Michael Gutierrez-May
3/24/2024: Update! I have received a second positive response to the Chasing Gilels screenplay from Balaji Kumar of Tankmoon Productions in India. His most recent film titled Kolai is a detective story set in India with an all-Indian cast which was completed last year and he is also working on a new project before he can read over my screenplay, Not sure how he would adapt a screenplay written with a European cast set in Russia but I am interested in his ideas and his perspective on my work. Also I am getting ready to start a new album recording to be titled Light Still Shines The Same and once again produced by Stephen B. Martin and recorded at Ultrasound Productions with Joe Clapp as recording engineer. Spring has sprung and it's time to get some new stuff going!
1/15/2024: Happy MLK day 2024! I have some news with regard to new performances and new events. The performances I have posted up on the Calendar area of this website, starting with the performance at the TCNE Conference at the Park Plaza Hotel next week along with Linda Marks next Thursday 1/25 from 8-9:30 pm. Two more performances are also scheduled for the new year. Then in February, fawm.org begins again, which is my annual songwriting workout, 14 songs in 28 days since 2008! I have also signed up for Pete Nelson's Songwriting Workshop at the Parlor Room in Northampton, MA which began yesterday and will continue until April. I am also continuing my ongoing participation in the Quiet Corner Songwriters Meeting organized by Kala Farnham based at Block 134 in Putnam, CT. No new news on the Chasing Gilels screenplay yet other than the request from Susan Dynner to send the screenplay her way. Learning the ropes of writing a screenplay and then getting a movie made has been as challenging as I thought it might be. News on the screenplay and on possible staged readings will be noted here.
11/25/2023: It's been a year! Over this past year, I lost three musician friends to illness, my sister was diagnosed with Ovarian cancer and I caught COVID for about a week after three years of staying COVID-free. Music-wise, I have had a few nice gigs in a year when I was not seeking out very much:
RISA Showcase:March, 2023 sharing the night with Joanne Lurgio, Ronnee Stolzburg and Curtis Brand.
PRIDE Picnic, Uxbridge Common in July, 2023 following postponement due to rain in June. So much on weekends got washed out this Spring and Summer!
ISSA Boston Songwriters Showcase at Fenway Community Health Center at the end of October, 2023, sharing the night with Craig Sonnenfeld and Chris Steele.
Progress on the screenplay continues and I have started to make the rounds of potential producers through the Virtual Pitch Fest site. Next up will be organizing a read through of the script with professional actors if possible.
RIP to my friends David Rumpler, Eric Gulliksen and Andy Holiner.
1/22/2023; I just came off an memorable benefit concert performance for One Broadway Collaborative organized by Linda Marks, at the end of which I lead our group of performers in the song Teach Your Children in memory of David Crosby. For the next 3-4 months, I am going to be slowing down. I will participate in the annual February Album Writing Month at http://fawm.org and in March, I should be moving to a new work office in Milford, Mass. I am going away for a week to Roanoke at the beginning of April and at the end of April, I am scheduled for cornea surgery. So I will need some time to regroup, I'll be working on revising my Chasing Gilels screenplay during that time. And I will be keeping up with everyone else. My prediction of a stormy winter this year does not seem to be happening. The next time there will be an news update will be in the Spring, 2023.
1/4/23: Happy new year 2023! I think it might be a quieter year for me but I am most definitely looking forward to performing at what looks like the beautiful Park Place Cafe in Cranston, RI as part of the RISA Songwriter Showcase series. I'll be there with Joanne Lurgio, Curtis Brand and Ronnee Stolzberg from 7-9pm on Thursday, January 12th (weather permitting)! I want to complete the revision of my Chasing Gisels screenplay this year. I will be doing the February Album Writing Month again for the 15th year! And I will be having eye surgery to replace the damaged cornea in my right eye in late April. Have a good new year, everyone and we'll be seeing each other around.
11/19/22: Just updated my appearances for December and January for music performances. Other news is that I am working on revising my screenplay Chasing Gisels after getting very encouraging feedback from Teresa Burks Gallagher through Stage 32. She saw pretty much everything I intended with the screenplay and hopefully I can work on the revision over the next two weeks. Also, Stephen B. Martin, the producer of my Drifting album is recording an album of cover songs, one of which is my You Don't Know My World. He does a beautiful job with his cover and I am happy it will be included on the album. I'm back home from visiting Roanoke two weeks ago. Thanks again to 3rd Street Coffeehouse for allowing me to open for Keith Rea and thanks to my sister Regina for capturing a perfomance of my song, Where Are The Blue Ridge Mountains? Come check this out on my Michael Gutierrez-May music page on Facebook.
8/14/22: I will take this opportunity to refer you now to my Calendar site, where there are no less than six events coming up between now and the beginning of November. Also, I was just part of the first meeting of the new ISSA (International Singer Songwriter Association) Boston Chapter organized by Linda Marks and we are planning a benefit concert for One Broadway Collaborative to take place sometime later this Fall. I am part of several groups: RISA, February Album Writing Month, Quiet Corner Songwriters Meetup and also Nashville Songwriters Association International (not as active with this as I could be). I get something from every group I belong to and it is fun. One more thing: the first seven songs from my album release concert will be up on Vimeo and I will have a link for you shortly. I am also trying to get the final two songs which were on my partner Diane's smartphone and match it up so I have a full concert video for myself and everyone else.
6/7./22: Thanks to my good friend Marion Packer, I have a limited number of Drifting To The Right T-Shirts and Coffee Mugs available for purchase for $10 each or both together for $15. If you also buy a CD album, you can get all three for $25! I think I am a convert to the Merch side of the music biz!
5/28/22: I signed up for some promotion for my lyric video through Artist PR for Imaginary Tomato which was created by Kat Reinhert a couple months ago. They promised 10K views for the video and at latest count, the video has 10,388 views and 42 likes. Before they came on board, the video has just over 100 views so I decided that I needed amplification. The video is here on site in the Videos section. In other news, my producer Stephen Martin has his new album Leftovers out for listening on the streaming services and also available for purchase directly from him. You can go to apple Music to find the album here; https://music.apple.com/us/artist/stephen-martin/1624948891 .I also have a gig in a couple weeks playing at the PRIDE family picnic on Sunday, June 5th here in Uxbridge. Summer is coming and not a minute too soon. A funny postscript: my top three countries viewing the Imaginary Tomato video are Iraq, Pakistan and Egypt. US viewers are down there in 14th place!
4/30/22: The album release concert was a success. See more about this in the Drifting To The Right blog area. Thanks to Audrey Daniels, I now also have Drifting To The Right T-Shirts and Coffee Mugs. A couple of nights ago, there was a feature on The Daily Show speaking to Donald Trump's fear of tomatoes and an actual court disposition about this. Here is a link to the feature on Facebook; https://fb.watch/cJd29zB9gC/
3/9/22: Coming up on this Sunday's Twilight Showcase program. It will be broadcast on WATD-FM from 7pm to 9pm and will feature myself, Stephen B, Martin, Karen Sauer and Cynthia Perkins. The program will also be broadcast on You Tube and on Facebook Live on the Twilight Showcase Facebook page. Please come and join us!
2/2/22: I think 2 must be my lucky number. A wonderful review of Drifting To The Right came out today written by Victor Infante for Worcester Magazine. The link to the album review is here: https://tinyurl.com/2d6bu3r7 . There is no one who does a better job championing a local music and arts scene than Victor does in Worcester! He's the best!
I am also starting a campaign going with Cyber PR for the album starting with a artist bio written by Lorne Behrmann. Good things are happening all around as we move toward the Spring and my appearance on WATD-FM's Twilight Showcase in March and our Album Release Event at Ultrasound Studios in April.
And yes, I am also doing the February Album Writing Month this year and you can find my song page at https://fawm.org/fawmers/mikegtz !
1/6/22: The day that shall live in infamy! I have posted a link to Head Full of Garbage on my two Facebook pages and on my Instagram page which has been getting a fair amount of traffic lately. I have started my Substack e-mail newsletter and in a couple days, I will talk more about how I feel about what happened and what I hope takes place so it never happens again. I've been sending out CDs to friends, family, interested buyers and I have just started contact with different media outlets. I will be meeting with Cyber PR to discuss a strategy for broader coverage and possible album reviews this coming Monday,
Stephen and I are talking about a Virtual Album Release event for sometime later this month or in February. More news about that coming. Meanwhile, you can catch me at the Catbird Cafe open mike this Saturday 1/8, the upcoming Roslindale Open Mike on Monday 1/10 and the Club Passim Open Mike (!) on Monday 1/31.
12/21/2021: The CDs have arrived for Drifting To The Right. And you can get yours cheap! From 12/24/21 to 1/6/2022 (aka The Twelve Days of Christmas) you can buy one or more CDs for $1.00 apiece. It's a two part deal:
Part One: Go to the EPK/Contact area of this website (mgutierrezmay.com) and in the Mailing List and CD requests area, fill in your name, email, your home mailing address in the comment area and then in the your thoughts here area, let me know how you found out about the album.
Part Two: Go to your Venmo account and send the $1.00 to me using Mikegtz22@aol.com as the contact point. Once the money is there, I will send out your album.
If you want to keep it digital, go to my Bandcamp site at https://mgutierrezmay66.bandcamp.com/album/drifting-to-the-right. You can download the album for $1.00 there now up until the end of January.
12/3/2021: A couple new gigs coming through, including an appearance on Nick Noble's Folk Revival Holiday Show on December 16th which is on WICN-FM in Worcester, 91.5 on the FM dial. I will be singing Hark The Herald Angels Sing and Dream as well as chatting up Drifting To The Right. Other radio and podcast appearances are being planned for the near future as the new music makes its way into the world. Note: all praise to Colette O'Connor who masterfully handled just about all of the background vocals on Drifting and is coming out with her own new album, Double Down. My producer Stephen Martin also has a new album titled Leftovers and he is also working on a single for the new year which will be recorded at Ultrasound. At some point we will have an album release event for Drifting so stay tuned.
10/31/2021: Happy Halloween. I'm breaking in a new computer tonight, updating one I have had for the past 12 years. The Zoom connection should improve.
9/4/2021: Happy Labor Day weekend everyone! Not much new from me but I just wanted to take note of some nice developments in the lives of my musician friends. First, two awards ceremonies, the first from Motif Magazine in Providence just held last week and the second, the New England Music Awards scheduled for October. At the Motif awards, Allison Rose won a surprising but well deserved honor as Favorite Americana Singer/Songwriter. After the year Allison has had ( love and rest in peace to her father Bill, one of my favorite people), it looks like her career is on the rise.
At the New England Music Awards, Jay Psaros and Adam Ezra get to fight it out for Performer of the Year and Kala Farnham has two nominations as Favorite Female Performer and Best in State (Connecticut). This will be the best and most competitive awards ceremony I have seen in years! Finally, there is Colette O'Connor! Nominated for the Opening Act competition sponsored by Audacy , Colette has survived two rounds of balloting and is in the Final Top Ten of eligible performers! You can vote for her once a day here: http://theopenact.com . One more thing: congrats to John Fuzek and the organizers of last week's Rhode Island Folk Festival at Rosa Larisa Park in East Providence, which turned out to be an event that uplifted everyone involved as well as everyone who attended. Given this summer's weather, this was no mean feat. It is good to have so many music friends in Rhode Island!
8/24/2021: The recording of Drifting To The Right is done! We are in the mixing and mastering phase of the project. Nine songs, eleven artists. Expert sound engineering by Joe Clapp and creative and remarkable production work from my producer, Stephen Martin. It's a pretty incredible album and I am anxious to share it with the world. I expect there will be some controversy as the album leaves no doubt which side I am on in the current political climate. But there is also humor and beauty to make it all go down a little easier. Look for the upcoming album release concert sometime later this Fall. Outtakes as noted can be found on the music player on this website.
5/26/2021: I have entered the Tiny Desk song contest once again for the third time with The Summer I Forgot ( /track/2699409/the-summer-i-forgot ). I was a little more careful this time with my choice of song and I have been promoting this song far and wide since it is super-catchy. 46 views so far which is not exactly breaking the bank but not too bad. Looking at the video, maybe I could have been more careful with the placement of the strap and moved the tissue box and waste basket elsewhere, but since I recorded it myself and it was a pain to set it up right, I just went with what I recorded. Summer has also made it as high as #8 on the Drooble charts and has gotten a good response also from posting it on Soundcloud and Instagram (where Matraca Berg friended me!).
Work continues on the Drifting To The Right album and I am blogging my progress on this website under the album name. Go visit there! Congratulations by the way to Mary Gauthier who is a friend on her new book, Saved By A Song which looks great! Other nice things are happening with Kala Farnham, the leader of our Quiet Corner Songwriting Group who is featured this week during the Club Passim Campfire and who received two nominations for the 2021 Limelight Awards coming later this year. Also nominated: Linda Marks, Ilene Springer, Grace Morrison and Jay Psaros. I like the Limelight awards as they seem to me along with the Worcester Music Awards to be closest to the ground floor of what is going on with the local music scene.
4/19/2021: I have a page on this site specifically devoted to the recording of my new album Drifting To The Right. Just take a walk to the menu bar and it is there!
A couple other interesting developments: my high school friends and fellow music travelers Brad Marshall and Kevin Artz (Marshall Artz) have a new album out called What Matters. Kevin and I go back to the St. Michael's Church folk group in Annandale during high school. I have seen both Brad and Kevin at a couple high school reunions over the years. They are great artists and instrumentalists. This link takes you to their page: https://marshallartz.net/
I put the song The Summer I Forgot , created during FAWM 2021 up on the Drooble website about 10 days ago. It is now the 8th highest rated song on the site and its current chart position is No.22 site wide. This website includes musicians from all over the world and was created by Milena Krumova, a woman rock guitarist from Bulgaria about three years ago. Colette O'Connor ( https://coletteoconnor.net/ ) and I are both on this site and it's really very artist friendly and a great networking platform. Go: https://drooble.com/song/3293972 .
The Summer I Forgot is now on the site wide player! I will be adding some of the demos from Drifting as I go as well.
2/19/2021: The preparations for recording Drifting To The Right have begun. To be recorded at Ultrasound Studios in Hanover, MA working with my producer Stephen Martin, we will start recording in April, 2021. The plan is for 10 songs, starting with my basic tracks and then layering on from there. We will possibly record one song at Studio 50 at WICN-FM in Worcester so that I can include a couple of Central Mass folks on the album. Anyway, the album is on the launching pad and on its way.
1/11/2021: Happy 2021. Finally! A couple new things. First, FAWM 2021 starts at the beginning of February. I have a new IPhone12 for recording things and this might improve the sound quality of the songs I put up this year. I will be putting the songs up on Bandcamp also for reasons of audio fidelity (wav format) but at the end of the month, I will take them down so something unexpected does not happen. Also, my song Under The Sky (My Diane) was featured by Reverb Nation Providence for a week at the end of December, 2020 along with four other songs which looked like Hip Hop or Rap songs. That felt a little weird. It is seeming easier for me to get music out there at this time and I do hope to record the Drifting To The Right album this year once studio recording is possible and resources permit this. One last thing: I am adding a new section to this website for my screenwriting project in process to dialogue about the ideas I am including there. The title of this section is the title of the work, which is Chasing Gilels.
12/7/2020: A sincere thank you to the remarkable Victor Infante at Worcester Magazine for this article: https://www.worcestermag.com/.../tonight-show.../3829633001/. It helps right the wrong that was done to me and maybe I never get to redeem myself on the Tonight Show (it was a nice dream), but I called them out on something that was hurtful and stood up for myself as a creative artist. I don't support myself with music or songwriting, but this makes it no less important that if my music is played, both myself and the music are treated with respect. There has been absolutely no response from the Tonight Show to date. I can think of reasons they wouldn't respond (lawsuits). For me, it is enough to stand up for myself and I have gotten incredible support. I am hopeful they will not do to others what was done to me and maybe think twice about the Do Not Play feature of the show.
11/30/2020: First, Trump is on the way out. Kicking and screaming of course, but on his way out. Thank God, that was close! I do have a piece of news. The universe acts in mysterious ways. On the November 17th Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy did his recurring Do Not Play segment and on that show, somehow, the show's producers found the song Cold Winds, Warm Breeze, Hot Girls, Cool Dudes which I recorded AS A JOKE during last February Album Writing Month and played it as part of the segment. The link to the segment is https://youtu.be/PGM180tn5DO .
I never would have known or found it except for one of my eagle-eyed therapy clients. I put the word out on Facebook about it and a number of my friends are encouraging me to contact the show and ask to send them a better recording of another song or redeem myself in person. I just might do that. And the song, silly as it was is now registered with ASCAP and I created a brand new self publishing company, Mirada Cicada Music in the process. Thank you for the encouragement, Marci Geller!
I found the song on my home computer and it is now part of my rotating music selections. For the curious... Agghhh!
10/19/2020: I have put the Dream lyric video on my Calendar page, the first page you see when you come to this site. I also recorded a solo version of the song "The World Is Slowing Down" which I wrote this past summer with Beth Gray and this will also be going up on You Tube and featured here on site. Not much new otherwise. 15 days until the election...
The World Is Slowing Down is here: https://youtu.be/zAn8n0GtHjE .I also just put it up on this site.
9/22/2020: Happy autumnal equinox! This morning, my Fall season started with my very first lyric video for my song Dream designed by my good friend and frequent collaborator Colette O'Connor. And it's really quite beautiful! Now up on this site.
8/31/2020: As of this month, my album Firefly In A Jar of Emotion and a single from the album, Air have been accepted for play on Pandora. Another single, Taliesen was accepted but cannot be played due to licensing restrictions (not sure what they are). Because Pandora is hand curated and because I was initially rejected when the album first came out, this is a fairly big deal. This should give the music from this album additional exposure and also some marketing support from Pandora through their AMP Program.
FYI, my music is with ASCAP and this information on my publishing rights is available for any potential collaborators. I am starting to do a couple things with professional songwriters and more info on that as things happen.
7/23/2020: I did my interview with Erik Peterson for The Songwriters Space series and you can now hear it here. This is the link: https://tinyurl.com/y5f5pemq .
7/9/2020: The winner of the songwriting contest was Mark Moriarty for his song, Eastbound Train on a Westbound Track. Mark's video got the most views on You Tube as well, almost 700 views. Mark will get to record a professionally produced video of his song (which was already pretty well done) and more information on the contest is here: https://www.thompsonct.org/home/news/winner-ct-trails-day-songwriting-competition
Thanks again to all who watched my song video and voted for my song!
6/28/2020: The songwriting contest voting deadline has passed. Thank you to the over 300 viewers who viewed my entry, The Wrong Track and all four entries got at least 200 views. I am behind Mark Moriarty and Jonathan Jay as far as viewing numbers go but the voting total is separate and we all shall find out who was the winner soon.
I want to congratulate my friend and empress of the Quiet Corner Songwriting Group, Kala Farnham for completing her new album, Your Spirit Is A Work Of Art, also engineered by Rick Kneeland, mixed in New York City and mastered at Abbey Road Studios in London, England. The COVID-19 restrictions have prevented a formal album release but you can listen to this album here: https://www.kalafarnham.com/music-shop/your-spirit-is-a-work-of-art-digital-download
5/23/2020:
In the last two months, I have entered two contests. Both my entries can been seen on my now updated video page. The first, Arleen is for the Tiny Desk Contest which is a nationwide contest sponsored by National Public Radio for new music and new talent. You can go to www,npr.org and under Tiny Desk are some of this year's entries. The second entry, The Wrong Track is for a local contest focusing on The 1891 Great East Thompson Four-Train Wreck and songs to memorialize this event. Entries in addition to mine will be compiled by the Town of Thompson, CT on You Tube for viewers to review and judge.
3/23/2020:
Welcome to the Corona Virus twilight zone. A new virus multiplies in China, takes off halfway around the world and as of tomorrow, shuts down all non-essential businesses in Massachusetts. I am still working as my work is considered essential (and it is!) but as we all spend more time at home, some remarkable creativity has burst forth from artists and musicians on Facebook, You Tube and increasingly all over the web. So I encourage everyone to support your local musicians playing in living rooms and virtual concert spaces everywhere. Those supporting themselves with their music will face daunting challenges during this time. And we all need to give each other love.
Postscript: Some of the online concerts have been amazing and presenting concerts in a virtual venue has now become a possible viable alternative way for musicians to make money and importantly, get known by folks who could never see them live and in person before. To my fellow songwriters and musicians, I would like to say Well Done!
2/17/2020:
It's FAWM (February Album Writing Month) time. Come visit my new creations at http://www.fawm.org/mikegtz. Featuring my latest co-creation with my potential new songwriting and performing partner, Beth Gray and some other unique originals.
1/15/2020:
Happy new year, everyone. During the past three months, I was part of something called The Great Cover Song Challenge: Covering Local Artists. Another musician, Kristina Looney covered one of my songs, Life Is Beautiful/Bicycles to Somalia and I covered the song Crumbs by Tony Brown and the Duende Project with the help of Beth Gray. The song project made the cover of Worcester Magazine and here is the story: https://tinyurl.com/thhucmf.
Our cover of Crumbs is here: https://michaelgutierrez-may.bandcamp.com/track/crumbs
12/20/2019:
Here is my podcast with Aaron Tornberg at the Hearing Room in Lowell. He did a nice job of putting the fragments of my interview
back together again and I thank him for the inherent respect shown to me as a working professional and a songwriter; https://tinyurl.com/rhkhyk8
11/2/2019
I have been offered my first podcast interview with Aaron Tornberg at the Hearing Room in Lowell as part of his Woodshed Podcast series. We will be taping the interview on Saturday, November 30th from 1-2:30pm. I think the interview is broadcast the following Monday.Thanks to Aaron and the Listening Room for their continued support of local artistsI
10/30/2019:
I talked with my album producer Stephen Martin yesterday and we will begin work on the Drifting To The Right album after the beginning of the new year. I am hoping to record at Ultrasound Studios in Hanover and complete within six months time. I may also do an Indiegogo fundraiser for this album so stay tuned for that.
10/20/2019:
My new single Rammellzee for the songwriting showcase Songwriters' Mind is now up on this site. The debut performance will be this Wednesday, October 23rd at Starlite in Southbridge, Mass. as part of a showcase of original songwriting based on original prompts from all the participating songwriters. Gonna be fun, starts at 7:30 pm.
8/26/19:
Summer is winding down but except for my car engine dying on me three weeks ago, it's been a really good summer filled with a lot of great music of all kinds. Meeting Cliff Goodwin yesterday in Pawtucket was particularly impressive but other new musician friends such as Jennifer Teftt, Olivia Frances, Evie Joy and the FAWMStock campers including my traveling buddy Sean Ryder made this summer a memorable one.
So I and others are now getting ready for the Bob Fitzgerald Tribute Show at Mediator Stage in Providence,RI on Thursday, September 5th. Most of the musician friends I have met at Mediator including its impressario Don Tassone will be involved and if you can come, you should come. The show starts at 7pm (or so), Bob was the soul of Mediator and is greatly missed.
I have tenative plans for a new album which would be called Drifting To The Right and I have lined up Stephen Martin to be my album producer. The car setback may keep me from realizing this for awhile but if there is progress, I will keep everyone posted here.
7/7/2019
First off: I'm seeing the Rolling Stones tonight at Foxboro Stadium! Diane and I are both super-excited. My challenge song for Mick and company is As Tears Go By!
I'm back to being pretty active with my music. Last night I discovered some of my earlier songs from 2010 and listening to them again, I realized these songs were a different side of me, more sentimental, more LOVE SONGS and just different music that was going on with me at that time. So I decided to throw together an album of these songs and throw it up on Bandcamp, my favorite listening platform for my albums. The album is titled If You Love and the link for this collection is https://michaelgutierrez-may.bandcamp.com/album/if-you-love.
Enjoy the listen if you can came by and feedback please is welcome. By the way, my next album is ready to move out of the planning stage to setting up recording hows and wheres.
3/3/2019
FAWM madness is over. So many nice and thoughtful songs just everywhere. Some pretty and provocative Electronice. My collabs are different this year and I wrote more of my own songs. I definitely came up with some keepers I will do more with. Here is the link to this year's page: https://fawm.org/fawmers/mikegtz/
2/3/2019
FAWM is up and running and my first two songs are up on site. Everyone is off to a great start. The link to my FAWM page for the songs is https://fawm.org/fawmers/mikegtz/.
And yes, Go Patriots. After tonight, they will need to call Tom Brady sixfinger.
1/25/2019
Happy new year, everyone. 2019 is starting out quiet for me, which is fine. Hoping it will be a good year. This is the year I turn 64 (will you still need me, will you still feed me...). I will be starting this year out the way I have done for the past 12 years and participating in the 14 songs in 28 days challenge known as February Album Writing Month at Fawm.org. Participants all over the world join in and while it is mostly English-speaking, it is not exclusively so. It's a great bubble bath for creativity and I have made many nice friends over the world by being part of this.
Another worldwide community of musicians online is Drooble.com which is managed by a metal guitarist named Melina Krumova and a group of friends from Bulgaria. The software has its problems -I think they could use help there, But I like the idea and people there. I think more people should know about it. My friend Colette O'Connor led me to Drooble and I thank her.
One booking: May 30th at Mediator Stage in Providence as a feature. Looking to get to a couple of the Boston and Cambridge open mikes and do some features this year. Also hoping for a couple songwriter showcases. This year's theme is Open To Opportunity!
11/15/18
I am posting publicly my collaboration project with Peter Watkinson and Marie Tueje from 2009, Sunday Afternoon 5pm for the first time in the hopes of making it onto some streaming playlists. I have always been very proud of this and it really was a happy accident. I posted lyrics, couldn't think of music for them and then the lyrics were found by Marie Tueje and Peter Watkinson who were paired for a collaboration through February Album Writing Month that year. The result was this incredible song. This is the link through Bandcamp but it is now also on Soundcloud and will be distributed through CD Baby in the near future.
Enjoy: https://mgutierrezmay.bandcamp.com/track/sunday-afternoon-5pm
And here is the Spotify link for the song:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5huR5xNaJbaz4KDMoPrH2i
9/20/18
A great opportunity came across my path earlier this week. I was contacted by Evangeline Joy (Evie Joy) from New York City to be one of her supporting acts this coming Friday 9/21 at the Beatnik's Club in Worcester. I hadn't met her before, I looked her up and I jumped at the chance: she's really quite good! Look her up at www.eviejoymusic.com for more information. We will also be joined by ukulele aficionado Amazing Dick who will open up the night. We are on between 9pm-12 midnight. Beatnik's is at 433 Park Street not far from Clark University.
In October, I will be returning to The Hearing Room in Lowell to be part of a singer-songwriter benefit performance Sunday October 14th between 2-5pm. Colette O'Connor among others will be joining me there and it should be crazy fun. The benefit cover is $10 and the Hearing Room is at www.hearingroom.net.
More good news on the way for later this Fall...
9/3/18
The Porchfest and the Social Networking site: On September 8th as noted on my Calendar, I will be participating in the Hull Porchfest which is happening in Hull, Mass (of course) from 12 noon-6pm. I'll be one of hundreds of musicians participating. I will be performing at 31 Waltham Street from 4-5pm. In the footsteps of my musician friend Colette O'Connor, I am also working today to build my profile on Drooble (drooble.com), which is intending to be a social networking site for musicians and seems to be off to a decent start. Three songs are now up on site: Air, You Can't Take My Carrot and Once There Was Paragon, all of which I will be playing for the porchfest.
6/5/18
I have decided to jump into the Catch The Moon 8-Day Sync Songwriting Challenge. Today is Day 2 and I'm off and running, picking a theme, a target for pitching, putting together a playlist of songs on this theme and finding an accountability partner, who is Amy Goloby Dullum (at www.amygoloby.com). The 8-Day Group is a closed group but information about Catch The Moon and its intrepid founder, Cathy Heller can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/CatchTheMoonMusic/.
Everyone on the site it seems has an Instagram account and so I have decided to resurrect my dormant account and try and do a few things with it. You can find me there under michaelgutierrezmay.
5/26/18
Quiet month. The Virtual House Concert with myself and PJ Rogue (Paul Rogoshewski) on May 6th went very well and we have had 337 views of the concert on the website to date. We may do another Concert in July, maybe with a third special guest. You can find the video of our concert on the Facebook website at https://www.facebook.com/Virtual-House-Concert-Live-153337988630662/. It's a little over an hour so sit back and take it all in if you have time.
I am unable to take place in the Musicians Without Borders solstice concert on Thursday, June 21st at Ultrasound Studios in Hanover this year, due to being out of town visiting family in Virginia. I will also miss participating in the Masssachusetts Walking Tour concerts this year, for the same reason. They will be up and around the Connecticut River this year and they are both walking and canoeing on the river as part of their tour. The link to the Facebook page for this tour is https://www.facebook.com/MAWalkingTour/.
On June 26th, the finals of the Padavano Place Singer/Songwriter contest in Worcester will take place and it should be a great night with $1000 going to the winner. I participated in week #3 and my friend Sean Ryder participated in three contest nights, just missing out on winning on the third night. The winner on my night, Elizabeth Munger is a musician to watch, sort of like an up and coming Ani DeFranco. A great cross section of contestants from Worcester and the greater Boston area have been participants and if you can come out on a Tuesday night in June to see the competition, do so.
The group All Types of Kinds from Long Island, NY promotes fellow artists in each of their weekly newsletters. Since you will only get the occasional email from me, I will use my monthly music news update to make a recommendation for you. This month, the recommended artist is the Adam Ezra Group from Boston and their 2017 release, Hurricane Wind. You can find them at https://www.adamezra.com/. Go check out the ATOK guys too at https://www.reverbnation.com/alltypesofkinds. They have been nice enough to sign up as my fans,too.
4/20/18
A month's worth of gigs has come and gone and I am in a quiet spell for the moment. March 2018 was probably my busiest month yet as a performer: two songwriter showcases in Lowell and Putnam, Ct. , one shared night at Brooklyn Coffee and Tea in Providence and an open mike feature at Coffee Coffee in Salem,NH.
My next project will be filming a virtual house concert with my friend PJ Rogue at Bob Crownfield's home in Plymouth. Paul and I had something of a warmup for this at my end of summer party last year when we traded songs in front of 10-15 house guests. This will be broadcast on Facebook Live and I am confident that Paul and I will put on a good show. The show will go for 45 minutes and is tenatively scheduled for Sunday, May 6th.
On June 21st, I will be part of the Musicians Without Borders day at Ultrasound Studios in Hanover from 7pm until probably midnight. Coordinated by my friend Colette O'Connor, who has been getting all kinds of well-deserved recognition lately (https://www.coletteoconnor.net/) , we will each perform two song sets. It's good to see music stepping its toe into the world of social activism and justice.
I am continuing with my monthly songwriters' group in Putnam, Ct. on the first Saturday of every month from 1-4 pm at Victoria Station Cafe. If you are interested in joining, leave a message on Facebook with the Quiet Corner Songwriters Group, which is coordinated by Kala Farnham.
1/18/18
I'm on a playlist, I'm on a playlist (jumps around goofily) !
And a really good playlist, too! Compiled by Cameron Cotham of the band Front and Turner, my song You Don't Know My World is featured with 21 other songs from people I mostly didn't know before,but are doing some really nice musical things. The ones I knew about were Carlin Tripp and The Promise Is Hope. So here is the playlist link-go listen: https://open.spotify.com/user/1247982988/playlist/5BSVmRWyiB0GsKFSedroWV
1/8/18,
Happy 2018! Finally!
it's been a tough year. I can report that the album release event at Catbird Cafe on 12/27 went well despite the cold weather. I was onstage with Eric "Snake' Guiiiksen (my album producer), Stephen Martin, Raianne Richards and Colette O'Connor. We went through most of the songs on the album and had a great time. Snake recorded the session and once he gets it to me, I will release the audio here or possibly on Soundcloud so you can hear it too,
The new year started for me with a visit to Quiet Corner Songwriting Group in Putnam, Ct. which is my new monthly home for trying out new songs. Last Saturday's session was packed with 15 artists and I expect that this group will continue to be active for the rest of 2018. At the beginning of February, I will return to the February Album Writing Month site (year 11) and work on 14 songs in 28 days alongside collaborators all across the nation and all across the world.
March and April take me to Putnam, CT, Lowell, MA and Salem, NH all for the first time. In Putnam, I will be one of the performers for the Quiet Corner Songwriters Showcase organized by Kala Farnham. The Lowell and Salem venues are organized by Aaron Tornberg who was good enough to invite me to do first a songwriter showcase and then an open mike feature. Beyond then into the rest of 2018, I'm not sure what I will be doing. Three goals I have are to play at a festival, play at Club Passim and also play somewhere on the North Shore or in Western Mass. I also want to win some kind of recognition as a songwriter so I'll be entering a few contests here and there.
I did a Spotify playlist for myself and other songwriters I know (and also a couple I only encountered for the first time while putting the playlist together) under the theme You Don't Know My World. The link for the Spotify playlist is here: https://open.spotify.com/user/mikegtz/playlist/3lNy2lSCJPLCgGNMrrdhNS
11/12/2017
Some exciting news-the new album has been getting airplay!
Artie Martello in New York has two shows: Mostly Folk during the week and Power Folk on Sundays as part of a series called Blues and Roots Radio (web address:www.bluesandrootsradio.com). During October and November, Artie included my song "Air" on his Mostly Folk show and included "You Can't Take My Carrot" on the Power Folk show. Artie has also played Neponset RIver Murder Ballad on the Mostly Folk Anniversary Show in November and May, 1970 on the Power Folk show. As a result of this show, I am networking with other musicians across the country and also getting to know better some other New England artists. Artie is being a great supporter of the songs on my album and more songs may be included in future sho
Nick Noble at WICN-FM in Worcester, Mass has been a stalwart supporter of folk and acoustic music in Central Massachusetts and I was part of a WICN-FM radio show fundraiser this past Summer. This coming week, Nick is featuring a couple of my songs on his Folk Tradition show on Thursday Night and the theme of the show is Nothing But New Songs. So far Nick has played my Once There Was Paragon song and more songs may be getting play in the new year.
The Open Mike feature at Mediator Stage with Eric "Snake" Gulliksen on October 26th went very well and Don Tassone posted some great pictures and a couple videos of my appearance there. See my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/mgtzmusic to see it for yourselves.
Coming up in December: the album release party at Catbird Cafe!