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  First time visitors
Welcome to the web site! For inquires regarding live music for your venue or event, there are live videos, photos and an online promo kit. Please email or call with any questions or feedback.
Performance Videos Click the picture below or the videos button to your left to see footage in venues such as the Hard Rock Cafe, Jackson's, Hops, the Rock Bottom Brewery, country clubs and private and corporate events.
ERICLANE.COM NEWS:
- "There and back again" Go here to read more.
Please visit The Idea Village and this page to learn what they're doing to revitalize New Orleans. Visit this page for even more news and explore the site to learn what you can do to help.
NOV 23
Squeaking in an update before the holiday. Have a warm/safe turkey day everyone!
Gig news... As I make up for not booking the fall this past summer, new work continues to trickle in. Surprisingly, there are a number rooms adding live music so the schedule will be picking up this winter.
Music news... I reworked Lada Gaga, and it's been a hit. The voice has been rocking as I continue to refine the vocal "upgrade" I experienced in May. Firmware updates are coming for both the Belgian-made footswitch I use and the infamous guitar computer...all free of course. Small nimble companies are the way to go nowadays.
Other news... My last entry talked about retiring the gig-wagon into a family jeep and getting a new car. I had money saved for that new car, but due to exciting life-events (to be announced!!) that money has been stashed away.
That meant car payments/more overhead--arrgh--which meant taking on work beyond music. So I joined starpro.com to do some part-time roadie and sound-tech work to fit in around the gig schedule. It's working out very well so far.
The Big Project... With critical income issues addressed, and transitions from old-car to new-car and from storm work to winter music work complete, I can finally start shifting focus back to The Big Project. More news coming on that in the spring of 2011.
OCT 5
Greetings: A bunch of front-burner events gobbled up September. Updating this news page was the last on the list and I'm finally catching up.
Gig news... I performed in three new rooms and managed to be a smashing success in each with return dates. All the other gigs went great. There will be fewer gigs this fall because I was working out of town when booking needed to happen. But more gigs are trickeling in, and I have yet to rebook a couple rooms.
Other news... After 230,000 miles my the transmission in my trusty Subaru gig-wagon finally needed work. $1,500 later, "The Beefaru" is road-worthy again. But after 14 years, there's no way to slow down the rust creeping up once again from underneath so the time has come to retire the Beefaru retire from nationwide driving/gigging to "family jeep" status and get a new car.
As the old wagon was being fixed, Subaru of America contacted me asking permission to use a video of the Beefaru, soon to be on their website. At the same time, NASA snatched a video I made at the Xprize and used it on their website 20minutes into this video...YouTube is a trip!
AUG 16
Sorry for the lack of updates. I'm not set up to do website updates from the road and I've been gone for a while. Here's a quick run-down:
Disaster struck again June 22nd, and I drove from Denver to Indianapolis, IN to Mankato, MN to New Ulm, MN working hail/wind storms and finished work just as the Automotive Xprize fired up at Michigan International Speedway. I drove to Michigan and stayed there 'till July 28th, returned home, started gigging immediately and booking more work, family arrived from AZ for a long visit, and I'm just now catching up.
My experience at the Automotive Xprize was outstanding. The Xprize is ending in the next few weeks. It's a $10 million dollar competition for production viable 100 mile per gallon vehicles.
Haven't hear about it? That's because mainstream media completely dropped the ball and so did the PR agency for the Xprize. It wasn't open to the public, but Oliver Kuttner, a primary investor, ex race car driver, real estate developer, and the leader of the Edison2 team fully embedded me into his group as an "observing" team member. Thanks to him, I was able to experience the first historic validation of technology that will become the future of consumer automotive transportation. My in-the-trenches experience allowed me to experience the event in a way no media have been able to provide.
As a thank you to Edison2 (Oliver put me up and fed me as a team member), and the Xprize staff (who were gracious enough to offer me spare lunches), I've put up a blog of my road trip to the Xprize which also includes links to flickr photos and youtube videos all shot with miserably low-tech $100 Canon point-and-shoot cameras.
The blog is just hitting its stride, and more text/video/photo updates are on the way, so bookmark those links and visit often.
Gig news... The harrassing of bars has begun, and the fall is beginning to fill in with dates. My late arrival from the road means fall will have fewer performances than usual, but there will be plenty of chances to catch a show at a venue near you.
Music news... A new song is coming this week, an acoustic version of "Paparazzi" by Lady Gaga.
There's more to write about, but I've rambled long enough. Look for another update in early September.
JUNE 9
Disaster strikes... At the end of May, Brighton and Commerce city were hammered by hail, and wind pounded other areas of the city. Fortunately I'd just met several music goals and finished preparing for storm-work, so it was good timing aside from scrambling for gig replacements -- thanks Jim!. After a quick 10 day work run, I'm back on the music.
Gig News... As claims slowed down, I snuck away and had a great gig performing for the Mile High Meet and Greet Wakeboarding event at Horsetooth Reservoir west of Fort Collins. Advice -- if you're going to camp & party with young wakeboarders, don't bother pitching your tent...you won't be sleeping.
I'm back at Red Rocks Country Club this week. They've had so many personnel changes the last few years, I didn't bother to call. But Poolside at the Cabana was definitely worth going for this year.
A few new rooms are on the drawing board, and I've had a great string of succesful gigs in other new rooms the past couple months.
Music News... I'm trying something new with the request list called "song-poll". I put a song onto the list and if enough people request it at gigs, I learn it. If not, it goes bye bye. This month's song-poll is "paparazzi" by Lady Gaga. So far there's been one real request, and one as a practical joke. Nobody going ga-ga for Gaga yet.
MAY 7
April got away from me, but at least I've shown up for a May update with plenty of news to cover.
Gig News... After an extended spree of sales calls and sales meetings, the summer has filled in nicely with gigs. On top of regular gigs, I performed and was rebooked in four new rooms that really liked what I do. In the words of the GM at Cherry Creek Country Club, I "hit it out of the park" at a recent performance there, so all is well in the gig realm.
Music News... After some practice, I got the compositional looping project up and running but I had to set it aside to make more sales and do another gear upgrade.
After nearly 14 years, the electronics in the acoustic guitar are finally upgraded. The acoustic is now running a dual sound system inside of it that incororates a rare hand made microphone the creator of which passed away. It's hard to find but it is considered the best internal acoustic microphone, and as luck would have it, I stumbled across one at just the right time/price.
Thanks to the new system and microphone, not only does the acoustic sound better, but it has become an excellent percussion instrument as well which is working fabulously for playing drum and percussion parts in live looping which I'm beginning to incorporate into the show. Three brand new songs feature this: Jason Mraz "I'm Yours", Weezer "Say it ain't so", and Oasis "Wonderwall".
During all of this I've somehow managed to accidentally upgrade my singing. In the last ten days I've established a new vocal placement that runs my entire range. Everything is easier, sounds better, and the voice is much happier at the end of long gigs.
Other News... As you can see it's been a busy two months. On top of all the music and sales activity, preparation for disaster work swung into full gear. I gained another certification at the beginning of April and spread the word to employers about my storm scores from the hail storm here last summer with a new carrier I certified with.
On the gig/storm wagon, aging parts have been replaced, maintenance done, and old issues fixed. The car is ready for a busy storm/gig season, and I've been steadily chipping away at the storm to-do list.
All this activity has forced The Big Project onto the back burner. But if storm season is weak this year, I'll be working The Big Project back into the routine very soon because it is an incredible endeavor worth completing.
As if this pile of news weren't enough, a major "life event" took place in mid April -- but more on that later :-)
MAR 8
A very busy Feb has slipped by. Lots of news to cover:
Gig News... Several rooms have booked, more have rebooked, and a few are in the works. Patio season is starting to book as well so keep checking your weekly email for updates.
Music news... I finally upgraded my recording software for producing music, which means the capability is finally here to re-master the backing tracks and have them in stereo (thanks to upgrades done in Jan).
The high-tech footswitch underwent a hardware card-swap upgrade, and the recording computer was reconfigured and is rocking at nearly 3 terebytes of disc space. On top of those upgrades, I'm planning on adding complex live performance looping on a compositional scale (not the boring loop-one-pattern approach everyone is doing) and I'm configuring that now. It'll add interest to the show and provide a much-needed creative outlet at gigs.
Added a new song by Jason Mraz, another by Flogging Molly, and a couple more acoustic songs are in the works.
The Big Project... Thanks to the help of close friends, I'm approaching a hard-earned milestone on the superstructure of The Big Project. When complete, it will guide and drive the next phase of the project. I'm hoping to save up enough to get the software I need to start a project blog -- gotta sell more gigs!
FEB 3
Hey, it's 2010. This website is so 2001 (the year I built it...LOL) Welcome to a new year for ericlane.com.
Click here to visit the 2009 review.
Gig News... Took a little time recently to rebalance my life after putting everything into The Big Project. I started booking gigs again, and to help venues spot the difference between a "pro" and a "joe", I've hit a few open stages and have booked good work at those venues. A couple new rooms are on the map as well, and three other rooms have rebooked.
The Big Project... The most recent focus on TBP has been creating a conceptual superstructure for the project. More to come on that if I ever get around to starting a blog on it.
Music news... A complete conversion of the show to digital happened over late Dec and January -- another high tech black box, another (backup) laptop, and lots of fiddling, and I now have a rig that can go anywhere in the world. It fits in an airline overhead bin no problemo, and can interface with any PA system, anywhere in the world, at any output/signal configuration needed. A career-long fantasty comes true -- exciting stuff!
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