Happy Holidays!

Warm holiday greetings to you!

I'm writing to wish you and your family a very warm and wonderful holiday season! Your support throughout this year has meant so much to me, from your kind words to your coming to the shows or buying CDs, I'm simply overwhelmed by how much my music means to you. It's one of the reasons I keep writing, because it makes me really happy to make someone else's day with a little bit of music. Sounds funny I know, but totally true!

I'll be taking some time off to work on some new music and to start plotting and scheming a plan to record a new studio CD!

My next show will be on February 27th, opening for Chuck E. Costa at the Upton House Concert series, hosted by my friend Rob Mattson. I hope you will put it on your calendar and come and hang out with us at Rob's house, because it is going to be a really fun show!

Yes! I want the Holiday Package!

Just in time for the holidays, Carlyn is offering up a super special you can order as the perfect small gift or stocking stuffer! For a limited time, $15 (includes S&H) gets you the following:

• An autographed copy of "Lust Love Lost"
• An autographed copy of Carlyn's 5-song EP
• A digital download card redeemable for a full album download of Carlyn's new live EP So Far From Lost
• A sticker, a button, and a guitar pick (because I know you're a true fan!)

Order before December 20th for guaranteed delivery before Christmas!

Something cool to ponder this holiday season...

I've written in the past about how I will be making charitable donations this season as opposed to buying material gifts for my friends and loved ones. Everyone is having a hard time this year, especially the organizations that are helping the needy, be they of the human or the critter variety. It's at times like these that I feel that those who can make donations to charitable organizations should. And it doesn't have to be a large donation, because even the little donations count.

I'll use the case of my friend Amy Petty as an example. She just released a new (and very beautiful) Christmas song called "A Lullaby for a King". She is donating every cent of that $0.89 download price to Habitat for Humanity. OK, so I paid a whopping $0.89 for the download, but if 99 other people do the same, or 999 people, or more... think about how much money that could be, and how much good it could do. It just goes to show that something so little, less than the price of a cup of coffee, can ultimately do so much more good. Just something to think about. How much good is that $0.89 doing in your pocket?

And... on that note, I will sign off, again wishing you and yours a very happy, healthy, and warm holiday season!

Peace, hugs, and love,

Carlyn

http://www.carlynhutchins.com

Visit me at these social networking sites!

Twitter
Facebook
MySpace
ReverbNation
YouTube

Carlyn Hutchins - December 2009 Newsletter

Happy holidays - I hope they have been wonderful for you so far! I know you must be wicked busy so I'll keep this short.

I recently redesigned my website and online music store (henceforth to be know simply as "The Store"), so let me know what you think! Please visit The Store to find out where and how to buy my music - all of my CD's are available in hardcopy and MP3, all for a darned good price!

My brand new 6 song live EP was just released in November, and makes a perfect stocking stuffer! “So Far From Lost” was recorded at the Roslindale Open Mike in September. I'll have it with me at shows where you can buy it for $7, or you can download it for $5 (really – just $5) from my website!

I have an awesome holiday season special... for $15 (includes S&H), you get:

• An autographed copy of Lust Love Lost
• An autographed copy of my 5-song EP
• A digital download card for a full copy of So Far From Lost, the new live EP
• A sticker, a button, and a guitar pick, because I know you're a true fan!
  

Just visit The Store and you'll be on your way to the perfect musical stocking stuffer! Please order before December 18th for guaranteed delivery before Christmas.

And lastly, as always, keep up with me in 140 characters or less on Twitter!

Big hugs and lots of love, and the warmest of wishes to you and your loved ones this holiday season!

Carlyn

http://www.carlynhutchins.com

Buy Lust Love Lost at CD Baby, baby!

Carlyn's social networking links:
YouTube

Facebook

Twitter

MySpace

Holiday Season Special at The Store!

Just in time for the holidays, Carlyn is offering up a super special you can order as the perfect small gift or stocking stuffer! For a limited time, $15 (includes S&H) gets you the following:

- An autographed copy of "Lust Love Lost"
- An autographed copy of Carlyn's 5-song EP
- A digital download card good for a full album download of Carlyn's new live EP "So Far From Lost"
- A sticker, a button, and a guitar pick (because she knows you're a true fan!)

Place your order before December 18th for guaranteed delivery before Christmas!

NERFA – Day 3…

...woke up around 7:30. Yes folks, that would indeed be 4 and a half hours of sleep. I did stay in bed until 9 am, but I don’t really think I slept much more truth be told.

I think the one thing that is the most overwhelming for me is the constant din. The noise of so many people in a relatively confined space all speaking at once is sometimes deafening, and I have constant ringing in my ears as it is. The exhibit hall for instance is very loud, and I find that I have to speak loudly to the person with whom I’m speaking. Now, I have a bit of a sore throat and I feel hoarse, which is not good for me today because…

I was asked to play in the “Golden Ticket” showcase this afternoon, sponsored by Focus out of the D.C. area. It was geared for venue hosts and presenters, and one of the presenters asked me to play – it’s a huge honor, and I was very honored to have been asked! I think I did OK, got some very helpful feedback too, and managed to unload some CDs on some of the presenters there.

Meanwhile, back in the exhibit hall, I found a new-to-me custom guitar maker, Randy S. Muth, who I think I will have to look into a little bit more. The guitars were really sweet… small bodied with slimmer necks, great string action, and a surprising amount of resonance and volume for the body size. I would like to play these guitars outside of a noisy exhibit hall, to really hear what they sound like, but I was very impressed. I’m sure they must cost a small fortune, but I’m also sure they’re worth it. And besides that, they were absolutely beautiful!

Not uncommon at NERFA (from what I understand) is the impromptu jams in the stairwells. On one of my hoof-it-up-the-stairs runs, I ran into Jay Mankita and Peter Siegel, who were thoroughly entertaining and very talented. And they asked me to play a song for them as well – really nice to get some positive feedback from my peers!

Now? I'm just waiting for the Tricentric showcases to start, and then after that will be more guerrilla showcases. It's likely to be another very late night, but no worries... I have Fogbuster coffee to get me through!

NERFA – Day 2… dun dun dun……

This is completely overwhelming! There is way too much to do in too short a period of time. I sat in a bit on a performance skills workshop with Vance Gilbert. I think I learned more about performance in the 30 or so minutes I sat in that workshop than in the 6 years I have been back to playing on stage. Wow. I think Vance is God. Or something god-like. I saw him help a guy completely transform a newly written song with a handful of suggestions. It went from an “OK” song to a “wow I really want to pay attention to this” song. Just amazing!

Then I sat in the exhibit hall at my table for a couple of hours. I met lots of really cool folks, including some DJs who took my CDs. Awesome! Whether or not they get played who knows, but I was happy to be able to make a connection with them. I think I have talked with more people today than I have in the last several years combined!
The formal and tricentric showcases were amazing, as expected. Not taking anything away from anyone else who performed, I was particularly impressed with Craig Bickhardt and Carsie Blanton, neither of whom I had heard before.

And then… the games began! Initially, I had looked at all the schedules ahead of time, and put together a list of who was playing where and when, and wanted to go room to room to hear them. Since I was so overloaded and overwhelmed, I decided to throw that list out, and just walk around the halls and pop in to hear whoever was playing at that particular point. It was a lot of fun, and I heard lots of folks I probably would not have heard otherwise.

I do think the highlight of the night was a story I was told regarding a friend of a friend, on an acid trip, who had a gnome in his closet. The story went that the gnome was actually a child with Down’s Syndrome who was taken from a playground during the height of the acid trip, and subsequently placed in the closet. Yeah… it was about that time I decided it was time to go to bed! So off I went, off to dreamland somewhere around 3 am.