HarlanSteinberger.com

After 4 months of teaching myself how to write basic code I have finally constructed a completely new version of the Hen House Studios web site. Those of you interested please visit www.HenHouseStudios.com to review the site. Your input (contact me) would be greatly appreciated. The site was built using Dream Weaver and Wordpress.

Since the site was finally presentable I sent out a Newsletter, the first one in months outlying the some of the new exciting things happening at Hen House Studios:

• A new Mp3 single “Green” from Maria Vidal
• A new Indian rights video “Missionary” from Floyd Red Crow Westerman and Trevy Felix
• The new acoustic reggae CD from Trevy entitled “African Roots”
• New poetry radio show/podcast from Grammy/Pulizter Prize poet Michael C Ford entitled “It Might Not Be Poetry”

Until next time………

I was happy to find out that a CD I produced and released for my label Hen House Studios entitled “Floyd Red Crow Westerman – A Tribute to Johnny Cash” won the prestigious “Native American Music Award”. My only regret was that I didn’t have the time to attend the awards in Niagara Falls, New York.

Here is what Kris Kristofferson wrote about the CD:

“I Think Johnny Cash would be especially proud of this tribute album. Not just because of his high regard for Floyd Red Crow Westerman or his own life-long identification with Native Americans and commitment to their cause, but because it is such a respectful, loving portrayal of the man’s work. Floyd’s deep, powerful voice resonates with the truth. I had no idea he could sound so much like John.”

I also, spent a lot of time in studio this week as I finished another song for possible inclusion in the Nickelodeon TV show “South of No Where” and starting tracking songs for a follow up CD with Red Crow.

Peace…..

This past week I worked on a track for benefit album for Hurricane Katrina victims with Doors drummer John Densmore and hand drummer Hani Naser. The CD will feature some of the best drummers on the planet. The track still needs more work and we will get together soon to finish it up.

I also finished tacking a new song with Nikki Hong. Chris Crash Carson of Freelance Johnson came in to record the guitars and Nikki finished laying down her vocals. I will begin mixing next week.

On a weather note its finally cooled down here in Los Angeles to where it should be for this time of year. I am going to enjoy the cooler weather as it is long over due.

We had a big rain here in LA and we needed it. A little bit to big though as it flooded out the Hen House office. After I cleaned up the mess I worked in the studio with Nikki Hong and we made a lot of progress writing together. She is really fun to work with and is extremely talented.The revised Hen House Studios web site was suppose to be up this week, but our web master lost his internet connection and it was down for 4 days. He has since change his service provider from Earthlink. Earthlink has been giving everyone I know who uses it a big headache with their frequent outages and overseas customer support. Best to stay away from Earthlink until they get it together. Such a shame as they used to be a great company in the early internet days.Put the finishing touches on a new album as well, it’s an acoustic Reggae CD featuring the lead singer from Boom Shaka, Trevy Felix. I am not sure yet if I should release it as a CD or just as a download. The music business as well as the public is almost completely over CDs. I welcome your thoughts on this. Until next time…….

All in all a pretty productive week. I finished preparing the studio tracks for a new song that Niki Hong and I are composing. She will come in next week to lay down the vocals. Had some TV song licensing success this week as the Nickelodeon network (a Rupert Murdoch company!) sent over an contract to license a song we recorded at Hen House Studios a while back entitled “Blue” with the incredible and beautiful singer Aya Peard.

Also completed was a distribution deal in Poland for our yoga instructional DVD “Iyengar Yoga with Gabriella”. The yoga master Gabriella Giubillaro is well known in Poland and I am excited at the prospects for increased sales and to see the DVD with Polish subtitles. Ever since the DVD was voted by the “Yoga Journal” as one of the top 10 yoga DVDs in the world it has been selling like hot cakes! Not a easy deal to make as there was a language barrier and a big time difference.

For now I am glad it is the weekend and am looking forward to chilling.

Well, I am back from a long weekend in Chicago. This week will prove to be a busy one as I put the final touches on our new podcast radio show called “It Might Not Be Poetry” which is hosted by the incredible poet Michael C Ford. Also, I am co-writing some songs with the glamorous singer/songwriter Nikki Hong and will be building some tracks in the Hen House Studio’s recording studio for her to come sing over at a later date.

Thats all for now, time to catch some zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…………….

I will be posting periodically what I have been up to. Whether it be producing records, documentary films, videos, engineering recording sessions, running my record label, playing gigs or taking it easy, I will do my best to inform you.