Gregory J MR MR

The power of the internet.

Rosie and Me is a great, thoughtful, beautiful group from Brazil.  They write songs that put me to sleep, songs that keep me awake and songs that make me grab my guitar and get better.

I met Rosanne through Soundcloud, which I had just jumped on a the time because I heard of it through a friend and thought I should test it out.  I threw a few tracks up there, not thinking anything would really happen, and Rosanne started to reach out to tell me she was enjoying them.  We kept in touch, talked about home recording and supported each other as new and excited things happened for each of us.  

Rosanne asked me to sing on the title track, “Arrow of my Ways,” which was a huge honor for me.  She sent the tracks to me and we were able to collaborate, thousands of miles away, from our home studios in Brazil in New York City respectively.  Rosie and Me have created something beautiful, and I am really excited to be a part of it.

Check out their album on bandcamp, give them a listen on soundcloud.  They are great people, reach out to them if you dig what they are doing.  I think you will.

Hey Tumblr - I know it’s been a while, but I recorded a quick demo of a new song that I’ll be including on my next album, Illinois.  The song is tentatively called “The River”.

Can’t wait to show you the other tracks that I’m working on.  I’ll update more often than I have been, I promise. 

I’ve spent the last couple of months working on a 9/11 focused campaign for dosomething.org, which focused on getting teens around the country to submit thank you messages for emergency service workers. 

As part of the campaign, we took the 4,000 messages that we collected over 2 weeks and decided to project them on buildings around NYC so that everyone could see the gratitude that America has for people that risk their lives every day to help strangers.

We were initially concerned that our sketchiness would get us arrested (driving around NYC on 9/11 with a huge battery, projector and computers, projecting out of a moving car) but the opposite was actually the reality.  We found a great spot in a parking lot near ground zero which ended up being right across the street from the NYPD, FDNY and a large group of police officers stopping cars at checkpoints.

We had the perfect wall and, magically, a power outlet, and we set up shop and started projecting the thank you messages on the side of an old, beat up building.  Almost immediately, officers started to stare at the messages and were showing their co-workers what was going on.  A lot of them started taking pictures and calling people out of the police department.

By the end of the night, we had about half a dozen officers come over to us, incredibly graciously, to tell us how much those messages meant to them.  One officer shook all of our hands, told us that we were doing an amazing thing, and that this was exactly what they needed on an extremely tense day.

It was easily one of the highlights of my time in NYC so far, and I couldn’t imagine spending 9/11 in any other way than saying “thank you” to the people that deserved to hear it.

photo by Keri Goff

This is happening tonight at The Living Room in NYC.  If you are in the area, come out.  I’ll serenade you with bittersweet songs.

My parents are visiting in NYC (great timing, right?), but they are staying in Manhattan, which is basically impossible to get to right now cause of the hurricane.  I grabbed my bike and headed towards them from Brooklyn, checking out the abandoned lower manhattan on the way.  It’s pretty awesome to bike around the city in the pouring rain while no one is around.

This is Kevin, he is getting the heck outta dodge.

Arrowhead - Colorado (Taken with instagram)

In less than 1 week, I’ll be returning to Colorado after being away for more than 5 years.  It’s a tragedy, but all will be rectified soon.

Cannot WAIT for this album.  CANNOT!

mutemath:

ODD SOUL

This showed up in the tip jar while I played last night. Whoever did this, I love you (Taken with instagram)