Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Get Your OurStage On!

Ukulele Love Song Art

Hey everyone! This is April. I'm Angie's best friend, manager, musical collaborator and soon to be tour manager.

We hope you've had a chance to listen to "Ukulele Love Song" and watch the video.

We just entered the song and the video into competition for January at OurStage.com. Angie could win $100 or $1000 if she makes it to number one!

OurStage is a unique competition site, in that it's not just about sending your fans over to vote for you. It's not a popularity contest. You have to listen and judge a variety of songs within a genre. It's not only a great way for emerging artists to gain exposure, it's a great way for fans to discover new artists.

So we're both aware that these days, getting people to get engaged beyond hitting the "Like" button on Facebook can be as big an endeavor as trying to herd cats while stapling jello to the wall, but if you've got some time to kill and want to listen to some new music, give it a shot. If Angie is in the top 40 by the last week of the month, she'll move on to the next round.

Here's how it works. Go to OurStage and register as a fan. Once you're in, go to Angie's profile and become her fan. This is not necessary, but it can make judging easier. I'll explain how in a bit.

Now you're all ready to judge. You'll want to click on the "Judge" link on the left hand side under "My Apps." Angie is competing in both Alternative Country and Country Videos. Just click on either of those channels and you're ready to go. You can choose to judge two songs head to head, or stack rank four songs at a time. Being Angie's fan on OurStage means that her entry will come up sooner in the judging. I'll usually do a little judging while I'm randomly browsing or reading blog posts.

Another cool feature is that you get a Judging Influence ranking. This is based on how much time you actually spend listening to the songs, how often you judge, how much consideration you put into your voting, etc. If your influence increases, your votes mean more.

And hey, if you think that another song you hear is better than "Ukulele Love Song," vote accordingly! Artists don't improve by having smoke blown up their asses. They improve from honest feedback.


So it's definitely not as easy as just clicking over and voting, but we think it's awesome that she's getting pitted head to head with others in the same genre. I've personally discovered several new artists that I enjoy through the voting process.

Give it a try, and leave a comment if you have any questions.


Monday, January 9, 2012

Ukulele Love Song music video, y'all!

2012 has already gotten off to great start.

I admit I was feeling a little overwhelmed after the last quarter of 2011, which was amazing but also so jam-packed busy that it left my poor little Angie batteries drained.  But then I went and realized I had THE best fans, family, and friends in the whole world after you guys helped me to reach my $1k goal with the IndieGoGo project!  With the help of the project and some other donations from my super generous circle of peeps, I now have the fundage to record a fantastic EP for you guys.  I will keep you posted as those efforts progress.

Also, I promised y'all that if I made it to $1k via IndieGoGo that I would release a new song and accompanying music video.  Well, my mama raised me to be a woman of my word, so I went and did just that.





I was going for a specific aesthetic with this one. It's a song about crazy/stupid love from afar, so naturally I thought, "Well, obviously, it needs to be a crazy YouTube fangirl video." Or, you know, my own tongue-in-cheek version of that. I wanted to keep it lo-fi -- me and my FlipCam on a random Wednesday, playin' dress-up and dancin' around in my underwear (actually that's a fairly typical day for me). And I wanted it to be just the right combination of earnest, heartfelt, playful, and totally psycho/silly. I think that, between my insane shenanigans and the absolutely fierce editing work of my dear friend Catherine Anastasia Nelson (who also worked on the Right Into You vid), we pulled it off.

If you dig the tune, you can motor on over to the right side of this page and sign up for my mailing list, which will give you access to a FREE download!

I hope you like the vid. And the song. And, you know, tell all your friends. And thanks a million, y'all, for helping me kick it off right this year.