Riddle: What do U2, Derringer Discoveries and the late-great John Prine have in common with David Husted?

A Story:

Last December Derringer Discoveries (a popular music adventure podcast) sent a request to my email account to host an upcoming podcast episode with them.  The topic would be to get into the weeds discussing some "to be selected" artist/band the DD team and the co-host all mutually love.   

Here were some clues that they sent this request to the wrong email.

Clue 1: Subject Line said: Are you David Prine?   lol…..No, I am not David Prine.
Clue 2: First sentence: I enjoyed talking with you the other evening.   lol : No, we did not talk the other evening.

David Prine happens to be a relation of John Prine. John Prine, for those who may be living under a rock, is a mega popular folk singer who recently passed away. Mr. Prine was nominated to the Singer-Songwriter Hall of Fame in 2019. 

Did this stop me from moving out on the invite. No Sir : )

Here is my email response. 

"Thank You…..just to double check,  You mentioned we talked the other evening.  We “talked” via email but did not verbally chat, so I just want to make sure you sent this email to the correct person. Assuming you did : ) I would be happy to co-host…thank you for asking…honored you asked.  Will need more info on that at opportunity. If you did mean to send this to another rockstar named Dave and you sent to me by accident ……no worries. Either way, I am now gonna send you 5 to 10 artist suggestions whether you want them or not….: ) Also, I’d be happy to send you some voice overs per your spec guidance below………Thanks Again and looking forward to the event.

VR

Dave"

Here is Paul's (of the DD Team) paraphrased response:

……Fortune favors the bold. I was writing to Dave Prine (RIP John Prine's nephew, if that means anything), but I'm impressed with your response. So, yes, please plan to be a co-host with Team Derringer…….

Life Lesson to me: The DD Team response was unexpected and goes to show how important connection, interaction, resolve, humor and good natured friendliness can take someone.

The rest is history. Several months later a Derringer Discoveries Podcast co-hosted by none-other-than David Husted was born. Topic: U2

Just to be clear: David Husted is not yet in the singer/songwriter hall of fame but he is working on it ; )

Cheers

Dave

Photo by Özge Taşkıran  

I started making music when this noble cat was still alive and my first fan (perhaps my only fan at the time). Music making has always been a hobby to satisfy an impulse to learn cool things related to music tech and to get the creative sprites dancing inside my head out into the world. It was a pathway of discovery on multiple fronts discussed below.  

One: Learning to understand and perform on a real instrument. In my case on one called a synthesizer. Practice….Yes, I am afraid you must do this relentlessly. This is job one.

Two: I can remember learning about music technology (i.e. Midi, DAWs and plug-ins) for the first time around 2008 and being fascinated like an Alice in Wonderland walking through the briar patch. My vague understanding of these concepts and this software slowly, through trial and error, bloomed into skillful means to an end. This is not for the faint of heart.

Three: The technology was cool but learning the craft and nuance of recording, mixing and mastering even more challenging. This is an art. I still have much to learn. 

Four:  These skills coupled with a burning desire and belief that I could now create my own musical masterpieces (at least according to me ; ) was inspiring. This desire, however, is not enough.  You must act even when you do not necessarily feel like creating. Sit down and arrange, form, mold and forge music. Just Do It. 

Five: The ability and means to share this music with the world via distribution services and streaming platforms or, at a minimum, with attentive, appreciative nearby friendly animals.

Dave

Hello,

I hope all is well with you. Here are a few things going on in my world of music making:

I am now finalizing my next music creation. I expect to officially release the song on Friday, 9 February 2024. The vibe and lyrics of the song circle themes of time, destruction and transformation. Song development was influenced by a plug-in instrument I acquired that enables me to create rhythms and textures using both tabla drums and the sitar. This is not my typical music genre but I was very happy with the outcome. I am looking forward to sharing it with you.

Ed Bejzak co-produced a song with me called Even Fail that was released in late December and is still fresh. Ed created a video to accompany the audio. This video is presented here. Deep Bow of gratitude to Ed and to his video production team, including Lauren Bejzak and David DeFord. You have all put a bit more sparkle into a terrific song. Thank You. 

Final thought regarding my craft of music making, I can write whatever I want, whenever I want and however I want. I write music that resonates with me in the moment of creation. It makes me happy and this is enough. I realize that I am fortunate to have the opportunity, financial means and time to create. I am very thankful for this and try not to take it for granted. I understand that many other talented artists do not have this access and these luxuries. I continue to be a seeker of musical gems existing and to be created. 

Thank You 
Dave
Davidhusted.com

Photo by Dr.Herumb Sharma: drums
Photo by cottonbro studio: cat on piano

This Top 25 is populated with music by artists from around the world. Indie singer-songwriters, hard rockers, and a few newly formed bands are all served up. This is a great podcast and the voice-over at 16:03 into the podcast makes it especially noteworthy!  

Here is an Apple Music Link to the Podcast (you can also find it on Spotify): Turnip Music radio: January 2024 A Countdown Episode.

Hello,

WildGood (the band I perform with) will be at the Port of Leonard Town Winery tonight Friday 6 Rocktober 2023. Come on out, it will be fun. It is outside; sip some fine wine, relax and enjoy the WildGood ride.

Other News:

My latest song Kettle and the Flame has been added to several awesome Spotify Playlist and I would like to give a couple of special shoutouts to a few of them….THANK YOU!  Please check them out and "like" the playlist.  

Compelling and New: Turnip Music Radio
All Hits Music: Blue Orchid

There are a couple other popular and/or growing playlists that have added my latest song as well. You can find them and check them out by visiting my Spotify Artist Page here:
David Husted Spotify Artist Page 
Thanks Again! Please consider following me on Spotify.  Your support is much appreciated and makes a difference!!!

Have a Fantastic Weekend and hope to see you tonight!

Dave

AND as usual, You can find all my latest music, news and musical musings at:
davidhusted.com.  My music ANCHOR POINT.

Photo by Adonyi Gábor: 

I have a brand new single scheduled for release on or around 15 SEP 23 if all goes well. 

 I almost put this song on my latest new album Captured Fragments but chose not to.  I held back because I learned that Soundcloud now has a distribution service similar to CdBaby . I have used CdBaby, as a loyal customer for all of my previous music releases and they have been great…no complaints. If they are great why switch? Good question. Call this a test experiment. The one benefit of Soundcloud Distribution is the “tease” of fan based royalty streams.  This enables an artist the potential for a bit more of the royalty pie on a per stream basis I think. Like I said, this is an experiment and we shall see.  

So far, and I will not get into details, Soundcloud has been a bit slow and clumsy, in my opinion, on the roll out of this. Soundcloud does not currently enable you to monetize your money. Distributing through them directly enables me to monetize through them. This is new. Soundcloud, by far, is the place I get the most activity mainly because it is a DIY artist friendly environment. I applaud them for this.  Well, enough said.  

Happy Labor Day to you!!

If you would like to hear the Kettle and the Flame now, let me know. I'd be happy to send it to you because YOU just tolerated this stream of consciousness wobble in time. You are a wise and good person.

Thank You

Dave

Photo by Jean van der Meulen: 

Prepping for a weekend jam session with friends in two weeks.  This entails jamming to originals and cover songs, beer, good food, catching up, beer, laughter and some beer. Formal concert played to audience depicted to cap off the weekend.

I need to practice a bit. Working Message in a Bottle as I write this and I sound horrible….what fun.

I had a recent external hard drive failure and I am trying to figure out how to re-build, piece together, find, re-map, extract, re-link, update (you get the picture) a pathway to some of my key music files, plug-ins and DAW related music libraries.....blah, blah, blah.  I often create multiple backups to different locations about once every 3 months so I think the worst case scenario is loss of key info from about 3 unpublished songs and definite loss of most of the material from my latest song. 

I feel like this blog picture today but I will be looking at ways at recovering the hard drive in the near future and perhaps my next blog post will have more color in it. Wish me luck. It is amazing how events like this can totally derail any creative momentum you had.

Of course, then I listen to music by regular folk just playing their made up tunes on Soundcloud or similar sites and I am amazed and often inspired by how wonderful it is. I especially enjoy coming across people that have no idea how very good their music is. And this lifts me out of the muddy muck of a f*&king external hard drive failure, keeps me above water level and able to seek wisps of ideas for my next original. 

Dave Out

Photo by Steve Johnson:

Join WildGooD Band THIS SATURDAY January 28th Taphouse 1637 for an 80's gig and modern dance tunes later in the evening to keep the beat going!! 

Dress in 80s or 90s costumes/attire for a little extra fun!!! We'll have a little swag, too! 

Start at 8 pm to midnight!!

Unfortunately, the regular rockstar keyboard player David Husted might not be able to play on Saturday but his replacement is rumored to be either Carrot Top or David Bowie's secret twin brother Ziggy and either one are said to be just phenomenal players. You won't want to miss out.

I received this recently from Derringer Discoveries. What else can I say but that this team absolutely rocks!!

They down-selected my latest song Moonbeam Blue to their Seedlings Spotify playlist.

This team is located in the Charlottesville, VA vicinity give or take a few miles ; )  I must say this bunch of musical geeks and nerds knows and really enjoys music. They often dig deep. They are true enthusiasts and I appreciate that. They also enable introverted DIY music makers with full time jobs, limited funds and busy lives some air time.  They sniff out and lift up songs that exist in the nooks and crannies of the world. They find some real gems out there and I am not just talking about my songs : ). Example: listen to this months seedlings list.  It is really very, very good! In fact, put it on repeat. 

Now I command you to go follow there podcast on Spotify or your favorite streaming platform.  Why the hell not ; ).

Thank You Derringer Discoveries. I wish you much success!

Much Gratitude

Dave
Moonbeam Blue

*********************************************************** 

Hello David, 

I am individually sending the following message to every reachable artist on the ballot for the Turnip Music Radio (TMR) Top 25 - February 2023. This was written yesterday. 

Brief Update 
Last night and today, Team Derringer finished going through the latest song submissions and suggestions for the February Top 25 ballot. Every day, artists from around the world submit new songs to Derringer Discoveries through Soundplate.com, Dailyplaylists.com, and/or directly to Derringerdiscoveries.com. Plus, Turnip Tillers (i.e., voters) can and often recommend inclusion of songs, which is how the so-called bigger names get onto our playlists. 

We intentionally design most of our playlists to include up & comers side-by-side with mid-tier, top-tier, and legends. 

First Round 
We accept about 20% of the songs that are submitted to us. In the past 24 hours, I personally listened to 67 new song submissions. This is in addition to the 90 new songs that were already vetted and included on the "Compelling & New" playlist, updated almost daily. 

Second Round 
Of the 67 new song submissions from yesterday and today, only three made it onto Compelling & New, bringing this month's vetted contender total to 93. Here are the 93: 

Compelling & New Spotify playlist: 
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4f9rRXtIZscQc8hhPbDmf6?si=3667a685ef8b4407 

Third Round 
Of the 93, today, Team Derringer picked what we view as the 20 strongest contenders for the February ballot (the ballot playlist is called "Seedlings" - see below for the link). 

Why Are You Receiving This Message? 
Congratulations! One of your songs survived three rounds of intense vetting and is now on this month's ballot of 20 contenders. 

As a result of your good fortune and talent, we hope you will stream and share the Seedlings playlist to help all 20 of the included artists (which includes you): 

Seedlings Spotify playlist: 
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/66C1pDkZ39Y7XnaHSNbQRm?si=56e2cde0b7ba4e18 

What Happens Next? 
Fourth Round - The Turnip Tillers Voting Round 
Over the next few days, Alton Derringer will send a notice to the Turnip Tillers around the world to begin listening and voting. We encourage the Turnip Tillers to listen to the 20 songs on the ballot at least a few times and then to cast their individual votes. 

The master spreadsheet created and maintained by Alton will calculate which 15 new songs make it onto the Top 25 chart, as well as each song's position # 1 to 15. Positions # 16 to 18 are Team Derringer Honorable Mentions and positions # 19 to 25 are what we view as the best six songs from the prior month. We provide more insight about this process in "The Turnip Music Radio Best Song of 2022" episode from December. 

Polls Close on the 25th 
The polls close on the 25th to give Team Derringer time to record and edit The Top 15 Countdown for posting on the 1st of the following month. 

Top 15 Countdown on the 1st of the following month 
In addition to streaming and sharing Seedlings, we hope you will plan to listen to the Top 15 Countdown on the 1st. Plus, we hope you will stream the Top 25 chart during the following month. The Spotify link to the Top 25 stays the same each month (so please click "Like"). Right now, the link shows the Top 25 for January. This will obviously change-over on February 1st: 

Top 25 - January 2023 chart and Spotify playlist: 
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1CLzNqR1HEB75ddqSfJ90Z?si=ce9f5421a8ef46c4 

Thank you! 
Thank you for reading this and for making Derringer Discoveries a success. Please send easy questions to my attention and hard, pointed questions to Alton's attention. Questions about the meaning of life should be sent to Laura's attention and questions about any recording artist from any decade should be sent to Dave's attention. 

Sincerely, Paul of DD 
For Team Derringer (Laura, Alton, Paul, Dave) 
Derringer Discoveries - A Music Adventure Podcast

***************************************

Photo by wewe yang:

Salutations, 

I read an article recently that claimed close to 100,000 songs are being uploaded to digital service providers every day. 

Wow 

If my new song is one pebble of all the pebbles on earth, the chance that it may be seen and admired are pretty low. However, if it happens to be the top pebble balanced on top of some other cool stones there is better than a zero chance it may be seen and listened to for a period of time. I view that huge boulder that's supporting all the other stones as the quality of your song itself. 

Is it any good? You must be honest with yourself here and yes, this is subjective. I leave that for the creator to decide the merits of the music, lyrics, melody and production on your own. 

The other stones are the nuggets that help lift the pebble out of the sand. What do they represent Dave? I may talk about those nuggets in my next Blog. I expect to release a new song in about 4 or 5 weeks. 

Thanks and have a fantastic weekend 

Dave 
davidhusted.com

Ewe Photo by Leigh Jeffreys:

rock formation photo by Shiva Smyth:

My song "Andriy" was added to a playlist called Artist for Ukraine. It appears to be in the company of some top notch artists.  Keep fighting Ukraine.

Thank You Derringer Discoveries.

Dave 

Photo by Frans van Heerden:

Thank You Turnip Music Radio and Derringer Discoveries for adding my new song Photo Op to your New and Compelling playlist. 

"About Them: Podcasting from Virginia (USA), and catering to music enthusiasts worldwide, Derringer Discoveries combines exciting snippets and fast-paced insight, critique, theories, and witty banter about music that you may discover and love. This is Derringer Discoveries."

That sounds like a worthy cause to me.

Dave

Photo by Uriel Mont

Photo Op has been finalized for digital distribution and is about to be delivered to digital platforms; release date is still targeted for Friday, 26 AUG 22. 

I'll provide some background on the song in three parts over three separate Blogs.

Part II: 

Life was still fairly locked down due to Covid, Trump was still in-office and the George Floyd protests were ongoing. The song was created without any direct outside musical influence driving the creative direction. This was me inside my studio starting from ground zero and evolving the song over the course of probably several weekends by playing around with sounds, rhythms and textures until a fuzzy shape of cohesion slowly emerged.

Photo by Julia Clooten

WildGood will be performing at a House on the Water Party today.  Weather is looking good; should be a fun time.

The cover band I perform with is playing live outside tonight starting around 5:30 pm at the Port of Leonardtown Winery.  Come join us! It will be great weather and lots of fun.

Dave

Rumors are in from un-verified sources that the band known as the Get-Up met this past weekend and put on a concert for a captivated audience.  An insider claims the music was utterly spectacular.  Like grazing in a field of thick sweet grass with not a fly in sight. You couldn't help but want to moo to the music.  Concert bootleg provided below

I feel the creative juices starting to simmer but they are over that third hill to the left about 20 miles away. Hoping to make it there eventually.

Dave

Saturday Night 5 MAR 22 WildGood is gonna rock!: Event Details Here: Last Drop Country Bar

See you there.

Get your costumes ready and come representing a decade of your choice!! Let's have some fun!! Join Wildgood for a decades party (70s/80s/90s and today) at the Taphouse! Rock with us all night!

Word of the Day: Attest

This word attests my patience.

……the older I have become the less I have understood or had insight into or known about myself. I know only that I was born and exist, and it seems to me that I have been carried along.  I exist on the foundation of  something I do not know.  In spite of all the uncertainties, I feel a solidity underlying all existence and a continuity in my mode of being.

C.J. Jung

Memories, Dreams, Reflections

 Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger from Pexels

“Apparently he has an office with a piano and a typewriter and works on his songs from nine to five as opposed to waiting for the planets to align and a fully formed song to emerge out of a dream. He says, ‘inspiration is a word used by people who aren’t really doing anything. I go into my office everyday when I am in Brighton and work whether I feel like it or not is irrelevant’.”

                        Emily Breeze speaking about Nick Cave and Nick Cave speaking directly about his view on waiting for inspiration to strike.

photo by Karolina Grabrowski

Salutations,

I was featured in a BLOG yesterday.  I am not sure if I should be concerned or flattered. However, he did provide a link to my website so I do really appreciate that.  In one section of the article the writer uses me as an example.  I excerpted this section of the article in blue type below.  After reading his points, I have to say, I agree with all of them and I am well aware of the psychiatrist and pro bowler referenced (yes, I have googled searched my name in the past).  

I like to create music.  I am less interested/capable in the area of marketing and "SEO".   I am sure this problem is not unique to me.  SEO (and I never remember what the acronym stands for) is a mystery to me and when I lean in closer to investigate, I found the amount of time, energy and investment it takes to do it right usually sinks me.  His sharing of techniques to do this smartly are appreciated.  I do believe that any band or solo artist could learn something of value if they read the advice carefully. Implementing the advice is another matter entirely.  Here is the excerpt.

"Solo artists with common names 

Unless you have a really unusual name, chances are someone else somewhere has the same name as you. So if you’re a solo musician using your own real name, you might end up competing in search engines with someone else, and they might not even be a musician. 

Bandzoogle member David Husted, for example, has this problem. A quick Google search for his name shows the scope of what he’s up against. 

There is a different David Husted—a psychiatrist—who occupies most spots on the first pages of search results, as well as the large “knowledge panel” on the right side of the page. 

To make things even more challenging, there is another notable David Husted who is a retired professional ten-pin bowler. 

David Husted the musician is nowhere to be seen unless you click through to the second page of results in Google. 

We’ll get more into this topic in future posts, but the gist of this problem is that—when it comes to the names of "notable people"—the most famous person wins the search results. 

The thing is—this is kind of inconvenient for people who are looking for David Husted the musician. Those people might decide to modify or refine their search term to be more specific, such as in this example: 

Now with this refined search we get the ideal full page of results for David Husted the musician, with their website homepage at the top and the correct knowledge panel on the right. 

So if you're an artist using your own name, this is something you'll need to be aware of when you're researching your keywords. You might want to look up search volumes for those modified or refined keywords as well. 

For the record, this problem applies to yours truly—I share the same name and Google search results with a retired NFL football player"

So, as you can see,  I am not on the first page that comes up when you search my name on Google.  I think he was being kind when he said the second too.   I'll blame that on my SEO techniques and not the quality of my music ; )
 

Word of the Day: SEO

V/r 

Dave “not Psychiatrist and/or Pro Bowler” Husted

The quoted excerpt in blue type was written by Wes Walls a Music, Marketing and Promotion writer for Bandzoogle. 

The article can be found here if your interested: SEO Keyword Research for Musicians

Photograph: Pixabay

Fresh Playlist.  This one celebrates woman artists.

The house I grew up in has an old Baldwin upright piano in the living room.  It is still there.  I used to sit on its creaky seat for hours and play it.  I actually enjoyed practice. My mother was my first teacher. Since that beginning, I have gone from dabbling in playing classical music, to jamming with friends in basements playing rock/pop originals, to playing out live with cover bands and finally creating my own DIY releasable music productions.  I have really loved the whole craft of creating original music.  Taking an initial concept and giving it life through sound design, performance, music arrangement, lyric writing, mixing, mastering and the music release process has been a mind boggling learning experience for me.  Since about 2011 I have created more than a handful of songs.  Some are good, some are not so good….and I learn something new with every song.