Have you ever had a past love return to your thoughts?
ON FRIDAY, JULY 1st I'll be releasing a new scenic music video about how a former love can symbolically take "Stowaway" in the mind. It's my most involved and favorite video to date!
This video is also LONG AWAITED. The trailer may be familiar to you, (cause I actually filmed this in 2015), but it's so summery, that I REALLY just wanted to release it in summer. So I was super patient, plus so much went into this video…that by now, I'm just so excited to show you all!
I was invited to a film and tv expo in Ventura, California this past weekend. It's where other musicians and I get to play some of our music for music supervisors and publishers who select songs for movies and shows (they have a fun gig, right?) I had been a few years before…but it's quite a pricey weekend, so I sat out the last few years. I could have decided not to go this year because its $$, or because I haven't been for a while and could have doubted who would know or remember me…but I went. And it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! First off, I've already received a financial blessing from going- it was so reassuring that it was meant to be. Secondly, I walked into a listening session and there's one of my favorite people in the industry sitting up front (who has tried to place one of my songs in a movie before actually.) I started playing my recording and she says, "Now there's the Courtney I remember!" Thank you, Madonna for making me feel at home. I went on to make more great connections with several others that have the power to elevate my career… and by the end of it all, I was thinking, "I HAVE to come to this every year! I'm so glad I came." Seriously…so glad I went for it.
We all have dreams, whether we speak and live them out loud or not. I know it's not practical to get to live them 100% of the time, but I know they prick our hearts to move at certain times. We can sit on that, or we can set aside all the reasons why we shouldn't, and just try to make it happen. If there's something you've been day dreaming about, but not really moving on, I challenge you to look into it more this week. See what it will take and how to make it possible. Seldom do things just happen without us making them happen. Go for it!
And with that, I go off to write some songs while I still feel this music high from the weekend. Sending you lots of love today from my grateful heart.
What if everyone told Bob Dylan your voice is meh…and he listened and didn't become BOB DYLAN. I'm sad just thinking about all the amazing songs (and covers of those great songs) that we wouldn't have right now. I know he had a rocky road to get to where he was heard (cause that's just usually how it goes), but he had people along the way that listened and told him he was good and fostered his creativity. He's just one of many.
For me, it was the day my mom heard someone playing the Forest Gump feather theme song on the piano. She walked in to find my 3-year-old self, ears communicating to my tiny fingers on the keys. From there she started to say things like, "Courtney…play something that sounds like birds….and rain." I asked her about those times today and this is what she said, "you were too little to push notes and had no formal training, but I knew you heard it. Our senses have so much to do with creativity. You just followed your heart and used all creations, both spiritual and man made, to inspire you." She saw it in me and she encouraged it and built my toddler confidence, and eventually put me in lessons…and that was the beginning of MY LIFE. I give my mom's foresight massive credit for nurturing this passion that is so much of who I am and what I love. I can't imagine my life without doing music.
I think this is what we need to do for other creators in embryo out there. I'm not talking about inflating egos for the sake of flattery, but really sincerely looking for abilities and verbalizing praise that's specific and meaningful. Cause not only will it do for others what my mom did for me, but what it means for this world is more appreciation, more art, more joy and expression with depth.
I hope y'all can see and hear and appreciate your own creativity and the creativity of others today. There's so many gifts out there, it would be so very sad to miss them… and especially sad to miss the chance to help others see them in themselves.
LDS hymns "Love At Home". I want to build a home full of love more than anything. I may sing this song different every time I sing it, but I feel a whole lot of love every time I sing it.
So….this is all about the week I've spent being mama to a bunch of baby chicks.
The King side of our family has chickens and the grandkids go straight back to check for eggs when they are at Dal's parents'. I assumed the kids on the Cotter side would love them too, so we helped my parents make arrangements…and so far my assumption is looking accurate.
In conclusion, I love them.
For this , I headed back to my summer at Berkley School of Music in Boston, when I saw the famous J.M.
We heard rumors that he might be around his old stomping grounds, as we huddled in group bands of 4 or 5, with the task of playing cover songs that lead one into the next (all of us daydreaming him visiting the classroom our band was in.) Somewhere between "Killing Me Softly" and our next song, a group of my friends and I snuck out to try and look through some windows to find him.
A few minutes later, lo and behold, a great of our time was there right in front of me.
…It was one of my few star struck moments I can remember in my life, and as much as our little band wished that he would have come and jammed with us, this was enough.
Keep writing, fellow Berkley-ite. We like your songs.
The Beach Boys are so classic. I remember when Dallin and I saw them live and secretly filmed the older generation with their big hats and cocktails doing the twist. I was right there with them!
My mind hasn't let go of the film, Love & Mercy. It did things to my heart to see what Brian Wilson went through. It was some really rotten stuff. Yet, in the end,…more than any other emotion, I was overwhelmed with how TRUE he was to himself through his music.
When the great Beach Boy, showed his father the freshly written "God Only Knows", he was told it was no good. Brian made a graceful exit and drove himself to the studio to make the album Pet Sounds.
There he was told, "its a wrap",… but he wasn't done yet. He heard something in his head and his golden intuition wouldn't give in until it was produced in the tracks that made "Good Vibrations" a chart topper.
Even though fame had already hit, and the group's 11th album would have flown off the shelves regardless, he took such stubborn precision to make sure they got "the sound." This is so inspiring as an artist, because I've put out songs before that I wasn't 100% in with, but due to going with the flow, or a time crunch, or whatever, I went with it and now I can't listen to those tracks and really feel they are truly me. The sweet news is, I've really felt my groove in the studio lately and I'm super excited to release some new music for y'all soon that is my version of "the sound." It is my Courtney Cotter King True.
One final thought- can I tell you how grateful I am that Brian didn't throw out "God Only Knows?" It's just so honest and beautiful in it's simplicity. I wanted to share it with y'all this week for Monday's Music cover.
For my first ever on the blog, I'm excited to tell you about my inspiring week in the studio.
This year has found me flying up to Utah to record with the ever so talented, Joshua James. Love this dude's creative-quirky mind and that he gets my creative-quirky mind…and we come up with a products we're both so excited about. It's been super fun!
Doing vocals earlier this year.
Cellist- we brought in some amazing musicians!
It will never get old… being entrusted by a couple to play on their most important day, in a room full of their most important people, makes me so glad I get to do this music thing.
This past week I was able to play a gorgeous rooftop wedding in Scottsdale for an amazing couple (congrats again Fatima and Patrick!) I didn't know them before they contacted me to play, (in fact, most weddings I play are for people I didn't know previously), but I show up and sing for them, and feel so much love in the room. The love they all have for each other, and overall openness from all these strangers towards my music… and it just makes me feel good.
Plus, when my husband comes with, he gets all handsome in his suit and helps me carry my equipment, and I get to see him looking cute in the back of the room as he gives me the thumbs up for my soundcheck and watches me sing throughout the night. And even though gigs are busy, there's always some moment at a wedding where I can just look at him and be so grateful thinking about the day that he married this crazy singer-songwriter.
Smart man, that James Brown.
James, love these lyrics from your "It's Man's, Man's, Man's World" and wanted to send you a happy birthday week heavenward as I focus on great WORDS this Wednesday morning. Rock and Roll today.