I just got finished listening Roger Riddle's produced show featuring Gretchen Pleuss and wow it is like a totally trascendental and illuminating journey through song writing and also production from going deep to share personal epiphnies in constructive ways to how to engage with fellow talents and musicians. I have been writing songs FOR YEARS and cannot seem to get the finished product that I grew up listening to and loving. I feel like I have learned alot from listening to Gretchen take us through her song writing process and partiuclarly the emotional aspect of production itself which, for me anyhow is one of the factors that I just have not been able to get comfortable with. I but up against wanting to be my own producer and at the same time I do not have access nor the derived acumen/experience and knowledge to get the fully fleshed out song sound that is at or better than professional quality. Also it is worth noting that I have attended open mic nights at Uncorked where Gretchen hosts and those opportunities to listen to other musicians from the area and of course the actaul opportunity to perform one's own songs is priceless. But I have not been able to get past the open mic circuit as lovely as it is, and it is lovely, I always wanted to be a musician and to be that it just seems like you have to enter the public consciousness somehow. Making the personal public is one way to do that and I think Gretchen is very brave for letting us all in. She has as big a heart as she has talent, which in the end I believe is infinite. I think by the way that this program is just as important as the production of the music. It lends context to the material, to the immaterial thoughts and processes that go on in an indiviudal's heart as they generate art be it music, paintings, conversation or what have you. There is a magic when someone else engages with what until then has been something simply thought of or felt in our own heart/mind. ArtsNow is doing this illumination on a community wide scale which is exciting. Gretchen is doing it in her own inimitable way. It is exciting to feel elvated by what could otherwise have been something that someone kept to themselves. I included the production team and players of the podcast in that as well. Sometimes it is more about revealing what is already there than creating or constructing something new. And revealing in a way becomes construction. That intersts me very much. I am very, very excited about the immense and terribly brilliant talent and just soul that is circling through Akron right now, but also Cleveland, Canton Massillon and really all around the world. We are going to be really lit up during FRONT coming up in the summer of 2018 hopefully music and musicians and those dreams and bright lights and love can get into the mix and really shine as well. I have really enjoyed the activism and consciousness raising events like ones that have taken place at the Akron Art Museum. It is a shame that too many brilliant people are caught in the exacting measure of their craft. Luckily we have some wonderful resources in Akron and Northeast Ohio in general that gently open up opportunities to grow as a persona and as an artist. Gretchen has been a part of that for me and also Nicole Mullet with everything she is doing with ArtsNow. I certainly could go on and on and I hope the spirit, energy and HOPE to put it in Gretchen's words comes through in this review. I love us! We are more. And we are certainly just as good as anywhere else in the world if not better in our own unique way and spirit. Come to your own understanding. Be the fire you desire. It is bigger than any one of us and we all have our moments good and bad but just remember that there is a blue sky behind the clouds, ALWAYS. We are limitless. Stay hungry. And be beautiful. Be bold. Be YOU! Rock on, rock out, rock it all.
