Chris Hartzog » creative commons

New CD Released

chartzog — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 04:40:41 +0000

My new album Lost In Your Arms Of Love is (FINALLY) out!

The physical CD is available on CD Baby. Digital downloads are also available on CD Baby plus iTunes, Amazon.com, and other music retailers! Go to my Download Music page for more info.

This is a six track EP….. If you are too young or perhaps forgetful like me to know the difference between an EP and a LP, you can go here for a quick tutorial. Anyway, it is a nice mix of folk and bluesy rock, this album provides a collection of original music celebrating love, life and God’s care for us all. The tunes on this album include a variety of styles and instruments from acoustic based folk, blues, & country to electric centric pop-rock.

It’s got six songs, it’s available in physical CD format and MP3 through CD Baby and MP3’s are also available from many digital distribution outlets including iTunes and Amazon.com. There’s no DRM restrictions and it’s Creative Commons licensed.

I will be also be making the full audio multi-track source available in the near future and will let you know when it is available.

Incidentally….

Please steal this CD:

I’d appreciate it if you’d copy Lost In Your Arms Of Love and share with your friends. High quality MP3s can also be downloaded if you’d like to send them around.

Thank you….

This album’s taken a long, long, long time. Thanks to everyone who’s given me feedback and encouragement

Free Culture in a Thrift Store

chartzog — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:36:08 +0000

There are frequently stories about someone who found a great treasure in a thrift shop or pawn shop like maybe a rare pre-war Martin D-28 or some other cool thing. Finally, I can join the ranks of the thrift shop story tellers, only my find was not a guitar or piece of jewelry, but rather the game changing treatise of professor Lawrence Lessig, “Free Culture“! For any of you who have followed my blog posts here, you will know that Lawrence Lessig and his brain child, “Creative Commons” have been a huge interest and excitement for me personally. In fact, it was Jonathon Coulton’s work that first turned me on to this whole idea that I don’t need to be afraid to share my music with the world. There is a cool middle option between the totally restrictive, conventional copyright “ALL rights reserved” approach and total anarchy – The middle, cool option is called Creative Commons.

Now, I can begin as I should have and actually read Free Culture cover to cover rather than in bits and pieces on the internet. The internet is wonderful for many things, but don’t you sometimes like to sit down in a chair with an old fashioned book? Now I will. Now I will reread the telling of the tale of how Walt Disney was one of the all time greats of “creative borrowing”, and used this carrying forward of culture to create new and more exciting culture, but now they along with others like RIAA, attempt to control everything and change us from a “free culture” to a “permission culture”. As you can tell, I love this book and the Creative Commons movement. Sadly, whoever owned this book before me appears to have never even read it…it looked like the cover had never been opened. I have changed all that. Alright, back to my book. What are you doing tonight?

Musing Mana 14 – Vaccai Meets Trip Hop (Take 2)

chartzog — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 00:46:39 +0000

Here is a new edition of Vaccai meets Trip Hop. I am now up to the 14th release in my Musing Mana song project: Musing Mana 14 – Vaccai Meets Trip Hop (Take 2)

This version has more of a tribal feel and some minor key overtones. I even had to haul out my synthesizer to play the bass line and my Irish penny-whistle for the celestial background sounds. I bet Nicola Vaccai never dreamed his music would be mixed with Trip Hop. That is what the Creative Commons movement is all about though – extending and enhancing creativity through the sharing across generations and societies of our common culture. Isn’t it fascinating that Vaccai’s parents wanted him to become a lawyer, they even sent him to Rome to study law, but just like kids today once he left home he decided he had his own ideas and turned to music. In a way, I think Lawrence Lessig would be proud.

Most guitar players know what a wah-wah pedal is and what a leslie is. But, for those not familiar with Vaccai, he is best known for his teaching of bel canto, or beautiful singing technique, popular in 19th century Italian opera. Per the Internet, “Vaccai is now chiefly remembered as a voice teacher. Nicola Vaccai wrote many books one of which is called Metodo pratico de canto (Practical Vocal Method). This book has been transposed for different types of voice (i.e high or low), to teach singing in the Italian legato style. The Metodo pratico was written in 1832 and is still in print, from Edition Peters and Ricordi, and used as a teaching tool. Vaccai notes in his introduction that only the voice of a master demonstrating accurately his exercises can really teach the student the correct techniques of true legato. The book is also an important source of information about the performance of early 19th-century opera.”

Therefore, I give you Vaccai meets Trip Hop Take 2.

Here is a new edition of Vaccai Meets Trip Hop. This version has more of a tribal feel and some minor key overtones. I even had to haul out my synthesizer to play the bass line and my Irish penny-whistle for the celestial background sounds. I bet Nicola Vaccai never dreamed his music would be mixed with Trip Hop. Neither did I actually….not until I accidentally discovered the Trip Hop beat and saw that I kind of liked it, then after I looked into it I found out that those darn British had created this vibe, appropriated our Hip Hop, made it more musical and created their own thing. Perfect! It has creative commons written all over it.

That is what the Creative Commons movement is all about though – extending and enhancing creativity through the sharing across generations and societies of our common culture. With Vaccai, to me it is equally fascinating that Vaccai’s parents wanted him to become a lawyer, they even sent him to Rome to study law, but just like kids today once he left home he decided he had his own ideas and turned to music. In a way, I think Lawrence Lessig would be proud.

Anyway, in case you missed the first release of Vaccai Meets Trip Hop, which I erroneously titled “hip hop” in the blog post, this song was a result of a quick creative burst one day when I wondered what happens if Vaccai meets trip hop meets a wah-wah meets a Leslie? I put the original song together in one short recording session…..it probably only took me about an hour. I labored over this one a little bit longer, but not too long as I wanted to keep the same level of spontaneity.

Most guitar players know what a wah -wah pedal is and what a leslie is. But, for those not familiar with Vaccai, he is best known for his teaching of bel canto, or beautiful singing technique, popular in 19th century Italian opera. Per the Internet, “Vaccai is now chiefly remembered as a voice teacher. Nicola Vaccai wrote many books one of which is called Metodo pratico de canto (Practical Vocal Method). This book has been transposed for different types of voice (i.e high or low), to teach singing in the Italian legato style. The Metodo pratico was written in 1832 and is still in print, from Edition Peters and Ricordi, and used as a teaching tool. Vaccai notes in his introduction that only the voice of a master demonstrating accurately his exercises can really teach the student the correct techniques of true legato. The book is also an important source of information about the performance of early 19th-century opera.”

Therefore, I give you Vaccai meets Trip Hop Take 2.

Lyrics (Italian)

Lascia il lido, e il mare infido
a solcar torna il nochiero,
e pur sa che menzognero
altre volte l’inganò,
altre volte l’inganò,
altre volte l’inganò,
altre volte l’inganò.

Lyrics (English)

Far from home and shore and safety
Must the pilot steer his vessel
Tho’ he know the traitorous waters
Have deceived him oft before,
Have deceived him oft before,
Have deceived him oft before,
Have deceived him oft before.

Jonathan Coulton @ The Moore – Seattle

chartzog — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 04:11:17 +0000

OK folks, we are getting ready to go into Seattle on Friday and see Jonathan Coulton in concert with Paul and Storm. Jonathan, aka JoCo, is my creative commons demigod and guru that I have been following and listening to for at least the past year, and probably even a bit longer than that. He was my original inspiration that is not only okay but good and necessary to squeeze my creative lemonade and offer the world a free seat at my juice stand and to even help me blend the concoction if they want. Anyway, it’s time for you to help JoCo out as he still has a few tickets left to sell.

I’m home for a couple of days and then out again to Seattle on Friday and Portland on Saturday – still still plenty of tickets left for both, so don’t be shy.

You can check the schedule and ticket stuff here: http://www.jonathancoulton.com/2009/01/21/more-shows-2/