BLACKBIRDS: News

Molly's '07 was a great success; more money going to Rwanda and a great party! Good to see many old friends.
Thanks, and see you again soon!

The date for the Molly Malone's concert for Dr Cohen's work in Rwanda has been set for June 2, Saturday, from 9-12. More info will follow. Meanwhile, we have been signed by A&R Select from LA, which will promote the music in various media outlets. The five new songs are appearing on the SoundAid website to help raise funds for Heifer.

We have added a new feature to the website, "Blast Mt Music", for those who want to download single tunes instead of buying CDs. On the Home Page you will find an icon for "Blast My Music" which will list all the songs available for individual purchase at $0.99 each. Eventually, we hope to upload the bulk of our catalogue there so you can pick and choose. As usual, profits from this venture help women and children in Rwanda; we receive (I think) $0.67 for each download. It's a secure site, and you can use any credit/debit card for purchase, once you establish your account.

One door closes and another opens... Claire will concentrate on school and work, so won't be recording with us anymore. Her pristine vocals will be missed greatly. However, Blackbirds has a new member - Jasmine Quintana. Jasmine is a professional dancer already and is currently finishing her last year at DePaul, where she has pursued interests in music, film, and modeling. Check out our new track, "One"; there will be more to come.
In other news, "Requiem for a Friend" finished 8th out of almost 800 entrants in the Sony open competition on Americanidolunderground.com, by far the highest acoustic number. "Edge of Town" continues to be 1st out of 201 in the Big Push Folk II on that site. "Deficits of the Heart" has been picked up by a British weird-cultural-arty-subversive website - http://www.smallfish-online.net/ - and is appearing on their "radio" feature, though they seem to be on vacation right now. Soundaid.org continues to raise money for Heifer and is growing all the time. We're happy to be among the first artists to appear there.
Hope your holidays were relaxing, fun, and blessed. Happy New Year and thanks for listening.

Claire's beautiful "Icarus" just surpassed 1,000 listens on download.com. Blackbirds remains in the top 5 in the Contemporary Folk category (though I've kind of neglected that site.) Meanwhile, we continue to hold the #1 and #2 slots (out of 201) in americanidolunderground.com Folk competition, and also #2 in the open Sony contest (out of 770). Thanks for all your help.
"Soul Tattoo" has been re-mixed and can be found at the top of the Music page. Thanks for the "oohs" goes to Enza, Grace, and Torrie (recorded in the Bell Tower).

As always, thanks for listening

As of today, we've got the top song in the folk category in Big Push 2, plus 3 others in the top 6. It's very early, as the contest runs until April, but thanks for your support. In the Opne category (Sony) contest, we've been holding in the top 10 out of 500, but that one's tough because there's so many entrants and so many different types of music, acoustic not necessarily being one of the most popular.

The Sound-Aid project now includes a jukebox feature to play continuous music. 100% of the proceeds from this project go to Heifer, so it's a good place to visit and pass along to friends. We're happy to have been on the site from early on as it continues to grow.

The first 2 Blackbirds CDs have been added to "Flash" Radio, a station in Belgium! So whenever you're there...
"Edge of Town" finished first in the "Groovebox" competition on American Idol Underground. Thanks for the votes.
Nothing new is coming down the pike right now, but I will be adding some cover tracks to the music library shortly (Like "Eye of the Hurricane"). I'll recrod those tracks people usually ask for when I play for download.
Thanks again for listening.

Mike & Claire

At long last, the new CD "Anatomy of Melancholy" is available for purchase - click on the "products" link to buy this new CD. We are adding a 20% discount for purchases of more than one, so Christmas shopping can never be done too early, right? All songs are available for preview at cdbaby.com, and, of course, you can hear the songs (some in earlier versions) right here.

At long last, the new CD "Anatomy of Melancholy" is being shipped and will be available on CDBaby within a couple of weeks. Had to get that bodhran in there (always be careful about who you order your bodhrans from).

Matt Slajchert is in the fledgling stages of band photography and has a number of his photos published on band websites. If you know a band that wants publicity shots, they can contact him here.

If you can, log onto americanidolunderground.com, register (it's free), and search for "Blackbirds", then listen to "Edge of Town" and rate it highly (shameless plug here) to give us a shot at some cash and recording software.

Thanks again for listening.

Mike and Claire

Hi everybody,
Hope your summer has gone well, and good luck for everybody returning to school (which is WAY too early). Just wanted to update you on a few things. "Deficits of the Heart" is being featured as the folk "Track of the Day" on Garageband.com, and is also honored that day for Best Programming, Best Production (even though the vocal track had a terrible hiss which I was finally able to suppress on the master track last night), Best Mood, and Best Love Song (though I think I wrote it as an "out of love" song, but hey, who knows?). So check it out if you can. Claire's vocals got a tremendous reception - read the "Did I just hear an angel?" review. A recommendation: on the Folk charts, you will find Lori McKenna listed - do yourself a favor and listen to her. I've been watching her work for about a year and a half, and she's beginning to get lots of deserved recognition.
We've got a new CD in production, "Anatomy of Melancholy", and expect to release it sometime in September. Most of the tracks are on the website for your preview.
If you have time, do us a great favor: we're currently entered in a contest on "American Idol Underground" - yeah, I hate American Idol, but there's additional exposure and prizes to be won - so we could use your help in the contest. If you go to Americanidolunderground.com, you can request the track, rate it (highly, we hope), and nominate it for the current contest. You'll have to register with them - don't worry, you can check the box that says you don't want any mail from them and you definitely won't get any. The track we have up is "Edge of Town" (a remix), and it's doing well in the preliminary stages, but we can certainly use your nominations and high ratings (and recommendations to friends!) You can just put "Blackbirds" in the search box and you'll get to our page there.
Thanks for your help, and we hope you enjoy the little bit of summer left.

Mike and Claire

Garageband.com, which is running "Edge of Town" as the track of the day in Folk today has now given that honor to "Ballad" all day long on August 8.
We've been entered in a contest on American Idol Underground and "Edge of Town" is in a current competition. If you have time, please go over to www.americanidolunderground.com, listen to the song on "Folk" (you can go directly to it with a search) and, if you can, join up and give it a high rating (we're absolutley shameless here). This is a contest with actual prizes, so your help would be appreciated. Registration is free and easy, and gives you access to lots of music which you can just leave on as a "radio station" while you are on your computer.
Thanks again for listening; Claire is in Japan (I think) so happy sushi to you all.
Mike

"Edge of Town" will be the featured "Track of the Day" for August 2 on garageband.com on the "Folk" page. Previously, "Icarus" was selected for that honor.

We've uploaded a new song, "Time to Go", a little Delta-blues influenced all- acoustic track. You can also listen to it and vote for it on songramp.com in the "Folk" category.

Thanks again for listening!

Mike & Claire

Haappy 4th everyone. We have just been notified that "Icarus" will be featured as the "Track of the Day" at Garageband.com all day on July 12th. Stop by on that day and check it out on the "Folk" page.

We put 2 new songs up this morning, after finally working most of the kinks out of the "I'm Falling" song. The goal is to have enough good music down by the time Claire goes cack to St. Louis to be able to release another CD. The goal is also to keep getting better.
I've attached below the latest report from Dr. Cohen from rwanda so you can see how your donations are making a difference in many ways toward saving life, as opposed to the usual horrors out of Iraq and Washington (how many think that Donald Rumsfeld should be standing court-martial with the other soldiers, raise your hands?)

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Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 18:11:22 -0400
From: mardgecohen@aol.com

Dear all

I’m back in Rwanda this month. The rainy season is over, it’s not
too
hot, and the garden in our backyard is pretty lush. It’s wonderful
to see friends and colleagues here after several months away. And
it’s
amazing to see how things have progressed and also how much there is to
do.

Many WE-ACTx volunteers fill the house this summer—a whole new legal
venture is underway to train paralegals to provide mediation at the
local level for HIV related as well as gender and family issues. The
trainings will take place over the next couple of months and the group
seems to have the support of the Minister of Gender and the Rwandan law
school.

Before I arrived, Anne-christine d’Adesky (We-ACTx’s co-executive
director) took the crew to Goma, Congo to visit Doctors on Call
Services (DOCS). This international NGO supports a hospital for women
and children who have been raped and attacked in the continuing
conflict in the DRC (the same conflict, of course, as the Rwandan 1994
genocide). They filmed their visit and I saw women in their 20s
describe being raped, rejected by their husbands, unable to return to
their homes and having up to 7 operations to repair fistulas.

We’ve met some women with HIV who are forming a new Rwandan
organization for women with HIV. They raise issues that really matter
to them—they describe their partners not always using condoms, and
say
that if they get pregnant, they try to induce abortions. In Rwanda,
physician found performing abortions are sentenced to 20 years in
prison.

I visited the new alternative Genocide Museum begun by SURF (the
British Survivors Fund). The exhibit begins with pictures of those who
survived, and presents their testimonies. This is in contrast to the
National Genocide Museum which starts with the history of Rwanda, then
covers colonialism, identity cards, independence and the genocide. In
SURF’s museum, the emphasis is on the survivors, their experiences,
memories and their lives now.

I have been spending most of the time here concentrating on the new
family centered program. As some of you know, The Ronald McDonald
Charity Fund has given significant support to develop WE-ACTx’s
pediatric program over the next year. We can support the
pediatricians and hire nurses and trauma counselors and peer advocates
to better address the many psychosocial needs of families with HIV
infected children. Care will begin with voluntary counseling and
testing (VCT), continue at the WE-ACTx clinical sites (a third will be
starting soon), and include home visits, social needs assessment,
information and educational support groups, emotional counseling,
permanency planning, and assessment and contribution to the community
understanding of families affected by HIV. We’re very moved by how
the
counselors understand HIV infection in families in Rwanda in the
context of the trauma from the genocide (both directly and indirectly).
They will help create a hopeful and successful Rwandan specific model
that addresses the stigma, sadness, and re-traumatization that so many
families with children with HIV experience. Last week, a 3-year old
girl was brought into the clinic by her 12-year old sister. Their
mother died of AIDS a year ago. The 2 children and another 5 year old
sibling now live with their aunt, their mother’s sister. But the
aunt
is very poor, not pleased to have the three children, and very upset
about taking in a child with HIV. The 12 year old brings the younger
sick child to clinic, but has still not been tested herself for
HIV—too
much to handle all at once. We are hoping that our newly hired staff
will be able to help this family and the many others coming to the
clinic.

We did celebrate the families last Friday on African Children’s Day
(June 16). This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Soweto student
uprising and all over Africa, since the 1990s, the holiday celebrates
children. So a Rwandan and U.S. volunteer team organized a fantastic
party for WE-ACTx’s 300 families with infected children—which meant
hosting about 1500 people! The party was in a beautiful banquet space
with 3 garden areas. It started at noon and the children played
soccer, went on slides and swings, made masks, hats, had faces painted
and pictures taken and really had a blast. The formal program started
at 3 with traditional Rwandan dancing, music, children’s dancing, box
lunches and drinks and fruit for everyone, moving and sad poems by two
children living with HIV, a raffle and some speeches by representatives
of UNCEF, Ministry of Gender, and the national AIDS body. Everything
was totally perfect. Then, at the end, as it was time to give a bag of
rice to each family and 500 orange African Children’s Day T- shirts
to
the children, things got out of control. The space was mobbed. So we
had to give the rice to our partner associations to distribute to the
families another time. We finally distributed the T-shirts as the
families got on the buses to go home. Lesson learned: Next year
we’ll
give the T-shirts out as the kids first arrive and begin to play.

I’m encouraged by our successes and acknowledge the
challenges—we’ve
started the third visit of the research study with an amazing 97%
retention. People are doing well on therapy. And the cancer prevention
program is still moving forward. We may have to move clinic sites to
facilitate ARV distribution. Food supplies and income generation
continue to be challenging.

This past Sunday an especially wonderful WE-ACTx staff member
(supervising trauma counselor)/friend had a prenuptial celebration.
The WE-ACTx mizungos were all in traditional Rwandan dresses (my first
bridesmaid experience). There was a Pentecostal Church ceremony and
then a reception. Though it was a very happy time, it was of course
also a very sad time. The bride and the groom each lost their parents
and many other family members during the genocide. A cousin described
how she and the bride found each other wandering around after their
families had been murdered and how they hid together in a house in one
room, not eating anything for days, listening to and hiding from the
dogs that were eating human bodies. She said they never imagined that
there would be a day like this. And the groom’s sister slowly
explained
how only two sisters and the groom survived in their family and how
difficult their lives had been and how wonderful this day was for them.
We felt honored to share the pain and joy.

Thanks as always for all your help.
Mardge

Claire made it home from the wilds of Texas without being amBushed (get it? am Bushed?) so we were able to fit in some recording time. Check out "Dreambreaker" and "Memphis" at the top of the music list (the old versions are on the bottom and I haven't figured out how to can them yet). We have one more that needs a lot of mixing so another couple of days.

Just a note to anyone who signed up for our mailing list but hasn't received anything yet - we get a lot of mail bounced back, including most of the stuff from "royalmail" and "operamail" so I can't reach you guys. Any suggestions, you can e-mail us.

We have one new song available "Dnace on the Wire", first version. WE should have three others later this week (I hope).

Matt and I got an unexpected thank-you e-mail about the Rwanda benefit and thought I'd share it with you:
From: LMushikiwa@aol.com
To: info@mygiftismysong.com
Subject: Thank you!
Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 10:29:45 EDT

This is a massage to thank Matt Scharpf and Michael Slajchert for the May
13
fundraising concert at Molly Malone’s in Forest Park to raise money for
We-ActX. I am a Rwandese woman living in Washington, D.C.; I am familiar
with
We-ActX and the wonderful work Dr. Cohen is doing in Rwanda. I saw an
article
on the web about the concert and just wanted to thank you for caring about
people you do not know from so far away. Perhaps one day you could team up
with Rwandese musicians in the US for another benefit concert!

Louise Mushikiwabo
Co-author, Rwanda Means the Universe (St. Martin's Press, 2006)
lmushikiwa@aol.com




From: LMushikiwa@aol.com
To: mslajchert@fenwickfriars.com
CC:
Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 20:26:24 EDT
Subject: Re: concert for rwanda


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Dear Mike,

I am very happy that you have taken on the duty of teaching your students about Rwanda and the 1994 genocide. I would love to come and speak to your class, perhaps in September. I will be moving to Tunis, Tunisia, for work in the next couple of months, and I am currently busy promoting my new book (Rwanda Means the Universe). I will stay in touch about coming to Chicago. Please give me your postal address so that I can send you a CD or 2 of Rwandan music (Check out and sample some good Rwandan music at www.samputu.com). Let's stay in touch. Louise
============================
In a message dated 5/25/2006 10:22:55 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, mslajchert@fenwickfriars.com writes:
Thank you so much for your e-mail regarding our little show here supporting the work of Doctor Cohen in Rwanda. We do what we can. I teach high school here in the Chicago area and can guarantee that no student leaves my Moral Theolgy class without learning about what happened there, and many of them attended Dr. Cohen's presentation (even though it was after school, conflicted with lots of sports, and they got no credit for it!)
We intend to do the show again in the Fall when school is back in session. My musical partner Claire and I have recorded a song about our sometime-indifference to events in Africa - if you would like to hear it, it's on www.blackbirdsmusic.net and the song is "Children of the Ghosts."
I would love to hear some Rwandese music!
If you are ever in Chicago, I would be honored to have you come in and speak to us.

Mike Slajchert

We've been a little delayed in getting three new songs up (scheduling, etc.) but they should be available sometime this week.