Keith Hampton

http://youtu.be/5INj4rcQO6s

Download the song from iTunes at:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/tyranena/id363226486 

Lyrics:
http://keith-hampton.com/tyranena_2010/ 

(c) 2010 Keith Hampton
(p) Brave Records/BMI
Directed by Eric Steffens, Paladin Entertainment 2012:
http://paladin-entertainment.com

 

New songs, new ideas, new energy... let's co-create some tunes together!

Since the release of my 2010 project, TYRANENA, I've written lots of songs and had the chance to perform them live in my favorite coffeehouses venues. 

Now, in 2012, it feels like the right time to assemble some of them together in a new collection, to be released at the end of the summer.

"Dream Vessel" (featured in the Kickstarter video) is one of my favorites.

Here's a demo of "Carry," which is also going to be included on the new album. Written in honor of Kory & Erin :) 

 

Because my label, Brave Records, offers digital distribution, and I'm lucky enough to have talented friends and collaborators who will help keep production and manufacturing costs down (including limited edition CDs), the estimated cost for this project is $2,500.

YOU CAN HELP!

-Want to contribute to planning the song order and selection?

-Want to assist with the cover art?

-Want to help name the album?

-Want a song written for, or dedicated to you?

Let's get started....

Choose a support category that fits for you, and/or send supportive energy! Stay tuned for updates, including live performances of the new songs.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU :)

Go to Kickstarter now >>>

Hello everyone! I'm so excited to share new songs with you.

On January 14 (Update: Jan show canceled!) and April 14 I'll be at Tuvalu Coffeehouse & Gallery in Verona, WI, playing free shows at 7pm. The April show will also be my birthday party.

March 20 I'll return to perform as a guest of the Homolatte series in Chicago. 

Details on all these shows may be found in the Calendar section.

I'm planning a new recording...and YOU will have the chance to collaborate! Stay tuned to learn about how; sign up for my mailing list in the sidebar on this page to make sure you get the fans-only announcement later this year.

Meanwhile, check out one of my new songs, "Carry," at Soundcloud.

Carry by keithy77

Thanks for listening!

I'll be appearing as Rooster in the Stoughton Village Players production of Annie, Oct 13 - 23. Visit stoughtonvillageplayers.org ...

Songwriters do crazy stuff sometimes! If you haven't heard, there's an effort each year called February Album Writing Month (FAWM) that involves writing 28 songs in 28 days. It's a marathon of creativity, with networking and charitable aspects. Here in Madison, Paul Otteson released a CD this week that was written during FAWM.

In a concurrent project with FAWM called The Song Bomb, my friend and fellow Brave Records artist Tim Riordan and I used this snippet from Rumi as the prompt for our tandem songwriting today:

"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone's soul to heal..."

The song I ended up writing is called "Dream Vessel."

First, I collected some thoughts that I keep on scraps of paper for my songwriting projects:

Then with Rumi in mind, I mined my imagination and my daily Morning Pages for ideas to launch a song.

Using some of Rumi's words and taking from the alliteration in "lamp/lifeboat/ladder," I began playing a few guitar chords that had been waiting to join a song. I moved from pen and notebook to computer.

After practicing a few times, my friend Nick Venturella agreed to help me record it at his home studio.

After a few rough takes, we mixed it quickly and added a few silly vocal harmonies.

Listen to "Dream Vessel" here or at The Song Bomb along with Tim's song for today, "Help Someone." There are tons of other songs there; half by Tim and half by other artists. It's quite a listen!

Keith_Hampton_Dream_Vessel.mp3

consider yourself
kissed goodnight
imagine me there
holding you tight

i'm the lamp in your lighthouse
you can ride in my lifeboat
let me throw you a ladder
c'mon climb on board
this moonlit dream vessel
dream vessel, dream vessel
my dream vessel

you want a failsafe fortune
you want to bask in your bliss
but now consider yourself
if you believe they exist

let me rattle your reason
let me shatter your cage
let's rehearse a disaster
c'mon climb on board
this moonlit dream vessel
dream vessel, dream vessel
my dream vessel

let your bygones be bygones
be bygones be bygones be
bygones be

if you can shine in the shadows
you can burn with belief
if you can deal with duality
baby you can climb on board
this moonlit dream vessel
dream vessel, dream vessel
my dream vessel

consider yourself kissed goodnight

(c) 2011 Keith Hampton

What is/was your latest inspiration? Have you ever made art or invented something "just because?" How can we be lamps, lifeboats, and ladders for each other?

Your comments are welcome in the Guestbook.

Peace.

-keith

I am participating in a month-long songwriting project called The Song Bomb. You can read the details here.

For my song contribution, I am using the poetry of Rumi as inspiration.

YOU CAN HELP!

Write your own song, or do any other creative project inspired by Rumi or by the Song Bomb idea. Join me in February 2011 to add more art to the world.

I'll post my new song, and reflect on the rest of the 2011 Song Bomb results here.

"...what you would do if someone handed you $100 and gave you a couple days to unleash ripples of compassion and kindness?"

Check out my blog for an exciting project during October 2010!

Listen to a FREE stream of the entire Tyranena album, along with an interview, now through mid-September at http://www.rainbowworldradio.com/ . Mac users may find it helpful to install Flip4Mac before attempting to stream the Windows-based content.

Enjoy!

Here's a note I got today, linking to a chart with CHANCE & CHANGE as #18 on the top 40 OUTVOICE albums in March 2010. Yay! TYRANENA coming your way...

---

Congratulations on making the OutVoice March 2010 Top 40 CD's Chart. Your fans are
showing you their support and some love with their votes. This is the first chart
underthe new vote counting method. Congratulations again! The chart is online at
www.outvoice.net.

All the best,
Len Rogers
www.stonewallsociety.com

Pride In The Arts avidly supports GLBT artists as headliners for GLBT events. Not
discrimination just common sense.

 

I'm happy to announce that my third solo album, Tyranena, is now available! You can...

• Buy the CD (limited quantity available - get it before it goes "digital only!")
• Download MP3s (individual tracks or the whole shebang. No DRM!)
• Download from iTunes

Lyrics are available here. If you have a digital version of the songs and would like a PDF of the lyric booklet or cover art for your digital organizer, email me and I'll send it your way.

The release party will be Saturday, April 10 at Water House Foods in Lake Mills, WI. I look forward to sharing these songs with you.

Hi all... A few cool things happening in January: 1) I'm performing with Nick Venturella at The Brink Lounge in Madison, WI on Wednesday, January 6th. See the Calendar for details. 2) I will be helping with a creativity seminar in Lake Mills, WI, called The Artist's Way beginning January 19th. Join us! 3) My new album, Tyranena, is almost ready! You can pre-order the digital download or CD version here. Happy new year to everyone!

Basic recording is done... just a few final edits and soon the new music will be here. Meanwhile, we're redecorating here at keith-hampton.com, with a new look for the site and soon, new photos, bio, and more. Stay in touch!

artwork by my dad, James Hampton. Songs up for inclusion (subject to change!) "tyranena" "worry train" "joy maker" "bless my heart" "evidence" "second chances" "you remind me" "hover" "ghost in a car" "decade (here's to us)" "the known unknown"

Click here to watch years 1 & 2 online at youtube.com/musecast5. Five friends will document one year in their struggle to make careers in the fickle and elusive entertainment industry. We were inspired by "one year" projects like Brotherhood 2.0 and Ze Frank. Please join us on our journey, we don't know what will happen either. In addition to being a documentary of sorts, we'll also be sharing what we've learned about the industry so that young aspiring filmmakers, musicians, writers and actors might benefit. This isn't a reality show. No one hired us to do this. You won't see dramatic confrontations directed and edited in order to sell more Mountain Dew. Just five regular people with five separate but related passions. Travis Richey Keith Hampton Eric Steffens Phil Brown Mary Van Luven ~Welcome to The Musecast.

As requested by an audience member at the Mozaic room, here is the poem I read on stage during my set. It was the first time I've ever included my own poetry in my show, and thanks to all who gave positive feedback. I like it too...! NON-SENSE lover, how do you see me? as a dangerous endeavor, sometimes sweetly motivated but often up to devilry? do you fear that i aim to steal your soul's ability? see me as i am: a man-shaped mirror designed to collect the finest of your light and broadcast it back to the universe as it shimmers through our friendship faces lover, how do you taste me? do i betray the coffee and sweet things in which i delight? how does my own scent, which i make both with & without effort, ring across your tongue when you sample my best places as i sigh into you? sense me as i am: made of the same essence as you, like every dear one, every stranger. find in me the comforts of familiarity and the intrigue of my own mysteries. let joy sweeten all our miseries. lover, what do you hear in me? i have simply said my "peace." i have given love and only asked for an occasional kiss. but you seem to hear some trepidatious terms in a contract i have not proposed. hear only my song. won't you rise and sing along? be a kind of harmony, cast away the fear of always and spend now with me. i have many ways to soothe and charm you. hear me truly as i am: be near to me when you wish, or when you can. i have no means to harm you, no schemes. say not, lover, how you experience me. rather, continue from within you. let me the blessed witness be. (c)2006 Keith Hampton. All rights reserved.