Posts by barbara:
Digital Chocolate! Well, almost as good…
February 14th, 2012Happy Valentine’s day! There is a new gift for you here – a “BK Sampler,” with a handful of my songs for you to enjoy – and of course, to share – it’s free! Click on the “New to BK?” button on my website home page (or here: http://bit.ly/wghIOM) Give it a few seconds and… Voila! Thanks for sharing the love.
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Official CD Release and New Website Launch!
January 14th, 2012Today is a big day – I’m about to have a VIP CD Release celebration with the full band in our barn, right where the new album was recorded. We will be recording the show so stay tuned – there might be some new tracks available soon.
I’m also launching the new site, and will be adding new music, video and news over the coming weeks.
The PledgeMusic drive was a huge success – I really appreciate all the support! With all your help, we easily reached our goal of creating a budget for radio and publicity. Hope to see you out there in 2012.
-BK
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Official CD Release, January 14 2012!!!
January 14th, 2012… and Brand New WEBSITE! I’m looking forward to a band show tonight here in our barn. We’ll be recording it, so stay tuned for fresh live tracks!
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Featured Homepage Spot A
January 4th, 2012
New Album: What You Keep
“After taking a decade-long hiatus from record-making and touring to focus on her family, she’s back with 10 gems wrapped in her exquisite voice and shining with the joy that comes from aging, acceptance and boatloads of gratitude.” Performing Songwriter
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Giving Thanks
November 23rd, 2011
It occurred to me that I will be releasing this new CD almost exactly 9 months from the start of recording. There are so many ways this is like gestation, this process of recording a CD. So many apt analogies. Except, as Fran-my-co-producer says, there’s one difference: that baby’s definitely coming. With a CD, or any other creative work, you have to keep showing up and making it happen, every day, till you’re done. And in this case it just happens to be about 9 months later.
Reading about everybody’s gratitude this Thanksgiving, and contemplating the art of appreciating and giving thanks, I am moved to tell the story of my song “You Give it Away” (track 1 on What You Keep, my upcoming CD). After writing it, I discovered the proverb “what you give away you keep” and that was the inspiration for the album title. It’s a song about sharing – not only what you have, but the essence of who you are. The song was originally inspired by a very moving letter from a fan, basically thanking me for sharing a part of myself from the stage. I found this letter (which had been filed away) during my retreat from performing, as I was trying to re-discover the joy I had once felt in my music and career. The song is my gift back to that letter-writer.
If you find your way to this link, you can download the song now – a gift to you too.
Look for the official release of What You Keep the first week of January.
artwork by Sue Pelletier
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Soundtrack – my one and only “summer song”
August 11th, 2011I had a lovely post from China on Facebook, seeking these lyrics. Until I have time to add the “Lyrics” page to this site, here they are, Tinlai!
I think of this as a “roll the window down and chill” song… don’t have too many of those!
SOUNDTRACK ©ⓟ 2000 Barbara Kessler
Get that stack of old 45′s
I’ll get my Frampton Comes Alive
I’ll roll down the window you drive
Into that Horizon
Remember when you knew every song
But always got the lyrics wrong
You would let me tag along
‘Cause I memorized them
Chorus:
Turn the radio loud
Tell me what that song’s about
Can you hear the sound?
Of the soundtrack of my life
All the world’s a movie and I ‘m the star
And the music swells at all the right parts
The art of making life an art -
Before the credits roll
Chorus:
Turn the radio loud
Tell me what that song’s about
Can you hear the sound?
Of the soundtrack, the soundtrack of my Life
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New Rolling Stones Tribute, Passim Gig
June 3rd, 2011
Just a brief update: check out this new alt-country tribute to the Rolling Stones, which includes a song I recorded here in the barn (You Got The Silver):
Paint It Black: An Alt-Country Tribute to the Rolling Stones
You can hear samples of the songs – from artists like Hem and Cowboy Junkies and Matthew Ryan and Mary Gauthier – on iTunes or on Amazon. Let me know what you think!
I will be at Club Passim, Cambridge MA, on Saturday June 18, opening 2 shows for the lovely and lilting Catie Curtis, 6 & 9PM. Please join us.
Thanks for keeping in touch. More news on the new recordings soon…
BK
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If A Tree Falls and You Don’t Hear it…
November 9th, 2010Just because you haven’t heard much from me, doesn’t mean I’m not making any noise! I’m like that tree, somewhere deep in the forest….
Some things I’ve been up to (since you dropped by, thought you might like to know):
Recording with young songwriters – a couple of my students are recording their debut EP’s with me. So much fun, such energy, fresh voices, fresh perspectives. Good to hear.
Working on various songs – a new tribute album (recording a cool version of a lesser-known song by a classic band – more soon); basics for some of my unrecorded songs; collaborating with other writers and producers on occasion.
And this weekend, I’ll be playing a benefit in New Jersey that a dear friend of mine is organizing.
But mostly, I’m enjoying home life with my family, hanging in our newly renovated barn (and studio!) and watching as time whizzes by.
Wait a minute, what’s that crashing sound?
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Still Happy With You…
June 27th, 2010Hi, and greetings from the Barn, where I’ve been busy finalizing the new songs for recording. It is easy to get distracted; I am so dazzled by everything blooming all around me…
I am excited that my song “Happy With You,” from my CD Stranger To This Land, has been receiving airplay again after all these years – on Sirius satellite radio’s channel 30, The Coffeehouse. If you’d like, you can request it from their website!
http://www.sirius.com/thecoffeehouse
It’s so amazing when a song finds a life of its own, and this little song certainly has – I’ve heard from so many people over the years who have used it as their wedding song. (I was lucky enough to have Jennifer Kimball sing it for us at my own wedding, 14 years ago this summer. It was quite the surprise; I had asked her to sing, but was stunned when she began to sing that one. Her version was so haunting and lovely, it was hard to imagine I’d have to sing it again myself after that.)
The song I’m working on at the moment is “Ways to be Brave,” which some of you may have heard if you’ve seen me play anytime in the last couple years. Bringing it to life in recorded form is most fun, as I am happily playing around with Rhodes sounds reminiscent of my beloved Queen – one of my earliest influences! (Can’t you hear it? Ha!)
Keep in touch and you’ll be among the first to know when it’s done. Thanks, and hope you’re well, and Happy, too…
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BK News
May 4th, 2010Hi, and thanks for stopping by. I am still alive and well and although I’ve only played a handful of shows these past years, I do look forward to getting out there a bit again in the near future. I haven’t released a CD since 2000, but I have worked on a bunch of new material these past 10 years for various side projects: songs for tv/film, both with collaborators and on my own; music for several short films; music for an educational documentary; a theme for a PlayStation game. I also got involved in community theater, started acting on both stage and film (one role as a “stand in” and one commercial so far!), and volunteered to promote and host a monthly open mic for a theater group in my town. Recently, I started coaching/producing several young songwriters. I’ve really loved the experiences I’ve had in the producer’s seat!
I have a lovely little home studio in our 1850′s barn that my husband restored/finished in his spare time (ha!) His band is recording here at the moment. I am currently at work recording several years worth of unrecorded songs, and am happy when new song ideas pop up, as they always do when you’re recording…
I have loved the co-writing/collaborating I have begun to do these past years on my “stay at home mom sabbatical,” and I am hoping for more fun collaborative and creative projects to pop up, as they always do, which I squeeze in between the typical mom stuff of soccer games and school activities and such. Just this past weekend I got to compose the music for a short musical a local film crew created as part of the Boston 48 Hour Film Project. And I’d just been dreaming about writing a musical – hey, you never know…
Keep in touch – my Facebook page is the best place – to hear the new music in progress…
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