Off to San Francisco....

Well, I'm off to San Francisco tomorrow for a conference on Internet Radio as well as to perform a House Concert in Hercules, CA. I really, really love doing house concerts. There's just nothing quite like them. It just feels like you're playing to a room of good friends! Except, of course, that most of those "friends" are perfect strangers. :)

I'll be back on Tuesday with something VERY cool for you to listen to on the web site. It's David Nevue music like you've never heard before. Check back for details then!

Good night!

David Nevue

The downside to busy....

Wow.

Here I am on the threshold of the month of May. It's a big one.

This weekend I travel down to San Francisco for a conference and to play a house concert. The following weekend I'm playing all day at RoseEmma's Cottage Gifts, and then on Mother's Day, I'm leading the morning worship service at North Park Community Church here in Eugene. I'm totally looking forward to that, but terrified in a way, too. I mean, I'm LEADING the morning service, something usually regulated to pastors! I feel unworthy. It's a heavy spiritual responsibility, and it is heavy on my heart.

The following weekend, I head out to the east coast to play two shows in Pennsylvania, and then one in West Virginia. Then I come back, turn around and head out to Nashville, where I'm speaking at a conference on Internet music promotion. Then I come back, play a wedding, and then the next day fly back down to Mill Valley, CA for a concert.

A big month.

It's startling, really. Two years ago I couldn't get a gig anywhere. Now I'm scheduling them a year out. It's so wild, and kinda cool, too.

I'm finding the being so busy with performances has it's downside, though. Now that I'm playing piano all the time, I'm writing a lot less. It's much more difficult to be creative, because instead of writing new solo piano material, I'm preparing for the next gig and all that entails.

Also, it is beginning to put a strain on my home life. Nothing terrible, mind you, but it's tough being away from the family so much. I take comfort in knowing that even with this schedule, I honestly think my kids see me more than most kids see their dad. But still, my poor wife doesn't get enough downtime away from the kids. She needs a break.

Fortunately, it looks like Julie will be coming with me to Nashville, and we have a weekend getaway together in June. So I'm really looking forward to that.

I love being busy. I'm a workaholic. Can't you tell? Here it is, 2 am, and I'm still up. Silly me.

Well, off to bed!

Sleep well,

David

A weekend of piano music and mutual admiration....

I just spent a weekend playing piano down at Valley River Center mall here in Eugene. The cool thing was, I shared the time/space with fellow pianist Scott D. Davis who has become a dear friend of mine. So for the entire weekend (Fri/Sat/Sun) Scott and I took turns at the piano (a 6' Yamaha), playing, laughing, chatting, and selling our CDs to passers by.

Scott has really been inspiring me of late. Watching him play makes me want to take some new approaches to playing the piano, and some of my newer songs are beginning to reflect his influence. In turn, I seem to be making an impact on Scott! He's starting to work up arrangements of some of my own tunes, particularly, "The Vigil" and "Ascending with Angels," both of which he's fallen in love with.

One of the great things about meeting and playing shows with other artists is the way we tend to rub off on one another. In other artists we admire the skill that we wish we had in ourselves. But even as we look at them in admiration and worry about our own shortcomings, those same artists are looking back at us in admiration and worried about theirs.

Funny how that works.

David

Humorous Quote...

These words just popped out of my mouth in a conversation I was having with one of my good friends...

"Practice does not make perfect, but it does make failure less imminent."

I thought it quite funny. :)

Later...

David

A little compositional trivia....

The song Goodnight Moon from my "Sweet Dreams & Starlight" album was originally part of another song called Wonderland, which you can find on my Postcards from Germany CD. At one time the two songs were actually one! Over time, however, it became clear that what I really had was two distinct melodies, so I split them apart into two pieces.

On the original composition, what is now called Goodnight Moon was the introduction to the main theme of the piece which later became Wonderland.

You can still hear the connection between the two. Play Goodnight Moon sometime and follow it with Wonderland. You'll see how the end of Goodnight Moon is virtually the same as the intro to Wonderland.

One of my little secrets is now out in the open!

Take a walk and enjoy the sun - you spend too much time indoors!

David

One of the many reasons I do this....

I just recevied this email from a "fan." I'm sharing this with his permission. This is what it's all about....

"I just wanted to thank you for being that inspiration that finally pushed me into realizing my dream. I am 38 years old and have always wanted to play the piano but just never made it a top priority. After reading the book "Purpose Driven Life" It occured to me that I am supposed to be using my talent to glorify God somehow. I have a good ear for music and have always been able to pick out a tune and repeat it on the keyboard, but have never read music. Anyway, now that I have cleaned up my life ( drugs, alcohol, etc...) and bugun my walk with Jesus, I am serious about my destiny. I am taking lessons from the lady that plays for our church and I have never felt more satisfied in any other endevour. One night I was surfing the internet for piano music and stumbled on to your website. Hearing you play almost brought tears to my eyes (I am not one to cry). Since then I have had a very clear vision of how I want to play. I know there is music trying to get out of me, but until I heard you play I didn't know how it should sound. Now here is the last little amazing part to my story. A few months ago I was at the Valley River Center Mall in Eugene, OR. just hanging with my wife as she shopped. I heard someone playing piano in the center court, so I went to listen. I sat at a distance and watched this man play for a long time ( first time my wife was ready to leave the mall before me). It was absolutely beautiful the way he played and sounded familiar. The other day I was looking at your website and I went to the section that shows where you are playing. Once I saw that you play at the Valley River Center a lot, it hit me like a ton of bricks; that was you. I downloaded the sheet music for your version of "Silent Night " and I have made it my goal to play that song in church by Christmas. I know with God's help and your inspiration I will do that and more. Just wanted to say thank you. " - Gary

Letters like this keep me going. They are SUCH an encouragement and an affirmation that, at least for the time being, God's desire for me is to be a pianist/performer/composer. It makes me confident that I am doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing for the glory of God's kingdom.

Honestly I feel so unworthy of this gift. I thank God for it every day.

David

New sheet music released!

Four new sheet music selections released
at 1:29 am PST on April 20th, 2005!

They include the songs Overcome and Variations from the CD "Overcome,"
and Ascending with Angels and The Gathering Fields from the CD "The Last Waking Moment."

Enjoy!

David

Voices from the Past....

One of my favorite things about the Internet, and about being somewhat of a "minor" celebrity (I mean that in the most insignificant sense), is that every once in a while I'll get an email that goes something like this...

"Hi David, this is Allison Anderson. I don't know if you remember me, but we went to school together in the fourth grade. One of my friends had one of your piano CDs and when I saw your name on it I thought - is this THAT David Nevue? And here I am now writing you on your web site after thirty-some-odd years. How strange. Do you remember me?"

It's so cool. Old friends and even just barely acquaintances from my past drop me a line. Sometimes I remember them, sometimes I don't (at which point I go scurrying for my old yearbooks), some are old girlfriends and some are people who I thought didn't think too highly of me back in those days. But hey, it's just a wild blast from the past to "hear" those old voices.

Sometimes, there are people who I wish would find me. Adrian Riggs for example, one of my best friends from my Junior high school days. He was a pianist before I had any clue I would ever be one. I remember watching Adrian play the piano and thinking - man, I wish I could play like that! And here I am, twenty-five years later playing with a completely different style - but still....

Adrian, where did you go? You're totally absent on the Internet. There's no record of you! Well, maybe someday you'll search for yourself and find my little blog here and drop me a line.

And then there's my first piano teacher - Laura? Leslie? I can't even remember her name, but she was the best piano teacher I had. Of course, I only had three teachers in three years before I quit taking piano lessons (at age 15), but had I not moved away from Coos Bay, Oregon at the age of twelve I'm pretty sure I would have kept going forward with that sweet lady as my teacher. I wonder if someday she'll run across one of my CDs and wonder - is this THAT David Nevue?

Wow, I wish I could remember her name, but hey I was twelve at the time. Still, someday I hope I can thank her.

So, it's great hearing from old friends, from people who were part of my life so very long ago. They form a very old chapter in a very long book, but now and again it's nice to flip back to those pages and revisit them.

And here I am wondering why I'm up so late once again...

David

Back to San Francisco....

I'm starting to feel like the San Francisco area is a second home!

I just got invited to play a concert with pianist Brenda Warren in Mill Valley, CA, just north of San Francisco. Scott D. Davis, one of my good friends and an extraordinary pianist will also be joining us. So that will be three pianists for the price of one at a single concert! The date looks like it will be June 5th, though I'm not sure of the venue location yet. Keep an eye on my concert calendar for a solid date, place and time. Or hey, just sign up for my newsletter and I'll email you when I have the info.

This is quite a treat. Brenda's As Years Go By CD is one of my favorite solo piano CDs ever. It's really quite good, and I am really honored that she has asked me to join her for a concert.

So this will make three shows in the San Franciso area this summer (two for sure, one pending but probable). Wow!

I've been doing a lot of traveling lately. May is going to be crazy. I'm going to Hercules, CA for a show, then York and Lancaster PA, then Clarksburg WV and finally Nashville. All that in a month (not to mention local gigs in between). Not that I'm complaining! It's cool to be wanted. :) Believe it or not, two years ago I could barely find a gig, and now I'm starting to book things a year in advance. I love it! I've got to keep control of myself though for my families sake. I really, really, really don't want to get too busy this summer. I MUST spend lots of fun time with my family. I really enjoy the sunshine, and my kids need their papa.

Wow, it's late. Time for sleep. {Yawn}

David

Why some CDs are absent from iTunes, Rhapsody....

As many of you know, most of my CDs are available on iTunes, Rhapsody and a number of other digital music services. However, TWO of my CDs, Sweet Dreams & Starlight and Overcome aren't yet available on those services - and they won't be any time soon....

You may have noticed that and wondered why that is. The reason is licensing and copyright. On Sweet Dreams & Starlight I have a cover tune of "Happy Together" by The Turtles. On Overcome, there are three cover tunes, all praise songs.

Since I don't own the copyright to these songs (just my particular arrangements), I cannot legally distribute these CDs via the digital music services. It's crazy the way this works. As an independent artist, I cannot, for example, release my SD&S CD on iTunes and just exclude the one song,"Happy Together". It's ALL or nothing, so until I can get clearance for "Happy Together" and the praise songs, SD&S and Overcome remain undistributed to this new media.

The good news is, I just got an email from the Harry Fox Agency (yes, that's the company's real name) this morning which may open a way for me to get clearance on these songs more easily. I am still probably six months (or more) out from getting that, but it's a start. And I'm thrilled about that, as I am very anxious to get those two albums into the distribution channel.

So now you know, "the rest of the story." @8^)

Enjoy the sunshine,

David

Shows in the Works...

I always have an amazing number of "shows" in the works. Most of these never quite come to fruition, but some do. Here are a list of places I might be coming to play in the next year or so...

Minneapolis, MN
Alexandria, MN
Los Angeles
San Francisco
Florida (somewhere)
New York City
Bellingham, WA
Seattle, WA
Jackson, MS
Boston, MA
St. Louis, MO

And those are just off the top of my head. Of these, maybe two or three will work out. That's pretty typical. I get a lot of interest, but sometimes, for various reasons, things don't work out.

Here's my current calendar. It shows the performances that are pretty much set.

If you'd like to book me for a concert, read this. As to travel expenses, if you want me to come to your area, many times I can find other bookings in the same area making travel expenses very tolerable.

Don't forget, I do house concerts too! If you have a nice piano and about 30 friends to bring to the concert, we can try and work it out.

Cheers!

David

New "Listen" Links....

I just added new "Listen" links to my albums page so that visitors can listen through the first two minutes of most (but not all) of the songs from each of my albums. I'm hoping this will encourage more people to take advantage of my 3 CD special offer.

ALSO, I just updated the special CD discount page for subscribers to my newsletter. Want a discount on my CDs? Then subscribe to my newsletter and I'll send you the details! :)

David

The CD projects I'm working on....

For those of you who are interested in what new musical creations I'm up to...

I really haven't written much new material lately. In fact, with the release of Overcome, I pretty much exhausted my compositional stash.

However, this last Easter season I performed my "Passion Play" program twice, and just as it did when I first performed it three years ago, it began to stir up my creative side. So I started developing the music from the "passion play" for a possible CD version of the program. It's something I've hesitated doing in the past for personal and religious reasons, but it seems like that's where things are going.

I am also still working on the "Hymns" album, however this is coming along much more slowly. I have a number of favorite hymns selected and have started working on them, but I am finding the arranging process hasn't really inspired me to anything "great" yet. I like some of the arrangements coming out, but am having trouble finishing them.

So that's where things are at...

David

Sheet Music Coming....

I've been working on the final touches for new sheet music for "Ascending with Angels" and "The Gathering Fields." Also, to be released shortly as sheet music are "Overcome" and "Variations," both from my latest CD.

"Castle Hunting" from Postcards from Germany is also in the works!

The new blog....

Hey everyone,

I've jumped on the bandwagon and started my own blog. I thought, hey, maybe someone out there is really interested in the daily life of a solo pianist, so here goes....

more to come tomorrow.

David