Ever since YouTube became an indispensable tool for sharing your music, I’ve sorta tinkered around with little music video concepts. The truth is: A well-done music video…the kind that gets people talking…costs a boatload of money and requires a boatload of time!

I’ve had a number of songs in mind that seem like they deserved a chance (someday) at a legitimate music video treatment…especially some of my solo piano pieces and my original songs for kids. Some elicited very strong reactions…kept people talking…caused folks to take time out of their day to write me an email telling me how much they’d been touched, etc.

I tried to take some of these and put pretty pictures with them, at least. While they weren’t anything to write home about, it was something…as opposed to the nothing I was doing instead. And about 18 months ago, I hired some very talented artists and put together a faux animated video for one of my kids songs. It was cute, but still wasn’t the kind of thing that really impressed people.

This year, finally…things have started falling into place. I’ve found some affordable resources, and have finally hired some folks who can give some of my material (songs and the only story I’ve ever written) a legitimate treament.

Yellowberry Jam is my most popular kids song to-date. So it was fitting that it got the first real shot. And I think the animator, Dave Barnis, did a great job of capturing the spirit of the lyrics and music.

I really need help spreading the word about this. I won’t consider this effort a success until I reach 100K video views on YouTube. So anything you can do to tell a friend with children about it…email someone, post it on Facebook, send a Tweet…anything at all…would be MUCH appreciated.

There are a couple other cool things in the pipeline. I should have another one to share with you in the next 10 days or so. And there is a group of puppeteers who have fallen in love with another of my songs for children and are having a special puppet made just for that song. Hopefully the final output of that product is just weeks away as well.

I’ll be back someday to talk about how an industry outsider like me…just a regular guy workin’ 80+ hours a week…can get cool things like these done while continuing to just work and carry on my life every day. It’s a new way of working…but something that I believe others can benefit from. And I feel that it can be especially critical to Americans in the middle of the current economic crisis, with jobs being moved overseas, etc. We need a new way of doing business…and I’m learning some lessons that I hope to share soon. However, in order to have any credibility, I have to be able to point to some success. And this music video is my first big test.

So please do anything you can to help me make this video a success by spreading the word. I have MANY more things along these lines that I’d like to tackle. But unless people are seeing them and talking about them, it’s pretty hard to justify the investment of time and money involved to create them. So, please…if you like the video…SHARE IT!!

En-Joy!!

I heard from folks in Italy this morning, who have put together a short presentation on autism. It’s in Italian, so if you don’t fully grasp the meaning, consider yourself forgiven.

The even more interesting part of all this is that the song they chose, “I Am Me”, was written by Italian children’s book author…the late Leo Lionni. The book was called Pezzetino, the story of a little jigsaw puzzle piece trying to find its place in the world. Isn’t it fascinating that the song would find it’s way back around the world to Italy, and to become part of a video about autism…a topic in many ways akin to the theme of the book?

A couple mentions of my music popping up here and there.

Judy Lombino has recorded one of my songs, “You Never Know”. It’s a musical prayer written about 10 years ago, and has previously been recorded by Angelina West and by The Grace Project. 

Judy is a cantor at Guardian Angel Cathedral in Las Vegas. When visiting her site, click on Launch Jukebox, and my song is the second selection there.

“One Love”, an award-winning documentary by Whitney Jackson (Sandpile Productions), features on of my solo piano pieces (“Sweetness & Light”) as part of the soundtrack.

The film documents a mission trip to Jamaica by a group of Purdue students, and takes a look beyond the public face of the country…finding grinding poverty, and children abandoned by parents who couldn’t afford to raise them. They know that the state will care for their children at no cost to them…but the students find that “caring for” is no replacement for parental love. My song begins just before the 25:00 mark in the video.