artist Anita Eccleston

“Music is, or was, the language of the emotions.” – Charles Mingus

Well put words to simply embrace the heart of the matter which makes me happy to be alive every day. Amy Winehouse also felt that to connect with her listeners she had to write and put out honest, emotional music. I couldn’t agree more. To really connect we have to be willing to show our underbellies and to accept that the flaws within us are the same frail, human flaws that are in everyone we meet. Music is that common ground where we can all feel vulnerable and accept ourselves, or be upset with ourselves until we have felt that expression release us from the negative emotions and steer us eventually toward the positive ones. How come a sad song makes a sad person feel better? Why doesn’t it always work? Or does it work and we cannot see it until we are far enough away to gain the perspective? Mingus’ “or was” gives us a sense that even his faith in what music should be was being tested. In our current day and age with the plethora of genre bending and blending, the emergence of electronic music and it’s bearing on the emotionality of music, it becomes easy to see where he was coming from. There seems to be an emotional disconnect in some of this very electronically oriented music until we can find the heart within it. Yet as our wise friend Dan Mangan points out most poignantly, “Robots need love too, they want to be loved by you…”

I am discussing this because I have always been curious as to where music has been, where it is now and where it is going. If the people making it can find a way to continue sustaining themselves and continue making music then all is well and safe. There is the issue of downloading and the sense of entitlement that the current generation has regarding ownership of music and believing that it is free if you can find it online somewhere. It comes down to the fact that the industry is in need of a revolution and is generally broken, due to music theft, and too many middle men mass producing over commercialized albums. The conundrum for your honest independent, unsigned, self producing artist is how to sustain themselves while developing their craft. There really are not enough hours in the day for one person to thoroughly and effectively cover all the areas of ground that need to be addressed when working towards a goal of simply sharing your honest, emotional music. Looking at the other side of the coin though, we can draw upon the many frustrations that we encounter to find the inspiration to write even more passionate music, ever looking on the bright side am I.





Hi Everybody! So I've had this website going for about a year and a half and have never really gotten into the whole blogging thing. But I do love to connect with people and have used facebook and other social networking platforms to do that up until now. I have realized that this website is simply my best forum to use as a platform and a landing pad for people wishing to connect with me and my music. So no more late updates in 3rd person as to what I have been up to. My bio can read like that but I want this to be a place where you can get to know me as a real person and not just a promotion machine. I want to be able to share a little bit of my personality with you all, and to learn about yours! So often we musicians can't seem to find the time to edit and arrange a website while in the midst of trying to practice, play gigs, book gigs, write music, all while holding down a day job to actually get our bills paid, but it is an absolute necessity for us to do it anyway. Someday soon, I'll even figure out how I can revamp the site and make it even better and more interactive with a mailing list, merchandise store, free downloads, and much more. So here is the scoop: On the business front, I'm in the midst of planning my Kamloops Jazz EP CD Release Party: Jazz On Fire on Saturday, March 24rd, 2012, which will be featuring my brand spankin' new sister-in-law Amanda Buder-Eccleston Poi Fire Spinning and Fire Fan Dancing. It's just 3 weeks away! I am stoked to have the quartet on this one! We had a party much like this here in Vancouver on November 30th, 2011 at the Kozmik Zoo/Hennessey Dining Lounge. Mariah Mennie was our fire performer that night and she was bold enough to spin right on West Broadway to our delight and to the passing drivers distraction (hehehe). Youtube link of JAZZFIRE: http://youtu.be/4GYmsOwTBao Upcoming shows in Vancouver are being planned for April 12th at the Kozmik Zoo (53 W Broadway) with the full quartet and a solo guitar set at Kranky Cafe at the end of April (date TBA). More dates/shows to be announced very soon. On the personal(ity) front, I am really stoked to watch the Canucks play tonight. Nothing like Saturday Hockey Night In Canada on CBC. It comes in High Def and that puck/ice clarity is pretty amazing. I have always been a fan of hockey, but since around the time of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics I started really loving the game. Since moving to Vancouver I have started watching as many games as I can, getting to know the players, their styles, learning and understanding the game and its strategies more completely and discovering why the Canucks are so very good. I found it distressing and incredibly embarrassing seeing the riots of unsportsmanlike fans sacrifice their dignity to a mob mentality after the Stanley Cup loss last year. Most Canucks fans were just as mortified by the childish temper tantrums on display, misrepresenting them, and the fair city of Vancouver. All that aside, I find that although the Canucks have broken my heart many years in a row, I can always forgive them, and come back for more. So tonight we get to see our former Canuck Hodgson play against the team he just left, and most of us are wondering how it's gonna be. Speculations are still flying about if he had asked to be traded or if he was blindsided. No matter what it should prove to be an interesting night down at Rogers Arena. I am looking forward to some delicious Hop Head Beer to go with pasta with home made sauce while savoring the Awesome Hockeyness of it all. Ciao and talk to you really soon!