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| (L-R: Matt Hirt, John Mazzei, Michael Laskow, Dave Walton, Barry French, Dean Krippaehne) |
I got home last night from another incredible TAXI Road Rally and to say that this was the best Rally ever might be an understatement. I truly can't even begin to put into words just how incredible the past several days have been but I'll give it a shot.
This year I went to less panels in the main ballroom, less breakout driver's ed classes, didn't attend any mentor lunches, didn't sign up for a one-on-one mentor session, only talked about music for about 25% of the time, and I have no doubt that this was the best Rally I ever had.
For those of you who have been to the Rally before, then you probably understand what I'm talking about. For those of you who have never been to the Rally, you might be a bit confused as to what I'm saying. See, in years past I was very focused in on creating as many "transactions" as I could to help further MY music career but this year I was much more focused in on creating as many "relationships" as I could, but not necessarily to further my music career.
In fact, I'd say that the most meaningful conversations I had all weekend had absolutely nothing to do with music. There were some conversations with two people in particular that I had never met prior to arriving in L.A. that I will never forget for the rest of my life. It was bigger than music. SOOO much bigger than music.
I still can't believe I was on a panel. So humbled to be included with the four people that I've been modeling my career after for the past three years. The wisdom and guidance that they've provided to me has been something I'll never be able to repay. And a special thanks to Michael Laskow for inviting me to be a part of that panel. Extremely grateful to call all five of them my friends.
It was great to catch up with some old friends and to meet some new ones as well. I truly believe I made some new lifelong friends this weekend. That's one of the benefits of the Rally that you just can't put a price on.
I'll probably have some other thoughts about the Rally to share but for now I need to wrap this up.
Until next time...
I'm extremely excited, honored and humbled to announce that I've been added to a panel in the Main Ballroom at the upcoming TAXI Road Rally in LA next month! I'll be taking part in the "5 Year Plan" panel on Friday morning just after the main keynote interview with songwriter extraordinaire Diane Warren. If you don't know her name, I am certain you know her work ("Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now", "Because You Loved Me", "How Do I Live", "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing", "Un-Break My Heart", "Rhythm Of The Night" just to name a few). I'll be joining fellow composer/songwriters, Matt Hirt, John Mazzei, Dave Walton, and Dean Krippaehne, that are not only my colleagues, but friends as well.
Quite honestly, I look at those guys and I think to myself "Why did Michael ask me to be up there with them???" You can ask my wife, any time I mention someone in this business that I'm trying to model my career after, those names are the first four names that come out of my mouth. There's a book I've been reading by Dani Johnson in which she says, if you want to be successful, find someone who is doing what you want to do and do what they do. Well, those four are the ones that I've been modeling my career after for the past three years. So to be on that panel with them is extremely humbling to me. I honestly can't say enough how grateful and excited I am to be on that panel with them.
Last week was another good week of placements for me. I had a few new cue sheets show up for Access Hollywood, the Dr. Oz show and Monster Man, as well as a new series for me, Big Rich Texas. But the placements that I'm most excited about are Duck Dynasty! I absolutely love that show and would watch it even if they weren't using my music! But since they are using some of my music, I like the show that much more! In the two episodes that aired last week, I had 2 placements in the first episode and 7 placements in the second episode, granted a couple of them were VERY short but a placement is still a placement in my book!
Truck Commander - http://www.aetv.com/duck-dynasty/video/3591235578
My track "Pesky Beavers" was used starting at the 5:15 mark and the 10:08 mark.
Si-Yonara - http://www.aetv.com/duck-dynasty/video/#3411011514
My track "That's Right Jack" was used at the 0:24 mark and 0:40 mark. Then my track "Give Me An Offer" was used starting at the 3:15, 3:35, 5:27, 5:37 and 5:50 marks. That track was originally written for Auction Kings but made it's on way on to DD instead.
And finally, I'm very proud and excited to say that I have achieved my weight loss goal of losing 100lbs in under 6.5 months. I reached my goal with one week to spare. It still hasn't sunk in yet but I imagine it's just a matter of time before it does :-)
Well, that's it for now. Until next time...
It feels like the past month has been a blur! Sandwiched between my birthday and my wife's birthday, was my mom's birthday, my parent's 40th wedding anniversary, a photo shoot and a little thing called Big Blue Madness (pictures to follow below) and some new music placements!
Let's get the placements out of the way first. In the past month I've had some new placements in some old favorites such as Access Hollywood, America Now, Auction Kings, the Dr. Oz Show, the season 2 premiere of Duck Dynasty, the Nate Berkus Show, the Rosie Show, and What Not To Wear. And then I've also had my first placements in some new series for me including Barter Kings, Goldfathers and Bad Girls Club (they used a spy music cue). All in all it was over 30 placements for all the episodes combined. Not too shabby :-) Here's one of the cues that was used in Auction Kings, a hard rock track a la Disturbed.
And here's a link to the episode of Duck Dynasty, my music is the piece heard just as they come back from the first commercial break, around the 6:30 mark - http://www.aetv.com/duck-dynasty/video/the-grass-and-the-furious-1293379786?cmpid=MRSS_Hulu_AETV#1293379786
Now, here's more about the new deal... Last week I was approached by a music library owner who heard some of my music online. They offered me a deal to start supplying them with some new music for a couple of different projects. The contract arrived today and I'll be putting it in the mail tomorrow :-) VERY excited about this. Not just because it's a new deal, but because of the manner in which it happened. Just made my day!
And finally, Big Blue Madness... I had a chance to take one of my former college roommates with me to the event. We had a nice time catching up with each other. It was probably the longest we'd hung out together since we were back in school. Just wanted to share a few pictures of the event.
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| Whitaker Bank was giving away t-shirts to anyone who could make 2 out of 3 bank shots. |
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| I accepted their challenge. I was a bit nervous as it had been quite a while since I had shot a basketball. How did I do? See the next photo below... |
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| Dad holding up the free t-shirt that I won for him. I went 3 for 3 :-) |
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| One of the coolest things I've ever seen. They used the court as a video screen! |
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| Oh yeah, there was some actual basketball there too :-) |
And finally... it was 6 months ago today that I began my weight loss journey. As of today I've now lost 98.5lbs and I'm only 1.5lbs away from my goal of dropping 100lbs before the TAXI Road Rally. This has been without a doubt one of the best decisions I've ever made.
Until next time...
Just a quick update for everyone... I found out earlier this week that one of the shows that I wrote the title theme for, It's A Brad, Brad World, has been renewed for a second season. Seeing how late the renewal came, I wasn't optimistic that a second season would be happening. But it is and I believe they are going to keep using the same theme for the show as well. Woo hoo!
I've also had some new placements show up over the last couple of weeks as well. No new series debuts but quite a few cues in multiple episodes of returning shows showed up again. They include Access Hollywood, American Pickers, Auction Kings, The Dr. Oz Show, Fatal Encounters, Giuliana and Bill, Last Call With Carson Daly, My Big Redneck Vacation, Oprah's Next Chapter, Super Soul Sunday, and Toddlers and Tiaras.
Until next time...
Time for another weekly update of new music placements and last week was a good one! I'll start with some shows that my music has previously been in... one episode of The Dr. Oz Show (syndicate), three of Interior Therapy with Jeff Lewis (Bravo), and SIX episodes of Rajin' Cajuns (Discovery)! Then as for new shows... one episode of Guiliana and Bill (Style), four episodes of Saw Dogs (Velocity), two episodes of My Big Redneck Vacation (CMT), one episode of American Digger (Spike), three episodes of Hollywood Treasure (Syfy) and finally, two episodes of Monster Man (Syfy)!
The cues that were used on Monster Man, Hollywood Treasure, American Digger and Rajin' Cajuns were written specifically for those shows. It's always a nice feeling of accomplishment when the cues you write and pitch for a specific show end up actually getting used by the music editors. Great feeling actually.
This past week I've been writing some blues cues for the show Duck Dynasty on A&E. I only had a chance to write one cue for the first season and it got used twice in one episode so this time around I've tried to write a few more than that. Hope they find their way on to the show too! But I'll be watching the show regardless as it's one of the few reality TV shows that both me and my wife ACTUALLY enjoy. I've got all of season one still on my DVR and not just for music research purposes :-)
Until next time...
I had a chance this past weekend to spend some time with my family and some dear friends, one of which I hadn't seen in over 15 years and a few that I hadn't seen in over 20!!! It was wonderful to get spend some time with so many people that have been and continue to be near and dear to my heart for all these years. The weekend went by WAY too fast. While I'm glad to be home, I think I began to miss being in KY before I even got outside of the city limits.
During lunch on Saturday one of my friends asked me if I had any new placements to talk about and at the time I was like, well, none since last week's blog post. Had I checked my phone while I was there, I could have said "...well... actually looks like I just had 4 new cue sheets show up!" So Greg K., this update is for you my friend!
I had mentioned last week that I had some music used in the show American Pickers but I didn't know which cue or how many episodes. Well, now I do. It was one episode and they used a bluesy alt rock piece called "Swagger and Attitude" that I've included below for anyone curious to hear it.
I also had some placements in a couple more new shows. One of them is a show called Interior Therapy with Jeff Lewis. They used an upbeat, inspirational pop/rock cue in one episode. And the other new show is called Ludo Bites America. I had 2 cues used in 2 episodes of that show, both of them being dramedy cues.
Always fun to get new placements!
I've got some new placements to report for the past couple of weeks. I had a new episode of Last Call with Carson Daly as well as an episode of American Weed show up in my online cue sheet site last week. That makes six episodes of the Carson Daly show and 3 episodes of American Weed that my music has been used in.
Here's the cue that got used in the Carson Daly show. It's called "Delta Bluesberry Pie" and it played for 1:13. It's a bit of retro style slide guitar delta blues cue.
So far this week I had some cue sheets show up for some new shows that I've never been in before. The first was an episode of the Colbert Report show that aired back on February 13th on Comedy Central. They used 0:14 of a metal cue I wrote called "Death Blow." And the other debut series was for the show American Pickers. I'm not sure how many episodes or what cue was used in that one yet, just know that something was used.
Until next time...
Let me get the music placement updates out of the way before talking about the real exciting news. I had some placements in some shows that have used my music before, American Weed and The Nate Berkus Show, and then I also had some first time placements in a couple of shows, Fatal Encounters and The Doc Club with Rosie O'Donnell. The placement in Fatal Encounters used my clip "Tension In The Air" for 82 seconds. That cue has seen quite a bit of activity lately. Nice!
Now for the exciting news... Although I have another week left in my RevAbs 90-day challenge, today marked a huge accomplishment as I've reached another milestone. For the week I lost 5.4lbs for a grand total of 69.9lbs and I'm now a member of the 240s club! To say that I'm excited would be an understatement, but at the same time, I'm not finished yet. This is just goal #2 out of 3. But man does it feel good! I could put a bunch of motivational and inspirational catch phrases here, and I'd say all of them would probably apply, but I'll simply say this... anything is possible if you work hard and believe in yourself. I still have one more week left in this 90-day challenge so let's see just how much further beyond my goal I can get!
Until next time...
Last week ended up being a busy one and this one looks to be even more so so I'm going to keep this entry short and sweet. On the music front I had a couple of new placements to talk about. The first was a metal cue that was used in an episode of Secret Service Secrets. This is the second time that show has used my music. The other placement is in a show called American Weed. This is the first time my music has been in that show. Apparently it's about a company that grows medical marijuana. They used a dramedy cue (ie. Desperate Housewives type music) that I wrote called "Peeking Through The Curtains" that's actually been used in a few different shows now. I've embedded it at the bottom of the post for anyone that would like to hear it.
My RevAbs update for the week... I lost another 4.4lbs for a grand total so far of 64.5lbs. I'm 5.5 pounds away from reaching my goal and I've got two weeks left to get there! One other RevAbs related note, on Friday last week I officially became a Beachbody Coach. I'm not exactly sure where that road is going to go, I just know that I'm looking forward to helping others get healthy and fit. So on that note, I will be starting up a separate blog for that part of my life and will be making a clean break from posting about that aspect on this blog. I'll have another entry in a couple of weeks with more info about all of this. Excited to see what the future holds!
That's all for now. And here's the dramedy cue I mentioned above...
Hope everyone got to enjoy a little mid-week holiday last week on the 4th of July. I sure enjoyed having a day off in the middle of the week! I nominate that every Wednesday become a paid day off. Who's with me???
First thing to mention is that I've updated my credits page with images of the various productions that have used my music. I think a listing of images make the page look much better than a listing of just plain ole boring text.
While I was enjoying my day off last week I was excited to find some new cue sheets show up! They were mostly for some familiar faces such as Little Couple, Toddlers and Tiaras, The Dr. Oz Show and Last Call with Carson Daly. But I also had a new series show up, Teen Mom. It was for the second part of the Season 2 finale. I had 2 cues used in the episode, a tension cue ("Tension In The Air") which was the first piece of music played in the episode while they recapped the previous episode and it lasted for nearly a minute and a more inspirational pop-rock guitar cue ("Hope and Inspiration") that played for about 4 seconds. I was able to find the episode online and have embedded it below. It's kinda hard to hear the music in the beginning but it is there :-)
And then on Friday I learned of another new series that I had some music placed in, Ragin' Cajuns. I had 4 blues cues get used in an episode. I was able to find a clip that had one of them in it ("Don't Feed The Gators") and have embedded it below. My music starts at around the 1:10 mark and plays to the end of the clip.
And today I learned that the cue that was used in the Teen Mom episode above ("Tension In The Air") was also used as a promo for both NBC's Nightly News and the Today show!
And finally, my RevAbs progress report for the week. This past week was a bit more challenging simply because of the hamstring injury I incurred last week. I haven't been able to do a full exercise routine like normal but I have been doing a modified workout every day, ignoring my legs and just focusing on my upper body and core. So with that said, this week may be the week that I'm the most proud of. I ended up losing a total of 4.8 pounds for the week which brings the overall total lost up to 60.1 pounds!!!! I'll be very excited to return to doing the normal routines once my leg has completely healed.
Until next time...
It's Monday again, so time to check in with everyone and give some updates about what's been going on for the past week (or two)!
I had some new cue sheets show up this week for some shows I've already been in, Little Couple and The Dr. Oz Show, as well as a new show, Chef Roble and Co. I also had three cue sheets show up for Inside The PGA Tour for some tracks that I did with my "band" Crushing Gray. Never would have imagined we'd get some hard rock placements on a golf show :-)
On the RevAbs front, I finished up Phase 2 last week and I'm now in the home stretch of the program. As of today, I've dropped 55.3 pounds overall and I'm only 14.2 pounds away from hitting my goal with 4 weeks left to get there! Unfortunately, I tweaked my right hamstring muscle during my workout on Saturday so I'm having to rest it for a bit to avoid further injury. Today was the first time I've missed a workout since I began back on April 16th. I'm feeling a bit bummed about it too.
As for what I'm currently working on music wise, I finished up a Promo type cue last night that will be pitched to CBS. Then for this week I'll be working on a cue that I'll be pitching to one of the high end PMA libraries. I'm also going to be spending some time on the administration side of things as well as some networking follow ups.
Until next time...
Last week I started a new weekly post on Facebook, Music Monday, and decided that I should probably incorporate that into my blog. I'll also include a link to the track from last week at the end of the blog.
I've found out about quite a few new placements since my last blog entry that I wanted to update you on. They range in style from pop/rock to metal to tension to delta blues and they were for some old shows that I've had placements in before, like The Dr. Oz Show (29 new episodes) and NY Ink (6 new episodes), as well as a bunch of new shows such as Disappeared, Oprah's Next Chapter (4 episodes), Secret Service Secrets, Ultimate Armored Car, and finally, what has become one of my new favorite shows, Duck Dynasty!
I also had a track get used in a nomination video during last month's Webby Awards Show. I haven't been able to locate the video itself, but it appears that the nominee that my music was used for created a product that turns your iPhone into a stun gun!
A quick update on my RevAbs weight loss journey. I dropped another 3.4lbs this week for an overall total today of 48.1lbs! I've got 6 weeks left and 21.4lbs to lose to reach my goal for this 3.5 month program. It's going to be close but I think the goal is within reach! This week is going to be a challenge for me to eat healthy as I'm going to be at a small music conference from Thu - Sun. But I'm going to be planning things out ahead of time so that it won't be as big of a challenge as it could be otherwise. If you want to succeed in life, you have to plan for it.
And now for the new music. This is a track that I wrote last night for a pitch to a music library looking for hard, aggressive "sports rock" type music. I called it "Headbuster." Enjoy!
And for those of you who didn't see this on my Facebook page last week, here's the track that I posted. It's a co-write with Darin Martin and Juliet Lyons, with Juliet doing an awesome job on the vocals!
Until next time!
Thought it would be a good time to update the blog with some of the latest news about placements and deals and stuff. This is the time of year that my musical output tends to increase a bit as I find myself having more time to spend composing since the college basketball season is over, the NBA playoffs are nearly finished and most of my favorite TV shows are on summer hiatus (or cancelled!).
I had a chance to write some pop/rock cues in the style of Colbie Callait and Sheryl Crow for a new series that's about to debut on ABC Family called Beverly Hills Nanny. I wrote seven tracks for it and all seven were accepted and sent to the editors of the show. So I'll likely record that show to see if any of my cues get used.
Currently I'm writing some Hip-Hop cues for Fox Sports. It's been a stretch to say the least, but I've watched quite a few mix tapes of Kentucky basketball players to help me get a feel for the genre :-) I'm also co-writing with a couple of other people on these, one in particular who's VERY well versed in Hip-Hop. Thanks to most of their home games against lesser opponents being broadcast on the UK Basketball network via Fox Sports South, my dream of having my music played during a UK game broadcast is one step closer to reality!
On to some placement news... Since my last update, I've had placements show up in Clean House NY (4 episodes), The Rosie Show (14 episodes), NY Ink, It's A Brad, Brad World (8 episodes), and Last Call with Carson Daly (4 episodes). Now here is one of the rare times that I actually know in advance about an episode. The episode of What Not To Wear (episode title - "Desiree") that will be airing on Tuesday night, June 5th at 9pm Eastern / 8pm Central will feature 3 of my tracks in it. And since I know which tracks are being used, I can actually let you know which ones they are as well :-) So here they are, the first two are acoustic guitar based tracks and the third one is a driving pop/rock track:
Making Choices
Tough Decisions
Leave It All Behind
I'm not sure the exact moment when they will be used in the episodes, but it does appear that it will be in the back half of the episode, with the third clip being the next to last piece of music they use, and it gets played for 56 seconds. So it might be used during the final "reveal" scene based on the type of cue and placement in the episode.
And finally, an update on my progress with the RevAbs program that I started over 6 weeks ago. I'm VERY excited to announce that I just completed Phase 1 of the program and so far I've lost 37.1lbs, 4" off of my waist and about 18% of my body fat. I'm feeling great and can't wait to see the results at the end of Phase 2 later next month!
Until next time...
One week ago today I started on a new path. There were times that I didn't know if I could make it or not but I'm happy to report that I stuck with the plan, both the diet and exercise, every single day. I'm excited to announce that so far I've lost 16.5 pounds!!!
Now I know there will be some out there who are concerned about the pace at which I've lost this weight. I appreciate your concerns, but let me reassure you that you need not worry. For the past week, I've had around 1200 calories per day by eating 5 meals per day (3 meals and 2 snacks, and that's it) that consisted of all natural and organic foods, nothing processed (except a couple tablespoons of A-1 Sauce!), gave up diet sodas and replaced them with at least 80oz of water a day, and exercised 30-45 minutes a day for 6 days. If I got hungry again later in the evening, instead of grabbing another snack, I drank a 20oz bottle of water.
I can honestly say that I feel great! I have not experienced a single headache during this entire process. And every time I start to feel hungry, it's usually time to eat again anyways. I'm a bit sore from the exercise, but that's because I've done more exercise in the past 6 days than I've probably done in the past 6 years combined! I've also eaten more broccoli and asparagus during the past week than I've eaten in my entire life!
Sort of... I'll get to that in a moment. But first I wanted to share that this particular entry is going to be a bit more on the personal side as I'm going to open up a little bit about a new adventure that I'm about to embark upon. And while I do have some new music news and updates, I'm going to save that for a post later in the week. But for now, let's get to the name change...
I'm going to be changing from Big Blue Barry to "Not Nearly As Big" Blue Barry or "Medium Blue Barry" or something along those lines... Yes, I'm making a lifestyle change to lose weight and drop at least 100 pounds.
The idea for this journey that I'm about to tell you about has been percolating for awhile but my recent trips to Kentucky helped bring the idea from a possibility into actuality. There were a couple of nights while I was there that I couldn't sleep so I had the TV on and caught a couple infomercials, one of which was for P90x. So after seeing a couple of those, and then feeling winded after my walk from the parking lot to the arena in Louisville (it was about 6 or 7 blocks away), the wheels were set in motion.
Then after getting back to Nashville, I spent some time researching some different programs, trying to figure out which one I could commit to and still see some results from. I knew that there was no way I could commit to the P90x program. It was going to take up more time than I could commit to. If I wanted to put music completely on hold for the duration of the program, then I could find time for it, but that's just not realistic.
As fate, luck, or as I like to think, Divine Intervention, would have it... A few months ago, I got back in touch with a dear friend from college that I had not seen in over 15 years. This friend just happened to be a certified trainer and Coach in the BeachBody system (aka P90x). So after a nice chat on the phone, we decided what program would be the best fit for me, not only from the standpoint of the amount of weight I want to lose, but also from the standpoint of how much time I could commit to putting into this. And in my case, that program is known as RevAbs.
The reason I'm posting about this is because I want to take that extra step in being held accountable to sticking with this. I know I've got the support of my coach and my "inner circle" of friends and family, but I wanted to get as much support with this as I could. My long term goal as of now is to lose between 100-120 pounds and I'm expecting it will take three rounds of this program to do so.
In all honesty, I'm actually EXCITED about this. I know there are going to be some drastic changes, in particular with my diet, and especially over the next two weeks as I do the 14-day kick start program. No carbs and no sugars for 2 weeks and a total of about 1200 calories per day... So if I'm a bit grumpy during the next two weeks, you'll know why :-)
By the time this entry posts online, I should have completed my first day's workout. Hopefully I will be alive to talk about it when I'm done :-)
Looks like my last entry was nearly six months ago. I knew it had been awhile since my last blog but I hadn't realized it had been THAT long. So much has happened between now and then. Some of it important, some of it, not so much. Let me start out with the least important stuff first... updates on music placements...
I landed my second main title theme for the show It's A Brad, Brad World that is currently airing on Bravo. I've also had numerous placements in a variety of other shows such as Access Hollywood, Auction Kings, and Little Couple. And the movie that I wrote the score for, Decision, made it's television debut back in October. I've also been busy writing cues for a variety of other shows but have yet to find out how many have been used yet.
In November of last year I made my annual trip to L.A. for the TAXI Road Rally. This was my fourth time going and it might have been my favorite one. It was great getting to see friends and "family" while I was there though it's amazing how fast the time flies while you're there. This one seemed to go by really fast.
After the Rally I made a big change in my recording setup. I switched from Pro Tools 9 to Cubase 6. There were lots of reasons for the change and maybe one day I'll do a blog post just about that, but after making the switch to Cubase, I can honestly say I've got no regrets. I'm LOVING Cubase!
Now on to some of the important updates... The last couple of weeks have been a sobering reminder of just how fragile life really is. Almost two weeks ago, my papaw (mom's dad) passed away. Even though he had been in a nursing home for over eight years and had been battling Parkinson's Disease for sometime, his passing was a bit of a shock. While it's never easy to see someone you love pass away, we know he's in a much better place now and we have faith that we'll see him again someday. I was able to spend about a week up in KY to be with my family. I wish I could have stayed longer.
I was just about to get back to a bit of a normal life last week but this past Friday saw an outbreak of tornadoes across the Midwest and the South. We were fortunate here in that we didn't see any damage. But the area that I grew up in, Laurel County, Kentucky, was not as lucky. In East Bernstadt, at least five people lost their life and as many as 40 others were injured. It broke my heart to see the pictures and video footage of some of the damage. While I grew up in London, we went to church for many years in East Bernstadt and I have some friends and family that live there. I basically consider all of Laurel County as "home." And to be away from there right now is definitely tugging on my heart. My body may be in Tennessee, but my head and heart are in Kentucky right now.
I posted this on facebook and will do the same here. I'm trying to find 5 people who are willing to donate $20 to the United Way of Laurel County to help out the tornado victims in East Bernstadt. I will match those donations myself and will also buy you a drink or desert the next time I see you in person. If you're willing to help, here's the link to donate at:
https://volunteer.truist.com/cng-uwa/donate/?fdn=19100&_vm10302425432_=UWW_LUW
Until next time...
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