Happy 2016 my friend...here's to making it through another trip around the sun.
I've never been big on New Year's Resolutions, but I'm about to add it to the short list of "Things I've Done a Complete 180 On."
I used to bunch New Year's Resolutions in with all the other half-baked good intentions we only half-heartedly pursue, those nice ideas stapled permanently to a post-it note of legit excuses: too busy, too tired, too distracted, too lazy.
But I'm beginning to realize it's not the actual outcome of the resolution that matters as much as the midnight snowshoe journey inward, slogging back through the small triumphs and missed opportunities of the year gone by in the cool objective moonlight coming over your shoulder, and seeing a little more clearly how what you did veered off the path of what you meant.
I had a deeply satisfying 2015 in a lot of ways: producing Shawn Mullins' new album My Stupid Heart, signing Julia Cole as my first writer/artist to Holler! Music Publishing, playing shows from the West Palm Beach Symphony with Michael Feinstein to The Big Barn Dance in Taos with Michael Hearne, and many fantastic points between. I also spent a lot of time stoking the creative fire that sparked a few new songs and my first music video in over a decade.
Delivering you new music was actually the top of my New Year's Resolutions this time LAST year, so I'm way proud to be sharing this project with you now...a moment worth celebrating with Champagne. Thank you for coming to the party!
So I'm good with a lot of what I’ve been doing, but after unstrapping my snowshoes I realize here's what I mean: I hope to feed someone’s soul. I want to press words and music and sounds and pictures and stories into a strong tea for someone’s heartache, an elixer for an existential crisis, a spiked punch for the party.
I’m amazed by the incredible talent we get to work with here in the Holler. World-class musicians, hit songwriters, expert engineers and a steady stream of gifted artists from every musical genre come up our gravel drive to make music off the beaten path and out of the harsh glare of the “biz.” The music business, with it’s relentless focus on branding and impressions, can sometimes blind artists to their own gifts, their raison d’etre. I know I’ve lost sight of mine more than once.
So my New Year's Resolution is this: to dance in the joy, the celebration of life and love, the almost magical connection forged between humans through music. I’ve redesigned my website, added some cool features and I’ll be delivering new songs and stories to you every month in 2016…in other words, I’m amping up the party!
For starters, here’s the full-color video for Champagne, an exclusive advance offering only to you, my best and most loyal fans…Thank You! I’ll release the single just in time for Valentine’s Day, downloadable direct from lariwhite.com.
Here’s to 2016. Let the band play on…more Dom Perignon!
xox
lari