Well, good afternoon, loyal readers!  (Have I mentioned how grateful I am to have both of you?)
 
I know I haven’t been on here in some time, and the last time I was, I didn’t talk about music at all.  In fact, I haven’t talked about music for *quite* a while.  And there’s a reason for that.  Simply put, talking about my music, of late, is boring.  And if I don’t even feel like writing it, why would I expect anyone to read it?
 
I’ve come to realize a few things over the past several months to a year.
 
I know I set up this website as a musician.  This blog is supposed to be here to promote that–to talk about tour dates, and other indie artists like myself, and to chit chat with them and encourage you to go see live music, wherever you live, and support all of those who are just trying to make their way doing what they love–at least, that was my vision for this website when I put it up in 2011.
 
Well…it’s not anymore.  Am I still writing songs?  Yes.  Always!  At varying rates.  🙂  Am I still planning my next release?  Sort of….but not in the foreseeable future.  Those things all take resources that I don’t have at the moment, the #1 being motivation in that direction.  So, there’s a pin in it.  For now.  This is something that surfaces in my life and recedes.  There, I said it.  Don’t everybody offer me a record deal at once.
 
The fact is, more than a musician, I am a creative person.  Like many other creative people, I have more than one outlet for that.  I once had a close friend who desired nothing with a more fervent passion than to write a novel, when he suddenly found himself singing in a band, regularly.  And loving it.  Another friend of mine plays semiweekly gigs around town with just his guitar, his harmonica and a notebook full of classics (as well as an inclusive smile and a bit of charm, of course).  He is also an inspired and accomplished painter and a graphic designer and marketing expert.  Is this a lack of focus?  I don’t think so.  I think it’s representative of a desire to connect with the outside world in all of the ways that call out to us–whatever they may be.
 
And I believe that to ignore any form of expression which we as artists find calling us, is a disservice certainly to ourselves, but also the world.  (Yes!  The WORLD!  Stay with me, here…) When we hold back from dreaming our dreams and passioning our passions, worried about what other people will “think,” we encourage other artists to do the same–and everything around us gets a little greyer.  If you, too, are guilty of this–STOP IT!  It will be better for us all.
 
So, I’ve had to make a decision.  Do I want to take the website down?  It’s kind of expensive to keep it up.  If I didn’t have a regular job, I probably couldn’t pay for it.  I haven’t spoken on it since last November…and even then it was about shopping, and what does that have to do with anything?
 
But I’ve come to realize that I’m not out of things to say.  While the playing and singing have fallen to the background for now, I think it has more to do with the things I want to express than a lack of love for the medium.  When that is once again the best way to say what I have to say, I’ll be picking my guitar back up.  So, rather than take down a website whose address is printed in the jackets of a thousand compact discs, and thousands more business cards, I am going to expand its focus.  You can expect to see some changes over the next month or two–and welcome to the new danajoforseth.com.