Thursday, November 18, 2010

Home Concert

Last night I played a house concert. Except it wasn't in a house. It was in a driveway in a military housing community. A drive way concert. There were a lot of military wives and a lot of kids. The husbands were deployed, serving our nation,. Preserving our freedom. Ensuring people like me that I'll be able to continue singing and writing and speaking my mind. Sometimes my opinion may not be to their liking but they're making a sacrifice for that anyway.

The sacrifice and commitment go both ways. These women, holding down the fort and keeping the home fires lit, were inspiring as well. These are the other halves. These are the backbone of the family units. They raise the kids, they endure sleepless nights. They don't always know when they'll get to speak to their loved one, so far away. They also have a hard job. They are Wife, Mother, cook, chauffeur, teacher, doctor, event coordinator, story reader, diaper changer, comforter and disperser of bad dreams.

To see the commitment within these ladies was humbling. I'm away from my wife for a day and it sucks. I couldn't imagine the long deployments and the loneliness that would ensue. That kind of commitment and love is what inspires the greatest songs, the most memorable movies. I was lucky to be able to entertain them for a couple hours. I am thankful to the men and women in our armed forces. I'm also thankful to the spouses that hold it down on this end as well. You are all inspiring and I commend you, and thank you!

Comments Sections

Every time I see the term "OpEd" I just think someone spelled "open" wrong. Anyway, talking earlier about the comments people leave on the newspapers online page in regards to specific articles. What happened to these people to become so blatantly hateful? It's like they hid in a closet, with all this pent up fury, waiting for Al Gore to invent the Internet so they could anonymously be tough. As one Twitter/Facebook friend said, "I'm all for snark, but this is just hate", He, like myself, uses his real name. Not trying to hide behind anything. You gotta appreciate a person like Mike in this day and age of people trying to hide within the anonymous confines of the web. He is the writer of the Owl and Bear: A San Diego Music Blog.

I like expressing my opinion. I like to come across as funny a lot of the time. It's my inner need to be a stand up comedian. I have a lot of love for those guys and gals that get up there and bare themselves to a sometimes stoic audience. Check out Christian Spicer, Rajan Dharni, Mal Hall and recent winner of the Rockstar Energy Drink Comedy throwdown, Zoltan. All funny individuals. I was thinking about the art of stand up the other day and how it parallels with music. Both require the ability to tell a story. Both require a sense of timing, meter, cadence and rhythm. And both require a fearless sense of "Hey, F**k it!". Because whatever you put out there, it has to be done without apology or regret. Otherwise, nobody will buy into it. Will you offend some? Sure. Will you lose some audience? Sure. But they weren't your audience to begin with. It goes the same with music. Gotta write and play what you know and feel or it comes across as fake and lacks a genuine quality people identify with.

All I know is, in America, when a guy wants to leave his family, he says he's going out for milk. In Chile, they say they're going to work in the mines... for 70 days... and hope the mistress disappears, I guess.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Have I Told You Lately?

Hello, sexy... Yes, you. It's been a while, hasn't it? Please forgive my absence. You're always on my mind but not always accessible. What have I been up to? Where to begin...

I'm a daddy and husband first. I love my girls. We're at 32 weeks pregnant with girl number 3, or as I like to call her, baby to be named later. We do have a name for her. But you won't know it until she's introduced to the world properly. With a Facebook/Twitter/Blogger post. Welcome to 2010.

I'm super proud of my oldest daughter. She has grown in an intellectual and emotional manner this year that makes me so proud. She is really taking that next step toward becoming a tween. Her grades are vastly improving and her care of her little sister is so sweet. My youngest daughter is growing so fast these days. She's speaking more and more. Learning her letters and numbers and colors and potty training. These two bring me to the verge of tears on a daily basis because of how awesome they are. I'm sharing a very private, intimate part of myself right now. My girls practically bring me to tears with their little faces, tiny voices and their massive amounts of love they show me.

My wife and I are super excited for our new baby girl. The crib is already put together and I'm keeping the December calendar pretty clear in case of emergency. Our due date is January 1st but we've had the tendency to be very early. We're registered at Babies R Us under Cavanaugh, Sheila and Chad, if you were interested in doing a little something for us. Any little thing is greatly appreciated.

I'm a rock star second. Looking forward to playing the San Diego House of Blues December 14th. Before that, I'll be playing the Ice Cream Socialists show this Sunday, November 14th at 7pm. At Mueller College, 4600 Park Blvd in University Heights. It's all ages and admission is $6 or a plate of food to share before the show starts.

On November 27th, a Saturday, at Cafe Libertalia in Hillcrest (3835 5th Ave) I'll be performing. It's gonna be very cool because my musical guest is coming from Albuquerque, New Mexico. His name is Aaron Lewis and he owns Chroma Studios. He is also a childhood friend and this will be the first time we've seen each other in over 2 decades. We've been looking forward to performing together for a couple years now so I'm very excited. Admission is $6 and it's all ages.

A new album is done. It's a live album recorded live at Lestat's West in Normal Heights San Diego. It's called "Chad Cavanaugh: Live On Adams Ave". I didn't call it Live At Lestat's because after some research, I've found that there are a ton of "Live at Lestat's albums out there. You can check out the live tracks at www.reverbnation.com/chadcavanaugh. I'm really stoked on it. Jerris and I have been having a lot of fun playing these shows and have some pretty cool stuff coming up in the near future.

We got love for you! Remember, CoffeehousE RebellioN and We Got Love are available on iTunes(Search words "Chad Cavanaugh"), follow me on Twitter (@ChadCavanaugh) and like us on Facebook-search pages "Chad Cavanaugh".