Dear Musical Friends,
I hope that even with all the challenges 2022 and the ongoing pandemic are throwing at us, that you are safe and finding ways to spread joy and help for our fellow human beings. I haven’t sent out an email in a while, as it has been a busy and challenging time since my last newsletter:
One the personal side, my father passed away in late March 2022 after a life well lived and a dogged determination to keep going despite his failing health. It is a sad time, but I’m also comforted by the fact that he isn’t suffering anymore and he’s now with my mother, who past 12.5 years ago.
While the past few months have been challenging, I have a number of musical successes that I’ve been able to achieve:
First Recording “Breaking Through” Released!
As I’ve been writing songs since the start of the pandemic, I’ve started to also branch out into learning audio recording, and released my first recording, Breaking Through, in late January 2022. It’s a 6 song EP (extended play, as opposed to LP: Long Play) and is available to listen and download at https://kenmattsson.bandcamp.com. It’s a combination of a capella and song with accompaniment. It is available to download at a “choose your price” point. $0 is a fine price, as I would just like to have more people hear my music.
As a first release, I’m quite happy with it, but I also know that I’ve learned more since then and I’ll be doing more work as I will be working on a full-length album to come out, hopefully in the fall.
Songwriting Continues
For the 3rd year in a row, I took part in February Album Writing Month (FAWM), and joined over 2400 other songwriters from around the world to take part in the challenge of writing 14 songs in 28 days. I was lucky enough to write 18 songs, and also do collaborations with a number of other great lyricists and musicians. If you’d like to hear some of the pieces that I wrote (a few other them are rough recordings), here are some of my favorites:
- The Witness (a cautionary tale in ballad form)
- Everything (a Broadway type showstopper with Wayne Fishnell)
- They Would Sing Together (multi-voice a capella collaboration with singers on 3 continents)
- Messages of Fate (a song about endings and beginnings)
- Just One More (a love song to wanting more ukuleles)
Live Performances!
With the nicer weather, I’m starting to plan on performing in in-person venues more often this summer. I’m in the process of setting up some house concerts (one in my own home and two possibly at other friends’ houses), as well as performing at some of the Porchfest events here in Eastern Massachusetts. Details will come out in future issues.
My next performance with be with Lynn Noel as Power Harmonies for the Virtual New England Folk Festival, where we will be “raising the rafters” singing on Saturday, April 23rd at 4:30 p.m. EDT on Zoom. Please come join us from wherever you are!
Ken Mattsson Music becomes BeaconBeats Music
As I’ve started to do more musically (producing concerts, writing songs, performing solo, etc.) I wanted to have brand identity that wasn’t just my name. Through a lot of thought, I’ve come up with BeaconBeats, which combines the concepts of sending out light and also vibrations, which is what I think of with my music. You can expect to see more of that (and the new logo!) in future mailings and publications.
Keep in Touch
There are many ways that you can find out more (and help spread the word of my musical work).
- Share this newsletter and tell others to sign up to my mailing list to get it themselves!
- Follow me on my blog, Bandcamp, Twitter, Instagram, and keep track of my performance calendar.
- You can support my work by giving a donation to my Tip Jar.
Thank you always for your support. Let’s all hope for healthy, sunny, and warmer times ahead and we can actually be together with other this summer.
Musically,
Ken Mattsson
www.kenmattsson.com/music
ken@kenmattsson.com