Off the Stage: The Cloers

Sister's Christmas Catechism @ Booth Playhouse

Well, for our last show of the year, we played Christmas music. We were asked to play the part of the "choir" (but really students) in the play, "Sister's Christmas Catechism". It is a fun and a little irreverent look at how Catholic School really was, especially around Christmastime. Now, I didn't go to Catholic school, and I didn't have Nuns for teachers, but everything else was just about the same as the upbringing that I (Cate) had. I attended a fundamentalist, religious school from 4K-12th grade, and most everything she talked about in the play was how I remembered it. We went to the Booth Playhouse in Charlotte, NC last weekend to see the play so we would know just what we were getting into, and John kept leaning over to me and telling me that "Sister" was making him nervous. I told him, welcome to my entire childhood and adolescence! But, I shall save my ranting and need for psychotherapy about my scarred childhood for another time, and now tell you about all the fun that we had at this show.

"Sister" was played by actor, Mary Zentmyer, and she is PHENOMENAL!! She keeps the audience engaged for 2 hours all by herself. You never believe for a moment that she isn't a real Nun. The audience is her classroom, and she takes every opportunity to involve them in the entire show. For our part, we sang some traditional Christmas songs for 15 minutes before the show started. Since this is supposed to be a Catholic schoolroom, we only sang sacred songs. However, we finally broke out into, "Jingle Bells", and Sister came into the classroom and stopped the song. She told us if we are going to sing that secular song, then we must sing it like, "Oh what fun it is to ride with BABY JESUS in the sleigh"! We got scolded for starting the Christmas party with our classmates BEFORE Sister explained the importance of the Nativity, and we were sent off stage so she could tell the story of Christmas. We came back on to sing again when the Christmas pageant was taking place and Sister solved the mystery of the Magi's Gold.

We highly encourage anyone who can to come see this show if it comes back to Charlotte, NC next year. It was so much fun to be able to take part in this play! Happy Holidays to you all!

The Week of 12/5/09-12/12/09

Saturday, 12/5/09: We went to the art showing of our friend, Michael Hamlin-Smith. We know Michael's work because we attended the Artist As Entrepreneur classes together (offered by the Arts and Science Council). It was such a cool event, and his work is spectacular. We love pottery, and have been to Seagrove, NC to check out all of the NC designs. But, Michael's pieces are so original. And, he is a Do It Yourself guy as well. He bought shelving from IKEA, installed it in his living room, lit it properly, and now uses that space as a private gallery. There's no overhead when you do it that way, and galleries take such a huge cut of a sale that it is hard for artists to make a living. Way to go, Michael!! 

Sunday, 12/6/09: We drove to Carrboro, NC to meet with the NC Songwriters Co-op Board. They have lots of great things planned for 2010, and John and I have been asked to work with them this year. We are honored and are really looking forward to it. Also, we went to the Song Doctor workshop hosted by Kirk Ridge. It's a songwriting critique group, but everyone is very supportive. It's a great way to meet other writers and network with other artists for ideas and places to play. It's held in the Raleigh, NC area, so it helps us to get to know folks in the Triangle area.

Tuesday, 12/8/09: We attended our monthly NSAI meeting for December. This month was just a great big community party and open mic. This year has been amazing, and this group has a lot to do with that. Some of our fondest music memories of 2009 were spent with writers from this group. Also, we played a new song for the gang, and will have it critiqued in January. 

Thursday, 12/10/09: Another holiday party with singing!

Friday, 12/11/09: Arranged Christmas music for several upcoming holiday events. 

Saturday, 12/12/09: Hosted performing songwriter, Joe Woodson, in our studio. John and Joe recorded 9 demo tracks, and they sound great. We hope to hear more from Joe, and really enjoyed working with him. He's a terrific guy!! Also, that night, we attended Sister's Christmas Catechism at the Booth Playhouse in Charlotte, NC. We wanted to see exactly what we had agreed to be part of. We have been asked to perform Christmas music for the show, and will have some kind of interaction with "Sister" during the play. Well, it was so much fun, and we are so excited that we will be performing for it next weekend.

Check out Joe's track. He sounds a little like Darius Rucker (Hootie days) and Bob Dylan. Great sound!! Below is one of the tracks from his session called, "Life Is Short".

Our First Radio Airplay!

On Sunday, we found out that we were a featured songwriter on the new Licks and Lyrics show on WCOM, a community radio station based out of Carrboro, NC. It's very small, so unless you live in the Carrboro/Chapel Hill area, then you can't hear it over the radio. Instead, it is available to stream at www.wcomfm.org. A few of the members of the NC Songwriters Co-op (Chuck Champion, Louise Bendall, and Kirk Ridge) have begun hosting a show each Saturday from 3:00-4:00pm. They play an eclectic blend of music, and you don't have to be a member of the Co-op to get played. The only criteria is that the music be good, you should be a NC songwriter, and that the DJ really likes it.  

Kirk Ridge, a fellow performing songwriter, is the one that played our song, "Make Me Cry" for the first time on radio, and we will never forget him for this. Too bad that we didn't get to hear it though. We worked until 4:00pm that afternoon, so we didn't get home in time to stream the show. Plus, we didn't know he was going to play us that day, so it was a great surprise. A couple of members of the Co-op were the ones who told us that they heard our song, and they said that Kirk talked us up to the listeners. Thanks, Kirk!

We'll, I've wanted to be on the radio since I was a little girl. Some girls love to play with baby dolls, or play dress up. The only thing I ever wanted to play was a game we called, "Radio". My dad would hook up a microphone to our tape recorder, and he would play the DJ. He would introduce me, and then I would sing one of my favorite songs. Then we'd do it again, and again until he got tired. Me... I never got tired of singing for the "audience".

Anyway, John transferred one of my "radio shows" from reel to reel to mp3. I was about 6 years old and just knew that this was the best game ever. I just couldn't figure out why none of my friends knew about it or played it! In the link below, you can hear me sing "Da Doo Ron Ron" by Shaun Cassidy (or as I always sang it, "The Do Run Run"), and my Dad, at the end, playing radio DJ.

Dilworth Billiards: A Benefit for Luke's Wings

This past Thursday night, we performed at Dilworth Billiards in Charlotte, NC. We played for a benefit show to help raise funds for the charity, Luke's Wings. Luke's Wings is an organization who provides travel planning services and airplane tickets to families of wounded soldiers who are currently hospitalized at medical and rehabilitation facilities all over the country.

It's bad enough to be separated from your loved ones at the holidays, but these soldiers are not able to go home to see their families due to the injuries that they have incurred during active duty. So... Luke's Wings makes it possible for the family to fly out to see their soldier. Hopefully, the money that we were able to raise will allow for at least 2 families to be re-united over the holiday season.

One of the best things about the night was that several of our friends were going to be playing. We had a great time up until our 3rd song where John broke a guitar string during the song introduction. Luckily, one of our artist buddies, David Holtzclaw, was there to save the day. He let John borrow his Taylor, and we went on with the show. 

Special thanks to Jim Garrett (AKA-Guitar Man) for setting up the benefit, and for all the hard work that he put into it to make it the success that it was. And thank you to Dilworth Billiards for hosting the event, and for all of the artists who generously gave of their time and talent. It was definitely for a great cause! 

Below is a link to all of the artists who participated in the fundraiser and a video explaining more about the Luke's Wings organization.

• Underground Detour
• Jamie Kay
• Ang and Tom Williams
• Amissville
• Lenny Federal
• Jim Garrett Band
• The Cloers
• Nita B. and the Swinging Soiree

Tosco House Party: An Open Mic Event

Wednesday night, we attended the Tosco House Party held on the first Wednesday night of the month, 8:00pm, at The Evening Muse. The night begins with everyone gathering into a circle where each person gets the chance to call out a cover tune. Then, the group has a play along/sing along. It's a great way to get to know other local musicians, and the host, John Tosco, always makes it a fun event.

This time, we planned on having John sing a song, so we performed "How Long" with concertina. Also, we debuted the new song, "I'm Moving On". Both were well received, and we had such a great time with some of our local artist friends. Some of the musicians that were present were Chris English, Kevin Marshall, Ralph Husband, and some new friends Haji Basim, Nicole Reynolds, and Deirdre and John from the band, Grown Up Avenger Stuff. 

Also, local photo journalist, Monty Chandler was present and took some great photos of the evening. He writes for the Examiner publication, and is always out somewhere seeing and writing about live music.

If you've never been to the Tosco House Party, come on out and see what you've been missing!

Anvil: The Band Who Wouldn't Quit

The other night, we watched a documentary about a band named Anvil who refused to quit making the music that they loved. Anvil is a Canadian heavy metal band with 13 albums to their credit. They were influential on the career of bands like Slayer, Anthrax, and Metallica, yet very few people have actually heard of them...until now. In 2007, a documentary (Anvil: The Story of Anvil) was made about the 2 primary members, Steve "Lips" Kudlow (lead guitar and singer), and Robb Reiner (drummer), and it was just released on DVD a couple of months ago. 

Kudlow and Reiner began playing music together when they were 14 years old, and are now in their fifties. They are still in the band and play their songs, but each of them has to have a day job to be able to support their families. In the eighties, it was thought that they would be one of the biggest metal bands ever, but for various reasons, all of that slipped away from them. Through all of the heartbreak and frustration, somehow these guys have managed to keep the dream alive, and are still pursuing the goal of a full-time music career. I can see how people don't know whether to laugh or cry when they hear the story of the band. Should we all feel pity for them or should we be inspired by them? Sometimes they look so pathetic that you wonder how they continue to get up every day and keep pressing toward their goal. 

Now, here comes our link with the movie. A few people have been bold enough to ask when we were going to quit all of this dreaming about music and "grow up". Some have told us that we should have children and make them into a band so we can live vicariously through them, and others just think that we are all together delusional, and just feel sorry for us. We are OK with ALL of it! We were so touched by the desire these guys had to keep their dream alive despite their circumstances, and despite what other people thought of them. It really inspired us to never give up and keep going. Like Anvil, we still have to have a "real" job right now, but we have to continue to believe that one day, all of the effort that we have put into our music will pay off; Someday, we will make a living doing what we love.

I hope others will watch this documentary and realize that some people ONLY have their dream, and they don't desire much else. They are fine with people thinking less of them for not having as much money as others have that are at the same stage in their lives. They are resigned to the fact that they many never have the life security that comes with having a specific career that they have gone to school for. And they are OK with just getting out of bed everyday knowing that there is still something that they want, something that they are willing to put every bit of extra energy they have into. We'll take both the good and the bad, and we are happy that we still wake up every morning passionate about pursuing our art.

John Finishes Angelo Melendez' Website!!!

As many of you know, John has been going to Sessions Online School of Design for the past couple of years to complete his Masters Certificate in Web and Graphic Design. It is a very challenging and comprehensive school, and they do a great job of helping students transition into the art design field. As part of his curriculum, he has designed several websites and is getting ready to begin his concentration in Flash Design.

As training for the completion of his schooling, he agreed to work on a friend's website. It was a good opportunity for John to build a site from the ground up, and it gave him a chance to work with a client from concept to completion. 

Also, we wanted to let everyone know that he is making this career transition, and if you know of anyone who needs a website designed for them, just shoot him an email at john@thecloers.com. He will be glad to speak with you and help design a site that reflects you or your product.

Our friend, Angelo Melendez, is a wonderful performing songwriter, and we wanted to link everyone to his website. Take a look at John's work, and if you want, let us know what you think. Oh yeah, and we took all of the photos for his Angelo's website. The photo shoot was really fun, and I got to be the assistant! 

Thanks Angelo for giving us this opportunity to help showcase you and your art. We appreciate it!