Yesterday was a pretty cool day. My new song got released on iTunes and Amazon, along with other digital services. A nice little buzz was being spread around Twitter and other places about the song itself. The cool thing is after one day it’s already the top seller I’ve got. That’s a great thing. The radio campaign got under way in Canada, there should be some good things getting rolling in the Northern Territories.
I also attended a Grammy function last night that was honoring Ray Charles. What an amazing artist. The had a panel of people that had worked with him in different capacities talking about what he was like. At the end an audience member ended up asking how true to Ray Charles was the movie Ray. All of them spoke up to say that Jamie did such an amazing job that it was literally like being with Ray again. Thus he really was like that movie. The Grammy museum showed video footage and some pictures of him as well. It was an enlightening evening.
Afterwards I was taken to celebrate the release of Hero Unexpected by my friend Jon. We went and took in a flick. It was really good. I won’t talk about it because I’m likely to go see it a few more times and I want to make sure it was as good as I thought it was.
I got home and had a great conversation with a friend online before doing a little studying of orchestration. In all I had a lot to smile about yesterday and it’s carrying over to today. Which is already having a good start. I got a project of drum editing done. I’m ready to start recording guitar parts on a song and I’m going to start writing for the next project which should get done within a week or two of starting. Which will likely start later tonight.
Since I’m enamored with the evening last night about Ray. I’m sure a lot of us can relate to the vibe of this song right now. The concept of being down on the financial end of things is on the minds of a lot of people right now. Ray certainly had his share and it’s expressed extremely well in this song. I’m pretty sure I remember one of the panel members last night chose this song as the definitive song to play for an alien to show what Ray Charles was all about. They all gave their choices and each was different. But they all also agreed on each others choices.
Despite his hard times, Ray still managed to be a pretty lively character and made a lot of people happy. He was a perfectionist and very driven to achieve great things. I think that’s something that is coming out right now with the state of the economy. It’s warming to know that being down on things like money can help people to be more cordial and happy with each other. Interesting to be for sure.
If you don’t own any Ray Charles, you need to do yourself a big favor and spend some time exploring his vast catalog. You’ll find some amazing music, there is no doubt.