THANKS to all who voted in the Lilith Fair local talent search -  the results of the fan judging are here!

I made it to the #1 slot! Still SO surprised and overwhelmed.

Remember though, the Lilith Fair and Ourstage officials ultimately decide who gets to play and will choose the performer with strong consideration for fan votes.  Keeping my fingers crossed!

Thanks again, SO much.

Yours,

FP

Back in February, I entered a contest to be the featured local act at this year’s Lilith Fair in Nashville. I hadn’t thought much about it, since I was busy with FAWM and the voting process wouldn’t even start until May.

May came, and so did the BIGGEST flood in Nashville’s recent history, and Lilith Fair was the last thing on my mind…until last night. Something on Twitter caught my eye, “Top 20 Finalists Announced!”

Oh man. I hadn’t even asked for people to vote, I had forgotten all about it. I clicked the link to see where my name would fall, assuming it would be near the bottom of the 172 other Nashville contestants.

I didn’t even get past the 2nd page. There I was. #14.  I FLIPPED out. I actually felt hot and shaky.  Lilith Fair isn’t just another music festival to me.  From the moment of it’s birth in the late 90’s I’ve dreamed of playing it.

Sarah McLachlan isn’t just another artist to me either.  Through Lilith, she proved that more than one female artist could play the same bill with HUGE success. She rekindled my  love of the piano and inspired me to write my own music. She was one of the greatest influences over my early music career.

I know the voting process is tedious, but I have some of the BEST fans in the whole world and I have total faith in your support. You have been loyal album after album, project after project.

Currently I am in the semi-finals!

May 29 – May 30: Semi Finals: The top performer is chosen by fans during this time.

May 31: Contest ends and winner is chosen by OurStage and Lilith, with strong consideration of fan votes.

This is huge for me. PLEASE help me get on the Lilith Fair stage!

Step by step instructions follow:

To Vote on FaceBook:

1. Use This Link: Vote for Lilith Local Talent Search Nashville!
2. You’ll see four songs, listen to both drag them in the order your like them and click vote.
3. Keep doing it until you get a chance to vote for me.
4. Keep voting if you want!
5. Tell your friends, cross your fingers for me and come to Lilith Fair in Nashville!

To Vote Not on FaceBook:

1. Use This Link: Vote for Lilith Local Talent Search Nashville!
2. You’ll see two songs, listen to both and vote.
3. Keep doing it until you get a chance to vote for me.
4. Keep voting if you want!
5. Tell your friends, cross your fingers for me and come to Lilith Fair in Nashville!

FAWM SONGS 2010

Well folks, here they are. Click through below to see who submitted each title and to read the lyrics.

You can download the entire album for free by clicking on the widget.

You can also listen for free by clicking on the widget.

Don’t forget to tweet, and tell your Facebook friends!

If you’d like to leave a tip, you have the option after downloading.

The money would go to good use, for example, investing in equipment so I don’t have to sing straight into a laptop, or taking some of these songs into a *actual* studio!

(Keep in mind, these are all ROUGH demos!)

Links to lyrics:

1. Slippery Slope
2. Something Like a Train
3. Bankrupt Heart
4. Tempting The Moon
5. White and Blue
6. Hugh Stay The Same
7. All I Ever Wanted Was a Pony
8. Let’s Move To Stars Hollow
9. I Left My Heart in the Urban Sprawl
10. These Broken Things
11. Paper Steeples
12. Baby Come Back (Don’t Take Your Love)
13. Cracks in the Sidewalks
14. When the Winds Blow
15. I’m All Done

Note: With the exception of 2 of the songs,  I selected the titles out of a spreadsheet without knowing who submitted them. Because of this, there are a couple of folks who had more than one song title selected. If yours wasn’t selected, keep it for next year, think of new ones or submit a TON when FAWM 2011 rolls around!

For more info on February Album Writing Month, visit www.fawm.org.

To those of you who have submitted song titles, (last year, this year, both years) offered encouragement during this crazy month of never ending songwriting, and been faithfully following the tweets, blogs, etc., centering around FAWM, I really want to say, thank you.

Thank you for submitting titles, encouraging me and playing along as I worked furiously to make my goal of 14 songs by the end of February.

When I took on my first FAWM challenge in ‘09, I was mostly trying to come up with a way to interact more with my fans since the past couple of years had been full of babies and diapers and not so much touring, or playing live.

I LOVE playing live. I’m an extrovert, and a people person, and I love to sit and listen to people’s stories. The thing I love the most about FAWM, is that it is the one time (outside of a live show) where I can have that direct fan interaction.

Instead of it being just me in a studio making a product, and selling it to you, we get to feel that connection over music, or over a story, and then actually create something together. That excitement, that energy adds SO much to the creative process – an energy that is definitely necessary for me as a songwriter.

I had NO idea it would be so fulfilling, so much fun, and such rewarding work to collaborate creatively with the public.

This year was incredibly challenging.
I think I was pickier and harder on myself this year, but also had less time, as I was homeschooling a Kindergartner, and didn’t have Saturdays to work on music this go around.
That said, I believe at least 4-5 of the songs are some of my favorite I’ve ever written, which regardless of what happens with them, is a personal triumph.

After my 2nd FAWM, I am hooked, so start collecting your song titles for next year!

We’ll start posting demos to my blog this week, so PLEASE come back and listen!

If you want to know the minute they’re online, you can follow me on twitter at @floparisoakes or become a Flo Paris fan on Facebook.

Hope you enjoy the FAWM songs:)
-FP

Last year I participated (for the first time ever) in FAWM -February Album Writing Month.

You picked the titles, I wrote the songs – 14 songs to be exact.

One of those songs was chosen to be on the FAWM compilation album!

Can we do this again?

C’mon people-I need your song titles. Let’s do it.

You Make Up a Good Song Title

It can be anything, but keeping it under 10 words will probably help.

Post It In The Comments

If you want to include suggestions, elaboration, whatever that’s fine. If you want to “second” someone else’s title, that’s OK too. Comments will close on January 31st at midnight because…

February 1st I’ll Pick My Faves

And start writing and recording songs based on submitted titles!

*All submitted content will become the property of Flo Paris Music, and by submitting a song title, you agree to those terms.

I had a break for a week between the last two shows, which was nice because I got to spend it with Josh and our families, but kind of weird to be out of the groove for a few days.

I realized I really liked playing shows every night, as tiring as it was, because there was a certain amount of energy that remained constant and I definitely felt like I really had to work to get it back for the last show.

I got to play at my brother Marty’s church (where I went growing up) and see a lot of my old friends in the crowd!

He organized the whole thing, even getting a band together to back me up. It’s always SO great to play with a whole band!

My brother Mary played additional acoustic guitar, Bryan Baldwin played bass, Kelly Powers played mandolin and electric guitar (you may remember him by his amazing mando/fiddle/banjo skills at my last CD Release show) and my old classmate (who I haven’t seen in many years) Jesse Hesch, played drums.

There are a couple of people I consider worthy of “best friend” status… Erin, who has been THE best friend for almost 23 years… Skylana, who I got to know, because she married…my best friend from high school-Seth.

Seth is like family to me. We’ve known each other since we were kids. During high school, we went everywhere together.. we made big plans.. we sat at the picnic tables during lunch and played all the songs we knew or that we’d written.
Back then it was Frente and Kenny Loggins and all kinds of sappy stuff we came up with ourselves.

Seth has been in bands and played music for over a decade now, and I’ve always been SO proud of the music he makes and how good he is at what he does. It only seemed natural that he should record and help produce “Coming Around”.

Despite both of us being musicians, and even working on the album together, we had never, EVER done anything together live. (Well, besides high school choir:)

The best moments of the Hotel Cafe show were the times we were on stage together.
I had so much fun.

I even got to sit in and sing with Lakes (his amazing band) and join the stage with more old friends, people who played on my record, my good friend Jeremy…it was a blast!

THE SHOW:

Before the show…

I had Skylana style me and my hair. I don’t trust myself to do that in Hollywood.

The girlies wanted a picture with mama:

Is that a child? No, it’s me.

Me and Seth. Love the pic. Also love that Jacob is looking at us like a crazy person.

Josh and Seth, having missed each other immensely over the last year…sitting REAL close in the back seat:

Saturday we drove in to my home state.

Josh flew in that afternoon, and our good friend, Chris (he was our best man in our wedding) picked him up and we all met at Gabe and Cheri’s house in Anaheim.

Gabe and Cheri are the kind of people we can pick right back up with again, no matter how long it’s been. I know no matter where we are in the country, or in our lives, we will always stay in touch.  We were in each other’s weddings and they are woven into our history.

Gabe and Josh hung out at the house with the kiddos, Kyla had the night off from kid duty and got to go to Disneyland (woo hoo!) and Chris, Cheri and I went to the show. Cheri brought a friend and nearly ALL my good friends from college (I went to school in Fullerton 10 years ago) showed up!

The temp leaving AZ:

The sign at the first rest stop leaving AZ:

Sera thought it was a good time for goggles:

California!

Angel City Cafe:

Me and Cheri:

The Fullerton College crowd:

Tour Day Five – SoCal from flo Oakes on Vimeo.