Category: Music

Send My Mail to Nashville

by Peggy Hustad, posted in Creativity, Movies, Music, Songwriting

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Stacey K. Black, producer, director, editor, and singer songwriter, spent two years of her life creating the music documentary, “Send My Mail to Nashville”.  It’s an extraordinary movie and I was grateful to be one of the many songwriters she featured. Her film offers a powerful and touching inside look at the songs and stories by songwriters as they live and work in a city with an estimated 55,000 songwriters. Interviewing songwriters at all levels, Stacey thoughtfully shows the peaks and valleys songwriters go through.

The film does an excellent job telling the songwriters’ stories and the various ways they create, record, perform, and promote their music.  It is clear that Stacey genuinely cares for the songwriters she features.  She shows how fun, but also how challenging, making a living with music can be in “Music City”.  Filled with plenty of great, original songs and impressive performances, the movie features Trevor Finlay, Jennifer Friend, Kevin So, Joe First, Shashi Light, Jack Frisby, Stacey K. Black, Don Hillaker, Peggy Hustad, Joel Shewmake, Lydia Smith, and Steven Wylie.

“Send My Mail to Nashville” has been making the rounds with film festivals and will be released in the near future.  For more information, go to the movie’s Facebook page at

www.facebook.com/SendMyMailToNashville

 

Jill of all trades, master of many

by Peggy Hustad, posted in Creativity, Life, Movies, Music, Psychology, Songwriting, Success, Writing

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Stacey K. Black                       http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/staceykblack

 

What do Hedy Lamar, Oprah, Rita Moreno, Joan Chen, Florence Nightingale, Debbie Allen, and Laurie Anderson (and many other famous women) all have in common?  They are all Jill of all trades, master of many… women who are multi talented “Renaissance women”.  And we could add another woman to that list, Stacey K. Black, pictured above.  Stacey has been a top hairstylist for major TV shows, a film and TV director, a writer, a filmmaker, a singer, and a songwriter… and she loves telling people’s stories with all of those skills.

There are lots of example of people who have managed to be a generalist and a specialist.  They don’t have to be mutually exclusive.  There are many reasons remarkable, talented women like Stacey are able to achieve mastery of several different skills.

  1.  Although women traditionally only had a few choices for careers (nurse, secretary), the options for careers for women now are greater than ever.  Men have had those opportunities for centuries, so there are many examples of “Renaissance men”, but in recent history, women have been allowed to show this creative diversity as well.
  2. Like cross training in athletics enhances performance overall, learning one skill (such as writing) can help you learn another skill (like directing) more quickly and deeply than specializing may.
  3. If it’s true that it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill, we are living longer than ever before, so we have more time to learn multiple skills than we ever have before.
  4. We are more open as a society to changing careers than ever before, so we have more support and encouragement to try different careers.
  5. Many careers don’t require professional credentials to show mastery.  So, although you still have to go to medical school to be a doctor, you can discover how to write or make films with all kinds of avenues.  And technology is making it easier to learn those skills as well.

The opportunities are greater for all of us to be multi talented than in any time in history.  So, let’s recognize and be inspired by the creative potential of the generalist and the specialist, the women and the men, who continue to make this world a better, more innovative place to live!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two singers, same song

by Peggy Hustad, posted in Music

Here is the “guy version” of a song I wrote with a great songwriter, Scott Jarman.  The song is called “Chase an Old Memory Down” and I thought it would be fun to compare my version, with me singing at the Bluebird Cafe (see my previous post), with this version, which has a guy singing and a guitar playing, at mid-tempo…    Enjoy!

Two singers, same song

by Peggy Hustad, posted in Music

Here’s a song I wrote with a great songwriter, Scott Jarman, called “Chase an Old Memory Down”.  I got featured in a movie called “Send My Mail to Nashville” because the director, Stacey K. Black, heard me singing it in Nashville.  I thought it would be fun to compare my version with the one I recorded with a guy singing.  So here is my version…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR-MRkybnr0

Music and cats

by Peggy Hustad, posted in Music

Casey 2014

My cat, Casey, has always had an uneasy alliance with my songwriting career. When I first moved to Nashville to be a songwriter, he used to go to his kitty litter box every time I started singing one of the new songs I had written. “Everybody’s a critic” I would say, in response. But he should be glad about my new album “Life Waves” because it literally could provide his daily sustenance. Buying my album (or even a single song) could help pay for my cat’s expensive prescription cat food! ;-D

Fortunately, my singing and songwriting has had some positive reviews more recently, including this one from Walt Aldridge (thank you, Walt!)

“Peggy’s writing comes from that heartfelt place where real songs are created. They stand the test of repeated listening and touch the places great songs are supposed to touch”

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/lifewaves

When I met Queen (the band, not “the Queen”)

by Peggy Hustad, posted in Music

When I was much younger, I met the band Queen…  it was awesome and I love their music all the more because of it.  I met them after a concert in NC.  Brian May was especially nice to my friend, Charmaine, and I, even recognizing us when we found them the next day, saying to us, “Have you no homes to go to?”  I guess he thought we were just following them from one day to the next (and in a way, I guess we were!)  ;-D

Here’s a picture of Brian May, with us in the background, trying to look cool about it all….

 

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Becoming Brave

by Peggy Hustad, posted in Music

I wrote a song awhile back called “Becoming Brave” with Paige Bainbridge, in Nashville.  Here are some lines in that song that I truly love and want to share…

There is no short cut, no easy way

And there’s no straight line, you can’t play it safe

But you walk on faith

You are…becoming brave

You’re free to make your own mistakes

On the road to being great

It’s time to judge yourself less, love yourself a whole lot more

Dance in the rain, even in the storm

 

Here’s a link to the song, “Becoming Brave”, featuring Paige’s beautiful voice. Enjoy!

https://www.reverbnation.com/peggyhustad/song/25169462-becoming-brave