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!

So the lovely folks over at Filter noticed my post about how excited I was that Priscilla Ahn has a full length album coming out today, and they hooked me up with an email interview with Priscilla herself! They also sent me a pretty picture to share with all of you:
Very exciting! I love that Priscilla plays the harmonica in her songs. There’s even a song where she plays the kazoo with that thing. Anyway, without further ado, here are my 10 questions, and Priscilla’s answers (note that any links were inserted by me, I figured if I wanted to look something up, you might too):

1. Where is your favorite place to sing?

My house.

2. What was a favorite moment on the Hotel Cafe Tour?

Playing in Ithaca was really cool because we played in a old theater. It was beautiful, and the acoustics were lovely. The audience was sitting, and really there with the performer. It was a lot of fun. And I also had a lovely day walking around the town too.

3. What’s the one thing you can’t leave for a tour without?

Oh, there’s so many things! I guess my ipod. I need it sometimes to even be able to fall asleep.

4. What are your 3 most played tracks on your iPod? (or, What music are you listening to these days?)

“There’s a Reason” by A.A. Bondy

The soundtrack from “La Vie En Rose”

The soundtrack from “Juno”

5. Do you get most of your inspiration for your songs from your own life or other people’s stories or both?

Most of them are written from my own experiences.

6. What has been your most exciting songwriting experience so far?

The best feeling is to have a song come to you when you least expect it, but you just let it happen, and in 20 minutes, you have a song that you really love. that’s happened to me a few times, and it’s a really satisfying and fun process.

7. What do you use to do your live loops?

A Boss Loop pedal. I’m now getting into using more pedals. I’m expanding!

8. Let’s say you just won a big award for your music at a red carpet event – who do you thank in your acceptance speech?

Oh man, it’s something I’ve thought about since I was little, and it’s always changing. I think some of the definites would be my boyfriend, my manager, my brother, my fellow musicians and producer, my therapist, and my friends. They all are people who inspire me, support me, and I feel are with me in my life in the best ways.

9. If you could pick 5 or 6 people, (living or dead) to be in a super band, who would you pick and what would they play?

John Lennon – he’d play whatever he wanted and sing.

Jonny Greenwood – he’d fiddle with his inventions and arrange the orchestra

Jeff Buckley and Nina Simone would sing together.

Don Shirley would play piano.

Neil Young and I would write together.

I know that’s not much of a band, but it’d be kickass just to be around all those people.

10. And the big question I’m asking everybody these days is: What’s your favorite sandwich?

Right now I’m into caprese sandwiches. yum!

So there you have it folks! From the girl herself! I’ll leave you with this sweet little video of her song Dream. As I’ve said before, I love how she uses that loop pedal. It’s easy to overdo and I think she gets it just right.

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

If that doesn’t make you want to run out and get the new album, I don’t know what will!

You can download A Good Day right now 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!

…because that is when Priscilla Ahn’s first full length album, A Good Day, comes out!

Here’s a sweet little video about the making of A Good Day

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

Priscilla seems to be doing real well, besides the upcoming album, she has an official website for the first time, (though she is still blogging on her MySpace, which got an update too), and her song Dream was just featured in the season finale of Grey’s Anatomy! (That’s the song I thought they were going to use back in November when they actually ended up using Rain.)

You can download the new single Dream right now on

Dream is also on the EP, if you haven’t gotten that yet it is also on

And you can hear the title track plus a few other new ones on Priscilla’s website.

And that will just have to do until June 10th! Can’t wait!

I fell in love with Priscilla Ahn’s EP (and her voice, lyrics and wacky personality) this spring, after seeing her back up Joshua Radin on a YouTube video and tracking her down. I have been keeping an eye out for what’s happening in her world because I know it’s bound to be good – especially since she hangs out with the likes of Joshua Radin and Carey Brothers at the Hotel Cafe and on tour.

I’m really excited because I just read on Priscilla’s MySpace blog that she is going to to have a song featured on Grey’s Anatomy. She doesn’t say which one – anyone want to place bets on Dream?

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

UPDATE 11/9/2007: The song that ended up being on Grey’s Anatomy was Rain. As of this writing, you can listen to it for free on Priscilla’s MySpace, or buy it on iTunes

Here’s hoping the Grey’s exposure will give Priscilla the same type of recognition that Ingrid Michaelson got from having music on the show, because she definitely deserves it!

See more Priscilla videos on YouTube. She has fun with things like looping and kazoos, depending on the song.

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!

Originally posted on my MySpace blog.

One of the “dangers” of MySpace (and the internet in general) for me is the way I can so easily discover great new musicians. It’s a blessing and a curse, because while I can often get my fix by listening to music players on websites, if it’s good stuff I’ll want to take it with me, which means racking up a bill on iTunes.

Here’s my three most recently added to my library:

Jose Gonzales – one of his songs is featured on bouncy ball advertisement that I’ve been mesmerized by the past few days. (while you’re there, check out the exploding paint and the behind the scenes footage too. I’m in awe of the kind of people who can come up with such outrageous and beautiful ideas.)

Anaïs Mitchell – love this girl. She’s been to Cafe Paradiso twice now and I was trying to hold out for her to come back so I could buy her new album from her in person but we’re not on her near future schedule and I couldn’t wait any longer. Had it on repeat for for a few times around at work, and again this morning. It’s funny the whole live vs recorded thing. I listened to the recording of “Your Fonder Heart” online very shortly after her last concert and I was a little disappointed because it didn’t have quite the same gorgeous ache i remembered when it was just her and the guitar a few feet away from me, but really how could it? And now, after the memory of the concert has faded by many months, the CD version is beautiful and wonderful and I had it on repeat many times over because I just couldn’t get enough.

Priscilla Ahn – Finally found her after trying to track down who was singing with Joshua Radin on one of his songs (he’s coming to Iowa City next month! Imogen Heap just mixed one of his songs!). Beautiful and whimsical stuff. sigh.

So now I’ve got plenty of fresh, heart happy music to go with the happy feelings in my heart from the new spring grass creeping in!