The Club Allure show in Sandy, Utah this last weekend was dubbed my “angriest show to date. ” After touring on-and-off since last October, I believe that the wear and tear of the road is finally beginning to show. Strangely enough, most people said it was one of my best and most intense shows they’d ever seen me put on.
Touring this much has been extremely gratifying. It’s always been a dream of mine. But it has taken it’s toll on my personal life - I’ve lost friendships that I failed to properly care for on the road, sacrificed chances at a normal relationship with a woman, and have felt betrayed by a number of people I considered family. I guess when you’re “out of site” you are technically “out of mind” for some people. Of course, my true friends try to make me feel better by saying thinks like, “they weren’t you’re real friends anyway.” Of course, this is probably true, but it doesn’t make the sting of loss and betrayal any easier to deal with. So this week I’ve been mourning the loss of some very important relationships and have been licking my wounds.
Fortunately, I’m always able to take my pain and situations that affect me into my songwriting. In spite of just releasing an album, I already have two new songs completed that have been inspired by these feelings of love and loss that I have been experiencing lately. I feel blessed to be able to have some clarity in these difficult moments with which I can write beautiful music. I actually performed one of these new songs, “Am I So Disposable?” at the Club Allure show to very rave reviews.
A big thanks to Keith Hubbard for stepping in on short notice with the bass guitar and also “The Rob” (who played drums on many of the tracks on the new CD) for filling in on the drums. Thanks also to Chris Doucet for his magnificent guitar work, even with one injured hand. Also thanks to Scoop Einer for promoting the show, Ken Gray for his management and support, and the myriad of fans who showed up to rock with me.
Note: All of the tracks from “We Are The Walking Wounded” are now available on iTunes. If you haven’t heard the album, do a search for me on iTunes and see what you think. It’s quite an achievement and the people who have picked up the album already say that they are in love with it.
I read an article about a baby that was born (yesterday) on 08.08.08 at 8:08 AM who weight 8.8 LBS (this is true). What’s crazy is we also gave birth to our own 8 pound baby late last night as we rocked Liquid Joe’s and delivered the new CD “We are The Walking Wounded” to a packed house!! It was a huge celebration and if you missed the show, you missed history in the making. I have been getting texts and messages all morning from friends and fans who picked up the CD at the show about ‘what an epic achievement it is’ - I may be biased, but I do think it’s my best work so far.
The show began last night with some new twists. I busted out my grand piano (a huge pain to set up), and instead of the drums in the back of the stage on the riser, we decided to put the piano up top. I also added a smoke machine and at the beginning of my set, during Cigarette Girl, it appeared as if my piano was on-fire as smoke began pouring out of it.
The highlights of the night included an improv song about my tender relationship with a donkey, a funny birthday song, a quick performance of the hidden track on the new CD, Chuck Thompson (the cellist who plays on several tracks on the CD) came up and played a couple songs with me on his cello, and really just having the opportunity to play for several hundred people at a packed Liquid Joe’s.
Big thanks to Brad Verrier (Bass), Chris Doucet (Guitars), Chris Hancock (Drums), Chuck Thompson (Cello), Ken Gray (My awesome business manager), Scoop (Promoter), Joel Pack (My Producer), Brittney (Our sexy merch girl), the Liquid Joe’s staff, The Better Life Band (for kicking off the show at short notice), and the many more people that supported this show and came out to rock with me.
Don’t forget, you only have until midnight tomorrow to order the new CD at the discounted $8.99 rate until it goes up to $12.99 Monday morning. Big thanks to the many people who have already ordered it. You should be receiving your signed copies later this week: http://www.kevinburdick.com/buy.html
Performance of the track, “Goodnight Darling, Goodnight” off the new album:
With this Northern California leg of our tour being complete, I took my attention from touring to relaxing. Jaime, a close friend of mine, flew in from Salt Lake City and Ken, Jaime and I hit the fields of grapes in Napa Valley in search of the perfect wine. It is beautiful countryside filled with incredible foods, beautiful scenery, and wonderful people. More importantly, it was a perfect and relaxing break from weeks of hard work, especially with the big CD release party in Salt Lake City just around the corner.
Not coincidentally, my great-grandpa’s 100th birthday party was Saturday in Yuba City, CA - so we finished our Napa Valley tour just in time to pull in and spend Saturday with Burdick relatives from all over the country. Women should be forwarned that we Burdick men live an extremely long time, so if you’re dating me for my money (ha-ha), I’m gonna out-live you!! Check out this photo of me, my nephew, my father, my grandfather, and my great-grandfather - 5 generations of stubborn Burdick men. Gotta love it!! I performed “Like a Star” off of my 2002 album for all my relatives and then spent a few minutes signing autographs and getting photos taken with my younger cousins in front of the tour bus before we hit the road for Salt Lake City. It was a great day and I’m definitely proud to be a Burdick.
The 8 AM soundcheck at today’s Wharf to Wharf show would not have felt so early if I hadn’t stayed up until 4 AM last night celebrating my birthday with friends, but so goes the life of a rockstar.
Let’s start with last night. Ken and I had a couple friends come up from Los Angeles to hang with us - George, a great guy who just happens to be homosexual and Mexican (both of which I’m supportive of) and Vero who happens to be hot, straight, and attached to nearly all of Ken’s man parts. So it wasn’t surprising that my birthday night turned into a 1-on-1 celebration with George while Ken had his own 1-on-1 thing going on. George and I ended up at a few bars on Castro Street in San Francisco (which is apparently a predominantly gay area of the city) and before I knew it, I was the meat in a giant homosexual danceclub sandwich. Luckily I am very comfortable with who I am, and so I just rolled with it as I had 6 gay men dancing around me, grinding against me, and making me their sex object. Ladies I now know how you feel. Needless to say it was my own “Night at the Roxbury” moment. What I learned is that I am a sex object, not just to women, but also to some dudes apparently, and that is flattering. Let it be known that Kevin is cool with men and women and their individual sexual preferences. However, let it also ring forth across the land that Kevin Burdick is totally straight and is only attracted sexually to the ladies and the boobies.
So, after my birthday celebration we pulled into the area of the Wharf to Wharf Festival in Santa Cruz and slept at about 4:00 AM this morning. Big thanks to Ken Gray for driving while I attempted to sleep. We got up around 7:50 AM and quickly started setting up. To give you an idea, the Wharf to Wharf Festival centers around a 12ish mile race that wraps around Santa Cruz from the boardwalk across the city. There are a number of bands that entertain the runners and the townspeople throughout the city-wide festival. We got to introduce the music of Kevin Burdick to 15,000+ people today and it was a lot of fun.
The highlights were some of the improv songs we did, and also playing with Max and Dave here in San Fran, which is always a highlight in itself. One improv song in particular that makes me chuckle was “It’s not too late to win” which I sang to the people in the very back of the race about not giving up. I reminded them that, although they were in “14,235th place” it wasn’t too late for them to win it all - especially if we could figure out how to teleport them to the finish line using techniques I’d learned on Star Trek. Funny stuff - I really don’t know where it comes from, even at 8 AM.
Being on-tour isn’t always just shows and partying. There is plenty of downtime and this week, while waiting for my big “Wharf to Wharf Festival” show in Santa Cruz, we have had our share of it. I’ve written two more songs in the tour bus (with business manager Ken Gray even chipping in with some lyrics), we’ve tried a myriad of local California restaurants, we’ve been kicked out of two parking lots (it’s tough to find parking for this 31-foot monstrosity sometimes and FYI the Santa Cruz Safeway guys are total dicks), we’ve played a ridiculous amount of video games, spent countless hours at the 24-hour fitness, and have made some great strides with booking for September and October.
So yesterday, when decided to finally get out of the tour bus and wander the streets of Santa Cruz randomly (labelling it ‘Adventure Day’) we decided to film the momentous occasion and share it with all of you - see below. Consequently, we did find a ‘hole-in-the-wall’ restaurant in Santa Cruz called the Peach Garden which was some of the best Chinese food I’ve had in a long time.
PS A quick reminder, only 2 more weeks to order the new CD “We Are The Walking Wounded” at the discounted pre-sale rate: http://www.kevinburdick.com/buy.html
Pulling up to The Cantankerous Fish I expected to see a small bar mixed with a Long John Silvers and a Joe’s Crab Shack; instead what I got was a sexy high-end restaurant with some of the most delicious food I’d ever eaten. The bar/restaurant pulled out the all star treatment for us, letting us park the tour bus directly out in front, giving us free drinks, and expensive meals for pennies on the dollar. It was a lot of fun.
The crowd at the show was incredibly gracious and we sold a ton of merchandise. We watched people finish their meals and stay for an hour or so after just to hear more music - I was very appreciative. Non-customers stopped on the street and huddled in groups to hear more. Over the evening we probably played to 200 - 250 people. I have to admit that people in Northern California really appreciate their artists (and I really appreciate the people of Northern California). My experience with the shows up here have been some of the best performances to date.
Big thanks to Max on drums and Dave on bass (two of the coolest cats ever and I’m proud to be playing with them), Ken Gray my ever faithful tour and business manager, the staff at the Cantankerous Fish, Jennifer for having booked the show, and Dusty the inflatable punching clown for haunting my dreams as I sleep (you start to get a little cabin fever living in a tour bus for a month).
We are pleased to announce that Kevin Burdick has been chosen to represent GlobalComrades.com as their featured artist to the world. This is as much a testament to his global appeal as a recording artist as it is an endorsement of his deep desire to make a difference.
Global Comrades has been years in development and was created to allow people from around the globe to get to know each other in an environment of friendship and tolerance - an environment free of government influence and persuasion. By providing globally conscious individuals the opportunity to interact directly, they hope to bring down barriers created by borders and opposing beliefs - to unite a collective voice for the greater good of humankind.
Dan Felsing, the spokesperson of GlobalComrades.com, had this to say about making Kevin their first featured comrade on the site. ”We are pleased to introduce Kevin to a global market. His music is both personal and human and is indicative of the types of things we are trying to do on a universal level here at the site.”
Kevin is pleased to be the focused artist and musical spokesperson for the site - the concepts and ideals behind the website all support the things Kevin has tried to do with his music - break down barriers, tell personal and universal stories, and help people to connect. Kevin has already uploaded a number of mp3s to the site, including a sneak peek at the new album “We are The Walking Wounded” with a track featured only on the Global Comrades site called “Goodnight Darling, Goodnight.”
On August 8th, 2008 “We Are The Walking Wounded” will be officially released at the Walking Wounded CD Release Party at Liquid Joe’s in Salt Lake City, Utah. The 4th CD released by Kevin Burdick will be available on-line (iTunes, Napster, etc) and in some retail stores the following week for $12.99 - however, presale orders for the CD are being taken now from the Kevin Burdick website.
Fans of Kevin Burdick are able to pre-order the CD for just $8.99 and have it shipped on August 8th, 2008. Presale orders will all be autographed and will also contain a special thank you letter from Kevin Burdick, for his fans, many of whom have been supporting him since his first solo album in 2002.
Click here to be one of the first to pre-order “We Are The Walking Wounded” by Kevin Burdick!
Also, as a free gift to readers of this blog, we are giving away two of the pre-mastered tracks from the new 12-song CD. Simply ‘right-click’ on the links to the songs and select ”save target as” to save the tracks to your local hard drive.
Thanks for participating in the Kevin Burdick CD give-a-way. Each week we give-a-way 1 limited edition signed “The Hits” CD to a lucky new fan that contains all of Kevin’s greatest songs on his 3 album collection from iTunes.
In order to qualify for the drawing, please accomplish the following steps:
1) Become a “Fan” of the Kevin Burdick Music Page on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kevin-Burdick/11411179427 2) Sign up for Kevin Burdick’s Blog by going here (which you’ve already done if you’re receiving this): www.kevinburdick.com/blog
3) Tell your friends about Kevin Burdick via your myspace or facebook page and encourage them to become a fan.
4) Post a comment here that you’ve accomplished these 3 things and your name will automatically be added to the drawing.
Good luck and thanks for being a fan of Piano Rockstar, Kevin Burdick!
About 4 months ago when I officially quit my day job, I joined thousands of Americans who currently have no health insurance. As a rockstar, with several expensive medicinal needs, I was relatively concerned. In fact this last week while on-tour, I ran out of a couple key medications and had to stop by a Walgreens. The total price for two medicines… $650.00! Unfortunately, these medicines are name brand and come with no generic substitute.
Luckily, I have used the same physician for the last 5 years - he is a friend and also a fan of my music. It’s actually a unique and humbling feeling to look out into the audience during a show and see a man who actually knows the size and weight of my prostate staring back at me on-stage. He is the finest doctor I’ve ever known - attentive, detail oriented, non-judgemental, and a great listener. And, he’s always willing to try different treatments in order to come up with the right solution to any medical problem. So, when I contacted him about my new health insurance status, he told me - “Not a problem… I’ve got some great ideas on how we can work with that.”
It is from my meeting with him that I pass on these nuggets of wisdom to uninsured people everywhere in hopes that they can get the medical care and treatment that they need as well:
The Rockstar’s Guide to Healthcare in America!
1) First it is important to understand that having no health insurance just means that some of your options pertaining to your healthcare may have to be changed, but it doesn’t mean that you should go without medical care. Treatment plans for the insured may have to be altered a bit once your health insurance is gone. For example, one such treatment for my psoriasis costs an uninsured person about $24,000 per year - luckily (or unfortunately) that treatment made me very ill, so I don’t mind that it’s no longer an option financially.
2) Find a doctor who is a medical rockstar himself. A good doctor will understand your specific situation and will find ways to work with you to keep costs down. I want to thank my personal medical advisor, Dr. Brooks, for several years of helping to keep me healthy.
3) You may, or may not, know that Walmart and Walgreens both have programs for inexpensive prescriptions medications. Print off these lists below (or at least the ones that may concern you) and see if your doctor can prescribe a medication that can be both helpful and inexpensive. I left my doctors office today with 5 prescriptions to try - total cost, about $25. Here are the websites that will provide these lists for you -
Walmart $4 Prescriptions: http://i.walmart.com/i/if/hmp/fusion/four_dollar_drug_list.pdf
Walgreens $12.99 Prescriptions: https://webapp.walgreens.com/MYWCARDWeb/pdf/Value-PricedGenericsList.pdf
4) Samples of medications, especially ones needed for a temporary problem, can be completely helpful and obviously free. Ask your doctor (if they didn’t already suggest it) if there are any samples of any name brand or generic medication you can try for your specific ailment.
5) Most health insurance companies have programs for individuals who just want “major catastrophe” type coverage. This might be a good idea in case of an accident or some kind of major ailment. For $70 per month, for example, I could get an IHC plan that would cover me for anything over $5000 per year. Would something huge happen costing me hundreds of thousands in medical bills (i.e. like having my arms and legs broken by an angry unsatisfied fan at a show), it may make sense to consider a plan like that. Additionally, ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers) members can also qualify for ”Rockstar Insurance” from MusicPro which has several cost effective options a musician might consider (see http://www.musicproinsurance.com/). To learn more about high deductible insurance, a great place to start is: www.hsaofamerica.com
6) Preventative maintenance is the best form of medicine. When on the road try and drink less, exercise, take vitamin supplements, avoid high-risk behavior (i.e. don’t have unprotected sex with midget prostitutes) and do your best to eat healthy. Note: Taco Bell has a healthier fresco menu and McDonald’s and Wendy’s also have healthy choices on their menu now as well.
As a final tribute to health (and how fragile it can be), I want to post this memorial video my friend Jared Platt created and my sister put on Youtube the other day. It’s a beautiful memory of my late daughter.
The Club Allure show in Sandy, Utah this last weekend was dubbed my “angriest show to date. ” After touring on-and-off since last October, I believe that the wear and tear of the road is finally beginning to show. Strangely enough, most people said it was one of my best and most intense shows they’d ever seen me put on.
Touring this much has been extremely gratifying. It’s always been a dream of mine. But it has taken it’s toll on my personal life - I’ve lost friendships that I failed to properly care for on the road, sacrificed chances at a normal relationship with a woman, and have felt betrayed by a number of people I considered family. I guess when you’re “out of site” you are technically “out of mind” for some people. Of course, my true friends try to make me feel better by saying thinks like, “they weren’t you’re real friends anyway.” Of course, this is probably true, but it doesn’t make the sting of loss and betrayal any easier to deal with. So this week I’ve been mourning the loss of some very important relationships and have been licking my wounds.
Fortunately, I’m always able to take my pain and situations that affect me into my songwriting. In spite of just releasing an album, I already have two new songs completed that have been inspired by these feelings of love and loss that I have been experiencing lately. I feel blessed to be able to have some clarity in these difficult moments with which I can write beautiful music. I actually performed one of these new songs, “Am I So Disposable?” at the Club Allure show to very rave reviews.
Note: All of the tracks from “We Are The Walking Wounded” are now available on iTunes. If you haven’t heard the album, do a search for me on iTunes and see what you think. It’s quite an achievement and the people who have picked up the album already say that they are in love with it.
