I just saw this video of Ani DiFranco talking with Mindful Mama Magazine. They have a great contest going on for moms to win a trip to see Ani in NYC, with a spa package and babysitting included.

Feed and email readers may need to come to the blog to see the video

What astounds me about this video is Ani’s honesty and presence. And the fact that someone who seems so confident and bold and has been running her own show/label/life for so long could still be experiencing moments of self-hatred, but is self aware enough to both recognize and work on it. Kind of blows the whole “But I have to be perfect before I can do it and be a success” tape that I bet a bunch of us still play in our heads out of the water. (Somebody please remind me I said that next week when I am in Song School freaking out and self-doubting myself into a pit of despair and “I’m not worthy”-ness from all the talented people surrounding me. I hope that doesn’t happen, but it’s kind of happening to me right now before the fact…)

Anyhoo, in other Ani related news, she has a new album called Red Letter Year coming out September 30th. Her first new one in a couple of years. (Sounds similar to Dar’s story!) You can hear a new song from it on her MySpace, and there should be more new stuff posted there in the weeks leading up to the release. Can’t wait to get my hands on Present/Infant.

PS Dar Williams has a great pre-order deal going on now – order the CD and get one free, plus a “making of” DVD.

Bud!!

Congratulations Bud! I’ve sent you an email asking for your address.

Thank you so much to everyone who read and commented on the Priscilla post to win a signed copy of A Good Day, I think that was the most comments I’ve gotten so far on a single entry. It was really fun to hear about what a good day would be for everyone too!

I hope this is just the first of many contests on Lyrical Venus, because I would sincerely love to give prizes to each and every one of you! Bookmark me, sign up for email updates, or add me to your feed reader so you’ll know when the next one comes up. (I just remembered I have an extra copy of a Waterbug Records sampler hiding somewhere that would be a happy addition to someone’s music collection…)

Oh, and if anyone else is interested in doing a contest on your blog where you “draw out of a hat”, my friend Ananda turned me on to random.org – they have all sorts of ways of randomizing your data!

Priscilla Ahn’s debut full length CD A Good Day has been out for a little over a month now, and the response has been great! Here are a few quotes from recent reviews:

“from her first breaths in ‘Dream,’ she possesses a presence that can’t be overlooked. It’s not just the startling clarity of her singing, but also the lovely and occasionally wry songwriting that’s bound to capture listeners’ attention and imaginations.” – NPR

“lithe, lovely folk-pop” – People

“a classic folk album for the iPod generation.” – Paste

In other good news, Priscilla has just announced her summer tour with her first headlining shows! That plus a few opening slots with both Willie Nelson and Amos Lee, as well as some summer festival slots. (She already hit the Targhee Fest alongside folk greats Emmylou Harris and Lyle Lovett, and will play the Folks Fest in Lyons in August. I’m going. SO EXCITED.) Tour dates are posted on her website and her MySpace. (MySpace seems to be more up to date, it has more dates filled in.)

If you are a regular reader, you know that I’m a big fan of Priscilla, and even got an exclusive email interview with her a few weeks back. Well, I’m happy to announce that for the first ever contest on this blog I’ve got a *signed* copy of A Good Day to give away!

There’s just two little things you have to do to enter the contest:

1) Leave a comment on this post describing a good day for you. It can be one that actually happened, or one that you wish would happen. You can give me a nice big story or it can just be simple like – “A good day is when I get my paycheck.” (I’m going to put all the names of the commenters in a hat and have my brother draw one, so you don’t have to worry about your comment being the best one or something.)

2) Send an email to LyricalVenus at gmail dot com so I can contact you if you win! Even if you sign in with your email to comment, Blogger doesn’t show me what it is, so this step is really important. If I don’t have your email I’ll have no way to get a hold of you and I’ll have to give your signed Priscilla CD to someone else! How sad would you be if that happened? Just tell me the name you used to comment with, and don’t worry, I won’t use your email for anything else other than contacting you if you win.

So one more time – leave a comment about a good day AND send me an email. Simple right? The drawing will be on July 31st, so you have a week, but go ahead and do it now before you forget. If you’ve been reading for a while but haven’t ever left a comment, today would be a good day to start! (oh man, pun not intended, but so good I had to leave it!)

And if you don’t win, you can always download A Good Day on iTunes!

Want to know when I find more great stuff by and about women in music? Subscribe to Lyrical Venus by Email or by RSS Feed and have the updates come straight to you!

(2/3/08 UPDATE: Kina WON!!! Congrats!!! You can now download the song on iTunes.)

It’s pretty common that I get bulletins on MySpace asking to vote for some independent band or signer in some contest. I usually try to take a few minutes and actually go jump through any little hoops there may be (like registering to the site – hey that’s what those extra hotmail addresses are for right?) to vote for them, because you’ve gotta support the music, right? Not to mention I’d hope someone would do the same for me if I ever needed it.

So recently I saw that Jasmine Ash (who likes you by the way!) was asking people to vote for her friends Dominic Castillo and the Rock Savants for a Doritos sponsored Super Bowl contest.

I went to the page, fully expecting to vote for DCRS, but once there, two things caught my eye – 1) Not too many women represented out of the 10 choices, and 2) The picture of Kina Grannis, looking like she might sing my kind of music.

I checked out her submission video and sure enough, I have a new song to love – Message from Your Heart. It’s sweet, catchy, clever and bubbly (speaking of Bubbly, her voice reminds me of Colbie Caillat).

Feed and email readers may need to come to the blog to see the video

If you like Kina and want to help represent for the girls too, there’s still two days left to vote! You’ll need a MySpace account and you’ll need to allow pop-ups for the contest page if you have them blocked. http://www.myspace.com/doritoscrashthesuperbowl
If Kina is not your thing, vote for Dominic Castillo and the Rock Savants! They’re cool too, and there IS a girl in the band.

Want more Kina?
Official Kina website

Kina on MySpace

www.twoweeksforkina.com A special countdown website with voting instructions and fun videos she’s making as an exchange for your votes.

Kina’s music on iTunes

Just a quick heads up – Ani’s team on MySpace is giving away an autographed poster. All you have to do to enter the drawing is send a MySpace message on August 4th.

Details from the MySpace bulletin:

“This is just a reminder to everyone that this Saturday, August 4, (TOMORROW) you have from 11AM to 4PM (EST) to enter to win an AUTOGRAPHED ANI POSTER.

It appears that some of you got confused and have been sending me entries before the contest has started. Entries received before 11AM EST August 4 will not be considered in the drawing. So if you entered before, enter again between 11AM and 4PM tomorrow to make sure your name is in the drawing.

All you have to do is send me a MySpace Message with REPEAT OFFENDER in the subject line sometime between 11 and 4. Include your name and address and I’ll do a random drawing from all of the entries. The winner will be announced, Monday, August 6 on the MySpace blog at 12PM EST.

The drawing will be completely random and this time, it’s not based on how fast you are, it’s based on how lucky you are.

-Amanda”

So if you aren’t friends with Ani yet, go add her now and send in your MySpace Messages tomorrow!