Sanctuary In Rhythm Of Honor CD

Hollywood, CA--8/22/05--We are sometimes caught dealing in generic phrases like "military action" or "defense plan," and we may forget that good men and women, not words, defend freedom. These people are fathers, aunts, cousins, younger, older, grumpy, funny, quiet and/or loud, just like you and me, except they offer their lives "on demand" to protect ours. Rhythm Of Honor, an eclectic CD recently released by Goodnight Kiss Music, pays tribute to the American Armed Forces and their families.

Listeners have an opportunity to take part in a two-fold process that helps all the individuals involved in the project, directly and indirectly. While 50 cents of every CD retail sale is donated to the Wounded Warriors Hospital Fund and 95% of all their donations go to rehabilitating the troops wounded in war, you have an opportunity to hear independent artists perform songs from a multitude of genres.

Eleven tracks make up the powerful Rhythm Of Honor CD. It is full of heart wrenching lyrics that will make you reevaluate your life and bring tears to your eyes. The variety of music is extraordinary, giving all musical tastes a chance to zone in on the meaning of this disc. While the musicianship is good, the heartfelt lyrics will force you to look in the mirror and ask yourself why you ever complain about your life. This is all about the personal stories of real life heroes, our United States military.

This is not your everyday CD, and it is not only the music that you will hear loud and clear. The story between the notes will hit home with force. The music is great and it drives all the messages straight to heart with feelings that are hard to describe without having some kind of personal experience related to the subject.
Bands and Professionalism, I view this is a very important topic. There are alot of bands that don't cross their T's and dot their I's. It's for the most part fairly easy to learn your part of the song on your instrument and perhaps your vocal part, but there are many other things to take into account for your live performances. Remember, you're being paid to do a job, and as fun as that job might be it is still in fact, a job. The venue owner or talent buyer is expecting you to come through with a quality performance. To start with, You want to arrive at the venue in plenty of time to set up and do your sound checks. Unless you really trust your sound man, you may want to have a long enough cord or a cordless system so you can stand out front and make sure all is well with the sound. Obviously there may need to be some adjustments when the place is full, but for the most part you should be in good shape.

For the performance itself, every band whether you're doing covers or origional material, your sound and stage presence or lack there of is what makes you and your show unique. Too much time (also known as dead air) between songs is definitely not good. For one thing, you tend to lose your audience's attention and you want to keep your momentum.You can avoid this by having a set list so you know what song is coming up next. You can also purchase equipment with memory that will allow your instruments effects to be up and running at the start of each song. You can have the last note of one song to be the first of the next song allowing you to run songs together in a medley. In many cases a song will start with one instrument so if you play that instrument and you know the timing well enough you can start right in providing the rest of the band is prepared for that. Of course, you want to have some interaction with the audience and each band according to it's personality will have it's way of addressing this. Relax and go with the flow. Just remember people are there for the music not for a speech.