We are pleased to announce that Kevin Burdick has been chosen to be a part of a compilation CD entitled “Out of Darkness,” the proceeds of which will go to benefit Alcoholics Anonymous and The Salvation Army. Producer Johnny Gray had this to say about Kevin’s inclusion: “The Out of Darkness selection committee loved Kevin Burdick’s song ‘Mercy.’ It is a mix between heartbreak and tough love that paints an alcoholic’s loss from overindulgence. The upbeat music coupled with the plea for mercy is perfectly mixed with the other songs chosen for the CD. Burdick’s vocals are exceeded only by his heartfelt message and generous donation.”
Kevin had this to say about the project: “It’s an honor to be chosen along side such amazing international talent to be a part of this compilation CD. As always, I try my best to be involved in projects that make a sincere difference in the world. I’ve had many close friends struggle with alcohol and drug addition, and it’s been hard thing to watch up close and feel helpless with.”
Other international recording artists participating in the compilation include: Chelsea Lynn La Bate (US), Alexander Murray (Scotland), Noa Bursie (US), Langdana w/ Sons of Live (Germany and the Netherlands), Chris Louvieris (Cyprus), Peter Belsten (UK), and several more.
This weekend’s shows at Bogey’s in Clearfield, Utah and Club Allure in Sandy, Utah were a great welcome back to my home state.
Bogey’s is a large Vegas-style club with a big stage. The staff and guests were grateful to have me out on a Thursday and were impressed with my blend of comedy, story-telling, and rock-n-roll – some of the staff felt like I was “the best band they’d ever had out.” I had a great time partying with the locals up there and am looking forward to coming back next year sometime. Highlights of the show included improv songs “Dead Baby Pie” and “Malleable Penile Implants” thanks to some creative, funny, and very unique audience suggestions – ha, ha. It was a great night!!
The Club Allure show on Saturday was for a packed house, with 100 – 200 people in the crown room at the club in Sandy at any given time. People were dancing, singing, and genuinely enjoying the show on all sides of the stage. One pretty lady flashed me and then climbed on-stage and put a $20 bill in my underpants, which is always appreciated on several levels. Audience influenced improv songs included “Ken’s Sexy A**” (about my business manager’s best asset) and “The Pull0ut Method.” Another epic night, and we’re only half way through the Utah leg of the tour.
I’m really looking forward to my next 4 shows here before heading back to Hollywood. Utah is where I really came into my own as an artist and found a home in the local music scene, so it will always feel like home to me when I hit the stage here.
Kevin Burdick Live at Bogey’s in Clearfield, Utah performing “Never Let Go” from the album, We are the Walking Wounded (available on iTunes):
Kevin Burdick Live at Club Allure in Sandy, Utah performing an improv song “Ken’s Sexy A**” (warning, PG-13 language):
This last weeks shoot for the “Wake Me Alive” music video was a full and wild day of shooting. The crew showed up on-the-set at Stevens-Henager College in Salt Lake City, Utah at 7 AM last Friday and began getting the set ready for the hospital scene in the video (you’ll note I’m in a coma in some of the photos). The rest of us stumbled in about 8 AM and started getting our costumes, hair, and make-up straightened out. I can only image what the students at the college were thinking as they saw a sweaty shirtless tattooed man running around the halls followed by a video crew (I’ll leave the reasons behind those scenes to your imagination). By midnight, we had created the building blocks of a masterpiece (or so I’m told).
Big thanks to Kannika Coley who plays my ‘love interest’ in the video – she did a great job and we had great on-camera chemistry - Jaime Fletcher for filling in as the nurse on the video, Cynthia Dean for her hair and make-up work, and the entire crew at Super Heumann Productions for their super-human efforts. The video should be released on-line in mid-October and we will be posting more details as we get closer to it’s release. The single “Wake Me Alive” is currently available on iTunes.
When Jedi of Opalhill Drive called me about doing a couple shows out in Magna, Utah at The Filling Station I was a little skeptical. Magna is a mining town and The Filling Station is known as a biker bar. After some discussion and a pretty good sales pitch, I thought, “What the hell.” And so, two months later there I stood at the aforementioned biker bar in the middle of mining town Utah, USA.
The crowd on Friday was very stand-offish. I had one lady yelling at me all night to do her random list of cover tunes and when I obliged to do one “Kevin Burdick Style” she was more pissed off that it didn’t sound like the original. You asked me for “Shook Me All Night Long” and I play the piano. What did you expect? Oh, AND I’M NOT A COVER BAND!!
Luckily, the Saturday night crowd was way more into the show, showing their appreciation with both applause and some dancing. I was so grateful to see some familiar faces had made the 20 minute trek out to support their own favorite local piano man. Saturday was also a little more challenging when my usual drummer, Chris Hancock, called in sick. Luckily, guitarist Chris Doucet (who happens to be one of the most talented musicians I’ve ever met) filled in on the drums with no practice and virtually nailed all of the songs.
Highlights of the two-days included doing several improv songs with Jedi (lead singer of Opalhill Drive), who was able to think quickly on his feet and create some of the funniest freestyle lyrics I’ve heard. He was an absolute blast and the Opalhill Drive guys were a lot of fun to play with. I just really enjoyed them and was grateful to have made some new friends.
Big thanks to Jared and Rex Platt for stopping by the show and photographing, Ken Gray for handling the business side, V and E for handling merch sales, Chris/Chris/Brad for rocking the stage with me, and Opalhill Drive for being incredible hosts and just all around great guys to party with.
Live acoustic performance of “Tiny Dancer” at The Filling Station:
The Club Allure show in Sandy, Utah this last weekend was dubbed my “angriest show to date. ” After touring on-and-off since last October, I believe that the wear and tear of the road is finally beginning to show. Strangely enough, most people said it was one of my best and most intense shows they’d ever seen me put on.
Touring this much has been extremely gratifying. It’s always been a dream of mine. But it has taken it’s toll on my personal life – I’ve lost friendships that I failed to properly care for on the road, sacrificed chances at a normal relationship with a woman, and have felt betrayed by a number of people I considered family. I guess when you’re “out of site” you are technically “out of mind” for some people. Of course, my true friends try to make me feel better by saying thinks like, “they weren’t you’re real friends anyway.” Of course, this is probably true, but it doesn’t make the sting of loss and betrayal any easier to deal with. So this week I’ve been mourning the loss of some very important relationships and have been licking my wounds.
Fortunately, I’m always able to take my pain and situations that affect me into my songwriting. In spite of just releasing an album, I already have two new songs completed that have been inspired by these feelings of love and loss that I have been experiencing lately. I feel blessed to be able to have some clarity in these difficult moments with which I can write beautiful music. I actually performed one of these new songs, “Am I So Disposable?” at the Club Allure show to very rave reviews.
A big thanks to Keith Hubbard for stepping in on short notice with the bass guitar and also “The Rob” (who played drums on many of the tracks on the new CD) for filling in on the drums. Thanks also to Chris Doucet for his magnificent guitar work, even with one injured hand. Also thanks to Scoop Einer for promoting the show, Ken Gray for his management and support, and the myriad of fans who showed up to rock with me.
Note: All of the tracks from “We Are The Walking Wounded” are now available on iTunes. If you haven’t heard the album, do a search for me on iTunes and see what you think. It’s quite an achievement and the people who have picked up the album already say that they are in love with it.
I read an article about a baby that was born (yesterday) on 08.08.08 at 8:08 AM who weight 8.8 LBS (this is true). What’s crazy is we also gave birth to our own 8 pound baby late last night as we rocked Liquid Joe’s and delivered the new CD “We are The Walking Wounded” to a packed house!! It was a huge celebration and if you missed the show, you missed history in the making. I have been getting texts and messages all morning from friends and fans who picked up the CD at the show about ‘what an epic achievement it is’ – I may be biased, but I do think it’s my best work so far.
The show began last night with some new twists. I busted out my grand piano (a huge pain to set up), and instead of the drums in the back of the stage on the riser, we decided to put the piano up top. I also added a smoke machine and at the beginning of my set, during Cigarette Girl, it appeared as if my piano was on-fire as smoke began pouring out of it.
The highlights of the night included an improv song about my tender relationship with a donkey, a funny birthday song, a quick performance of the hidden track on the new CD, Chuck Thompson (the cellist who plays on several tracks on the CD) came up and played a couple songs with me on his cello, and really just having the opportunity to play for several hundred people at a packed Liquid Joe’s.
Big thanks to Brad Verrier (Bass), Chris Doucet (Guitars), Chris Hancock (Drums), Chuck Thompson (Cello), Ken Gray (My awesome business manager), Scoop (Promoter), Joel Pack (My Producer), Brittney (Our sexy merch girl), the Liquid Joe’s staff, The Better Life Band (for kicking off the show at short notice), and the many more people that supported this show and came out to rock with me.
Don’t forget, you only have until midnight tomorrow to order the new CD at the discounted $8.99 rate until it goes up to $12.99 Monday morning. Big thanks to the many people who have already ordered it. You should be receiving your signed copies later this week: http://www.kevinburdick.com/buy.html
Performance of the track, “Goodnight Darling, Goodnight” off the new album:
On August 8th, 2008 “We Are The Walking Wounded” will be officially released at the Walking Wounded CD Release Party at Liquid Joe’s in Salt Lake City, Utah. The 4th CD released by Kevin Burdick will be available on-line (iTunes, Napster, etc) and in some retail stores the following week for $12.99 – however, presale orders for the CD are being taken now from the Kevin Burdick website.
Fans of Kevin Burdick are able to pre-order the CD for just $8.99 and have it shipped on August 8th, 2008. Presale orders will all be autographed and will also contain a special thank you letter from Kevin Burdick, for his fans, many of whom have been supporting him since his first solo album in 2002.
Click here to be one of the first to pre-order “We Are The Walking Wounded” by Kevin Burdick!
Also, as a free gift to readers of this blog, we are giving away two of the pre-mastered tracks from the new 12-song CD. Simply ‘right-click’ on the links to the songs and select ”save target as” to save the tracks to your local hard drive.
Thanks for participating in the Kevin Burdick CD give-a-way. Each week we give-a-way 1 limited edition signed “The Hits” CD to a lucky new fan that contains all of Kevin’s greatest songs on his 3 album collection from iTunes.
In order to qualify for the drawing, please accomplish the following steps:
1) Become a “Fan” of the Kevin Burdick Music Page on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kevin-Burdick/11411179427 2) Sign up for Kevin Burdick’s Blog by going here (which you’ve already done if you’re receiving this): www.kevinburdick.com/blog
3) Tell your friends about Kevin Burdick via your myspace or facebook page and encourage them to become a fan.
4) Post a comment here that you’ve accomplished these 3 things and your name will automatically be added to the drawing.
Good luck and thanks for being a fan of Piano Rockstar, Kevin Burdick!
The Walking Wounded Photo shoot was so rewarding and fun, I figured I’d post a number of new photos that I just got from Jared Platt. A huge thanks to Jared and all the participants, again, from that shoot.
Note: I have copies of photos for the various people involved in the shoot. Please contact me to arrange sending them to you.
We are pleased to announce that Kevin Burdick has been chosen to be a part of a compilation CD entitled “Out of Darkness,” the proceeds of which will go to benefit Alcoholics Anonymous and The Salvation Army. Producer Johnny Gray had this to say about Kevin’s inclusion: “The Out of Darkness selection committee loved Kevin Burdick’s song ‘Mercy.’ It is a mix between heartbreak and tough love that paints an alcoholic’s loss from overindulgence. The upbeat music coupled with the plea for mercy is perfectly mixed with the other songs chosen for the CD. Burdick’s vocals are exceeded only by his heartfelt message and generous donation.”
Kevin had this to say about the project: “It’s an honor to be chosen along side such amazing international talent to be a part of this compilation CD. As always, I try my best to be involved in projects that make a sincere difference in the world. I’ve had many close friends struggle with alcohol and drug addition, and it’s been hard thing to watch up close and feel helpless with.”
