The Guns of Shadow Valley — the webcomic I write with Dave Wachter — was nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Digital Comic!!

For those of you who may not know, the Eisners are the premier awards for the comic book industry. The Eisners are literally the “Oscars” of the comic book industry. It’s a very big deal to be nominated. Of the hundreds of thousands of webcomics and other digitally distributed comics available, only FIVE are accepted as nominations.

I’m incredibly overwhelmed, thrilled and overjoyed at the nomination. This is huge for me and Dave. I hardly know what to write. Dave did a fantastic job of summing up how he feels in a post he made over on the Shadow Valley website and I echo a lot of the sentiments he expressed there. I encourage you to read it — he sums up it up very well, much moreso than I am capable of right now. Plus he tells the origin story of how we started The Guns of Shadow Valley and what this journey means to us.

I’m honored to have our project included alongside the other nominees. I’m a fan of all of the other webcomics nominated in our category and it blows my mind to be in the same playing field. They’re all amazing.

Here’s the complete list of nominees for the 2010 Eisner Awards.

(It didn’t work.)

More inspiration from Mindy Gledhill. This time it’s a chance to win $50 and a free CD! Read on.

What I’m trying to do is formulate my “perfect pitch”, a phrase or slogan that describes my music in an appealing way. Below I’ve listed several adjectives in an attempt to reveal all the feelings and vibes that I am trying to create with my music:

* bright
* quirky
* light-hearted
* fun
* jovial
* emotive
* catchy
* uplifting
* nostalgic
* energetic
* hopeful

Now, let’s look at my other lists.

Singers I sound like. You said: Don McLean, Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, Jack Johnson, James Taylor, Tom Waits, Paul Simon, John Denver, Ghostwriter, Buddy Holly, Chris Isaac, Elvis Costello, Brian Wilson.

Here are some of my influences:

* Author and book: Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere.
* Film: A mostly unknown movie Fandango starring Kevin Costner.
* Composers: Vivaldi, Debussy, Mozart.
* Growing up: The Beatles, John Denver, Jim Croce, Fleetwood Mac, Linda Ronstadt.
* As a teen: Led Zeppelin, Paul McCartney, Muddy Waters, Hound Dog Taylor, John Lee Hooker, The Police.
* Currently: Mike Doughty, Jake Shimabukuro, Marcy Playground, The Beatles, Glen Phillips, Cake, Jack Johnson, Colin Hay, Rocky Votolato, Gomez.
* Poets: Charles Bukowski, ee cummings.
* Painters: Mostly contemporaries like Jeffrey Jones, Kent Williams, George Pratt.

Using these lists only as a guide, I am inviting you to have a stab at writing my pitch. If I use yours, I will send you $50 and a free copy of my album, “Ukulele Jim’s Authentic Down Home Marital Aid.” Remember, this is short and sweet. Your pitch must be posted by 10:00 p.m. MST, on Sunday night February 28.

Some examples of artist pitches are:

Mindy Gledhill – “Music that recalls the sweetness of Ingrid Michaelson and the quirk of Regina Spektor, Mindy Gledhill will leave you floating like a scoop of vanilla cream in a strawberry soda.”

John Taglieri – “If Vertical Horizon and Third Eye Blind got hit by Train!”

Devil Doll – “Jessica Rabbit meets Joan Jett.”

My music can be sampled here: http://ukulelejim.bandcamp.com

Don’t hold back. All ideas are welcome! Entries must be posted in the comments section below. Ready, set, GO. And thanks!

I’ve decided to take a cue (and an idea) from Mindy Gledhill by trying to figure out what defines me as an artist in the minds of my fans and potential fans, aka “my brand.” I haven’t done much with branding myself as a musician, aside from using the name “Ukulele Jim” — which, in retrospect, may end up hurting me more than helping. I may have boxed myself into the “novelty” arena rather than trying to appeal to the masses as a “singer songwriter.” But hopefully I can get past that “too late now” hurdle by developing a bit of branding that I can use to market myself better.

As Mindy explains: “so many artists (and people in general for that matter) are not specific enough about who they are and what people can expect from them. When people I meet learn that I am a recording artist, they almost always ask what genre I sing and who I sound like. Many artists (including me, at one time) want to believe that they don’t sound like anyone else out there, but I have learned that potential fans lose interest if they can’t walk away with a firm idea of what you stand for.”

These words are well put, and they have inspired me to try and find my own brand and come up with the perfect pitch. Like Mindy, I’m hoping that having a pitch will help me define myself to fans and important people in the music industry.

This is where I need some objective help from you. The first step is to try to figure out where my music fits.

So I ask you: What artist(s) do I most sound like? And as a bonus question: What genre would you define my music as?

(If you’d be so kind as to leave your opinion in the comments below . . . Thanks!)

I think she really captured the true essence of Courtney Love here.

This might be my last post for a while, too. If you want updates on what’s going on with me, you can follow me on Twitter. I tend to update there way more than here.

All the best, from our family to yours!

I’ve tried submitting my two albums to them, and they rejected them both times. I am not allowed to resubmit my music for inclusion on their service… apparently they consider stuff one time and then it’s rejected forever.

They gave no explanation why they rejected my music. It’s professionally produced, it spans several genres, there’s comparable music out there, so what’s the problem? Is it just not good enough? I have no idea. I can assume based on what I’m seeing elsewhere online that Pandora simply doesn’t accept independent artist submissions. If you’re indie, if you’re unsigned to a major label, you’re unwelcome.

The only other way (based on what I see in the FAQ) to get my music included in their private club is to have fans write in and request my music :

“How do I suggest music if it’s not already on Pandora?

When you try to add a song or artist to one of your stations, or try to create a station from a song or artist, and Pandora doesn’t recognize it, please let us know!

Send your music suggestions to:
suggest-music@pandora.com”

So then I reached out to my fans for help, asking them to send an email requesting that my music be added to their catalog, just as the FAQ says. But even after several hundred such requests from fans, friends and followers, Pandora came back and said “no” yet again.

They’re response was actually, “We appreciate your fans writing into request your music, but we cannot re-review your music at this time.” Still no answer as to why. In fact, I was told, “As a policy, we choose not to discuss these matters on why we pass on certain albums.”

In other words: we don’t support independent artists, fuck you very much.

I think their policies are exclusive and shady, but that’s their business I guess. At least there are more progressive services out there like Last.fm and others.

If Pandora rejected your music, post a comment and let me know. I’m curious as to how many others have had this happen to them.

Did you get your copy of my album yet? NO?? Well, now’s your chance. I’m offering the album for sale at ANY PRICE until the end of the month. That’s right, you decide what you want to pay! Download the album for as little as $3 or $4, or $5 if you feel like being nice to me, or only $1 if you’re cheap, or get it FREE if you’re really broke like me!

Pay whatever you feel it’s worth.

This offer is being extended only to my friends and fans on Facebook, Reverbnation, and readers of my blog — and only until the end of the month!

Head on over to ukulelejim.bandcamp.com to buy the album today and name your own price!

(This short story was written by my 4-year-old daughter for Grandparent’s Day.)

Once upon a time, there was Eva, Mommy & Grandma.
They were driving in their car to the beach.
Then they were parked at the beach.
They got out of their car and went swimming.
Then they played on the swings
Then they all went home and got out of their car.

Then Eva, Mommy and Grandma went into the house.
They caught their eye on something.
They walked close and it walked further away again.
It was a shadow that looked like a big monster!
Mommy and Grandma were scared but Eva wasn’t scared because she was brave.
Eva took her Moo-Moo, put on her purple cape and zoomed out there.
Moo-Moo took a bucket of ice cream and dumped it on the shadow’s head!
Then Eva flew out of the house and got help.
She picked some flowers and found a hummingbird.
The hummingbird sucked up all the flowers and grabbed the shadow, picked him up with her feet, flew outside and threw him to the desert!
Then the hummingbird took back the flowers and flew into her house.
Eva, Mommy and Grandma were saved and lived happily ever after.

THE END