THE CD IS OUT!!!

Tonight is the release of 'Change. Love. Surrender." It's officially available for sale!! Woo! To order a copy, go to my website : www.wix.com/iamnotmaggie/music

My website (www.wix.com/iamnotmaggie/music) is where I'll be doing most of my blogging from now on, so check it out and see what you think! You can listen to the new songs, keep up with gigs and see new videos :) Yey!

Maggie

Music Video Shoot!

On Wednesday I had my first official music video shoot for the upcoming single "We Will Never Die." My producer, Will, and the very talented film maker Danny Kersic headed the project. We'd been talking it out for a few weeks, brainstorming, storyboarding and scouting locations, and finally at 4:30 am I woke up, got ready and headed out to the set.

The video is set in this giant field and while it was really really really cold, seeing the weather change all day and getting to be outside experiencing and documenting everything was so beautiful. I was very moved by the excitement and energy of my friends that agreed to come out toweather the long hours with me. We had so much fun! Here are some shots of what it was like. There's an awful lot I'm not showing you, because I want some of it to be a surprise, but I'll at least give you a teaser ;) If you want to see all the photos, click on the link below to go to facebook and become my fan on my fanpage! I've posted 47 exclusive photos of the shoot! http://www.facebook.com/tos.php?api_key=c87ca98ae20aa379f511b953d22c1bcc&next=http%3A%2F%2F67.228.94.19%2Fwhichfriend%2F%3F_fb_fromhash%3D1df8b62d9221be8fa0397efadd06a070&v=1.0&canvas#/pages/Maggie-Smith/172131110341

Link to my new "first listen" video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30styd-fr34

Click above to watch my new video and hear 30 seconds of the last song on the album, entitled "Can't Fight." Only 36 days left until the album release! Gah- I'm excited and nervous all at once :)

for the little prince

These thoughts have veiled
and settled
like gauze over roses,
the stirring snags and destroys.
I am pulled
in ten tender directions.
Things move in me and ache like the absence of a thorn.
The world is so small, and I can walk to see the sunset any time I like.

But I like
the dark, and the stars.
I like imagining the friends on planets I have never seen, who might love me,
if they knew me.
And I think of them,
those strangers who will tame me,
and the hurt
is for their soft hands I have never felt,
and their bright shining eyes that have not cried with me.

It is strange
to look into the night and see
the spaces between stars, the black
that is endlessness.
It is like looking into the future and divining all that you will ever know,
before you know it.

Official CD Release party details!

The party is nailed down at last!

Set your calendars for the night of Dec. 17th 2009, at 7:30 pm- come to The City Cellar of Cartersville GA and see me perform all the songs off my new album, watch the premier of the music video for my new single "We Will Never Die", meet cool peeps and get an album to take home) !

I'm so excited about the party. If you want to see the venue go to www.thecitycellar.com and check it out. Hope you can be there, it's gonna be a fun night!

New Title, New Poster

visit my myspace to hear me sing! http://www.myspace.com/loveinyourears

Well, all the songs are recorded at last! Hooray! Now for the mixing and mastering.... It is great to have everything tracked because it has really helped me get familiar with the tone of the whole project. So....after listening to the songs, I've changed the title of the album. The debut album is entitled "Change. Love. Surrender." The reason for the change is pretty basic, really- as I listened to the songs these three themes seemed to dominate. Every song has at least one of the themes running through it, and some have up to all three! It was a clarifying moment. I knew all these songs were connected, but it was really neat to have a sudden epiphany and realize that three words summed up my state of mind for the thing. Yey!

In other news, I went on the album photoshoot today with my mom (the amazing Cindy Harter- check out my link to her blog) and we got some really great shots. She's so funny, she'll climb up on jagged abandoned fences and say "Just lean your head back like this" as the rust flakes fall like snow and the fence groans threateningly. She'll dive into hay bales, break in to old wearhouses and set up shop in a snake-infested field, all to get her shot. I loved it, it was like a grand adventure. We had a car full of props (literally, we dragged an armchair out into a hay field) and tons of outfits. I would act all modelly in front of a wearhouse with urban backdrop appeal, then dash off to awkwardly change in the car while motorists passed by in the industrial parkway. Then after shaking the oh so unsexy hay out of my hair and donning high heels that I haven't worn in, well, ever, I teetered over to some new location and continued the modelly-ness. Yes. I lead a glamorous life. I joke, but you really do feel famous when you spend the whole day in front of the camera. Even if it is your mom taking the pictures, haha.

Appearances by.....

People are slowly but surely beginning to enhance my album and make it shine.

William Gaylord has put his prodigious guitar skills on both "Can't Fight" (an edgier track for me, and the most alternative of the album) and "You Are What You Choose", a piano song that I've always wanted to record.

Robert Sims the lead singer of the band Scattered, Smothered and Covered has been kind enough to consent laying down soulful harmonica and harmony on the song "Long, White Robe". This song has deep church roots, and is heavily influenced by sacred harp singing. To find out more about that old mountain sound, go to http://fasola.org/.

Max Ribot , one of the best classical guitarists I've had the pleasure of meeting, is the newest addition to the project and will be making his guitar sing through the strains of "Sweet and Low", a love song that I've had written for a while but which through request, had to be on the album! :)

Last but certainly not least, my own mom Cindy Harter has added beautiful harmonies to "Sky's lullabye", a song for my niece and her Granddaughter, little Sky Noel.

That's it for now! Thank you to all these amazing musicians for sharing your gifts!

Songs and sushi on a stormy day

Today was yet another magical day of recording the album with my ptoducer, Will. I brought sustenence in the form of California rolls and we got to work, tracking two songs, "White Robe" and a brand new, never-before-heard track "We Will Never Die". However, the clouds kept interrupting recording. Literally. Like magic, as soon as I'd start singing some thunderhead would butt in and rumble for a good long minute. We'd wait for a moment, start again and interrupting cloud would be at it again. It was enough to almost make me a believer in Zeus. It was like prank calls from heaven.

After we finished recording, we sat down and set up a date for the cd release party!! Everybody mark your calendars for Dec. 18th!! It's gonna be so fun and you'll get to hear the songs before anyone else:) peace for now!

Maggie

Harvest Moon.... or, I LOVE bluegrass

This past Thursday night I got a really exciting opportunity. I was able to play guitar and sing with some talented bluegrass/blues musicians at the Harvest Moon Cafe in Rome. The restaurant was practically a soundbox (all high ceilings, wooden floors and vault-like interior) and the audience was amazing.

Nothing can take your breath away faster than trying to keep up with a harmonica, mandolin, guitar and fiddle all going at hyperspeed as they blaze through a bluegrass tune. Still, I was smiling so much it actually hurt my face. And, bonus, I got this AWESOME t-shirt from the restaurant that's the prettiest tie-dye I've ever seen. Thank you to Timothy, Robert and Roger- what a great night!

Studio times are a changin.... (to be sung like Bob Dylan)

So, I spent the afternoon playing all sorts of ambient tones on a keyboard with my hardworking and ever hilarious producer, Will. We were enchanted by tones like "pulse" that sounded like windchimes faintly heard from a distance, but we laughed our heads off at other tones like "dissecting aliens" which to be honest sounded like farts in the bathtub. Haha, yeah pretty bad.

Recording has been so much fun, and it's glorious and sad all at the same time that we will be done within a month. Mixing will start in mid-October and then mastering, printing and voilà! Album by Christmas:) Stat tuned, I'm figuring out where and when to have a cd release party and everyone will be invited to the glorious event! Love you and my blessings! Maggie

Recording the Album Has Begun!

Yesterday, after a long hiatus in Italy and then St. Simon's Island, I came back into Cartersville to begin recording with the talented Will Wheeler. Our goal is to create an album within the next three months and have it clean and ready for printing before Christmas.

It's so exciting to be in the studio! I love the process of build songs layer by layer, adding and subtracting until you reach that perfect balance of melody and energy.

In the meantime, I'll be thinking of album titles. Naming the album is always the hardest part, because it is the introduction to the whole thing. Erp. Pressure. If anyone has suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

Two New Songs On My Myspace!

I have just posted two new songs to my myspace. One is an original called "Lady Mountain" that I wrote as I was driving home through the tennessee mountains. I was in my convertible with the top down and there was this beautiful mountain range in front of me that looked just like the silhouette of a woman laying down and facing the sky. It got me thinking and before I knew it I was scrambling for a pen and paper as I drove. Not the safest way to travel, haha.

The other song is a cover of Pat Benatar's hit "Love Is a Battlefield". It's such a great, tragic song that I couldn't help but record it with a little acoustic emo twist. Nothing makes me happier than a good ole sad song :) Here's the link to my myspace:

www.myspace.com/loveinyourears

Enjoy!

Things To Keep You Up At Night

like time
eating a hole in my winter coat that I left hanging,
with the words still dangling
and the closet door open and all the skeletons waving.

like hope
an ocean I can hear through the window
rising and falling so
vast and far I can't fathom what is down deep below.

like love
running wild and frightening the junkies
I'm holding a roman candle
lit and sparking diamonds on my ugly sleeves.

like music
kissing softly on my ear and at my throat
moving my soul with notes
that fall singly and dissolve like crystals of snow.

like you
the face I imagine even now before sleep
the thing I need
more than all of these, the thing I would keep.


Painting: entitled 3 pm, one of mine from the "Wasted" series.

Bond, James Bond: A Theory

Lately, the famous spy with his dapper tuxedo and love of dry martinis has been invading my daily routine to an almost exhausting point. It started as a random notion to watch "Live or Let Die" (because, well, the theme song is rockin and I distinctly remembered a pretty awesome bit of voodoo sacrifice in the first five minutes) and it turned into a three day movie marathon that unearthed some surprising observations.

Day 1:
I watched Richard Moore with his wit and his subtle dishiness, and I kinda wanted to see more of the Moore movies (no pun intended). The poor guy is so often overlooked as 007 even though he starred in more Bond movies than anyone else. Now, granted, he does seem awfully wrinkly to be bedding the eighteen-year-old fortune-teller and leaping through the air in death-defying acts of escape. Still, he intrigued me. After watching "Octopussy" (set in India, my favorite location for any thriller full of intrigue and exotic romance) and "The Spy Who Loved Me" I then had to see all the other Bonds in comparison. One Major Problem. There are over 20 films- arghh!

Day 2:
I hunkered down during a rainy day and watched free (or stolen, depending on your definition) movies online (http://www.watch-movies-links.net/) until my eyeballs felt like sandy ghosts of their former glory and my Bond craving was satiated. What did I gain from this massive time-consuming and seemingly pointless undertaking, you ask?

Day 3:
After coming down off the Bond high in which I fantasized that my basement could turn into a diamond vault full of death traps (steroid injected eel mutants- yes please!) and realizing that it's not okay to wear rhinestone encrusted backless thonged catsuits in public places (my bad, Publix), I started really thinking about my final impression of the movies. Really, the lasting contribution of the Bond legacy is the changing male fantasy of romantic relationships. Let me explain. I'll start with an example.

Average american girl, does your grandma get exasperated with your obliviousness to the rules of dating, your boyfriend's lax attitude or your inability to cook anything more than a burnt grilled cheese? Well of course she does! In the sixties, Bond women were props, servants, or sexy eye candy who keep the volcano dungeon clean and make the beds warm. Even Pussy Galore, the die-hard man hater of her era not only succumbed to Bond's agressive advances but was named, you know, after a vagina. Well dang. Sure, these are male fantasies, but in the sixties that's what the media was selling en masse as an ideal. Woah. Still, as much as I hate to say it, Bond was just more badass when he was smacking ladies' bottoms and wrecking hearts all over the place. Personal theory, but I think thats why Sean Connery's the favorite Bond. His Bond was so masculine, so authoritative and alpha. Unfortunately, old 007 was also kind of a woman beater. So thank god for feminism and all that.

Fast forward. Slowly but surely, you can watch the evolving of acceptable male-female dynamic through the decades of Bond. Feminism starts to creep in by the eighties and by the time of "GoldenEye" you have the spitfire Russian "Natalia" bossing Bond around, saving the day with her mad computer skills and sporting a simple white tee the whole time. She's the total 90's woman and her equal skills in different areas from Bond make the movie better. She and Bond have an exciting chemistry because they both need each other. Hmm. So what about now?

Let's look at "Casino Royale" and the current incarnation of Bond. He has a minor flirtation with a married Italian beauty. He brings her back to his place, gets the info he needs and leaves her with no more than a kiss between them. In fact, she seems to be the one rarin' to go. Weird. Old Bond would never had walked away from a lady, but then old Bond would also have forced said lady to succumb to his charms despite her guilt over her husband. The reversal is bizarre- does the modern man want to be a tease? Is the modern female fantasy woman the agressive one in the beginning?
After the single flirtation (note, no quickies with any pool girls, baristas or dancers) Bond meets his main movie love, who is gasp, an accountant!?! That's the least sexy job ever, in fact it's downright responsible. And so is her character. In the first five minutes she sizes Bond up and skewers his ego. She then proceeds to mock him, babysit him through his awesome spy activities (lame) and reject all his advances. The only time they seem close is when she can't handle the violence and retreats to a shower to cry. Bond comforts her and sits, fully dressed mind you, in the shower with her. Still he persists with puppy-like devotion and after she saves his life, gets them both captured and she single-handedly gets them freed, they get together. They have magical romance for a good ten minutes of film and then she betrays him and at the end of the movie we see a much broken, tragically love-sick Bond. Whaaaaat?

Basing my entire theory off of the new Bond, the new modern male fantasy is just as unbalanced as the 60's idea of male dominance. The woman takes all the initiative and the man is the emotional tuning fork. The woman draws all the lines in the sand and the man just hangs on for dear life. In fact, only the deliciously cool athleticism and violent badassery saved Daniel Craig from looking like the lead singer of Dashboard Confessional on a crying jag at the end of the movie. Bond was the eye candy. He was the one galavanting about half-naked, playing the tease and falling hard for love. Where was all the fantastic equality of "GoldenEye", all the neat fluid partnership that made it an exciting romance that both men and women could pull for?

Most importantly, do all men think they can now sit back and let the ladies do all the romantic work? Can we women be content to do everything, what with being foxy, working towards our dreams, living the picket-fence family-unit good life AND paying for the check? Hang it all! Someone please give Bond back his lady skills..... but maybe with the exception of the public spanking.

"At Last" Video Sneak Peek

Today was really exciting because it was the official video shoot for my demo of the classic (and my personal favorite) song, "At Last". The video features my sister Ellie and her baby, Sky, out on a field with a large expanse of (no surprise here) dramatic sky framing them :)

Using the Canon 5d Mark II with its amazing HD video feature, my mom and I set up a quilt and got to work, hoping to grab all the precious footage we needed before the rain rolled in. Thunder was growling, Sky was laughing and I was clicking away.

These are a couple of preview stills from the video. Get excited!

Recording In Cartersville

I've traveled back to Cartersville (my hometown) for a recording session with my sisters. We grew up primitive baptist and our attachment to old creepy hymns is so great that we decided to make some rough cuts for friends and family.

If you can imagine it, recording goes something like this. I lean over my boss, pressing buttons and wondering how in the world I lost the best version of Amazing Grace while Melody (the oldest), tries to sneak out the back door and leave because recording makes her so nervous. Meanwhile, Ellie (the youngest) is rocking her tiny baby Sky and reading the same verse over and over, trying to remember it so that she doesn't have to mumble through her angelic solo- and all the while we're laughing at each other and enjoying the time together. Nothing beats hanging out with sisters (except maybe hanging out with sisters AND brothers).


My sister Ellie and Her Baby, Sky


My recording system, a BOSS

"Slowly Revolving Doors" New Music Video!

I wrote this new song today called "Slowly Revolving Doors" and in my free time I made a little music video to go with it. I hope you enjoy the song- I like to think it's about exploring your heart :)

Dreaming of Nashville

College is over and I find myself staring at the great unknown expanse of the rest of my life.... and I've never been more excited! I'm moving up to Nashville in August to paint, sing, write, and hopefully share what is important and significant around me to everyone who will listen, look and understand. Life can be so beautiful, so heartbreaking, so exhilarating, and I feel privileged to share my experiences with you. thank you for supporting me!