On the Road Again wrap-up

After 15 long, music filled days, we are back home from the tour! To me, I think this was the most memorable tour so far. I made so many new friends and tried lots of new foods and drinks *raises eyebrows up and down* :) But what was most memorable was the energy we received from the crowds. Don't get me wrong, all of our shows are high energy and everyone in the building or space is fully engaged but this was a different kind of energy. It was almost like people were singing and dancing to release many emotions they kept bottled up inside. It was a celebration of freedom and liberation from whatever had been holding them back. Now, maybe I'm the only person in the room who felt this and if you ask someone else, they'd say it was just the alcohol working it's magic, but I personally think it was more than that :) Either way, I will never forget this tour and I hope to come back to Europe again soon!

Here are a few more pics from the tour to wrap it up.

Enjoy!

On the Road Again

Happy Tuesday everyone :o) Hope you're all smiling! We've made it to our 4th city, Bochum, Germany and it's a bit rainy and gloomy. We'll be doing a sound check soon and then off to dinner before the show. I'm starting to miss making jewelry. I wish I would have brought something to work on but I wouldn't have any time to do it. :( oh well guess I'll just have to keep enjoying Germany *snaps fingers* lol

An interesting concept I've experienced for the past 2 days...having to pay to use the public restrooms! 0.50 Euro you pay and it gives you a ticket to pee :) but if you buy something from the store they give you your money to pee back, lol! hilarious!! But I'll admit, those bathrooms are as clean as the doctors office and it had a self cleaning thing where the toilet lid spins around as this cloth with a cleaning agent wipes the seat clean. I was amazed lol!

Anyway...

Thanks to a couple of our friends, we were informed of an E-coli outbreak here in Germany and have stayed away from cucumbers, tomatoes, and lettuce. (so much for eating salads). But I really feel bad for the people who've died because of this. That's scary. A lot of people got sick from it (like 300) but 10 people died. So sad...

Sorry I don't have anything more super exciting to share than pay-per-use-toilets and contaminated vegetables! Hopefully somthing really cool happens at the show tonight and I can share it with you :o)

Here are the latest pics

On the road again day 2

Wow! What a show. Stuttgart definitely came out ready to party and that's exactly what they did. The Sudhaus was packed with about 300 A.D. fans dancing and singing til their heart was content. Such a beautiful sight to see.





Needless to say, after a double encore, we were super exhausted! We all headed back to the hotel for a good nights rest.

Our next road trip was to Heidelberg. It was about a 2 hour ride and you guessed it...I slept the entire ride! Missed all the beautiful scenery and everything. As if that wasn't enough, once we checked into the second hotel, I slept for another 2 hours. Touring really does take a lot out of you energy wise and for the type of show that we give, you need all the energy you can get!

We're finishing up sound check now & headed to get some food. #superhungryrightnow
Here are a few more pics to enjoy and I'll have more to come. Thanks for coming on tour with us! :o)





So, I didn't get to hit the post button on this before we did our show so....

Show #2 was a huge success!! Had a great time again and the energy from Heidelberg was amazing. Visit my facebook page for all the pics.

Talk to ya tomorrow!

On The Road Again

After four long months of being stationary, we are finally on the road again! (Wha hoo) For the next 2 weeks, we will be touring Germany for a total of 15 shows in 15 days. One of my goals for this year is to get better at blogging/writing so I’m taking this opportunity to do just that. I will do my best to document each day of the tour and keep you all in the loop. Hopefully you be entertained and feel like you’re right here with us :o)

Side note: I am writing this in real time-mostly.

Day one:
We traveled non-stop to Stuttgart, Germany. It was about a 9 hour flight from Atlanta. Honestly, the time flew by for me because I slept the entire flight!! I mean the entire thing. I vaguely remember the safety video showing me how to fasten my seat belt and the next thing I know we were landing in Germany. #iwasknockedout! (For all my twitter lovers :)



The weather here is a bit chilly but pleasant. Our 20 minute ride to the hotel was full of beautiful countryside scenery and traditional German architecture. Of course we saw a few familiar buildings like McDonalds and Subway but even they had a different flare to them. After getting settled into our rooms we have about 3 ½ hours until we leave for sound check. Being that there aren’t any places for us to explore near the hotel (especially food places), we’re excited to head to the venue. Right now, I’m watching a T.V. show that looks like the equivalent of SNL doing a spoof on Darth Vader playing ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’….umm….I think I’m gonna read my book *slowly nods head with raised eyebrows*




So now it’s 4:22pm and we just finished sound check. Everything sounds great. This is definitely gonna be a great show! Everyone’s chilling out right now and our super awesome bus driver, Ingo (like Bingo without the “B”), tried to teach us a few words in German…ha! That was hilarious. You had to be there to appreciate how hilarious that was! Put it this way, there are some languages country folk aren’t meant to speak and German (wait for it….) is one of them, lol! But it was fun trying :)

So in another hour or so, we will be having dinner in a bier garten (beer garden)and then get ready for the show! I will take more pics and post them with my next post.

Opening act is Splice. They are a funk band and just from hearing their soundcheck, they are gonna be jammin!



Pics from top to bottom: (sign just outside the airport, Super cool looking McDonalds, Pricing for Gas at Shell (price is by the liter so multiply by 4 and you’ll get the price per gallon…in EURO!! #nevergonnacomplainaboutgasagain, Really cool shot of an apartment building. I love these colors!!)

If you wanna stay connected
Twitter: Tashalarae, arresteddevlpmt, eshe2xgrammy
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The Tasha LaRae EP

I am so excited to formally introduce you to my latest CD project, The Tasha LaRae EP. This is a collection of 7 songs that I both wrote and co wrote with several of my close friends about my personal life experiences. Sometimes we hear music from our favorite artist and wonder "what was on his/her mind when he/she wrote this"? Well that's the purpose of this blog. I thought it would be fun to share with you my reasons for writing and recording the songs featured on this CD. Please feel free to read, comment, ask questions, and post your thoughts on the music, lyrics, whatever! I'd love to hear from you.

So....Here we go!

Track 1: "Love Yourself" written by Vernon & Felice Messam, myself
The lyrics of this song came to me shortly after a relationship breakup. In hindsight, I realized that I had lost who I was for the sake of pleasing the guy I was with. I was trying so hard to make him happy that I had begun to neglect my own needs and allowed for him to disrespect me. Thank God for my family and friends surrounding me who quickly pointed out to me that I was losing myself and that I needed to let him go! They reminded me of who I am and that I deserved better than what I settled for. I snapped out of it and kicked him to the curb, baby! Then I wrote this song as a reminder to myself to never to lose the love I have for me.

Track 2: "Secrets" featuring Dain Harris written by myself, Dain Harris, Mike Dawson
This song was originally something that I wrote for Dain for his solo project. As we hammered out the lyrics and melodic structure of the song Dain asked if I'd be interested in singing this with him as a duet instead of this being only for him. We played with it and loved it! Shortly after we completed the recording of this song, Dain released a double EP with guitarist, Brandon A. Thomas called For The Moment - A Soul Acoustic(Since this is also being used on my CD we had to flip the wording a bit to show him as the feature) This is a playful, light hearted song about the feelings of new love.

Track 3: "Let Go" written by Tiffany Deonna Martin, Jennifer Bliss, myself
The initial writting for this song came from Tiffany Deonna Martin . When she sang this song to me, I immediately fell in love with the lyrics and was excited to join with Jennifer Bliss to help complete and record this song. "Let Go" is about recognizing that life is too short to waste it holding on to painful things, experiences, people, etc. The good, beautiful, and beneficial things ment for us will be missed if we are focused and holding on to the past. Simply Let Go.

Track 4: "I Still Love You" written by myself and Brandon A. Thomas
I wrote this song after another breakup that happend several years after "Love Yourself". This situation was very different from the last. In this case, I, being the woman I am, simply fell in love faster than he did. ( I know someone out there knows what I'm talking about!) When we both realized this truth, we decided it would be best to split and remain friends. I'll admit, this one hurt bad. But hey, that's how it is sometimes. I went to Brandon for a writing session and as he played his guitar both tears and the lyrics to this song flowed from my heart. (This is the radio edit which is a slightly shorter than the original version but no worries, you get both versions on this CD!)

Track 5: "Let's Stay Together" written by myself and Reggie Carter
Reggie and I wrote this song after an indepth conversation about how easy it is for people to give up on relationships when things go bad instead of toughing it out. It's true that two people coming together to create a unified life isn't easy. Nothing worth having comes easy. It's better to work through the problems and communicate honestly and realistically than to give up cause the flames are gone.

*Sidebar* Can I just say someting here?... Getting married doesn't mean you immediately become unattracted to the opposite sex. It does mean that you honor your decision to stay commited to who you are with even if it means being truthful about having an affair and move forward the best way you both see fit. I'm not judging...I'm just sayin! lol *End Sidebar*
**This song was also released on a project that Reggie did called The Groov Project/The Life, The Loss, The Love

Track 6: "I Still Love You" [Extended version]

Track 7: "Whatcha Got" written by myself produced by Curtis "Jewels" Jews
This was another song that basically "wrote itself". Jewels sent this track to me (he's based in D.C.) and i connected to the "rawness" of this track. There was something about it that immediately grabbed me. As I continued to listen, I thought about the musical journey I had been on (so far). There were times when I thought, "if only i had this, I can do that" or, "man, I wish this job paid more money" and my personal favorite "I'll be glad when I don't have to work here anymore! Then I can do music full time"! At that moment I realized it doesn't matter what you don't have. It only matters what you do with what you have. When you can be productive with what you have, you put yourself in position to recieve more. The thing is you'll also be in a place where you'll be more responsible. If everything you ever wanted was handed over to you at once, you wouldn't know how to appreciate it or how to maintain it for that matter. It would go just as quickly as it came.

So there you have it! I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please feel free to leave a comment and also share this page with your friends.

To buy your copy of The Tasha LaRae EP click here. They are currently on sale 2 for $10.

Also click the links to find out more about the artist, writers, and producers mentioned here.

Peace and Love Yourself!

Arrested Development's UK Tour 2010

9 cities. 9 shows. 10 days!! What an amaziing experience.

While we are still in the midst of the tour, I had to take this opportunity to talk a little bit about our experience (from my point of view) touring the United Kingdom and singing every step of the way.

So far we've visited London, Exeter, Brighton, Birmingham, and Scotland! We still have Bristol, Sheffield, Dublin, and Leeds to go. I'm really looking forward to visiting Ireland!!

The great thing about touring is that you meet so many interesting people who have so much to share. The sad thing is that we don't always get to take a few days off to explore our surroundings. But I'm not complaining.

What I enjoy most about traveling abroad is that you see so many different lifestyles, cultures, belief systems, etc that without warning you begin to remove limitations from your own life. Personally, I've noticed a definite change in how I approach solutions to everyday problems I face. This comes with a great level of stress relief (although stress is not eliminated!)

I think that is the main lesson I've learned from all of my travels - there is always a solution to a problem. Sometimes you have to change your prospective to see it.

Anyway, I won't make this post to wordy! Be sure to follow this blog and check back for more cool updates and posts! Here are a few pics for you to enjoy!


The castle outside my window in Scotland!


A crowd shot from the stage in Brighton, England!


JJ Boogie (our guitar player)


Statue in Exeter, England


a shot of the beach in Brighton


the crowd having fun in Scotland

The Wonderful World of Eshe!

Montsho Eshe is 1 of 4 remaining, active, original members of the 2x grammy award winning hip hop group, Arrested Development. She's a dancer, singer, songwriter, mother, teacher, leader, model, actress, and one of my favoritest people in the world! Her passion for life, family, dance, and helping others is most inspiring.

Recently, Eshe was asked to be the front page model for a hair magazine called Beyond Braids. I caught up with Eshe while she patiently sat and got her hair braided by natrual hair care stylist extraordinaire, Naeemah Serwaa for Benevolentcreationz. Naeemah has been braiding hair since she was a child and she's so passionate about it! Her work is very detailed and immediately grabs the attention of others. You can see more of her work on her facebook page. (click on her name and you will be directed there).



Then we headed over to Reggie Anderson's photography studio where Ms. Eshe immediately went to make up and waredrobe for a fun afternoon of posing for pics.


Reggie Anderson (photographer) and Eshe hard at work. They make it look so easy!





I'll admit, I had a great time being in the company of so many talented and creative people. Reggie Anderson has worked with subjects from all walks of life including an endless list of celeberties. Reggie was kind enough to allow me to snap some pics of him as he worked with Eshe and he also gave me a few pointers working with my own camera. (I'm very proud of my Fuji Film Finepix digital camera, but his camera was waay cooler than mine!) If you've passed the hair products isle at your favorite store, then you've seen his beautiful work. Click on his name to view more.

Ejoy these fun pics!


Eshe and her beautiful daughter!


From left to right: Naeemah Serwaa (hair stylist), Eshe, Eddie Spencer (owner of Beyond Braids Magazine)




Peyton keeping busy while hanging with mom

*Feel free to click the links and learn more about the awesome people mentioned in today's blog. You can also search for them on twitter and facebook.

**Please note that all of these pics were taken by my camera. Reggie Anderson's pictures are way better!

I couldn't resist the opportunity!! Here are a few pics of Eshe modeling Earjeans :o) 2 of the 4 earrings pictured were sold immediately after we took these pics!!