Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Jessica Star plays Banjo Jim’s, NYC!

I just got booked for the “Newville Sessions” at Banjo Jim’s! This is a songwriter’s showcase that combines New York City and Nashville! Right up my ally!

Date:Thursday, Jan.31st

Time:show starts at 9pm, I play from 11-11:45pm

location:700 East 9th Street, New York, NY 10009

Taxi: Tell the driver “9th Street and Avenue C”

Subway: 6 Train to Astor Place; N or R Train to 8th Street; L Train to 14th St and 1st Ave 

cost:donation

http://www.myspace.com/banjojims 

Jessica Star records her newest song,” What she is” Jan.14th, 2008, NYC

WHAT FUN!!!!!!!!! Seriously. Yesterday I went into the studio of my producer, Cliff Goldmacher http://www.cliffgoldmacher.com and we laid down two tracks of him playing sweet acoustic guitar and then we recorded my vocals for my newest song, “What she is”.<br>My song is a true story that I wrote from the perspective, my perspective, of living in the city and being from the country. It’s a wild paradox. I’m sure it’s a common reality and I like to try and write from new perspectives, at least new for me. When I think about where I’m from, the first vision that comes to mind are the hills right up from the ocean in Bodega Bay, California. The forests and fields up the coast from there where moss grows on ancient trees along with fungus and you can walk by yourself down trails and see no one the whole day. It was there that I dreamed up living here in NYC. I was very happy living in nature but I felt that my real work was here in NYC or at least, this is where it would launch. “What she is” is this story! <br>So there you go, that’s the story of my newest song. We’re still in the midst of recording it and hopefully soon I’ll have it up for all to hear!

I have some live shows coming up in NYC, check out my calendar!

Jessica Star

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Jessica Star show! Sat., Feb.2nd,2008~ 11pm NYC~Evolver: “Wake Up and Dream” Party*

This is going to be one cool party! Here’s the info:

I’ll be playing solo around 11pm in the cafe space so get there early and get into the vibe!

*Reality Sandwich presents…..

Evolver: “Wake Up and Dream” Party*



**Saturday February 2, 8pm - 5am

@Jivamukti Yoga School

841 Broadway, 2nd Fl. (between 13th & 14th St. at Union Square)

$15 advance tickets, $20 door

Dreamy Costumes Highly Encouraged!

http://www.realitysandwich.com









What happens when America’s most visionary city starts building a new world

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Featuring the city’s finest lucid dreamers, including globe-spanning DJs and

devotional dancers, hula hoopers and healers, performers and poets,

musicians and meditation masters and that big bold playful dreamer—You!

 

Sunday, December 09, 2007

holiday greetings!

Just a little update for ya!

I’ve been meeting with potential producers for my upcoming album and I can feel the wheels starting to roll. Actually, they’ve been rolling, they’re now speeding up and shifting gears. It’s all feeling very good. I got some new pictures in my studio; one of Bob Marley (not smoking) and one of Jimi Hendrix! My studio is getting better and better. I’ve been writing songs all for my new album.

We celebrated Chanukah this weekend and I made out like a bandit! I got hard shell cases for my banjo (yes, my banjo!) and my Luna guitar and a nice chair for my desk in my studio! Also, the pics of Bob and Jimi were gifts. We have a Christmas tree up in the living room in a nice spot where the passersby can see the lights. I think it spices up the neighborhood here in Brooklyn! I always appreciate when people decorate or plant flowers here. It shows spirit! Alright, that’s it for now, just a little update to say hi and my life is rockin’ here in NYC.

I hope you are all enjoying the holidays!





Jessica Star

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Jessica Star rocked out last night at the Cutting Room, NYC

Last night I went to the weekly Monday night Cutting Room jam! Richie Cannata http://www.richiecannata.com  runs it and the band is smokin’ hot.

I sang,” Natural Woman” and it felt great. It started at 11pm or so and I left at 2:30am.

I LOVE LATE NIGHT MUSIC SESSIONS!!!

I’ve always been a night owl and it feels great to be out with the other late night music folks. I met a bunch of cool and talented people and listened to some sweet rocking music.

It’s amazing to me how fast the universe responds when you make up your mind to forge ahead with your plans or make a change in your life that needs to be made. Try it, it’s cool! See what happens as a result of a new choice you’ve made!

Stay focused on your dreams!





Jessica Star

Monday, November 05, 2007

Jessica Star played the NYC Burning Man Decom 2007

We played the NYC Burning Man Decom at the Queens Museum of Art last Saturday night. What a great space for that party. Our set went off without a hitch. It was the first time Kentucky and I have played together live for an audience. It was cool. We played to pre-recorded tracks with drums and fiddle on them. It was the debut of “What she is”, my new dance tempo urban country song! Burners are a delightful crowd to play to. Thank you Decom volunteers for giving us a slot at that great party!

We played at 8pm so, we had the rest of the night for frolicking and partying. There is a huge replica of the five boroughs of NYC there at the museum. I mean, it’s a model of the layout of the boroughs and it’s really cool. There was a lot of great art and slide shows, dancing, pulled chicken tortilla wraps, domes with chill spaces and blinky lights and costumed stranglings.

It was cold enough to wear our fake furs!

Now I’m back to writing new tunes for my next cd. Have I mentioned that I’ve never made an album this way? In the past I put together the best of what I had and called it an album. This time I’ve decided what the flavor of the album will be and am writing and producing the songs to all go on that album. I know most artists probably do it that way but it’s a first to me! It’s all changed since I’ve gotten this digital equipment! I was listening to my older analog recordings compared to strictly digital and I can really see how analog has a smoother, lush and filled out feel. I think I’ll record everything analog and then convert to digital for the engineering and post production… Big words!

Ok, here’s the sermon:

A lot of times when you’re going after your dream, life can be frustrating. Meaning, the feeling of frustration is common. Don’t let it drag you into doubt. You gotta believe!!!

Believe in the reality that your dreams WANT to come true!!! Good dreams, I mean.

Yep, hey if wayyyy more people were bringing into this world the bright dreams that only they can see in their minds, think how much more fun this place would be?! That’s kind of like Burning Man. Everyone is an artist if they want to be at Burning Man. Humans being creative. Creativity makes us happier and might even make us want to share! Yep, I grew up in the post 60’s Bay Area of San Francisco and those hippies had a good effect on me!



Love ya,



Jessica Star

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Jessica Star, a Country singer in NYC talks about her new album

Hey y’all!

Yesterday, October 16th was my 5 year anniversary of living in my new hometown, NYC! It’s also my hubby and my 5 year anniversary of living together cause I moved right in with him when I got here (and I never left!).

I love making music! I’m getting very excited about releasing my new album and touring my new songs. I have reworked a few tunes from the past because I want to record them for this album with a full band. Those songs would be “The ocean” and “Firewalk”. I’ve listened to the feedback from audiences and watched the body language as we’re playing them live and I think I’ve fine-tuned them so they’re even better. I’m really excited for the actual recording dates in the studio when we bang out the album the way New York City musicians can. This album will have sexy fiddles, drums, bass, acoustic and electric and steel guitars, back up singers, banjo, and possibly some tabla drums.

I’m still writing songs intended for this album and now I’ve recorded 13! I feel so proud! I really want to get about 24 and then pick the very best for actual release.  

I’ve been in pre-production for a while now, which is really a new process for me. It’s something I’ve imagined for years; having a digital studio where you can see all the tracks on your monitor and actually arrange the music more like a picture.

If you haven’t seen the movie,” The Secret”, see it! It’s how I live my life and have lived it for a long time. Well, it’s really how we all live our lives but when your conscious of it, it’s way more fun. Manifesting your dreams!

I LOVE New York City; I dreamed about living here since I was 14 years old. That’s the thing about manifesting your dreams, sometimes they happen quickly and other times they take a very long time. It seems they speed up when you’re focused on them and passionate about them!

Now that Ben and I are married, I have only my music to focus on and believe me, I feel incredibly blessed! I’m so grateful for my sweet life! You, the reader, I wish for you to find whatever it is in yourself that makes you tick the right way so you feel your happiest and most fulfilled in your everyday experience.



Jessica Star of NYC

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Entry #204

Burning Man 2007 was awesome. Once again it proves to be one of the most free places on the planet for a week.Ben and I arrived in Black Rock on Tuesday around sunset. It gets dark FAST there as soon as the sun sets over the mountains so we set up our tent and camp real fast after finding our friends at 5 and A (the address). Wednesday was spent mostly integrating. It is VERY dry there so when you get there, you're body goes through this whole process of realizing it's losing water at a rate it's probably never experienced before. You drink and drink and still you're dehydrated! Gatorade is a friend out there. Thursday we got into costume as the sun set and made our way in a group to party on the playa. It was fun although we were exhausted! We spent the past 6 months planning our wedding, the weekend before executing our wedding plans, and then dropped ourselves into Burning Man three days after our wedding! Ironically, we found a subway entrance out there. An art piece someone had made. It looked like a subway entrance for somewhere in the East Village of NYC. We felt right at home. There was a couch at the back wall of the structure. We took a nap on it! We were trying to party but we were too tired! So, we got back on our bikes and went to camp and fell asleep.Friday was a good day for our energy. We did another wedding ceremony out on the playa at the Temple right after sunset. Our friends Kevin and Leslie led it. It was a Hand-Fasting ceremony. It was beautiful! This was actually our third wedding in one week!Afterwards we had been invited to a sushi bar on the playa (a camp that created a sushi restaurant, all vegetarian.) so we biked there and although there was a very long line to get in, Glenn asked for our friend by name (who had been at our wedding in Shasta), and we were seated right away! It was great. What fun. Crazy Burners! We had a very magical night and danced, partied, eventually came back to our own camp and Dave and Heidi brought out their fire brazier and lit up a nice fire. We had people around the fire all night from all over the planet. Our camp was "Z Bar" as in "Z bar is over there." So, as soon as the lights in Z Bar lit up, Burners flocked and our friends tended bar. Saturday was spent with Ben and I packing up our tent and cleaning up what we could of our camp. We drove out of Black Rock as our friends were finishing getting in costume and were leaving to watch the Man burn. There were only about 3 other cars on the road. This was my 9th year at Burning Man and Ben and I both felt that leaving when we did was clever and one of the only ways to actually do everything we needed to and make our plane on Sunday night in Oakland. We drove to Reno that night and slept for 4 hours. We drove to Mt. Shasta Sunday morning and gave back the truck we borrowed from our photographer and ate delicious lunch at Billy Goat's Tavern and then drove to Oakland, dropped off the rental car and got ourselves and 7 huge bags on the plane for NYC. Now we've been home for a little over a week and life is back to normal and WE'RE MARRIED!!!Jessica Star-Sanders!

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Entry #203

Well, I'm a married woman! Ben and I just got back home to NYC from our whirlwind trip out west to get hitched! We first went to Boulder, CO to meet up with our good friends and go to Reggae in the Red Rocks~ very cool! What an amazing amphitheater! Also amazing was that the next day, Sunday, everyone went back to the show and I opted to stay at our friends house by myself and did the best yoga! I did yoga out on their balcony overlooking the mountains and trees and open sky. I needed the time alone to wrap my head around our then upcoming wedding festivities. It was blissful.Then we flew to San Francisco and drove up to Mt. Shasta on August 20th. We were crazy busy pretty much the entire time we were in the most restful place I know! When you throw a party for 100 plus friends and family, a wedding no less, there is A LOT to do and it's all timely. We did enjoy all of it though. That's the key. My best friend and Maid of Honor, Micaela Colley (Google her name, you'll be amazed!) said that being real busy is not really the problem; it's when you realize you're busy and resist the flow that it becomes a problem. So true, so true. So, I just DUG being busy and it was like riding down the rapids on a sturdy raft. We had our beautiful ceremony right on the mountain herself at a place called Red Fir Flatt. We had the most beautiful ceremony. It was Jewish style being that Ben is Jewish and I'm not yet. We stood under the Chuppah and had a female rabbi officiate. She did such a good job. Her name is Rabbi Jacqueline Brodsky from Ashland, Oregon. We had our reception down the mountain at the Mt. Shasta City Park at the Upper Lodge. Our friends and family decorated it so sweetly. We had Brenda from the Buddha Belly in Weed, CA cater it with her great staff. The food was heavenly. Hardcore Coffee of Sebastopol provided the java, Lani Phillips of Rare Images in Mt. Shasta was our official photographer, and Ed Russ (DJ Jah Karma) of Austin, Texas spun the tunes. The most fun part of the reception I think for me was the Hora. It's when the bride and groom get picked up on chairs and the crowd lifts them up and dances around them to this great music! We were on folding chairs! Don't ever use folding chairs for this! Both of them broke while we were up there! It only added to the danger/excitement! We had our first dance to the Big and Rich song, "Lost in this moment". We were going to try to have an after party at the chalets where we were staying but we were finished! The next day after a little running around (more like walking slowly around) we made our late way up to Castle Lake and it was so perfect and pretty. Two days later we were at Burning Man in Black Rock City, Nevada!!!So that is my entry for now, hopefully I'll come back and fill you in on what all happened at Burning Man 2007!!!Jessica Star-SandersPretty nice, eh? Someone who sands/polishes the stars!

Friday, April 06, 2007

Entry #202

Hi all! I'm still recording and writing new songs for my new album! I'm also getting married! Yep, to my dude of the past 4 and a half years, Mr. Benjamin Sanders! We got engaged on February 18th and I've wasted no time planning our wedding. I'm very happy, yes, thank you. We met at Burning Man in 2002 and then I moved in with him into his little apartment in Manhattan. Things have obviously gone well. I am on myspace. Just go to myspace and search for me by my name under the music category. The actual url doesn't seem to work. I'm still doing lots of yoga and digging it. I've upgraded to the Pro Tools digidesign 003! I love recording in my studio! I'm still learning how to do it as I go. My garden is starting to pop up tulips and other spring bulbs that I planted last fall! That's the scoop. I've been very busy. I anticipate my new album will be out next spring. I hope this finds you happy and loving the life you live.Jessica Star

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Entry #201

We just got back from our yoga retreat in the Dominican Republic with our teacher, Vivekan. It was amazing and I am very sore! What a beautiful country. The people for the most part were very warm hearted towards us. They're so poor! Wow. It is a real eye-opener when you see poverty like that. There's barely a middle class. It's either wealthy or poor living in a shack. That was the first time I'd been to that island before. It reminded me of Jamaica when we first got there but as we integrated I noticed the Latin culture and just how lively people are. You hear Meringue and Reggaeton music loudly all the time. The hills of the country are filled with the sounds of roosters, dogs barking, crickets and other bugs, birds, Spanish speaking, music from radios, and motorbikes. We ate typical Dominican food, which was delicious and mostly fried. I took one shower in five days! We swam at Boca Chica beach, also at a natural spring that is a public pool with salsa music blaring, lots of people dancing (dirty dancing), swimming, playing a loose form of volleyball and eating. We went to this cave where people have been coming for hundreds of years at least to make ritual offerings to their Gods. There was a lot of drawings on the cave walls of animals, bugs and people snorting hallucinogens through long straws up their noses. What a trip! I'm happy to be home and I'm grateful we got to have that deepening experience.Jessica Star

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Entry #200

Hi y'all! Recording! Pro Tools! Rocking in my NYC recording studio! Dave was here yesterday and we recorded drums on two songs. Today I recorded lead and harmony vocals on two songs. I love this part of my life. Having my own studio and this righteous digital equipment is something I've wanted for a very long time and it's so satisfying to learn and watch my music grow. Am I repeating myself? I know I've been in this recording process for a while but I only got Pro Tools in December so now I can really make headway where as before I was still trying to figure out how I was going to get all my tunes recorded. This equipment puts making albums into the hands of the musicians and it's about time. Now I just need my fiddle player! Calling my fiddler! Jessica Star TM

Friday, February 02, 2007

Entry #199

Yep, been recording tracks with Dave and Kentucky (drums and bass) these past weeks. It's exciting and sounding great! Music is magic! Get it, magician~ musician.. Sounds very similar. To be able to create new sounds out of seemingly thin air.. I've been getting messages from you readers and they mean alot to me! Keep writing! I love being in touch with you! Jessica Star

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Entry #198

I hit high C today!! Twice!!! What is hitting high C and why am I so stoked about it? I exercise my voice everyday and usually I can hit high A to A# with true sound and something happened today where I made it up to high C twice in my exercise! That feels great! I guess it's like hitting a new level in my range. It makes sense though because I've diligently been working at it for a while now. That rocks.You rock. Seriously. Give yourself credit for all of your efforts.Rocking in to 2007,Jessica Star

Friday, January 05, 2007

Entry #197

We just got back to Brooklyn from our two week holiday trip out west! It was great! We went to Ashland, Oregon for Christmas and Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico for New Year's. Ashland is famous for its Shakespearian theater and "T or C", as the locals call it is laden with natural mineral springs. We had a fantastic time with all of our friends! I'm going to try to write more often in this online journal as my friends have been telling me they've been reading my blog and want new commentary! I had a huge realization in T or C. Ready? I am a Country singer. People have been telling me this for years and I never felt the truth of it. I just had some experiences down in New Mexico that really made this clear to me. It's beautiful! I feel like I can write music in many different styles and I've been wondering which direction to focus in. Now I know. I was going to put a little Country flavor on my new album but now I feel I have a real direction and I am very grateful. I've always had a little twang anyway. I feel the reality of this so deeply that even if some people don't like it, it doesn't matter. It's what I am and now I know! So hopefully you'll dig my new songs! I'm just starting to learn Pro Tools so I'm excited about recording! As a matter of fact, I gotta go so I can work out my vocal chords and jump into my new learning curve! Happy New Year to you all!!! I feel really blessed in my life and I hope you do too. Jessica Star