Looking back before looking ahead

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thtstudios / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

It's hard for me to believe that 2010 ended over a month ago! What's the old saying, time flies when you're having fun? Last year was definitely a fun one as I was able to see my dream of having a career in music take several steps forward. I've still got a lot of hard work ahead of me but that light at the end of the tunnel is looking quite a bit brighter now.

The year started off with me participating in a social networking Blog contest sponsored by Ariel Hyatt. It was during the contest that I really began trying to figure out my musical identity. I was torn between trying to be "Big Blue Barry" the artist and "Barry French" the composer. At first I struggled with the decision but eventually decided to go with being the artist. Then near the end of the year, I re-visited my choice and began moving forward as "Big Blue Barry" the composer. Now I'm at total peace with my choice and it feels great.

During the spring I began signing some new deals with music libraries, both for myself and for Crushing Gray, all of which were results of direct forwards from TAXI. I also began getting some new placements outside of the daytime TV medical talk show that I wrote some tracks for the previous year.

Unfortunately, not everything in 2010 was great. In May, Nashville was hit with one of the worst natural disasters it's ever seen, simply known around here as "the flood." We were fortunate in that the only damage we had was with our driveway, but others were not as fortunate. The effects of the flood are still felt throughout the city.

The summer was spent cranking out as many tracks as I could for another daytime TV talk show, this one being focused more on home and lifestyle, produced by the same company that produces several of the largest daytime TV talk shows out there. I ended up signing 50 tracks with them at the end of the project. It was a very tiring project but well worth it in the end as I ended up with around 120 placements on the show during the last three months of the year.

Speaking of the last three months of 2010... I had a chance to take my annual trip up to the Big Blue Madness to see Kentucky start off the 2010-11 season, as well as my trip to the TAXI Road Rally. The week after the Road Rally I found out that I had landed the theme song for a new TV show that was debuting on a brand new network that debuted in 2011. Again, it's one of those deals that I'm not permitted to disclose the name of in public but you can probably guess which network I'm talking about. I'll give a hint about the show, it airs on Monday nights at 10pm, but that's all I can say :-)

Finally, in December I got a chance to become a "Go To Guy" for the library that had gotten me placements on a couple of TLC shows earlier in the year. I've already signed a handful of tracks with them and look forward to writing more.

I believe that covers the highlights of the past year. And from the looks of things so far, 2011 is going to be just as exciting!

Couple of quick items

First off, I can't believe that January is already over half-way finished! This month is flying by! I wasn't as active updating my blog as I had hoped to be the last couple of months. But I made some changes tonight that I think will help with that problem.

I'll spare you all the technical details but the short version is that I combined my 'home', 'news' and 'blog' all into one page. This will be much easier for me to maintain and it will also be much easier for everyone to keep up with everything that's going on.

Speaking of which... 2010 was an incredible year for me. I was truly blessed more than I could have ever imagined. And though I'm still a few years away from making my dream a reality, I can't believe how much progress I made this past year. I'll be doing a "Year In Review" post with a "Here's What's Next" section included in there as well.

Well that's all for now. Just wanted to give everyone a quick update on the new web site format, especially for those of you who subscribe to the blog with an RSS feed. You probably saw quite a few posts tonight!

- Big Blue

Score for Short Film - Two Birds, One Stone

I'm happy to share the final version of a film that I had a chance to write the score for. I'm pleased with how things turned out and I had a blast working on it. Hope you enjoy!

Two Birds, One Stone from Adam Drake on Vimeo.

I landed my first TV Theme song!

I'm still in a bit of shock about this one! I had barely made it back from my trip to L.A. for the 2010 TAXI Road Rally when I got a phone call telling me the news.

As with my most recent placements, I'm not permitted to disclose the name of the show at the moment but I can say that it's scheduled to debut sometime next year on a new cable network. As of right now that's about all I can say. Once the show gets closer to airing and I'm permitted to do so, I'll provide more information.

Again, thank you to TAXI for the connection to this particular publisher which provided me with this opportunity.

- Big Blue

What a great Road Rally!

Got back last night from the Rally. WOW. What another great event! This was my third one and I'd say that it was the best one yet. I told my wife before I left for the trip that this year things felt just a little bit different. I wasn't sure why exactly. Looking back at it now, I think I have an idea. But before I get to that I wanted to touch on a few highlights of the trip.