Building 50 Mercato, The Village at the Grand Traverse Commons, Traverse City, MI

Shake the snow off your boots and come on out to the Great Indoor Folk Festival this Sunday, February 12th in the Mercato at the Village Commons in Traverse City! It’s the fourth annual and features over 50 very talented singer-songwriters from the region and it’s free! Since entry is free, Festival attenders are encouraged to support local performers by purchasing their music available at the CD table. Music starts at 12 noon and goes until 5:30 PM. There will be numerous stages for solo’s, duo’s, bands, and kids music. Barbara will be joining with keyboardist and singer-songwriter Kevin Reeves and percussionist Chris Burgess from “Medicinal Groove” on the Duo Stage from 2:00-2:30 in the Mercato in the lower level of Building 50 just outside of the “Mana” Deli. (Okay, so we’re really a trio!). Barbara and Kevin will be performing their original tunes and partnering on one of their favorite cover duets from the movie “Once.” ]]> http://barbarafaithjordan.com/2012/great-indoor-folk-festival/feed 0 http://barbarafaithjordan.com/2011/christmas-concert-at-horizon-tomorrow-night http://barbarafaithjordan.com/2011/christmas-concert-at-horizon-tomorrow-night#comments Fri, 16 Dec 2011 20:52:50 +0000 barbara http://barbarafaithjordan.com/?p=855 Grab a chair and a cup of coffee and join us at Horizon Books in downtown Traverse City this coming Saturday, December 17th from 8:30-10:30 PM. You’ll hear soothing piano-vocal arrangements of many of the traditional Christmas songs that celebrate the true spirit of the season including songs off the Christmas CD “The Gift of Christmas Peace.” We had a great time together at Baker Books in Grand Rapids last week; it was great to sing and hear the 3-part harmonies! (Celtic Woman watch out!) and we’ll be bringing most of the same musicians back again this Saturday; Melanie Stoll on keyboard and vocals, Sue Gillett on vocals and Mike Gillett on concertina. We may have a few surprise guests as well!

If you have a few minutes, we also invite you to go to YouTube and watch the music video for the song “The Holly and The Ivy” off the Christmas album. (It seems to be a favorite!) clickhere In a few verses, it speaks to many of the reasons we celebrate Christmas. We’d love it if you help us to get the “Word” out! If you like it, just click “like it!” and please share with anyone else you think would enjoy it as well including any of your Facebook friends.

This year, we also created a Christmas album download card with a matching greeting card. (I hear CD’s will soon be a thing of the past! I guess it’s time to get rid of my cassettes) We’ll be making the cards and CD’s available at Horizon Books or just email me.

We just got word that Savannah Buist will be joining us!. Savannah is an amazing violin player. As you listen to her, you’ll also be amazed at what a gift she has for her age – she is currently in high school. She comes by her gift naturally as her parents are professional musicians as well. You can listen to Savannah’s band “Treehuggers” HERE and you can hear Savannah and her parents Rick and Amber Buist HERE.

We also hope to have Howard King join us to do a special reading about the famous Christmas Truce of 1914. Howard is best known for having been the voice of Michigan Stadium for Wolverine football for 33 years. Howard is also a former marine.

And, we hope to have a couple other special guests join us. It’s going to be a great night!

And in the true spirit of the Christmas season, how about bringing an item or two for the local food pantry? (We’ll deliver it)

Merry Christmas,

Barbara

To  purchase, click here.

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I love the Christmas Season. Well, at least one part of it. I like the part where we feel moved to give rather than just get. Toy drives for kids. Shoe boxes full of presents for children in all parts of the world. Visiting nursing homes to sing Christmas carols for the elderly and the staff. Gatherings with friends, family and co-workers. Love is in the air.

Christmas is about love and giving because it is a celebration of Jesus who came to offer love, mercy and peace to a hurting world.

Somewhere along the way, the real reason we celebrate Christmas started to get lost in a frenzied attempt to “buy” and “do” and love and peace began to disappear from the season too. I don’t like that part. We say things like “I’ll be glad when Christmas is over and I can relax” or we look at our credit card bill in January and try to numb the sinking feeling we get when we realize we spent more than we can afford.

I don’t want to forget the One who gave me undeserved grace, unbelievable love, and a peace that transcends my life circumstances.

Last year we  put together a simple piano-vocal CD of soothing Christmas songs  to remind us of Who and what we are celebrating this Christmas season. It’s called The Gift of Christmas Peace.   We made the album available to some friends and family and a few folks who came to some music performances last year.   This fall we have revisited this album and added some more instrumentation (strings, cello, bells, etc), and now are  officially releasing it this Christmas season.  We wanted to keep the arrangements simple so the messages in the songs wouldn’t get lost.

Downloads and copies of the CD are available from my website, Horizon Bookstore in Traverse City and will also be available at CD Baby, iTunes, and other digital download stores soon.  WLJN radio  in Traverse City will also be featuring a couple tracks off the CD this season.

If you would like to get a copy of this for yourselves or send one to a friend, family member, co-worker or even your employees or customers, you can get a copy here.  This would be a great CD for someone who could use a little more peace and comfort this Christmas season.   You can also listen to samples of the songs.

It was a pleasure to work with Dave Proulx again whose awesome piano work  flavored the CD with a George Winston/Windham Hill feel.   The instrumental tracks he added with  a dash of strings, bells, etc. for the official release this year created some beautiful “seasoning”  for the CD.  I also want to thank Andy Mitchell at Audio Bay studios for the awesome job he did on creating such a warm, clean sound.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Gift of Christmas Peace,

.

The movie is the classic Mr Deeds Goes to Town. It’s a great old movie that challenges us to look at the best and worst in ourselves and inspires us to question what is truly important.

THE BAND
We’ve got a great band this year featuring Al Jankowski on keyboards, sax and background vocals, (he’s one of the Traverse City’s best known musicians and member of numerous groups!); John Davis from Boston on bass (a friend of Al’s), drummer Cris Pico who also plays in the band “East Bay Blue” and lead guitarist and vocalist Michael Racine, who has played in jazz bands, theatre bands and at my CD release concerts. The Open Space event draws thousands of people, so get there early, bring your blankets and chairs, claim your space and get ready for a fun night!

Hope to see you there!

Barbara

As in previous years, they’ll be featuring local singers/songwriters before the movies and will also be offering a compilation CD of 20 original songs from artists performing at the Festival with all proceeds going to support the Film Festival. I’m honored that my song, Inside Out from Passages, was chosen to be part of the Traverse City Film Festival Soundtrack for 2011. You can listen to samples of the CD at http://goo.gl/YM0fa, as well as purchase the CD in digital download format. Copies will also be available during the Traverse City Film Festival at the box office and at merchandise tables. There are some great songs with some very talented artists so take a listen!

It looks like we’ll also have some special guests joining us! Kurt
Westie who plays mandolin and Michael Racine who plays guitar and
sings and is just back from spending much of the past year in Haiti.
Michael played and sang with me at my CD release concert a couple
years ago at the Opera House – he’s awesome! Should be a great night.

Hope to see you there! Feel free to forward this to any of your
friends who may be interested too!

April 29 marks the start of the three-day event “From Women’s Hands.” This is a rare opportunity to view and purchase artwork from over 100 Michigan female artists (just in time for Mother’s Day!). It is also a fundraiser for the Munson Women’s Cancer Center. The event, held at Streeters on Garfield in Traverse City will also feature music, refreshments, and original films. Barbara will be one of the featured music artists and is performing on Saturday, April 30th from 1-2 PM on one of the Streeters stages along with Melanie Stoll on keyboard and harmony vocals. No tickets are needed although donations are welcome. More info is available at www.fromwomenshands.com

Later Saturday evening, Barbara will be performing at the Bayview Grille in Frankfort for the Jay Webber Songwriters series. Sandy Blumenfeld, a singer-songwriter and DJ for NMC radio will be opening the night from 7-8 PM and Barbara will be the featured songwriter from 8-9 PM joined again by Melanie Stoll. There is no cover charge.

Celebrate spring with a beautiful drive out to Frankfort and enjoy dinner, dessert or a latte as you listen to live music! More info is available at www.bayviewgrille.com

Hope to see you there!

The Song of the Year songwriting contest has received the votes from the judges for December’s round … your material was quite impressive … Congratulations on your great songwriting.

Click here to hear samples of Barbara’s award winning songs.

Just wanted to let you know that the first track from Barbara’s Christmas album, The Gift of Christmas Peace, is now on Youtube as a part of a wintertime slideshow. Watch it below, or check it out on Youtube.

Northern Express

Singer-songwriter Barbara Faith Jordan is well known on the local acoustic music scene as a member of the Northern Michigan Songwriters in the Round. She writes socially-conscious songs and also has a background in pop music from her years of performing downstate. As her name implies, Jordan’s music also has a faith component, and

that shines through on The Gift of Christmas, which is a selection of classic carols and hymns, including “The Holly and the Ivy,” “What Child is This,” “Silent Night” and other favorites.

“Last year we put together a simple piano-vocal CD of soothing Christmas songs to remind us of who and what we are celebrating this season,” she says of her project. “We made the album available to some friends and family and a few folks who came to some music performances last year. This fall we have revisited this album and added some more instrumentation (strings, cello, bells, etc), and now are officially releasing it this Christmas season. We wanted to keep the arrangements simple so the messages in the songs wouldn’t get lost.”

Jordan’s fans will find that she outdoes herself on this disc, with the beautiful bell tones of her vocals complemented by the Windham Hill-style piano work of Dave Proulx. The CD was produced by Andy Mitchell of Audio Bay Studios.

BongoBells

Blogger bongolong said of Barbara’s new album:

“Barbara’s music, simply put, is music simply put. The simple yet elegant arrangements provided by Dave Proulx on piano allows one to sit and hear the words of these songs given to us by a warm, honest and loving voice. This is the first time I’ve actually listened to the lyrics of “Breath of Heaven” and I was moved to tears!”

Be sure to check out the full review at bongobells.blogspot.com

Christmas Forever

Christmas Forever author Susan had this to say about The Gift of Christmas Peace:

“If you appreciate music, especially Christmas music, as much as I do, I’m sure you will enjoy this CD. This is an early Christmas present from me to all of you.”

The rest of the review can be found here!