Monday, May 25, 2020

Is It Really Summer?

Well, Memorial Day, the start of summer, is upon us, and I’m reflecting on previous summers and the excitement and energy I always felt at this time. This year will definitely be VERY different. Normally I’d have oodles of gigs with great places and folks to see while driving hundreds of miles some days. I’d drink it in and soar on the music and the friendships. This year I’ve cancelled pretty much everything, although I still think there will be some fun and energy going forward - just in a different way. It’s interesting how we deal with new situations. The hardest part is the not knowing, and yet isn’t that really the magic of life - the possibility of anything happening, and the thrill of getting to ride the challenge like a spirited horse or a raging river? I have the old adage in my head every so often, “A ship in harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are made for.” And that seems to be the opposite of what’s happening this year. We really do have to stay in the harbor of our homes for our own safety and the safety of our friends and neighbors until we can sort out the safe way to be on the ocean. Such a deal! And meanwhile the summer is upon us with all the same summer feelings that we have to deal with in this new way. Dreams of the mountains and deserts and the beautiful scenes from the floating highway will have to stay in our heads while we wait and find new ways to express ourselves. I know I’m rambling. It’s part of the not-knowing. We'll get through this. Just have patience. We’ll still soar on the music and the friendships.

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What have I been up to?

I put up several more public domain songs during the week so that I now have over 100 up on YouTube. I have a few more to do, but I’m starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel of what I know.

I played several senior facilities either online or outdoors at a distance this week. I was curious whether the outdoor gig would go very well, and I have to say it was very successful. My only concern is that I haven’t been able to fold my bandanas in a way that they will stay on my face while I’m singing. Once I open my jaw a dozen times to sing the mask pulls down under my nose and eventually over my mouth if I don’t reposition. It. I’ll figure it out.

I also recorded another two stock shows to share with my senior facilities.

Sunday was my Facebook Live Concert, and it went very well. I did mostly requests which ranged from Chuck Pyle to Michael Murphey to some of my own tunes. I enjoy all my friends and fans so much.

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What am I up to this week?

This afternoon for Memorial Day I’ll be doing an 8-hour marathon concert to benefit Feeding America.  This is a very worthwhile charitable organization that does so much with food banks and providing meals, and has been an essential resource during the COVID pandemic. Feeding America provides food to 1 in 7 Americans from children to seniors and from native Americans to disaster emergencies. Each hour I’ll do a different theme, and I honestly don’t know if I can make it all 8 hours. It may get pretty entertaining seeing what kind of shape I’m in during the later hours. Here’s the schedule:

12-1:  50s
1-2:  Cowboy
2-3:  My Favorites
3-4:  Standards
4-5:  Originals
5-6:  Country
6-7:  70s
7-8:  60s

All times are mountain time. Please tune if you can and kindly give if you are able. I appreciate your support and enthusiasm. It’ll be broadcast on my Facebook page facebook.com/tom.munch and on my website tommunch.com/photos-videos.

Sunday night I’ll be doing my regular Sunday Facebook Live Concert 7-8:15 mountain time. I always say how much I enjoy these shows, and I really do. Getting to share time even online makes life worthwhile, and I know music helps me and others deal with everything that’s going on. So tune in if you can. facebook.com/tom.munch and tommunch.com/photos-videos.

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That’s it for this week. It’s hard to believe that it’s summer this year without references. We’ll make it through.

Best always,

Tom

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Details this week:

Who:  Tom Munch
What:  playing and singing a marathon Facebook Live Concert for Feeding America
Where:  facebook.com/tom.munch and tommunch.com/photos-videos
When:  Memorial Day, Monday, May 25, 12-8 pm mountain time

Who:  Tom Munch
What:  playing and singing a Facebook Live Concert from my home
Where:  facebook.com/tom.munch and tommunch.com/photos-videos
When:  Sunday, May 31, 7-8:15 pm mountain time

Monday, May 18, 2020

Making Sense of it All by Giving

It’s hard to believe another week has gone by in this void of the virus time. Each of us tries to make sense of it in our own way, and yet there is no real answer to the pain and the frustration and the question of why this is happening. In these times we turn to each other for comfort, and we reach out and give of ourselves and our time. I guess that’s why I want to do a marathon concert on Memorial Day. Part of it is wanting to be with you and spend time in a meaningful way even though we still have to be “alone together” in our virus-safe cocoons. Part of it is wanting to feel useful and help in whatever way I can. Getting outside of ourselves and giving helps. It makes us remember that we are all part of each other in this big universe. So in that spirit I will do a marathon concert on Memorial Day from 12-8 mountain time on Facebook and on my website. Jen picked the charity Feeding America because they are doing great work all over the country with food banks making food available to all the people who have nowhere to turn right now. They just need the simple basics of what to eat at their next meal - people just like you and me who don’t know how to make sense of all of this, but who are comforted that someone cares enough to get outside themselves and give. Please join me if you can and see if it helps you get some kind of reflection on where we are. Besides it’ll be fun to see if I can actually play for 8 hours. There’ll be plenty of Advil and caffeine and humorous eating and “little cowboy room” breaks.

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What have I been up to?

I recorded a bunch more public domain songs and posted them on YouTube last week. I don’t know who is really seeing these, but it’s giving me some much-needed playing time, and it’s letting me catalog a fine list of mostly-forgotten songs that I love. Give it a listen if you feel so inclined - youtube.com/channel/UCLYdZkZ0isWlc9wv1QsKutQ/

I'm continuing to record stock shows of different genres for my senior facilities as we try to figure out how entertainment is going to work going forward. I may end up not going back to these facilities for a year or more unless I can perform outside with distancing for them. I’ll be trying that at a couple places in the next couple weeks.

I had a wonderful evening doing my Facebook Live concert on Sunday. I can’t say how neat it is to see friends from all over the world all gathered and sharing music and spirit. I look forward to this so much.

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What’s up this week?

I’m going to continue to record public domain songs until I exhaust my list of all the public domain songs I can find. I got turned on to sea shanties by my friend Dean in Virginia, so I’ll add a few of those with their fire and spirit.

I am recording music for the online Cuchara Chapel services this summer, so I have a few songs to do this week for use in June.

I have two senior facilities to play for today online, and then one outdoor distancing show on Saturday that should be a good test of whether that kind of show will work.

I’ll continue to record stock shows this week as well.

Sunday is my weekly Facebook Live show 7-8:15 mountain time from my personal page - facebook.com/tom.munch and my website - tommunch.com/photos-videos. Please tune in if you can. It’s such a joyous and relieving end (or start) to the week that is so needed at this time.

Memorial Day 12-8 mountain time will be my Feeding America Marathon on Facebook Live at my personal page and website at the above links. Please stop by to listen and give if you can. I’m doing different themes every hour to try to catch everyone’s favorites. Here’s the schedule:

12-1:  50s
1-2:  Cowboy
2-3:  My Favorites
3-4:  Standards
4-5:  Originals
5-6:  Country
6-7:  70s
7-8:  60s

Busy week ahead. Of course there is a grocery run and some other major doings as well.

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That’s it for this week. I hope you are well and relatively happy - finding a way to cope with uncertainty and loss. Remember that we are all in this together in one way or another, and try to be calm and loving even when everything is falling apart around us.

Best always,

Tom

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Details this week:


Who:  Tom Munch
What:  playing and singing a Facebook Live Concert from my home
Where:  facebook.com/tom.munch and tommunch.com/photos-videos
When:  Sunday, May 24, 7-8:15 pm mountain time

Who:  Tom Munch
What:  playing and singing a marathon Facebook Live Concert for Feeding America
Where:  facebook.com/tom.munch and tommunch.com/photos-videos
When:  Memorial Day, Monday, May 25, 12-8 pm mountain time

Monday, May 11, 2020

Loss During the Virus

I want to write about the experience of losing someone during this virus time. I don’t need to get maudlin and sad, but I want to talk about the experience a little bit if you’ll walk with me a while. My wife Jen’s dad passed on Wednesday while we were with him at his nursing facility. We hadn’t been allowed to visit for the past two months due to quarantine at all nursing facilities. We knew he would pass sometime fairly soon, but when we heard on that morning that he was not waking up and was unresponsive we were very surprised - having just talked to him the day before when he was pretty sharp. Of course, we had to take very strict precautions to enter his facility, and while we were there we needed to keep social distancing, wear masks, and have only brief interactions with staff whom we had grown to know and love. So we ended up feeling a lot of strange emotions. Of course, there was shock and grief, but because of the masks and restrictions we really couldn’t express them for fear of spreading or catching the virus. So there were no hugs or long expressions of gratitude and fondness for the staff that we were feeling.  We had to bottle them up inside us. The next day we packed up his stuff and cleared his room, and again the regular feelings had to be squelched for the most part. Then normally you’d expect to have some sort of funeral or gathering of remembrance, but because of the virus and having to limit group size we won’t be able have anything but a few people at his graveside. It just puts a damper on everything you’d like to say and feel. And beyond our family situation the virus brings up many emotions for all of us that limit our normal expressions of emotions this year, and I think this is at the heart of many angers and fears we’re seeing expressed around our country and world. We’re all frustrated by the inability to express ourselves and have our normal freedom of movement and life. Because of this people are lashing out at each other in families and in general. It is a very strange thing - like a mean-spirited ogre who stalks the land and controls our every move. Our own family death just brings it into sharper focus. Are you going through this kind of mixed emotion too in your situation? Reach out - our togetherness apart can help.

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What have I been up to?

I recorded a few more public domain songs for my public domain YouTube channel last week. I hope that people are listening. I’m not very good at figuring out the charts to see listenership. Here’s the address if you want to check it out - youtube.com/channel/UCLYdZkZ0isWlc9wv1QsKutQ/.

I played a couple online shows for my facilities. I’m doing very few of these since connectivity at senior facilities is mostly non-existent.

I recorded a fun Mother’s Day show for Cuchara Chapel as part of the service that was put online Sunday. You can view it if you’d like at cucharachapel.org. I wrote a new song for mothers for this show called “How Did You Know?” that turned out very well. I posted this song up on my Facebook pages and also on my regular YouTube channel - youtu.be/i33NmphkKdg.

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What am I up to this week?

Again I’m recording more public domain songs. I’ll run out at some point, but until I do I’m enjoying making these available. When I figure it out I’ll post some newer songs there as well.

I’m also recording some mini-concerts for some of my facilities to use. These won’t be posted publicly, but I’m making them available to facilities.

Sunday evening 7-8:15 mountain time I’ll be doing my weekly Facebook Live Concert. I’ll be concentrating on requests for the most part instead of doing a theme for this one. I’m still considering doing some theme nights in the future since everyone was interested in that. You can tune in on my Facebook page and also on my website:

facebook.com/tom.munch
tommunch.com/photos-videos

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What is coming?

I’m still thinking about a marathon concert. I didn’t do much last week since we were consumed with dealing with our loss, but I’ll get back to it this week.

I’m still waiting on my new album to arrive. It will probably be available online before I have CD’s in hand. I’ll let you know. It’s all licensed and ready to go. I signed up for stamps.com so I can ship from the house instead of going to the post office for orders at least during the initial launch.

I’m thinking more about theme-night concerts on Facebook, and I think these might be better done on a different night than Sundays. I have several groups of friends from Philmont and the old Don K guest ranch as well as other places that I may do special shows for. I even did a Zoom show for one of my facilities that worked really well this week, so I may utilize that service too in the future.

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That’s it for this week. I appreciate your thoughts on how you are dealing with the mixed emotions of regular life combined with the virus fears and precautions. Please take care of yourself and let me know how you are doing. I appreciate you.

Best always,

Tom

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Details this week:


Who:  Tom Munch
What:  playing and singing a Facebook Live Concert from my home
Where:  facebook.com/tom.munch and tommunch.com/photos-videos
When:  Sunday, May 17, 7-8:15 pm mountain time

Monday, May 4, 2020

Mother

Mother’s Day is this Sunday.  With the virus going on it’s easy to lose track of time and regular holidays, so I’m wanting to especially think about Mother’s Day.  I’m even working on a mother song to record for the virtual service at Cuchara Chapel this Sunday.   I lost my mom 5 years ago after she turned 90.  You might remember because I wrote about it quite a bit.  It wasn’t as traumatic for me as I thought it might be.  The part that was bad was settling her estate.  She had accumulated a lot of stuff that took a year with my siblings to go through and distribute/get rid of.  But through it all it was an experience of thinking about her and my dad who had passed ten years earlier.  That was a good thing.  We also got to share a lot of stories of what she was like as we were growing up, and how our relationships to her had changed as we became adults and parents as well.  Mothers have intuition and loving sense that goes beyond understanding.  Even with their own personalities they become part of a phenomenon of unspoken wonder and compassion for their children and their needs.  They can feel when a child is in turmoil, and they know the right thing to say to calm little minds when things seem topsy-turvy.  With a look they can scold or encourage in a way that children instantly understand.  They can forgive a child who is acting up - knowing that knowledge and maturity will come in time, and they have patience and love even when they’re seething under their breath for a child who has done the same dumb thing over and over.  (I know that some of you mothers are laughing at me right now with my naive manly words.). But I honor my mother and all women who take the path of motherhood.  You are appreciated and loved.

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What have I been up to?

Last week I recorded a bunch more songs that I posted on my YouTube Tom Munch Public Domain Songs channel.  I don’t know if people are taking advantage of this channel.  Most of my comments are from people I don’t know, but I’m making an effort.  If you know anyone who would like some free entertainment with some old favorite songs, please send them my way - youtube.com/channel/UCLYdZkZ0isWlc9wv1QsKutQ/.

Friday evening I played on my Facebook business page and the Bistoro page for a couple hours to help promote Bistoro and their wonderful food and friendship.  It was a fun night although they didn’t get as much business from it as I had hoped.  I did the show from my desktop computer which wasn’t as good a quality of sound and picture as I’m used to.  That was the only way to have it broadcast on two pages at once.

Sunday was my Facebook Live weekly concert, and it was a blast with lots of requests and good friends from all over.  It’s so much fun to see so many friends from over my whole life all gathered and getting to know each other a bit.  I did some new tunes and old tunes, and I also took a bunch more requests for future shows.

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What am I up to this week?

I’m working on recording some more public domain songs like I mentioned above.  I hope to have about 150 songs posted eventually.

I think I have one online concert for one of my senior facilities this week.

I’ll also be recording a mini-concert for Mother’s Day to be part of this week’s Cuchara Chapel service on Sunday.  I may post this on Facebook as well although it may overlap some of the songs I’ll do on my Sunday Facebook Live show.  I figure that some of you would like to see this, and it won’t be publicly available.

Sunday evening 7-8:15 mountain time will be my weekly Facebook Live Concert.  I haven’t picked a theme, but you know I have requests I’m always working on, and I’ll definitely do a couple songs for mothers as well.  These concerts are so comforting to me, and the folks who listen say the same thing.  If you think it’s something you’d like, please tune in - facebook.com/tom.munch and tommunch.com/photos-videos.

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What do I have coming up?

I’m toying with the idea of doing some sort of a 6 or 8-hour marathon concert - probably as a fundraiser for Feeding America.  This feels like something I’d really like to contribute, and it would allow me to do requests for anyone tuned in without  time limit.  I have to work out some details with how to do the payment so there’s no doubt where the money is going, and I don’t want folks who are struggling to get by or who have already given to feel obligated to give more because they’re a friend listening to the concert.  More on this as I learn more.

Also my “Back to the Old Country” album is in production now, and I think it may be ready earlier than the first estimate of May 18-25.  I’ll let you know as I know.

I found out last week that the Yellow Pine will not be doing the weekly barbecue this summer.  It’s just too hard to set up for social distancing in the old barn, so we’ll take a year off and hope for better conditions next summer.  I know there were a lot of folks hoping to return to normal - especially after we lost much of the summer with the fires just two years ago.

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That’s it for this week.  I know it seems like a lot, and I’m definitely not on my regular busy schedule.  Please stay safe and have patience.  One of the articles I saw recently said we are probably just in the second inning of this virus, so we have a long way to go.  Know that you are loved and missed.

Best always,

Tom

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Who:  Tom Munch
What:  playing and singing a Facebook Live Concert from my home
Where:  facebook.com/tom.munch and tommunch.com/photos-videos
When:  Sunday, May 10, 7-8:15 pm mountain time