I'm honored to be a new Steemit OpenMic Night Judge! Let me introduce myself properly!
@luzcypher invited a team of us to assist him in Open Mic judging, and I must say, it's already shaping up to be an incredibly fun and amazingly fulfilling experience. I feel completely honored and privileged to have been selected to help represent the musical community here on Steemit along with veteran Steemian musicians @soundlegion and @verbal-d, as well as PAL and minnow advocate @krystle. We all have different opinions and things we look for in performances, and it has been a real treat to share in this process with them.
Who am I?
Well, I'm Jessamyn. I'm your neighborhood-friendly sad bastard. I've been be-bopping (let's be real--I've been obsessed) on Steemit since last October, and was pretty close to a charter member of the Open Mic community started by our friend and musical gigging guru, @luzcypher.
Luz was integral in helping me acclimate to the Steemit community, both in general and musically, as I'm sure he has helped and encouraged many of you, as well.
Here is my first #openmic submission from way-back-when (Week 2 of the contest):
I'm a (newly) full-time gigging singer-songwriter currently living in Springfield, Missouri. I travel a regional radius playing music at all kinds of shows and venues...everything from Open Mic features to festivals, to dinner services at fancy hotels and everywhere in between.
I've played this guitar all over the South and Midwest United States playing my sad songs for all kinds of amazing people. I also recount and share my experiences through a series called Gig Reflections, and extremely enjoy sharing the process with my friends from all over the world on Steemit.
Origin story
I was introduced to music by my parents. We always had good music playing in the house. Neither of my parents play an instrument, but they were very excited when I expressed an interest in piano at age 9.
Piano was the basis of my musical involvement, and I played until I was 13, when band instruments took over my life, and the flute and eventually alto saxophone became my instrumental loves.
Now, I've always been a poet, and words have always been a huge part of my life, but when I picked up an acoustic guitar at age 15, I was forever changed at the potential of composing original compositions on an instrument and adding words to it. It was like the clouds parted, and a single beam of light shone upon the situation, and I knew even in that moment, that I was never going to be the same.
During college, I recorded a collection of songs I call The Friendship Confidential, and while it definitely does not represent exactly what I'm doing now, it does show the origin-story in music of a few songs I still play today. You can listen to The Friendship Confidential EP in its entirety on YouTube:
The fight
I fought pursuing music for many years. The first time I remember fighting it was when I made the decision to go to a small college that didn't even offer instrumental music beyond Class Piano. Ugh. What was I thinking? Well, I was 18. Give me a break. 😂😂
Then, after vacillating a year or so after college graduation, decided to take a job as a high school English teacher. While I loved that line of work more than any job I've ever had, I realized I wasn't taking any time to write and perform music. Sure, I learned how to play the drums during that time and spent a lot of time cathartically beating the shit out of them, but I wasn't really applying it to anything, and I wasn't really writing music. This bothered me to the point of basically bringing on a bonafide existential crisis. So, I made a change. (I'll be talking more on this topic in the next couple of weeks.)
After enjoying a couple of years playing bars around Springfield, Missouri, my grandmother died in 2013 and I stopped playing. There's a lot more I want to say on this subject but it is still really hard for me to find the specific words for it. I was hurting so badly, and losing her really tore my world apart in more ways than one. It physically hurt me to even attempt to pick up the guitar and sing songs...so I didn't. However, I eventually realized that wasn't the way I was supposed to go, either.
So, beginning in January of 2016, I took the stage again...this time with a renewed ardor to make it happen, and I haven't really stopped since.
For me, it's all about a passion to create and then share that creation in a symbiotic experience with the listeners. We feed each other.
Over the years, I've taken my love of playing and writing with multiple instruments and worked that into my live set through the use of a loop pedal. It enables me to work toward my dream of becoming a lazier version of Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins.
DVD Image Source
The past year and a half has brought a ton of opportunity and change for me. Through diligent efforts both locally and online, I am able to quit my 9-5 job (THIS FRIDAY!) to focus solely on music and creative endeavors, and I'm so excited for what the upcoming months are going to bring, as well.
I've never been able to have my eggs in one basket, so I am beyond grateful for the support I've received here on Steemit, as this wouldn't have been possible without you, and this incredible community we have here.
In the image below, you can see what my current on-stage setup looks like. Pedalboard with lots of goodies including my BOSS RC-30 looper and vocal effects, keyboard midi controller running GarageBand on my iPhone, a couple of guitars (sometimes and/or a ukulele/open-tuned guitar/12-string), and a couple of vocal mics. Fun stuff. I get bored really easily, so I'm always changing up instrumentation or other elements within the songs I write. They're alive, they have breath, and are constantly evolving.
Here are a couple of my original songs. I hope you dig them. The first video was shot when I had the opportunity to play my new song, "16 Bucks," for close to 1000 people at the historic Gillioz Theatre for The Mystery Hour, a late-night Emmy-award-winning Midwest talk show...as well the originator of the viral video about the Instagram Husband.
The second selection is my song, "Hoxie," recorded for Bat Cave Files, an Ozark-based video music series.
IT'S SAD BASTARD MUSIC, Y'ALL
http://www.sadbastardmusic.com
I also have a side project that is based entirely on Steemit called Electronic Cassette. EC is a project I started to expand my knowledge base regarding beat production and electronic music, and I make these sounds using exclusively iOS-based tools and interfaces. I am in love with exploring new and interesting ways to create music.
Here's an original Electronic Cassette track called Morning Goddesses. These songs will eventually be produced into a real life cassette tape and digital album, both of which will be able to be purchased using Steem/SBD.
This song and other EC music has also been featured in some games created by @quantumanomaly, who introduced me to Steemit in the first place. You can hear it on his Shennanijam 2017 submission demo below:
Obviously, I love #originalmusic
I love it so much, in fact, that I even introduced this tag to Steemit 10 months ago, and now it is the home to the original music creations of all types and genres of music across the platform. You can read that post here, and see the beginnings of what turned into original music goodness!
I love uniting musicians!
I also am the founder of Steemit Local Music Society on Discord and Steemit Musicians on Facebook, and both of these arenas provide a great place for Steemian musicians to share, promote, and network with other folks with similar interests. If you haven't joined our communities yet, please check out the Discord link at the bottom of this post. Let's get together!
What do I love to hear during OpenMic?
YOU
What makes our community so special is not only the talent we see on a weekly basis from Steemit musicians, but also the hearts, minds, sheer creativity, and passions of the creators. I love a passionate performance. I love original music that makes me think and feel...across genres. My own musical tastes are incredibly diverse, and I love seeing the array of musical talent we have represented in OpenMic.
I LOOK FORWARD TO CONTINUING TO REPRESENT YOU! I feel honored, humbled, and blessed to have this role.
I hope after checking this out that you know me a bit better and what it is I'm doing here. It is truly an honor to be one of your Open Mic Night judges, and I hope to continue to serve you on the Steemit platform. You are all truly at home here. I plan to feature my own Judge's Picks each week here on my blog through special weekly edition of Cool Stuff Curation, and I do hope you'll follow along to catch some incredibly talented Steemian musicians being featured here. Find some new faves. Steemit is the best place to do that.
See you at Open Mic!
Check out @virtualgrowth's post about my Steemit musical history HERE.
All black and white photos in this post were captured by the talented @melodyrussell, and other images, unless otherwise credited, were taken or created by me (@jessamynorchard) with an iPhone 6+, and edited in Adobe Lightroom for iOS, as part of my mission to make the most of my available technologies to make valuable, high-quality Steemit content.
Join the Steemit Local Music Society server on Discord for all things Steemit Music!
Follow me @jessamynorchard for more assorted randomness!
Awesome, congrats! Thanks for hosting the FB page in particular, I felt instantly welcome there and have come across great music, including from your good self. The #openmic tab is the first steemit community I got involved with since joining in June, and it's been great to discover and link up with fellow musicians. It's inspired me to record and post covers and original songs, which in turn has helped me with thinking about growing my Youtube channel. My latest Open Mic entry is one of my original songs which I haven't performed live before. The point is, Steemit, or rather the wonderful community here, is very inspiring and I've not felt so creative for a while. So thanks! Upped and resteemed :)
You have no idea how much that makes me smile to hear all of that, @thebigdelay. The entire point of creating those spaces was exactly for what you have used it. Open Mic was also the first community I dove into last October, and it's such a great place to share and experience. Also, @luzcypher's extensive efforts in growing the contest, along with the support of @pfunk, have been really beautiful to witness over the months...seeing more and more folks come in, seeing basically all genres represented, all levels of skill and experience, etc.
I'm looking forward to hearing your entry this week, and seeing the future work you do as a result of the inspiration you find on this platform. It's a great place to get a fire going, that's for sure!
Glad to have met you, and so happy you're a part of our musical community here.
The music/openmic community must be the best community in steemit for sure!
Upvoted and Resteemed by xx-votesplus, the dropAhead curation team!
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Congrats!! And that was a pretty cool autobiography, thanks for letting us get to know you so deeply. <3 <3 <3
Thank you, Lyndsay! It really is an honor and privilege. As far as the letting you guys get to know me so deeply, I honestly have no time for shallow relationships, and that applies to online as well. Lol
That's one of the things I love about Steemit. We are all sharing our passions. For a lot of us, here is where we can be most ourselves, and that is such a special thing, isn't it? I mean, the raw brilliance of humans just dropping the masks and getting real with each other might just save us. I'm thankful to have met you on Steemit, and count you with so much love in the number of friends I have gained here. 💚
Aw, that's the sweetest thing I've read in a long time, yes fuuuuuuck MASKS!! What we definitely needs is More Humanity, people unafraid to show who they really are, weaknesses, fears...all that dark stuff, if we bring it to the light, perhaps others can too, and we'll all feel less alone !!
SO Well said Beautiful~~~
@jessamynorchard I'm so happy you're part of the judge's panel for Steemit Open Mic. It is a pleasure to have you aboard and to be working together for the community.
Your input and continued support is part of what has kept me going all this time and your energy is an inspiration to us all.
Thanks for all the help, encouragement, and great music.
Upvoted, resteemed.
Congrats! That's so cool that you introduced the originalmusic tag, that's one of my favorite tags!!! <3
I love seeing it in action so much these days. When I introduced it, I felt like original content was being so buried in YouTube shares and random stuff that didn't have really any Steemian-original content within, and now I'm so happy that original artists have so many places to share their creations, but of course I am most proud of #originalmusic because it was my baby...but now it's grown up and it belongs to all of us, which is special. We started that place. We live there. It's our home. It's a nice place.
Thankful for all you contribute to Steemit, @isaria! Thank you so much for the comment and for all of your support!
Thank you for all that you contribute! You were the first musician that I watched and really liked on Steemit so you have a special place in my heart. <3
MY HEART!!
Thank you so much for telling me that. You have no idea how much that warms my heart, @isaria. I am so happy to make music that resonates with you.
You're welcome and thank you! <3
1000% deserving! I wanted to inquire about being a judge..i'm the most non bias person ever lol..congrats again, cheers!
Congrats!
Thank you!
welcome to the Community, @Jessamynorchard! Wish you much luck! Cheers! Follow me !
You should turn your bots off!
lol I'm far from new.
Quite an impressive and informative bio/write-up... Glad to know you're one of the judges for openmic... Great job all around, with everything you've done, and are doing!
Great introduction and acheivement. Keep steeming.