 year old Brooke Falls bringing Broadway tunes to the stage and if you close you're eyes you'll really think you're there and 17 year old Kelsey Coan will get your Country music engine started like nobody's business. Then we move on to the over-18 performers who wish were still under 18 and we've got Kim Edwards who was a finalist in the Philly Songwriters Project contest this year, Jeff Twardzik who has a male country voice like no other and who has opened for many country stars including Diamond Rio, John Michael Montgomery, Lee Ann Womack, Dwight Yoakam and more and then Leigh Goldstein whose songs, beautiful bass voice (I still think he's a baritone) and his funny comedy on stage will leave you laughing out loud and smiling on the inside (money back guarantee on this one!). Somewhere in the middle of the show I'll also be doing my Love Songs thing, whenever I'm not emceeing or playing stage hand to make sure we finish on time (you know us musicians we love to be on time!).

So if you live in the Philadelphai region (and you're reading this before this weekend :)) definitely try to come out for the show. It promises to be a fun night of music and community with friends, fans and family alike with so many musicians in attendance as well.

I'll be back on Wednesday with another post promoting Music Empowers which happens to be one of my favorite Music Education Foundations.

Peace, Love & Laughter,

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

"Summer Love & Music" Tour in FULL SWING!"

Our Summer Love & Music Tour is now in full swing - To date we've done 10 performances so far including stops at bakeries, diners, coffee houses, nursing homes and one incredible gig at The Bourse down at Independence Mall in Philadelphia. Come to think of it all of the shows were incredible as we got a very positive response every where we have gone. The Bourse was just a little extra fun as we had tourists from all over the world taking pictures and videos of the 4 performers on that day and sharing it with their side of the world. To learn more about where we'll be next in the Philadelphia area this month (and beyond) please click on KEEP MUSIC ALIVE at LoveSongs.com

It seems everywhere we go I'm reminded of how important our mission is. In some instances people seem to have forgotten what its like to hear live music (or is it possible that perhaps they've never experienced). Once they realize that the music they are hearing is LIVE in person they are like WOW this is really cool. I can honestly say we are just in the beginning phase of whats going to be a lifetime mission to reawaken the world to the importance of music, live music, pre-recorded music, country, R&B, pop, rock, ALL kinds of music!

Last 4 weeks was especially crazy in my world, hence why no new Blog entries. We'll be trying to post every day again going forward - wish us luck and as Shannon said way way back - "LET THE MUSIC PLAY"!!!

Peace, Love & Laughter,

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Ed Sheeran & BBC/1XTRA - is it time to drop the "Urban" label for music?

1XTRA, a BBC radio station that describes itself as the new black music network, recently named its top 20 most important artists in the UK over the last 12 months. The big "surprise" of course is that there are several non-black artists throughout the list including a very talented Ed Sheeran holding down the #1 spot. This of course has many in the black music community up in arms with many black artists were left off the list in favor of Sheeran and several others including Jessie J, Disclosure, DJ Fresh and Rita Ora.

Personally I think the real problem is that we still find it necessary to give color labels to music at all. In the USA, do we call basketball and football urban sports just because they appear to be dominated by black players? And if we did what would we label hockey and baseball, the later which of course has many black players.

My point is why do we let music still be defined by labels such as urban that suggest skin color? There are so many other words that can be used to describe music, many themselves that often lend themselves to one color or another (country, rap, R&B). But thes "music style" labels can appropriately be tagged to music that is that style. Labels like Urban no longer make sense to be used in my opinion, no more than we should call it "black music" or "white music". Music is music people and yes there are many styles and all of those styles are played by people of all different colors. If we really want to end prejudice in our world someday, we're going to have to stop calling music black or white and simply call it by the style it is.

If you'd like to take a peek at the 1Xtra list yourself here ya go: 1XTRA Power List - Most important UK Artists

This next article by The Guardiangives its own take on the list and how it believes having Ed Sheeran top the list is not the lists biggest problem. In there opinion the list shouldn't be limited to artists because there are too many in the music business world that would be perceived by many as "more important" or "more influential" than the artists. I see where they are coming from, but hey its supposed to be a list about artists - Consumers don't generally care about the people behind the scenes, no matter how important or influential they may be. We want to talk about the artists themselves and that's what the list is about.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2014/jul/14/ed-sheeran-not-biggest-problem-1xtra-power-list

While we're on the topic of Ed Sheeran, here is the video for his latest song "Sing". As a lover of pop music its a really good song but not something that makes me want to jump up and down (and definitely not something I can sing along too). He did take "Sing" all the way to #13 on the Billboard chart and to #1 in the UK and Australia AND Sheeran demonstrates some crazy awesome vocal skills on the track.

That's all she wrote for today - will be back tomorrow with another view on our favorite topic: MUSIC!

Music, Love & Laughter,

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

p.s. KEEP MUSIC ALIVE Day #14 - Please visit our first post from Tuesday July 1st for more information about our mission

Hits and Misses on the Radio - July 2014

For today's post, we're gonna talk about some of our favorite songs currently on the radio and a few tunes that in our opinion miss the mark. First up on the recommended is list is "Am I Wrong" by the Norwegian duo Nico & Vinz - great melody with an intriguing underbeat that keeps pulling you in. It also has one of my favorite new lyric lines

"I ain't tryna do what everybody else doing
Just cause everybody doing what they all doing"

Making your own path and not apologizing for it - that's something we all should a little more of in our lives. Nico & Vinz took this cool song with an original feel all the way to #4 on the Billboard charts.

Next up is "Me and My Broken Heart" by the 4 piece band from the UK known as Rixton . This song has a monster hook

"All I need's a little love in my life
All I need's a little love in the dark
A little but I'm hoping it might kick start
Me and my broken heart"

"Broken Heart" starts off with this crazy catchy hook and never lets go after that. You will be singing along after just hearing this one time I promise. Rixton made it all the way to #6 on the Billboard 100 chart with this hook-laden gem, yet another great tune by a another new act imported from across the pond.

Last up in our trilogy of featured radio hits is another seemingly new artist at least when talking about this level of chart success. Ingrid Michaelson has been releasing singles to radio for several years, but her last big radio hit was with her debut CD and the song "The Way I Am". Fast forward 7 years and when I first heard "Girls Chase Boys" by Ingrid I thought it was kind of a silly song. The video homage to Robert Palmers "Simply Irresistible" was absolutely cut and fun to watch but I'm a song guy. However, after hearing "Girls Chase Boys" several times I began to hear it in a new light - the beautiful pop melodies and whimsical feel of the music really began to draw me in and I've been hooked ever since. Give it just a couple listens and I think you'll see what I mean if you don't already.

In addition to the three songs above there are some other holdouts still on the chart after weeks because well they are just great great songs. These include "All of Me" by John Legend, "Dark Horse" by Katy Perry and "Rude" by newcomer MAGIC!. We've talked about all three of these great tunes in earlier posts over the last month.

Misses on the radio today

This next group of tunes were recently released by established artists and unlike many of their earlier hits, they don't quite catch our attention. Songs like these usually make it on the chart because of the artists popularity and some good will from their earlier hits. In the artists defense, its quite possible they never intended for these songs to be released as a single. However they lose that control to record companies who will often try to put out as many "singles" as possible over the life of a full CD in order to keep the attention on their artist. Personally I think the labels do the artist a dis-service by doing that. If its not a song with hit potential - don't push it down radios throat and then make us listen to it and wonder if the artist's creativity has dried up.

Current examples of this are "Love Runs Out" by One Republic, "Birthday" by Katy Perry, "Map" by Maroon 5 and "Angel in Blue Jeans" by Train. All great song titles but the greatness stops there and we'd all be better off if radio was instead playing a much better song by a completely unknown artist. Once again my apologies to the artist as these decisions are usually completely out of their control.

That's all for this weekend - we'll be back tomorrow with some more good news about music changing someone's life. Until then please have a great nite!

Music, Love & Laughter,

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

p.s. KEEP MUSIC ALIVE Day #13 - Please visit our first post from Tuesday July 1st for more information about our mission

Vinyl Records are making a comeback - say WHAT???

I recently heard that vinyl records were making a comeback. I thought, okay so maybe they are selling a little more then they used to for nostalgic sake. Then I dug a little deeper and was amazed to see that in the first half of 2014, vinyl record sales have increased 40% over last year. They are currently on track to sell at least 8 Million units for the year. This is even after selling 6 million units last year which itself was a sizeable increase over the year before. If you look at the numbers, vinyl albums are now selling 10X more units then they were selling 20 years ago. What the heck is going on here?

Like many I was a big "record" buyer back in the day, amassing a decent collection of records from artists like The Carpenters, Elton John, Barry Manilow, Air Supply, Kiss, Led Zeppelinand more. Yes you heard right, I said Kiss & Led Zeppelin in the same sentence as Barry Manilow, Air Supply & The Carpenters. While growing up, I LOVED so many different styles of music and still do today. If a song has a great melody or hook, then I don't really care what style it is, I wanna hear it!

Still, it is amazing that vinyl record sales are increasing at such a high rate, and at the same time sales of CDs and even MP3 downloads are decreasing. If you look behind the numbersm you'll see that some of this phenomena is due to the nostalgic buyers picking up a newly printed version of masterpieces from the past (aka. The Beatles Abbey Road). However even more of the trend is coming from newer artists like Jack White, the Artic Monkeys and Beck, each of who are releasing their music on the vinyl format in addition to CDs and online. We've always known that the quality of vinyl records far surpasses the CD and online MP3s. When you listen to digital music you just can't hear the warmth and all instrumentation nuances when you've cut out part of the audio spectrum in order to get it down to less "bits".

Buying your music on vinyl also gives you much larger artwork (remember album covers) that you can admire for years to come. Inside the album or on the back cover you'll also find a myriad of information about the artists, songwriters, producers and anyone else involved in making the record. So if you don't mind the occasionally scratched record or having to pick up the needle and put it back on the song you want, then vinyl record sales may continue to increase at least for a little while.

For some background info on this phenomena I recommend this article at Qz.com (Quartz) entitled Quartz: The Music Industrys New Fangled Growth Business - Vinyl Records. In addition to some interesting details it also offers some great statistics on what's going on. I also managed to come across two very good short documentaries on YouTubeon why vinyl records are making a comeback. If you remember albums and want to reminisce or if you've heard about records and want to learn more I highly recommend you check these both out:

That's all she wrote for today folks - I'll be back tomorrow for Sunday hits, where we talk about some of our favorite songs on the radio (and online) today. Until then have yourself a grrreat Saturday nite!

Music, Love & Laughter,

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

p.s. KEEP MUSIC ALIVE Day #12 - Please visit our first post from Tuesday July 1st for more information about our mission

Calling all Music Teachers - New and Experienced!

Are you a music teacher? Are you studying to be a music teacher? Do you know someone who is a music teacher or is studying to be one? Now we've got more hands up :) As we all know, the teaching profession in general has been hit very hard over the last few years with too many new graduating candidates and not nearly enough positions open (I've heard the ratio of applications per job opening is 200-300 to 1 in some instances). If you are a music teacher, I think the odds may even be more difficult when trying to land your first traditional teaching job. If that's the case you'll want to prepare early while going to school if you can to help better your chances of getting that first job. And then if you don't land that first traditional teaching job, being prepared will help you create your own job in the field that you love. That's right create your own job. Sometimes you do what you gotta do :)

I found this article today with called MajoringInMusic.com - 7 Things Music Education Majors can do to Make themselves more employable . Written by Dr. Deborah Sheldon, Music Education chair at Temple University Boyer College of Music and Dance, it does a really good job of laying out a framework of things to consider as you move from your first years of college as a music major to your graduation. Some of the tips may seem obvious ("Be a great musician"), but you would be surprised at how many musicians aren't really at the level that will get kids and their parents to really notice. Another tip is "learn how to improvise". I can tell you first hand that I've met a lot of musicians over the years who can't play unless that have a piece of music in front of them. Not being able to improvise or play by ear will definitely limit your opportunities both in teaching and in the performing world. 5 more tips follow and perhaps the most important beyond thes efirst two is "learn to be entrepreneurial". That is learn to treat what your doing as a business (anybody ever hear of the music business?). Just like other trades, the better you are at handling the business aspects and the more creative you are at making your own opportunities, the more successful you will be hands down.

Perhaps the best part about this particular article is the comments and feedback left by readers mostly made up of other music educators. The breadth and depth of their experiences really help them to offer a multitude of pros and cons about their career and different scenarios of how to make it as a music teacher. If you teach music or you're going to school to teach music or you're just thinking about it, I encouragte you to read the article and comments right here - MajoringInMusic.com - 7 Things Music Education Majors can do to Make themselves more employable .

We'll definitely be exploring the subject of teaching music and careers in music much more as we expand our mission. If we're gonna get more kids and adults playing music we're absolutely gonna need more music teachers.

That's all for this week kiddies - have a great weekend and stop back tomorrow for the weekend edition of the Love Songs Blog - Part 1 :)

Music, Love & Laughter,

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

p.s. KEEP MUSIC ALIVE Day #11 - Please visit our first post from Tuesday July 1st for more information about our mission

How to have a Songversation with your Child

Music teacher, author and New York native Kia Portafekas has written a book about how to really connect children with music. Entitled "Making Music With Your Child", the book delves into non-traditional ways of sharing the gift of music with children. Now living in sunny California, Kia makes a really good point, saying that while regular music lessons are great, often times children start to pull away from music after a little while. To them, it can easily start seeming like just another school class with homework that they have to do. I myself have heard from countless adults over the years who were "forced" to take music lessons as a child, eventually rebelled away from it and later in life wished they hadn't. But as a child it was their natural reaction to something they weren't doing of their own choosing.

One of the techniques Kia talks about is having songversations with your child. In her words:

"Express your love for music by having a "songversation." Sing everything you want to say! You can try this with words, first, and then have a "songversation" using no words, only sounds"

Kia also says to talk to your children about the kinds of music they like and ask them what images they see when listening to it. I'd also say to ask them how different pieces of music make them feel. A primary purpose of music is to help others feel what you were feeling when you wrote the song or piece. Take a moment yourself to really listen to a few songs on the radio or YouTube and think about how each song makes you feel. If the songs really resonates with you and makes you feel something, then the songwriter, artist and producer have really accomplished their mission.

I came across Kia and her book in an article published by the Johns Hopkins School of Education - Making Music With Your Child . If you'd like to learn more about how to share the gift of music with your children or other children you teach definitely check it out. Then once you're done you should hop over to Kia's website at www.MusicKia.com where you can learn more about her and purchase her book Making Music With Your Child

Can't believe its Thursday and the week is almost over - Well don't fret we'll be back again tomorrow with another fun musical nugget for you!

Music, Love & Laughter,

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

p.s. KEEP MUSIC ALIVE Day #10 - Please visit our first post from Tuesday July 1st for more information about our mission