Tag Archives: corey stewart

SongDare Is Back Baby

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It was a long time coming but I’ve finally put out another SongDare. This time I attempt to do a cover of “My Mistake” by Split Enz as requested by Jordan Beinke.

For those of you not familiar with the SongDare concept, it goes a little bit like this:

“You request a song, and I mean any song, no matter how bizarre or beautiful it may be, and if I can play it just by using my voice and an acoustic guitar, I’ll video it and put it up on YouTube and embed the video on this blog.”

Jordan, good things come to those that wait… Enjoy :)

In Australia, it is said that any brilliant band from New Zealand we adopt as one of our own and Split Enz is one of those bands.

Written by Tim Finn and Eddie Raynor and released in 1977 on their “Dizrythmia” album, “My Mistake” was not one of those songs that I took much notice of until I started to work out how to play it.

The song makes beautiful use of diminished chords however, the main challenge in playing this song was to find a suitable ending as the angular orchestral outro in the original version was just way too difficult to play.

I’m hoping what I’ve done is a good compromise.

Remember, if you have a SongDare that you’d like me to tackle, just contact me and I’ll see what I can do for you

Peace,

Corey :)

The Joy Of Learning New Songs

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For my first official day back from the Xmas/New Year break I spent the good part of yesterday compiling a list of covers that I wanted to learn and integrate into my Corey Stewart Solo and FIGJAM Duo/Band song-lists for 2012.

I figured that the time between now and my first gig on January 18th will be best spent sorting out my covers. This has been something that I’ve been trying to do for ages but had never found the time to do.

After a few years of making changes to my covers repertoire in a sporadic and haphazard manner, I thought it was time to put some process into place because at the end of the day, I love learning new songs and I wanted to add new material on a more purposeful and consistent basis.

I love learning new songs because it expands my musical palette and forces me to experience new songs and genres that I’m not used to.

It also enables me to sharpen up my listening skills, hone my music and guitar chord theory knowledge plus it gives me a reason (as if I really needed one in the first place) to pick up my acoustic guitar and just play it.

Most importantly however, the reason why I love learning new songs is that by mucking around with covers, I actually come up with new songwriting ideas of my own.

This happened on four occasions yesterday and these were immediately recorded onto the iPhone for future reference.

It’s amazing what happens when you just go off on a bit of a tangent in the middle of learning something. Songwriting ideas can come from anywhere…

Even from other songs.

Peace,

Corey :)

CS Gigs: Last Gigs For 2011

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Here are the last gigs that I’ll be doing for 2011. I’ll be back gigging on January 18th, 2012 so make sure you mark these gigs in your diary in BOLD RED PEN.

Wed 21 – Open Mic @ The Dan (8pm – 12am)
Thu 22 – Open Mic @ The Brunswick (8pm – 11pm)
Fri 23 – Hotel Royal (7:30pm – 11pm)

I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who has come out to my gigs throughout 2011. You have really made my year but 2012 is going to be HUGE and I hope you are all there to share it with me.

For more information please go to my gigs page.

Hope to see you there,

Corey :)

Australia’s Got Talent – D-Day: December 16th, 2011

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In a previous set of blog posts I outlined my experience auditioning for the 6th season of Australia’s Got Talent. That was on October 8th with the decision on whether I go into the next round of auditions taking place on December 16th.

That’s 3 days away and I’m starting to feel a little nervous.

I said to myself at the very beginning of the whole process that I would try to keep a realistic perspective on everything and not let the amazing possibilities go to my head and get out of control.

I’ve managed to keep the perspective but I must say, I’m starting to count down the days.

In this situation, no news is bad news, as only successful applicants will be notified. This got me thinking about what would happen if I wasn’t one of those who were notified.

As much as I’d like to say that I’d be philosophical about it and just continue on my day to day business I have a feeling that this won’t be the case but I will try to keep a patient and level head throughout.

One thing I know for sure is that Friday is going to be one of the longest days I’ll experience in a while.

As always, I’ll keep you posted and if I do get to the next round you’ll be one of the first people to know.

Peace,

Corey :)

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CS Gigs: W/E Sunday December 18th, 2011

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Here are the gigs that I’m doing for the week ending Sunday December 18th, 2011.

Make sure you mark these gigs in your diary in BOLD RED PEN.

Wed 14 – Open Mic @ The Dan (8pm – 12am)
Thu 15 – Open Mic @ The Brunswick (8pm – 11pm)
Fri 16 – Hotel Royal (7:30pm – 11pm)

For more information please go to my gigs page.

Hope to see you there,

Corey :)

CS Gigs: W/E Sunday December 11th, 2011

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Here are the gigs that I’m doing for the week ending Sunday December 11th, 2011.

Make sure you mark these gigs in your diary in BOLD RED PEN.

Wed 07 – Open Mic @ The Dan (8pm – 12am)
Thu 08 – Open Mic @ The Brunswick (8pm – 11pm)
Sat 10 – FIGJAM @ The Dan (9pm – 12am)

For more information please go to my gigs page.

Hope to see you there,

Corey :)

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CD Project Update #22 – Recording Done, The Fun Now Begins

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As predicted in my last CD Project Update, I finished recording all of the tracks yesterday.

It was a strange feeling though, like I was saying goodbye to my songs because I had worked so very closely with them over the last 18 months or so and in that time, I had gotten to know the songs inside and out.

Now I have to let them go and be mixed, mastered and packaged into a CD that I’ll be very proud of. No more overdubbing, no more studio experiments… That’s it, finished.

It all seems very final doesn’t it?

I must say though that my songs now (with the knowledge that there’s a CD coming out) take on a whole new perspective when I play them live. It’s like the time that I’ve taken with them in the studio has given me a whole new outlook on how I can present my songs in a live environment.

As a live performer first and foremost, I’m very, very excited by this realisation.

Another reason that I’m excited is that today I started on my CD Marketing Plan. I want to make sure that I can get everything done by April to June of 2012 as this is when I want the CD launch to be held.

Hopefully by that time people have recovered from the madness that is February and March and would be ready to start going out again even though it’s the end of Autumn/beginning of Winter.

I can now see that the recording of the tracks was the easy part. Getting everything to the finished product stage is where the fun truly begins.

As usual I’ll keep you all posted…

Peace,

Corey :)

CS Gigs: W/E Sunday December 4th, 2011

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Here are the gigs that I’m doing for the week ending Sunday December 4th, 2011.

Make sure you mark these gigs in your diary in BOLD RED PEN.

For more information please go to my gigs page.

Hope to see you there,

Corey :)

Movember 2011 – My Progress

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This year I decided to join the many thousands of men all over Australia who are growing a moustache during the month of November to raise funds for Beyond Blue and the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia.

I thought about doing it last year just to see how I would go but I missed out. I made a pact with myself that I would give it a go in 2011 and now as I now move into day 23 of Movember 2011 I’m realising why I don’t grow a moustache in the first place.

First of all it’s been really itchy just above my top lip for a little while now and quite frankly I’m over it and secondly, it’s a really unattractive look.

Even right now I just want to go and shave the bloody thing off but I did make a promise to my mate Bryan Foley and the team that I belong to called the “Improver Groovers” that I would stick it out to the very end.

Besides, there’s only 7 more days to go before I can resume my normal facial hair growing activities.

Here are some images that have tracked my moustache growing over the past 23 days

Day 1 (Clean Shaven)

Day 4

Day 8

Day 16

Day 20

Day 23 (Today)

Not long ago someone told me that I was starting to look like porn star Ron Jeremy in which my reply was “I wish.”

At the end of the day though, the whole reason for putting myself through this follicular torture is to raise some money and this is where you all come into play here.

All you need to do is to go to http://mobro.co/coreystewart and click on the “Donate To Me” button underneath my profile photo on the top left hand side of the page.

Feel free to donate any amount you wish but remember, your donating to a couple of very worthwhile causes so dig in deep.

I wonder what my face is going to look like at day 30?

Peace,

Corey :)

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CD Project Update #20 – Not Long To Go Now

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My sincere apologies for the sporadic nature of these CD Project updates. I’ll try to do better from now on :)

In the months since my last CD Project update, the recording process has been a little stop/start with illness or unavailability of either myself or Anthony Stewart getting in the way however, I’m happy to say that all of the instrumental recording were completed a couple of weeks ago.

The Running Sheet

The only thing left to do now are the backing vocals.

Yesterday I had Alex Frost come in and put some vocals on a couple of songs “Seeing Stars” and “A Girl Like You” which turned out really well.

Alex Singing

My goal was to get all recording finished by the end of November and I’m happy to say that this goal is still very achievable.

I’ve now finalised the 12 songs that are going onto the CD. They are (in alphabetical order)

  • A Girl Like You
  • Don’t Turn To Me Now
  • Half Hearted Man
  • Jigsaw
  • Just One Kiss
  • Leave It All Behind
  • Missing You Already
  • Nothing Stands In Your Way
  • Seeing Stars
  • Shadows
  • The Back Of My Mind
  • We Can’t Get Together Anymore

I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the tracks that are left over but I’m leaning towards giving some music away as a way of promoting the CD. I’l keep you all posted as to what I decide.

I think now is the time for me to start putting together some ideas for the design and the pre and post launch promotion/marketing of the CD. Maybe a photo session is going to be needed as well.

So much to do, so little time.

Peace,

Corey :)