Newsletter
January, 2012

I am, again, here in Niedlov's Breadworks.  The temperature is 49F at the airport, and it's cloudy.  It's supposed to rain tonight and some tomorrow, but this is much better than it has been since it's been raining, but much colder.  Glad for this unseasonable warming trend.  But this newsletter isn't about weather, primarily, though you might think differently at times.  So here's what we've been doing since the last newsletter, and what's coming up.

Newsletters:
Cute Dog Music Newsletters are posted here on roughly the 20th of each month.  When I post them, I also send out an email saying that the new newsletter has been posted on the website, and giving the URL for this page in the email so you can go right to this page to read the newsletter online.  So each month, you'll get an email, if you're signed up for it.

If you're just now finding us, you can see what we've been up to musically in the past, and what we'll be doing in the near future through the newsletter and the archives.

The only other things I use this email list for is to notify folks in a certain area when I will be performing or giving a workshop in their area, and to announce such things as CD releases, discounts on CDs, etc.  So, if you sign up below, please include your city and state for me so I can let you know if I will be in your area.  I will not be inundating your email Inbox with emails.  And, being a hater of spam, I will never give or sell your email address to anyone for any reason.

If you wish to sign up for the Cute Dog Music Newsletter notification email, please
 

send the email, and I will add you to the list to receive the email.

Workshops:
I had one workshop scheduled during the last month.

• January 14, 2012 - I taught my New Beginners' Hammered Dulcimer Workshop to two (2) students.  They went away with new helpful knowledge and lots on which to work.  I don't know about the students, but I did not come away from the workshop feeling brain-dead like I usually do, which was nice.

I have no public workshops scheduled for the foreseeable future.

To see if there is a workshop I teach that you would like to take, visit my Workshops page.  Please contact me for more information or to request a workshop in the Chattanooga area.

If anyone is interested in a subject for a Chattanooga workshop you don't see listed on my Workshops page, please , and I'll see about teaching one on your subject of interest.

Also, if you are interested in me teaching one or more workshops in your area or for your festival, I am available for that.  Please ,  and I will be happy to discuss with you arrangements for that.

Public Performances:
Performances this last month were:

• December 21 - I provided music from 4-5PM at the Main Street Farmers' Market at the corner of West Main and Williams Streets in Chattanooga.  This was my last time playing for the Main Street Farmers' Market here in Chattanooga.  It's just simply time to perform somewhere else.  As I book performances, I will post them on my Schedule Page, and list them here when the newsletter comes out.
   
  It was quite strange knowing this was the last time playing here.  I have played here for at least 4 years in a row.  It was hard playing.  My emotions were jumbled, but such are these changes.
   

I have no upcoming performances at this time.
 

If you haven't seen this before, I have changed the name of my Facebook Music Page from "Rick Davis" to "Cute Dog Music", and I have added a CDBaby MusicStore page to it called "Cute Dog Music > MusicStore".  This MusicStore page makes listening to tracks from all three (3) CDs, and buying physical CDs and downloads much easier than if you go to CDBaby's site.  Please check it out.

Documentary:
I am researching my options concerning the documentary and the permissions I need to do the full version of the documentary.

Winter...and living in our proper environment
Winter!  Yes, even as weird and unseasonably warm as the weather is, it is Winter!  In our modern industrial / information society, things are much different from how they once were when many, many folks were tied into the cycles of nature.  These days we don't get the rest we used to when we operated by the cycles of nature.  Used to be, Winter was a time of rest and planning.  The long workdays of Summer, the Harvest, etc., were over for a while, and people took the time to restore themselves and rest.

For various reasons, we have gone back to that idea here in our household.  Brandy's work is mainly outdoor work, and it's been raining a lot.  Also, in an effort to recover from my hand condition, I have been resting a lot to reserve my energy for healing, along with some treatments for the hand and other issues.  I find it is very freeing, and has been good for me to take this time of rest.  I have done some very minimal work, but mostly I am resting, listening to music, and doing a bit of reading.  We were created to exist in Nature, and to live within its cycles.  It seems to me we hurt ourselves when we get further and further away from that.  I am attempting to not hurt myself anymore than possible.

Another thing about us - we were also created to live with respect to God.  God says that His thoughts are not our thoughts, and His ways are not our ways.  He further says that as far as the heavens are above the Earth, so are His thoughts higher than our thoughts.  Since the last newsletter, I have found that some of my thoughts about a certain situation from early in my life were wrong.  But so were the thoughts of the other person involved.  And we were both wrong for the same reason.  Neither of us took God into consideration when coming to our differing conclusions - at least not completely.  God has helped me to see how I was right and how I was wrong so that I might repent.  He has also shown me how the other person was right and how he was wrong so I could forgive that person and stop fighting a fight that has gone on inside me, affecting my musical development and "career", for decades.  I am most thankful to have been shown my error, and how to give up that fight.  I'm one step further along.

Before the next newsletter, St. Valentine's Day will have come and gone.  Happy Valentine's Day!

So, until next month...

Past Cute Dog Music Newsletters