Christmas All Year Through at Nitida Ridge (12.21.08)

In March 2008, a number of people from the community of Second Life musicians got together and created a song to help raise awareness of the live music scene in SL. That song was called "Get It Together", and was a project spearheaded by a couple of good guys: Djai Skjellerup and Toby Lancaster.

Well, they decided that if one song was good, two songs would be even better. Besides, they needed a good reason to freshen people's interest in the topic of live music in SL, so Djai wrote a holiday song called "Christmas All Year Through", and once again, the SL music community came together to create the tune. Yesterday, in a similar manner to what we did last March, there was a celebration at Bree Birke's beautiful venue Nitida Ridge to help promote its debut. Several of the people who contributed to the song performed live, self included.

Click here for a free MP3 download of "Christmas All Year Through"!


A great crowd for Zak's short show at the "Christmas All Year Through" party.


Zak performing onstage to a packed house at Nitida Ridge.

Here was the lineup of the festive day...

12:00 - Jean Munro
12:20 - Franciskus Paine
12:40 - Babblegrabble Swindlehurst
1:00 - Zak Claxton
1:20 - Carah Nitely
1:40 - OhMy Kidd
2:00 - Kiaranne Flanagan
2:20 - Tpenta Vanalten
2:40 - Lonnie Nightfire
3:00 - Djai Skjellerup

After Djai did his short set, we had the premiere of the song, which went very nicely despite a griefer unsuccessfully trying to ruin the moment. Since I had just 20 minutes to do my thing, I stuck to originals only. By keeping the banter to a minimum, I actually squeezed in all five of the original tunes I play regularly in world. Kat and I had a fun day, and ended up staying for about three hours of very good music.

Here's what I played...

You’re Like a Cloud (Zak Claxton)
Always Tomorrow (Zak Claxton)
Falling Down (Zak Claxton)
Thanks Anyway (Zak Claxton)
This Afternoon (Zak Claxton)

Many thanks to the people who supported my set of original tunes!
Reginald Beck, Cher Harrington, Koks Homewood, BabbleGrabble Swindlehurst, OhMy Kidd, Crap Mariner, seissab Zarf, JanKRO Kubrick, Djai Skjellerup, Kat Claxton, Sally Silvera, Ursula Cinquetti, HomeLess Martian, Bree Birke, and Nils Apfelbaum!

Another fun one: Bay Vista Dragon's Pearl (12.16.08)

Upon arrival, I watch the Born Again Pagans from the side of the stage.

There are more people there, but you can't see them behind my silly hat.

As we're getting into the home stretch of the year, I'm enjoying the slight pick up in frequency of shows that I tend to do in the holiday season. It's strange, because at least for one reason, performing when it's cold gives you a couple of challenges you don't get in warmer times of year. Well, it's unseasonably chilly in Southern California at the moment; I believe when I started my show today at Bay Vista's Dragon's Pearl stage, the temps outside hadn't quite scratched 50, and I generally don't use any heat in the house at all. That'll probably change tonight.

Anyway, it's harder to do things like sing and use your hands when you're cold, but I still managed to work up a sweat playing what I thought was a good show. We started with a pretty small crowd, but as the show went on we had quite a few people filtering in. I think when I got offstage, there were about 22 people there -- and I'm not going to acknowledge that a number of them were there for Blindboy Gumbo's upcoming show. :)

As has been my pattern lately, I am mostly alternating between my original tunes and covers. However, since I am doing so many less covers than before, I am making a point to circulate them each week so that people who come see me won't get the same set show to show. I think it's working well.

Here was today's set list...

This Afternoon (Zak Claxton)
Nobody Home/Vera (Pink Floyd)
Thanks Anyway (Zak Claxton)
The Man Who Sold the World (David Bowie)
You’re Like a Cloud (Zak Claxton)
*Little Wing (Jimi Hendrix)
Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie)
Falling Down (Zak Claxton)
Lola (The Kinks)
Always Tomorrow (Zak Claxton)
A Day in the Life (Beatles)

*Indicates song I've never before performed in SL

Thanks to everyone who helped support my show!
Jayson Luminos, luna32 Allen, Gretchen Capalini, Roni Navarathna, Paisley Dawes, HomeLess Martian, and hexx Triskaidekaphobia!

Tearing it up at San Diego in SL (12.14.08)

Zak onstage at SD in SL, with new hair and everything. Photo courtesy of Triana Caldera.

Sometime before my show today at the California Building at San Diego in SL I said to Kat, "Ya know, I think it'll be a pretty good show, but I'm not feeling like my voice is gonna be too spectacular today."

And of course, just to spite me, my voice was really in great shape, and I think it was one of my best shows of 2008 in terms of the performance. As you know, I'm far too humble to tout my own abilities (insert rolling eyes and huge smirk here), but for whatever reason, I was rocking San Diego today like it was the last gig on Earth. Really, really fun, with a nice sized crowd that stayed about 25 strong throughout most of the show, by my estimate.

I did play a new cover, as I've done lately at San Diego, and though I performed the entire group of original Zak Claxton tunes, I did not play a single cover this week that I'd done last week... I'm trying to keep it fresh for my repeat fans at this fun show.

So, sounded good, with a good crowd, and I never ask for more than that... except I got more! I had a bunch of friends show up, including Grace McDunnough (whose birthday is today), Doubledown Tandino, Djai Skjellerup, Tommy Cult, and others (in additional to my hostess Cher and my Greatest Fan, Triana). So it was just really fun and great to see folks, and I wish every one of my shows could be like today's!

Song Sample: "Falling Down" (Zak Claxton)

Here's what I played...

This Afternoon (Zak Claxton)
Summer Breeze (Seals & Crofts)
Thanks Anyway (Zak Claxton)
Court & Spark (Joni Mitchell)
Falling Down (Zak Claxton)
*Breaking Us in Two (Joe Jackson)
Always Tomorrow (Zak Claxton)
Any Major Dude (Steely Dan)
You’re Like a Cloud (Zak Claxton)
What I Got (Sublime)
Ziggy Stardust (David Bowie)
Save It For Later (English Beat)

*Indicates first time I've performed this song in SL

Thanks to all who supported my show today at San Diego in SL!
Grace McDunnough, Smitty Boyau, Haruka Harris, Anutte Frankfurter, Triana Caldera, Tommy Cult, Djai Skjellerup, Doubledown Tandino, Esser Source, Roni Navarathna, HomeLess Martian, Senjata Witt, and of course the ever-gracious and fun Cher Harrington!

Zak's 2009 Promo Video

Every year, I update my little promo video for my SL shows, and I got a jump on it this year (usually it's like February... okay, April, when I do it). So, without further hype (other than to say this is the greatest piece of filmmaking in the history of cinema), here it is!

Demo preview: Lines on Your Eyes

When I'm working on a new song and feel I have it pretty much ready to go and in the structure that I'll end up recording it when I get into the studio, I like doing a quick live demo to capture the vibe.

So, that's what I did tonight with my song "Lines on Your Eyes", which is a case of a tune that was pretty close to done but needed some sprucing up. Well, I spruced, I liked, and here's the result.

Bringing the rock to San Diego (12.07.08)

Today was the first of my weekly scheduled events at San Diego in SL, where I'll be for three consecutive Sundays. We had a fun and enthusiastic crowd, and as usual, Cher Harrington did a terrific job as the hostess. If I had to give my vote for "Best at running great shows in SL", Cher would get it hands down (though her pal Ursula Cinquetti would be a strong second place).

Anyway, the show... first of all, I did an encore, and I never do encores at SL shows. Seriously, look through my blogs back to the beginning. Tell me if you see any encores in there. But I'd literally taken off my guitar and had ended my stream broadcast, and got cheered back onstage for another tune at the end. It was great. I ended up doing the most songs I've ever done in a "one hour" show -- 14. Wow.

At the beginning of the day, we started with a pretty small crowd, but by the halfway point of the show we had over 20 people and all seemed to be having a great time. I debuted a song, and did something kind of cool where I ran the end of it straight into the next song in my set. Worked very nicely.

Song Sample: "Sour Girl/Old Man" (Stone Temple Pilots/Neil Young)

And here is the set list...

This Afternoon (Zak Claxton)
Nowhere Man (Beatles)
Thanks Anyway (Zak Claxton)
*Sour Girl (Stone Temple Pilots)
Old Man (Neil Young)
You’re Like a Cloud (Zak Claxton)
California (Joni Mitchell)
Falling Down (Zak Claxton)
If You Could Only See (Tonic)
Always Tomorrow (Zak Claxton)
Tribute (Tenacious D)
Just Like Starting Over (John Lennon)
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (Neil Young)
Rikki Don't Lose That Number (Steely Dan)

*Indicates first time I've performed this song in SL.

Thanks so much to all who helped support my show!
Jonty Smit, Paisley Dawes, Susanna Jansma, Jeyff Shippe, Iriskaye Siamendes, Ursula Cinquetti, and espcially Cher Harrington!

Introducing Frothy Music

With my album plodding along its long journey toward completion, I realized somewhat belatedly that although I plan on releasing the album independently, it would be nice to have a company to act as my record label as well as handle any future publishing possibilities of my songs.

So, together with Kat, I made one! We're happy to introduce Frothy Music, our small indie label and music publishing company! For the time being, we aren't accepting artists other than myself; we'd like to make sure we know how to do this before doing it to anyone else. But who knows? It could be fun.

We'll be putting together a little plan for Frothy as we get closer to the completion of the Zak Claxton album, but I'm confident that along with my smart and sexy COO, we can do just fine as our own label. More news to come as it develops.