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192 – A gig, a tip and the web

Recorded 15 May 2012

This show is about three topics.

Jim & Tim‘s first gig of the season, a private birthday party, and all the ins and outs surrounding that. I talk a lot about those ins and outs, too.

A vocal tip about what to do when you want to relax your vocal folds. [Editor’s Note: Before you try any tip, check with either your voice teacher or vocal coach, or if you’re having physical issues, check with your Dr.]  It came about because of the outdoor gig the night before  and I talk about what I do .

The joys of website ownership/maintenance. A cautionary tale about having your Domain Registrar and Hosting service be the same company.

[runtime 00:24:17]
[audioplayer file=”http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TC-52008/TS-622424.mp3″]
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Photo Credit: Bigbadvoo

I wanna SEE you!

I can’t tell you how many times someone had said to one of us “I want to see you guys! When are you playing near me?”.

Well, it took awhile and a learning curve, but while we can’t play near everyone, you can still see us in this video.

I’d say come up and say hi, but that might be a little uncomfortable, talking to your computer…or maybe not, so feel free to come up and say hi if you want to after watching this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkZz3HEhFLo

And now you know where to go or music that you love to sing along with as well. Right here.

I wanna SEE you! originally appeared on Jim & Tim on March 27, 2012. Tweet This

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To pick a perfect set

Just finished updating our song list and the grand total came out to 68 songs.

The quick math rule of thumb we use is that the average song is three and a half minutes long. So take 68 multiplied by 3.5 and you end up with 238 minutes worth of music, or just 2 minutes shy of 4 full hours…If we played them back to back, non-stop with no talking in between. Which never happens.

Depending on the gig, we play anywhere between 1 – 4 sets and a set is either 45 or 50 minutes. That means we basically have 5 full sets worth of music at our disposal.

So how do we pick a set? It’s different every time. While we have some “standards” (considering we play covers, does that go without saying?) we use most of the time,  what order they go in depends on the gig itself. But yes, we like to try and mix it up  so that if we have fans coming to multiple shows, they won’t hear the same songs in the same order every time we play. We use a 15 song base for a set. That gives us some wiggle room at the gig to see how it’s going and make adjustments on the fly, because the best plan is to plan for the plan to not go as planned and make it work from there.

So that’s how we do it, one gig at a time.

And we thought you might like to try it and pick your perfect set from our song list (And I wanted to play with the polling plugin – Jim).  Below is our full song list as recently updated. Pick 15 songs that you think would be the perfect set and then click the Vote button. That’s all there is to it.  Enjoy!

 

To pick a perfect set originally appeared on Jim & Tim on February 16, 2012. Tweet This

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On Haitus

It’s that time of year again for me. I usually take a quick break from the podcast during the month of January. Time to recharge and do a little forward planning (though there’s usually not much of that (c; ).

I don’t think I’ll take the entire month of January off, but It will at least be the next couple of weeks before the show is back. I hope to do some writing for this site and the others for which I write.  (That’s right, I said “for which”, I can write goodly, you know.)

I’ll let you know when the show’s coming back, it may be a quick “Hey you! The show’s back in 15 minutes” or it could be more. Hopefully more than that, but I’ve lived with me a long time now, I know how I am.

Talk to you in a couple of weeks or so, until then, “Bye for now.”

Why don’t we see Jim & Tim this holiday?

Well, the biggest reason is because I’m off being a crazy caroling madman with the Merry Maskers and performing in the show A White Christmas Holiday Revue. That’s because that’s what is most requested at this time of year.

And we love that. We love the time of year and we love the music too.

That doesn’t mean we stop making music. Far from it. We understand that there are many events and parties that aren’t holiday related. You know we’re there for those whenever and wherever they may be. And we’ll even do a holiday song or two when they’re wanted/requested by popular demand.

It just means that in December you’re less likely to see something like this in your Twitter stream:

 

Just keep watching, these will start popping up again very soon and we’ll be having a great time doing what we do best. Singing for you.

Happy Holidays from Jim & Tim.

 Photo Credit: mikecogh

Why don’t we see Jim & Tim this holiday? originally appeared on Jim & Tim on December 1, 2011. Tweet This

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Is it too early for Christmas?

Not if you’re Arthur Christmas!

For the Holiday season, 4-AM returns to our roots with The Merry Maskers Carolers singing holiday carols and having a great time getting into the spirit.

Well, last Saturday, November 12th,  at Woodfield Mall was the earliest I’ve ever caroled. But it was all a part of the 12 Days of Arthur Christmas, a new holiday film from Sony Pictures and we were caroling and having pictures taken with anyone who asked. There were Arthur Christmas activity books for the first 100 kids to visit Santa in the Ice Palace, a speed wrapping contest and prize wheel in the Grand Court of the mall. Oh, I almost forgot the cookie decorating there as well. I think they may have been tipped off ahead of time, because I didn’t get to decorate any cookies…Which is probably better for everyone all around, now that I think about it.

It was a great time. There were lots of smiles and wide eyed kids, replete with cookie frosting all over their faces, pictures taken, flying wrapping paper and people singing along. I guess it’s never too early for Christmas.

But here’s a not so secret ‘Secret’.

If you go to the 12 Days of Arthur Christmas Calendar and choose Chicago, IL from the drop down list and you look at the 11th Day of Arthur Christmas, you’ll see this:

O COME ALL YE CAROLERS
Trump International Hotel and Tower Chicago | River Walk
401 N. Wabash Ave. | Chicago, IL 60611 | 2:00PM-4:00PM
Spot the ARTHUR CHRISTMAS Carolers for your chance to learn a Christmas carol and receive a prize

…And I bet that if you look hard enough and long enough on the internet (are you done looking yet?), you just might be able to find a picture of the Carolers you’ll be looking for Tuesday.

Happy Holidays and Good Hunting from 4-AM!

Is it too early for Christmas? originally appeared on 4-AM on 15 November 2011.

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I went and did it this time

I admit it, I did it. I’m responsible for enough sites that I decided to make this site an aggregate of those sites. I’ve started taking feeds from both the Jim & Tim site and from the 4-AM site, including the upcoming gigs feeds. So now there’s one place to follow what I’m doing when I’m doing it and I get to show off the majority of my work in one place.

Some call this “Lifestreaming”. I would agree, except it’s only my musical life I’m streaming here, plus it doesn’t include Facebook updates and only one of the Twitter feeds that I use.  At any rate, I’m a bit more streamlined now and that’s definitely a good thing for me. I hope you enjoy it as well.

I also added a plugin to all my sites that gives proper attribution to the feed, so I don’t hurt my SEO rankings. Always trying to stay one step ahead.

Let me know what you think.

172 – Visibli and Elburn Days

Recorded 23 August 2011

Here’s a short little ditty tonight about an article from Music Think Tank titled Musician’s Arsenal: Killer Apps, Tools & Sites – Visibli. If you’re not reading this blog, you should be.

I talk about this past Sunday and Jim & Tim playing at Elburn Days and its effect.

4-AM will be at the Buffalo Grove Days again this year.

[audioplayer file=”http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TC-52008/TS-527238.mp3″]

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Hey, what are you doing the 21st?

Jim & Tim at Elburn Days 2010

Hey, it’s this coming Sunday and if you’re not busy…

We had our rehearsal and a couple of weeks ago we determined the songs we were going to use for the day. Elburn Days is always a fun gig for us, we’ve been playing a for a few years now. It’s the site of the infamous seven and a half hour gig  a few years back and it’s been a favorite of mine ever since then.

I don’t think that we’ll be playing that long this year (you never can be sure, can you?), but we’ve got our set list all ready. Come out and join us, it’s a great place and it supports the Elburn Lions Club. A worthy cause and a great group of people.

Even if you’re thinking about coming out, do, you’ll have a great time and I just don’t think…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoMgRnygok8

Photo and Video Credit: Theresa Carter

Hey, what are you doing the 21st? originally appeared on Jim & Tim on August 18, 2011. Tweet This

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I woke up singing

Literally. It was one of those weird, “I remember it well” dream moments. It was the song You’ll Think of Me by Keith Urban. The song starts “I woke up early this morning around four am, with the moon shining bright as headlights on the…” and that’s when I woke up singing the end of the phrase, the word

“…interstate”.

Okay, no more sleep for me. The first thing I do is check the clock, yep, it’s 4AM. And at that time of day, everything is full of subtext. Here’s my subtext from all of that:

  • You’ll think of Me is a song that Jim & Tim does. I don’t sing lead on it, but it’s in both of our ranges, so either one of us can do  it (and have).
  • Okay, not only does the song talk about waking up at 4 AM and I did exactly that, but I’m also a part of the group called 4-AM, which is short for 4 A cappella Musicians.
  • 4-AM does a Keith Urban song But For the Grace Of God and I do sing lead on that one. I arranged it for the group.
  • I woke up singing the end of the phrase I was dreaming about! How wild is that?

Now, here’s my takeaway. I’m going crazy…wait, I already knew that, so scratch that explanation.

It seems natural that I would dream about a song that I sing with one of the groups, so I guess that isn’t so surprising. It’s more that the song has ties to both of the groups I’m in and that it ties them together so well. Maybe the subconscious mind is paying attention, eh?  At any rate, more than anything else, it says to me I want to, maybe even need to sing more. I’m just not singing enough so that I end up waking up singing. And while that makes sense, it comes down to a question. How do I make that happen? Saying I want to sing more with Jim & Tim and 4-AM is the easy part, making it happen is something completely different.  And something I’m working on right now and trying things new and old.

I also think it’s something that’s going to happen as well. I think that’s what my subconscious is trying to tell me too. Stay tuned to see if my subconscious is right, I know I will.

One last thing. I’m half glad, half sorry that I don’t have a video of that. I know I’ll be hearing about for awhile as other people hear the story. Hey, if you’re going to hear voices in your head, they might as well be singing, right?

Photo Credit: cliff1066

Just playing around

Okay, I’m trying something new here. I’ve been working with some video and I wanted to see how it looks in a regular post. So what I’m going to do is post a few videos that I have and then you’ll be seeing more as I have them ready. I’m also going to have a small poll afterwards. I’d like to see which ones you like. Here they are.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoMgRnygok8

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCJWpKD97-s

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95d5vpanVYk

 

Just playing around originally appeared on Jim & Tim on July 4, 2011. Tweet This

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One door…

I just found out last night that our July 15 gig was cancelled. The venue has decided not to have live music in the beer garden on Fridays anymore.  On the other hand, we’re talking with that same venue about taking a Saturday night slot coming up soon. Keep your eyes and ears here to find out how that turns out. I’ll let you know as soon as we hear anything about it.

Now for that open door. I also just found out that Jim & Tim will be playing at Elburn Days this year. It’s at Lions Park in Elburn on August 21 and it’s one of my favorite gigs because of its history. We’ll have some fun and probably even play some songs you haven’t heard us play before. In the meantime, we’ll be looking to set up some more gigs in the area so you have a chance to hear us play. Because that’s what we love to do.

Photo by Steve Snodgrass

 

One door… originally appeared on Jim & Tim on June 25, 2011. Tweet This

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Who is that mysterious Jim?

Hey there, Jim here. Well, not really here, I’m over there. On the West Coast, in California to be exact. I’m on a road trip, but I wanted to make sure that you knew that Jim & Tim have a gig tomorrow night in Des Plaines at the Beacon Tap.

But wait, how can that be? Jim, are you some sort of Svengali that can transport himself through space and time in the blink of an eye? Hmmm, can you…Can you?!

While I’d like to say yes, the answer is no, I’m not. I have to get back the old fashioned way in this case, by driving. So you might ask yourself  ”How are Jim and Tim going to perform Friday night, if Jim’s halfway across the country?”. Well, it’s simple, really and it happens a lot in the music world. The role of Jim will be played by someone else Friday night. Ken Overbey will be filling in for me and I’m glad he is.

So please, make sure to go out and See Jim (Ken) & Tim at the Beacon Tap in the Beer Garden. And come up and say hi to me when you get there.

Who is that mysterious Jim? originally appeared on Jim & Tim on June 17, 2011. Tweet This

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159 – Dream a little IP with me

Recorded 22 March 2011

This show is a flight of fancy, based on a few things. First the article Obama Officially Backs Performance Radio Royalties… on Digital Music News, The White House White Paper on which the article is based, two podcast episodes 096 – Performance Rights Act part 1 and 097 – Performance Rights Act part 2 and my Op-Ed piece Performance Rights Act – my two cents on HR 848. I tell you, it was fun to talk about what I’d like to see happen, whether it does or not didn’t matter. It was fun to talk about.

At least most of it was. This show is a whimsical prelude to a more nuts and bolts look at the White House IP White Paper. I hope to bring that to you soon. Enjoy this show while you can and tell me what you’d like to see happen if/when these suggestions/directions are followed.

Show time [00:25:23]

[audioplayer file=”http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TC-52008/TS-464056.mp3″]

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158 – Smoke gets in your eyes and ears…And throat

Recorded 15 March 2011

The news of Illinois considering news laws to loosen the smoking laws left me with a few words. Based on the article Bills to loosen smoking restrictions to be considered by Illinois House, I do more than just a bit of talking. I also incorrectly read a quote from the article itself when I made mention of “However, he said casinos in Indiana, Illinois and Missouri…” . I said Illinois, and the article read Iowa. Ah well, I didn’t notice until after the fact.

Hey, enjoy listening.

Show length [00:20:38]
[audioplayer file=”http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TC-52008/TS-458875.mp3″]

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