A Year of Touring Recap: Part One - L.A.

It seems I took a rather lengthy break from blogging - I had no idea that my last post was published 16 months ago.  I assure you, though, there have been many very worth distractions in my life during the past year and four months, some of which I will try to catch up on chronicling, starting today.  In a nutshell, I've been traveling a great deal.  And having some amazing experiences, as well as a few difficult ones, along the way.  

I'll be writing about some mentionable highlights from the past year of touring and all the adventures associated with these travels, or at least as much as I can manage to recount... this may take a few blog entries, so consider this "Part One", in chronological order:

• In April 2011, I went to Los Angeles for two weeks with one of my best friends (Amoris Walker), who also happens to be a fantastic documentary film-maker and tour "assistant"/partner-in-crime. Among the adventures of those two weeks were:

• Performing at Kulak's and Guitar Merchant with long-time friend, talented guitarist and super lovely person Chad Watson - we hadn't seen each other or performed together in 13 years, so it was both a great show AND reunion!
  
• Attending and having a great time at the ASCAP Expo (where I met a lot of lovely music industry folks and fellow artists and writers, including one lovely young woman wearing a red pea coat that I adored, and who, after my complimenting said coat, replied "really? You can have it if you want - it isn't my kind of red." It's sitting in my closet right now.)
• Being given an awesome fedora hat by a hat kiosk vendor just because we stopped by to chat as he was closing up
  
• Being a featured guest on Martini in the Morning
• Meeting and having lunch with the one and only Mandi Martin (who, sadly, recently passed) and my friend/music promoter Toni Koch of Cosmo Coalition, who helped bring the L.A. trip together, at Duke's in Malibu - what an honor that was.
  
  
• Encountering Mel Gibson in a health food store in Malibu, where he very kindly paid a chair masseuse for Amoris and I, who were behind him in line at the time, to receive massages. He did it for the masseuse as much as (or more than) for us two strangers, since she probably needed the business, but still. "Mel Gibson bought me a massage". Sounds so potentially eyebrow-raising when summed up that way...Hah :)
• Visiting Cafe Gratitude and indulging in some amazing raw vegan food that I never find the time to make for myself (and that I possibly wouldn't ever be able to, since I'm pretty sure their recipes contain a bit of magic, which is terribly difficult to find on the store shelf) but would eat every day if I could
  
  
• Seeing one of my dearest high school friends (David Gallic!), an amazing actor, playwright, screenwriter, and pretty much jack-of-all-trades when it comes to anything theatrical. He's going to be famous.
• Seeing the Bird and the Bee performing acoustically... it was especially awesome because I had no idea that they would be featured at the showcase concert I attended at ASCAP.  I saw Jonatha Brooke perform at the same venue the next night, and talked to her after the show... I got to interview her for Songwriter's Monthly magazine (now out of print) when I was 15, which solidified my Fan-For-Life status. She's a lovely woman, in all respects. 

• Meeting Sinbad on FOUR separate occasions
•  
   
• Being randomly invited to a party in Hollywood. Because the bouncer liked our hats and my newly acquired awesome red coat, saying "you'll lend this party 100% more class". Maybe that's code for "I think you ladies are hot!", but either way, we at least got a free glass of wine out of the deal while infusing the room with our uber-classy stylishness... Hah! :D
  
  

Nevada/California Mini-Tour - from the mountains to Carson Valley

Our Tahoe Adventure! (me and Matt Treder, starring Lake Tahoe)

What a fabulous time I have had traveling through California and Nevada this week! I have seen some of the most stunning vistas, played for the most wonderful audiences who came out in droves to listen to the music, and experienced such wonderful hospitality from the awesome venues we have played at! I can't wait to come back to the Tahoe area and the Carson Valley!



At Tahoe Winery, playing to a sold-out over-capacity crowd!


Thanks so much to all who came out to see us... we had a blast tonight playing our final show in the area at Tahoe Ridge Winery in Minden, NV. I had no idea our show would not only sell out, but that the room would be so full of such enthusiastic music fans! What a great way to end the tour. :)



The Genoa Bar, oldest saloon in Nevada



If these walls could talk... inside the Genoa Bar


The show last night at Walley's Hot Spring Resort in Genoa, Nevada was definitely a memorable one! We sure didn't know what we were in for... and we were in for a party! The little town packs a big punch when it comes to personality and celebration of live music. The audience really raised the roof, and totally made our night. It was such a pleasure to play the oldest town in all of Nevada... old, but definitely still kicking!!



Hanging out with music fans at Wally's Hot Spring resort...






Plan B Lounge in Carson City is such a neat little club--a totally chill gem of a venue in the heart of Nevada's capital. I was so impressed by the receptiveness of the audience when it came to us playing so much original music at our show! It was really wonderful to be able to pull out some old favorites from my original music files and share them with such a cool group of people.



Outside Moody's in Truckee, CA


Sharing the stage with Quartet Minus One at Moody's in Truckee, CA was a blast, too! The band is great, and we were so glad to play with them at such a happening place in the middle of one of the highest-elevation communities in the U.S.! And such a magical town, too... lots of history, lots of beautiful snow adorning the landscape and the buildings... it was like a postcard photo! We can't wait to go back and enjoy the beauty again, and to stop in at Moody's again when we do! :D




Special thanks to the Nevada Appeal and The Scene for featuring a GREAT article about me and about the mini-tour! http://www.nevadaappeal.com/ They even featured us as the cover story and put a huge photo on the FRONT COVER of The Scene! Woohoo! It was thrilling to see. :)

I will post photos soon to accompany the blog! Check back later!

~Halie



Elijah Bleu's coffee in Truckee... my new favorite CA cafe!

New Album, New Re-Releases, and (almost) New Year!

Happy holiday season! It's always a rather busy time of year, and for me, that means that I've been running a little bit behind on keeping you all updated about the good things going on! There's plenty to be announced, too. I'll do my best to catch you up with the latest, in a nutshell at least. :)

For those who missed all the announcements, I have a brand new album out this season! "After Dark" is now available across the U.S. and around the world. It has already been embraced by thousands of fans, been played on dozens of radio stations, and has garnered some wonderful reviews from international sources, including these notable ones:

(From the U.S.) http://wildysworld.blogspot.com/2010/11/halie-loren-after-dark.html

(From Belgium) http://withmusicinmymind.blogspot.com/2010/12/2010-halie-loren-after-dark-review.html

(From Japan) http://yonakagawa.com/diary/vo.html

Also, my 2008 holiday release "Many Times Many Ways: a holiday collection" (with Matt Treder) has been released by JVC/Victor in Asia this holiday season, and has been getting some great radio play there! As for the REST of the world, "Many Times..." is now available for the FIRST TIME through iTunes! Check it out and download a track (or a dozen :)) to help you get into the holiday spirit during this final stretch of seasonal festivities!

Also, I have a couple of cameo performances on my friend and fellow musical artist John Shipe's newest CD, "Villain", which is being met with some wonderful responses from the blogosphere, particularly in regards to our duet on alt country tune "Hard To Believe" -- Rootstime (Belgium) notes that "One of the very most beautiful songs on Villain is "Hard to Believe," which John Shipe delivers as a duet with singer Halie Loren. This song reminds you of the best work by Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra, and it absolutely deserves a place in the Golden Book of Famous Duet Classics."


And last, but not least, I am excited to let you know that I will be traveling to Japan again in February for a series of shows at the Blue Note (in Nagoya) and the Cotton Club (in Tokyo) over Valentine's Day week! AND I get to take may fabulous band with me this time around, including Matt Treder (piano), Mark Schneider (bass) and Brian West (drums). How exciting is that?! The answer is "very, very exciting"... in case you were wondering... :)

Stay tuned for more news on upcoming touring info, etc... including announcements about some Nevada and California performances coming soon!

'Til next time, happy holidays and happy end of 2010 to you all... and thanks for reading! :)

**jazz hands and snowflakes!**

Halie

Ginza Jazz Festival - Tokyo, Japan

I am SO excited to travel to Tokyo this month for the second time in two months! Matt Treder (pianist extraordinaire) and I will be performing at the Ginza International Jazz Festivalon November 1st! It is an incredible opportunity for us, and an enormous honor to have been invited to take part. We'll be joined on-stage by three very talented Japanese-based musicians, including renowned saxophonist Ken Ota, bassist Go Shimada, and Hidenobu "Kalta" Otsuki on drums.

We will be the only U.S. headliner act among the 12 featured groups, which includes Chico & The Gypsies (from France; formerly of the Gypsy Kings), Catia (from Brazil), Hiroko Kokubu (from Japan), and more. Check out http://www.ginza.jp/ginzajazz/artist_e.html to read more about the performers, and the festival itself.

Our performance will take place at the Yamano Music Ginza Main Store 7F. Applications for tickets are no longer accepted (the application deadline was the end of September), but those that applied have been entered into a lottery to win tickets--winners will be sent their tickets on October 12th (tomorrow! :)). Good luck to all the applicants! We look forward to seeing you at the show :)

Japan Adventures - My First Trip to Japan

Konnichiwa and Aloha! :)

I'm back from my travels to Japan and Hawaii now--and there is SO much to blog about! First, I will go into better detail re: my Japan trip earlier this month, as my previous blog on Myspace was just a short little re-cap of some notable moments written while waiting at the Tokyo airport. Too short of a time makes for too short of a blog. Not that short can't be sweet, but details can be nice, too (sorry for the few repeated details from the previous blog)...

So, I'll start from the beginning, again. Although I can't capture all the magic of the moments, I have included a few photos of some of the places we visited and wonderfully friendly people we met and worked with while in Japan. There are also more photos featured on my Facebook page. But the best way to see it is, of course, in person! I encourage any of you who can to visit if you ever get the chance to do so.

Day 1:

We flew into Japan on September 6th ("We" being myself, pianist Matt Treder, and Keith Altomare--White Moon Production's Marketing Direct..or) after plane problems held us up for many hours in the Portland airport, eventually requiring that we overnight there, putting us almost a full day behind schedule before we even left Oregon! Then came a 10.5 hour flight the next morning to Tokyo, where we were met and warmly greeted at the airport by Sumio Jono, the A&R Jazz Manager at JVC/Victor who has been one of the major reasons for me signing with JVC/Victor. It was my first time meeting Sumio-san, though I had spoken with him many a time from across the Pacific, and felt that we already knew each other. We were then shuttled from Narita airport to Tokyo proper, which is about an hour and a half's drive with traffic. Let the day begin--fabulous in all ways, even in the middle of a record-breaking heat wave that was happening while we were there.



First glimpse of Japan from the plane--yay!

Our first stop was to InterFM radio, where I was scheduled to interview with Guy Perryman. It was quite funny to arrive at the radio station, luggage in tow, to do a radio appearance straight from the airport--certainly a memorable experience! I'm so glad that we were able to make it to the station in time, though. It was great chatting with Guy and the other InterFM staffers. They were exceptionally friendly and made us feel very much at home right away. Thanks to everyone there for your kindness. Mr. Perryman posted a blog about the studio visit on his website, which you can find here (it is in Japanese): http://www.interfm.co.jp/..global/blog/2010/09/07/17/32/


Guy Perryman (from InterFM) and me

We then went to the hotel that JVC so generously arranged for us, the Shibuya Excel Hotel Tokyu, which was amazing to behold! And with such comfortable beds...truly... But no lounging for these travelers yet. We wanted to see Tokyo! Who needs sleep when there are new cities to explore? :) Sumio, our very patient and gracious host for our entire time in Japan, had some really good ideas of places we could see in the span of a few hours, and proceeded to take us around town. We went below the hotel, to the incredible, seemingly endless underground shopping center that also leads to the train.


Sumio helping us confused travelers navigate the subway system...

Our first stop was Tower Records, which was immense and impressive and FULL of people buying music, a very encouraging sight to see! Keith, being the 'Distribution guru' he is, was especially anxious to check this part out. Sumio showed Matt and me the area in the store in which we will be doing an in-store performance when we return to Tokyo in October. Looking forward to that!! We also saw the display that featured "They Oughta Write a Song", which was very cool! Seeing my music prominently displayed like that gives me such a thrill... and hopefully inspires a lot more people to listen to and buy it :)



At Tower Records...

Sumio then took us to the Asakusa Temple (also known as the Senso-ji temple), which was incredible to see--you can read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..Asakusa. Not only was the temple itself beautiful and interesting, but we also really enjoyed exploring the outdoor market area, which was immense and varied. We then had some yummy food, which was our first taste of Tokyo cuisine... Keith had a yam shake that he shared (truly delicious!), and Sumio treated us all to iced green tea and the most incredibly good red bean bun pastries I've ever had. Yum!



Touring the temple with Sumio-san!


Yam Shake!!!

We traveled from there to the very glamorous Ginza district, where we paid a visit to the renowned Yamano Music Store. We checked out their Jazz music section, and were thrilled to find that my CD is in a very prominent display and included in its own listening station! Wow!!! :) We then had the pleasure of meeting the store manager, Takaya Kamio, who surprised me with a poster of, well, me! It was a display poster about "They Oughta Write a Song", I think, though it was all beautifully written in Japanese, so I'm not 100% sure what it said ..but it sure looked good. Such a sweet surprise for Takaya to present!



CD display at Yamano Music Store in Ginza


Seeing double... :) Poster at Yamano Music Store

And if all that wasn't enough to make our first half-day in Tokyo a full experience, there's more... we then went to dinner at a restaurant called Gonpachi with Sumio, where we were joined by JVC's International Repertoire division's Manager of A&R Hiroshi Suruga, and Division Manager Aya Ohi. It was truly delightful, both the company and the whole experience. Let's just say it involved much spirited talk as we got to know each other better and the best sushi and sake I've ever had... :) The day ended on this fantastic note, and was followed by some much-needed sleep, in those comfortable beds previously mentioned, after a 24+ hour day of traveling, interviewing, seeing things and meeting people. I went to bed feeling totally dazzled by it all. And sleepy from all the delicious food. And possibly from the sake... :)

Day 2:

I had my first-ever Japanese breakfast at the hotel's amazing top-floor restaurant. It was delicious! It really kept me energized for a very full day of activities. Luckily for all of us, those activities weren't set to begin until 12:30 in the afternoon! Yay for a full night's sleep and a good breakfast! :)


Breakfast - yummmm!

Our little Oregon gang then traveled to the JVC offices, where we were given the grand tour and met people from various departments of the company. They were all so very kind and courteous to us--a really fantastic, warm welcome to the JVC family!

Then the interviews commenced... each of the interviewers (throughout the entire trip) were exceptional, each with their own styles. They came so well-prepared, and I can honestly say they were all very good interviewers with thought-provoking questions, and amazingly, almost none of the questions overlapped--they had unique questions and subjects that I had never before answered or discussed in interview settings. Because all of the interviews I did in Japan were very different from one another, it kept me on my toes, which was very good--it made it really fun :) Much gratitude is owed to those who kindly took time to meet and interview me -- I am so grateful they made time to meet with me and talk with me about my music. Thanks to each and every those listed here. I can't wait to read the write-ups!

~~Yo Nakagawa with the Mainichi News Paper (http://mdn.mainichi.jp/) -- she was very kind and helped to assuage my nervousness with the first interview. :)

~~Akira Kato from Kyodo News Agency, with photographer from Kyodo News took some photos and Hitomi translated. It was my first-ever interview with a translator present, and it was a lot smoother and more natural a process that I had previously imagined.
~~Tei Miwa from HMV -- I had been interviewed by HMV previously (not in person) for an article on their website earlier this year (which you can find here: http://www.hmv.co.jp/en/news/..article/1005190069/)
~~Jin Mashiko and Naoko Isozaki from BayFM, a Tokyo major radio station, recorded an interview to be played on-air later. That was also a first for me, doing a radio interview that wasn't a live broadcast. It was a fun way to finish up our day at the JVC offices!

Before I go on, I must also give huge credit to my amazing translator and beautiful human being Hitomi Watase, who was my lifeline (or at least communication line :) ) for the remainder of my time in Japan. Translating seems like such hard work, but she is a total pro at it! She helped with the remainder of my interviews for the day, for which I was most grateful.



Hitomi and me, two peas in a pod - with thematically similar outfits, no less!

After we left JVC, Matt, Keith and I traveled with Sumio and Rika Sone from JVC to the TokyoFM. While we waited in the lobby area before our appointment time, I was served my very first can of hot green tea from a vending machine. The fact that a vending machine served me a hot drink in a can was novel enough... but the fact that the green tea was really delicious was astounding! I guess I'm kind of easily impressed/amused... :) When it was time, Matt and I (with my can of hot green tea!) were welcomed into the studio, where we met Yuki Rhinehart, the exceptionally friendly radio DJ to whose show ("AOR") we were invited to be guests. Yuki and I chatted on-air, and then Matt joined in when it came time for us to perform a song live in the studio--we played "A Whiter Shade of Pale" from our They Oughta Write a Song cd. Keith was kind enough to film segments of it on my flip camera, which I am hoping to get some time to post (along with other clips) very soon!



Keith and Matt, happily waiting in the TokyoFM waiting area...



Hot Green Tea in a CAN!!!

A very big day in all! The only way I could properly end it was to get some chocolate covered almonds from the enormous vending machine in the hotel lobby. It might have been because I was pretty tired, but the vending machine made me a little bit giddy when it busted out a robot-arm-like grabber to get the item I selected, and then presented it in a little automatic slot to deliver it to me. It was great! So different from the vending machines I'm used to, the ones that ungracefully push an item down from its row and send it thudding down into the bottom of a metal drawer that one must then reach down through the lid and into in order to obtain said item... it all seems so old fashioned now... :P

Day 3:

Showcase day!! Thursday started out with yet another delicious Japanese-style breakfast, and a late-morning meetup in the Lobby to get to our first order of the day. We returned to TokyoFM for another interview and live performance, this time with the fun and super-cute DJ/host Nanae Kodera and the equally fantastic sound engineer Yoshimi Arakeda. Matt and I had great fun meeting and chatting with them. Keith was again acting as the designated videographer/photographer... bless him... :)


DJ Nanae Kodera with Matt and me

Then, we returned to the hotel, where Matt and I had to get ourselves together for the showcase performance that evening before leaving again to head to the venue. We arrived at the Art Cafe Friends venue, a really classy, yet warm and inviting new space in downtown Tokyo, where Matt and I were able to rehearse for a little while with our bassist for the evening, Go Shimada. He really did a great job at filling out the trio--a very talented bass player, indeed. We're honored to be working with him again when we play at the Ginza Jazz Festival on November 1st!

Then, it was time to get ready while all of the invited showcase guests arrived. I have to confess I was more than a little nervous...The room was full of people from different media organizations (including some that I'd interviewed with the day before, and some that I would interview with the next day), music stores, JVC personnel, and more. We were announced, and the show began! We played "They Oughta Write a Song", "Blue Skies", "A Whiter Shade of Pale", "La Vie En Rose", "Perhaps", "Thirsty", and "In a Sentimental Mood"--all songs from either They Oughta Write a Song or the upcoming After Dark. It went wonderfully! Matt and Go played marvelously, and the sound person did a great job mixing. I was very happy with it :) Afterwards, I got to meet a lot of the people who were in attendance, with Hitomi translating along the way--she made it all seem so easy!. After the showcase guests left, I was able to meet and speak with more people from JVC who were in attendance or working at the event, which was a treat.



Post-showcase group pic with my friends at JVC/Victor

Sumio and Aya took Matt, Keith, Hitomi and me out to yet another incredible dinner right next door. We were beginning to feel very spoiled, and, admittedly, we liked it a lot! :) If you didn't already gather that from the expressions on our happy faces...

Keith, me, Matt, Hitomi, Sumio, and Aya -- celebration dinner!


Day 4:

My last full day in Japan was indeed a full one! Interviews galore, preceded by yet another amazing breakfast--this time, I tried out the "American-style breakfast", which was on the opposite side of the restaurant floor. It, too, was exceptional. I would be happy to make a trip to Japan someday just for the food... honestly. It's SO good.

Hitomi, translator extraordinaire, assisted me throughout the day yet again... she was very helpful during the back-to-back-to-back interviews that day!

The first interview of the day at the JVC offices was with Eichi Kobayashi from Intoxicate, Tower Records' weekly magazine.

Then I met with journalists from three of Japan's biggest news organizations (in three separate interviews) --again, some very talented journalists who were so wonderful to speak with about music and more:

~~Shouko Fujisaki from Asahi Shimbun News
~~Manabu Sakurai from Yomiuri News (from which I had just read the day's edition that morning over breakfast, coincidentally)
~~Akira Tada from Nikkei Newspaper

My final interview of the day and of the trip was with Takao Ogawa from InterFM, who recorded our interview for later airing on his show "Jazz Conversation". He has interviewed some of the jazz greats, like Chick Corea, George Duke, Hank Jones, and many others--I was so grateful to be in such unbelievable "interviewee" company.


Takao Ogawa and me

A wonderful day, followed by a fabulous dinner (again, at Gonpachi--what a great restaurant!)--including my first taste of soba noodles (which were not a bit like yakisoba noodles... I had no idea! :)). Hiroshi and Sumio introduced us to all kinds of wonderful food. And Eiko, Matt's wife who is originally from Japan, joined us, which was a treat as well!

Ending the day with a bang, Matt, Keith and I went along with Sumio, Hiroshi, and other JVC folks to watch a show by Jill Decoy Association, an extremely talented band on the JVC/Victor label. While there, I had a chance to meet up with Keith Cahoon from Hotwire K.K.. Keith C. (as opposed to Keith Altomare, aka "Keith A.") is the sub-publisher who represents me and my music in Japan.

What a rush! So many things to do, people to meet... Sumio and everyone associated with JVC/Victor really went over and above in planning and making this trip a wonderfully maximized experience. I know that well-organized events like this do not just happen -- they come about because of a lot of time, effort, and hard work put forth by a lot of people. Matt, Keith and I would like to express our sincere gratitude to Sumio and everyone at JVC/Victor and to all others who were involved. I can't wait to do it again! But first, I'll have to tell you about our time in Maui, Hawaii. That's for another blog. In the meantime, I have posted more photos from the trip on my Facebook page www.facebook.com/halieloren ... please take a look to see some more of the places and people I've described here. More blogs coming soon! Thanks for reading :)

SOLD-OUT "Stages" CD Release :)

Thanks to you all who made it out to last night's "Stages" CD Release concert at the Wildish Theater! For those who wanted to be there but couldn't get tickets before they were sold out, so sorry you couldn't be there with us... we missed you. Wish we could have magically created about a hundred more seats in the room :) However, there will be video and lots of pics soon! And more performances coming around before you know it. Our next full-band show is on the coast at Eden Hall on May 22nd (http://edenhall.com/page2.html), which is the same venue at which we recorded half of our live "Stages" album--great, intimate concert venue. Hope to see you then!

In the meantime, if you would like to check out the new merchandise that had its premier at the show last night, it will be posted to my website within the next day or so! "Halie Loren" and "Halien: United Fans Of Halie Loren" (the new fan club started on Facebook :)) themed T shirts (and tank tops) and stickers galore...

To all who attended, thank you, again, for making this show such a success in all senses of the word. It was truly an honor to celebrate this milestone with you all! Can't wait to do it again :)

My music going national and international!...

There has recently been a plethora of really cool new happenings in the world of my music... and I wanted to share some of them with you all who have been friends and fans of mine for quite some time now. It's all very exciting for me!

First, U.S.-related news:
I've just been picked up for nation-wide distribution by Burnside Distribution, and can be found at stores all over the country. Woohoo! If you find that your favorite local music store doesn't carry my CDs, please let me know by emailing whitemoonprod@comcast.net.

Now for the international part:
For the past few months, my CDs have been really catching on in Japan. At HMV Japan, the country's largest online music retailer, my new CD "Stages" is the #4 seller in the overall Jazz category at HMV. In the sub-category Jazz Vocals, "Stages" is #2, and has been at the #1 more than once already since its release mid-March. My 2008 CD, "They Oughta Write a Song" has also been in every top-5 position on the HMV charts, and is still a top-20 seller listing at #12 and #15 in jazz vocals.

"Stages" was also ranked #21 in jazz at iTunes Japan the last I heard, and has been hovering between the 50th and 20th position at Amazon Japan for most of the time since its release.

Japanese fans and music writers have written positive reviews and blogged about my music. Eiko, amazing wife of my friend and accompanist Matt Treder, helped to create a facebook fan page to chronicle these amazing (to me, at least) developments.

It is crazy and wonderful... life is good! And, for me, unprecedentedly busy. But undoubtedly good. I'll keep you posted on other current and upcoming developments very soon, so please check back for more juicy tidbits :)

~Peace, music, and jazz-hands!~

Halie

Live CD "Stages" released!

My new live CD, "Stages", has just been released! Through my new distribution deal with Burnside Distribution, "Stages" and all of my other albums are now available nation-wide (and online, of course). If my music is not available in your favorite local music store, please let me know by sending an email to whitemoonprod@comcast.net.

The CD features five stellar musicians (Matt Treder/piano, Mark Schneider/bass, Brian West/drums, and Tim McLaughlin/trumpet) performing jazz standards, original songs, and jazzified pop/rock songs from two concerts recorded on the Oregon Coast in 2009. You can hear samples at www.cdbaby.com/halieloren3

Just Plain Folks Awards... The results are in!

I have some great news to share with those that don't also follow me on HalieLoren.com, Facebook, and Twitter (and if you don't, why not? ;)):

"They Oughta Write a Song" WON the award for Best Vocal Jazz Album at the 2009 Just Plain Folks Awards! It is an incredible honor to have been included in the top 10 album nominees in the first place, amid so much amazing talent from around the world. To actually win the category was unbelievable!

The awards were held at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville, TN on August 29. There were hundreds of performers present, and approximately thirty bands/performers played on stage during the awards event between category announcements. I was lucky to be one of the nominees who was invited to perform at the JPF Showcase event held at BB King's Blues Club the previous night (Aug. 28), which was an incredibly diverse group of talent as well.



Live at BB King's Blues Club, JPF Showcase (photo by Adrian James)

I owe much gratitude and credit to the fantastic musicians that played on the album and helped to make it into an award-winning project: Matt Treder, Mark Schneider, Brian West, and Tim McLaughlin. Special thanks to Matt, who did a great job creating some stellar musical arrangements! So many thanks are also owed to all of the JPF members who voted, all of the Just Plain Folks volunteers and staffand to Brian Austin Whitney, the founderof JPF and organizer of the entire awards process.



Receiving the "Best Vocal Jazz Album" award onstage with Brian Austin Whitney (photo by Adrian James)

Congratulations to the other nominees and winners at this year's awards! There is truly an incredible wealth of talent contained in the list of nominees and winners, and I encourage people to check out the other albums, songs, and artists that are named on these lists, which you can find at www.justplainfolks.org. Listed below are the top 4 albums in the Vocal Jazz Album Category (click on the artist names to visit their websites):

Halie Loren (1st Place, "They Oughta Write a Song")
Aga Zaryan (2nd Place, "Picking Up the Pieces")
Justin Thompson (3rd Place, "Brand New Same Old Obsessions")
Sashird Lao (4th Place, "Watsdis")


My award and I--still glowing :)


Finale song of the evening, with all of the (still present) nominees and winners joining in onstange

The beginning of something grand...

It's just past the halfway point of 2009, and quite a momentous year already. I've graduated from college, turned to full time music, gotten married, elected Obama, and just turned 25. What better time to start a blog? No time like the present, especially now that I'm a quarter-century old (I used to think that was a funny thing to say... now it just makes me feel prematurely ancient). Yes, indeed, times are a-changin'!

I must admit from the start that I have no clear direction from the get-go in starting this particular blog, but if I think of some earth-shatteringly important and/or unique theme, I will certainly let you know. With the blogosphere so full of, well, bloggers, with a million different voices and subjects/life experiences to write about, I think it's best for me to kind of wing it. Maybe I can get some assistance from you, too... feel free to leave comments and ask me questions. What do you want to know (within reason, that is :))? What would you be interested in reading from me? I'm game! :)

In the meantime, I'll tell you about some of my immediate plans for this summer with regards to music and life--and the two terms are often quite interchangeable for me, by the way. First, I am gearing up for a neat adventure in Nashville! I lived and worked in the music industry there for about a year and a half, starting at the tender age of 17, and haven't been back since I left in 2003. Not only will I be visiting my old pals and co-writers (and possibly getting to work on co-writing something with a songwriter friend or two), but I will be attending two separate and very cool events.

First, I'll be among the attendees at the Indiegrrl Women in Music conference (www.indiegrrl.com). My song, "Maybe I'll Fly", placed 3rd in the Indiegrrl Songwriting Competition, so I will also be performing in at least one showcase during the conference. There will be lots of women musicians, songwriters, industry professionals, etc. at the conference to meet and network with as well, which will be very inspiring indeed! I feel like I need a boost in the business-sense area of my career--some way to get interested in pursuing new paths for getting my music "out there", wherever "there" is. I think this experience is going to put a fire under me, which I am very much looking forward to. And simply meeting a lot of other women in the national creative community will be really fun, too.

Second, I'll be attending the Just Plain Folk Awards the very next weekend, where I'll be among the nominees for 3 awards!:

• My jazz album, "They Oughta Write a Song", is up for the Vocal Jazz Album award.
• "Pieces of Me", which I co-wrote with Victoria Shaw and Cliff Downs, is nominated for the Contemporary Song category.
• "A Tree Falls", which I wrote with my friends Ruth Rosen and Serena Nelson, is nominated for the New Folk Song category.

It will be so exciting to attend an awards ceremony on this scale... it's going to be held at the famed Wildhorse Saloon, which, if you've ever been in there, it's not like a cozy "saloon" at all--more like a giant performance hall. There will be several hundred people there, with many nominees. After all, there are 70 genre categories total (album and song categories combined), with 10 final nominees for each category. If that seems like a lot of nominees, consider the fact that there were 42,000 albums and 560,000 songs from 100 different countries in the running at the start of the judging process. By that comparison, the narrowing of the playing field was incredibly drastic! In fact, the list of nominees represents only 1/3 of 1% of the songs and albums considered for these awards. That makes it feel all the more like an extraordinary honor to be nominated in any category, much less three! Pretty cool indeed :)

I'll also be starting work on a new album soon! I don't have an exact timeline yet, but I'll likely start breaking ground on it sometime in September or early October. This will officially be my 4th solo album. I'm figuring out a pace for album releases now that I'm no longer a complete novice at the craft... one every year or so seems like a good pace for now, but we'll see how that holds up over time. It takes a lot of work to get it all "just so", from the song selection (and, in my case, the writing of some more songs to put on it!) to the recording to the engineering and mixing to the design and layout to the marketing... yowza. It's a lot, believe me. It's all a lot of fun, and very rewarding, too, though! Otherwise I wouldn't do it, or at least not as often. In fact, it's one of my absolute favorite aspects of what I do. I'm a studio nerd, I confess.

For now, I'm off to prepare for a rehearsal with my friends who will be playing a show with me at the Lane County Fair in a couple of weeks. It's going to be the fullest sound I've had in live performance in a long time--there will be 6 of us on stage! That's almost unheard of for my shows, except for when I sing with the Sugar Beets... in that case, 6 would be a sparse musical arrangement. I'll be joined by Matt Treder (piano), Mark Schneider (bass), Brian West (drums), Tim McLaughlin (trumpet), and Chris Ward (guitar). It's going to be so neat to have all of them add some wonderful layered nuances while simultaneously giving it an overall thicker sound. I haven't performed at a county fair in several years, so this will be a great re-introduction. This time, I don't think I'll be performing right after a troupe of Show Pigs performing tricks. Those little fellas are a hard act to follow. And a strange one, too. And just in case you're wondering, Oh Yes, I HAVE been there... and that's just one story among many... but I'll save those for another day :)