Give The Gift Of Music!

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CD, Christmas, Christmas Music, Christmas The Reason, Rhon Van Erman, RhonVanErman

Is it the weather? (This has been one of the best Novembers I can remember). Is it me? Or (fill in the blank)…? I’m not sure, maybe a combination of many things, but I know that Thanksgiving came up on me so fast that I just haven’t been able to get “in the Spirit” or “in the Holiday mood”, and now it’s here! So I thought to myself “I’ll get my Christmas EP – Christmas The Reason and pop it in the CD player”, (don’t laugh, I still like CDs, hey, I even love vinyl!). And there it came. The mood, the Spirit, which is why I recorded it in the first place. The contemplative place I like to be when Christmastime is upon us. Phew, that was close. I was beginning to think I’d grown numb to what should be one of the greatest times of the year. So as I reflect on it’s meaning again, I am thankful this Thanksgiving weekend for the gift of music and how it is transcendent to time, places, people, etc. That is awesome!

As we prepare ourselves for the day we call Christmas I want to encourage you to take some “you” time and reflect on the true meaning of Christmas and how it affects you, and how you respond to it. It always puts things into perspective for me because all the hype, parties, and “I want’s” can cloud the truth pretty doggone quick!

So I am thankful this Thanksgiving as a listener and a writer/player. It’s the combination of just the right notes and memories that can give meaning and perspective to a time that means so much.

Happy Thanksgiving & Merry Christmas!

Rhon –

Visit this link to listen and purchase Christmas – The Reason  

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“Shouting About The Quiet”

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CD Baby, Christian, Christian Music, Classical Music, Crucifixion, Faith, Good Friday, In The Quiet, Inside The Music, Instrumental Music, Jesus, Music, MusicBlog, RhonVanErman

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rhonvanerman4

Yes! Yippee! Thank you God! Woo-Ho!

Well, that was my first reaction when my song In The Quiet finally posted to iTunes and CD Baby five days after the release date. A lot of hard work goes into every release and it’s always a dichotomy of excitement and unknowing that floods the day. So this was an occasion to shout about something that was meant for quiet time. Hmm, that’s an odd statement, but this release has been just that, not a “normal” release, so I will expound a bit.

First of all, thank you! Thank you to a patient God who’s wisdom is beyond the thoughts of man. It was His patience in which I had to rest because mine was about spent. Every time I’m challenged to it, my “A” personality rears it’s ugly…. (no pun intended). To a my Engineer Daryl Powell (Studio D), who always comes through in the clutch. One phone call and a master CD was made and sent over night to my distributor. A woman named Sally, who works at CD Baby, and whom I will probably never meet or speak with personally, but who loaded the full length version of my song to be available to the world. The fans who purchased the song on the original day of release, you are my “Super Fans” that fuel my inspiration further! And to my Angel In Disguise, my wife Tonya. Your embrace and words of encouragement are a blessing I can never repay.

Second of all, I have to say that this has been one of the oddest things I’ve been through. Not only musically, but Spiritually. I have come away with something that my “A” personality really struggles with, but I believe over time is making me what God wants me to be. – “To put my head down and run, only to look forward on the path I’ve been given. Not of it’s outcome, but the wisdom gained that puts me closer to the One who is wise. To let gratefulness over rule expectation, for in this I have truly been blessed”.

Good Friday is April 3rd 2015. I have attached the CD Baby player of the song In The Quiet above for you to contemplate this day and your reaction to the crucifixion of Jesus. I pray that it is a blessing to you. The iTunes player is below (the full version is available but the player only plays a clip), and other digital music retailers will soon have this song available. You can always email me if you have questions about where you wish to purchase this song. I am hoping to have a video of this song by Good Friday so stay tuned. Please share this blog with others and comment below. Thanks for reading and listening!

Blessings,

Rhon –

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/in-the-quiet-single/id976161054

A Stinky Little Word Called Truncate… What?

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Faith, God's Word, Good Friday, In The Quiet, iTunes, Jesus, Just Do It, MusicBlog, RhonVanErman, Song Release, Spiritual Test, The Bible, Truncate

Release day! When all the hard work of writing, copyrighting, recording, blogging, contacting media…(believe me the list is much bigger, but I think you get the point), has come to one moment in time of a few clicks and viola, it’s worldwide! An amazing day each time you have the release of a new song, otherwise known as, “one of your babies”. That’s when it all goes right technically. And with all the data flinging across that little cord from our computer, things really do work pretty well most of the time. It only takes one time when it goes awry to put you into a very uncomfortable position. Well, let me be honest, I was seething! Here’s where and when the release of In The Quiet all came into perspective.

If you don’t know me personally, I’m an “A” personality. I live by goals and schedules and love the Nike slogan, “Just Do It”. So when I’ve done everything on my end and worked my tail off to make it happen, and it doesn’t, that’s not a room you typically want to be in. Again, if you know me, and something is amiss, I’m usually very quite, breathing very deeply and quite often just before the storm finally hits. And in the instance of the release of “In The Quiet”, I had to deal with this stinky little word I’d not been introduced to call Truncate. Okay, so now I’m really hot. What in the world is truncate? It means to shorten, or, cut off at the top or end. In this case, my wonderful musical creation was now worldwide and only 0:48 long and not 2:13. Um, that’s not a good thing!! The icing (or Dairy Queen as I like to call it, Truncate was the cake!), I found this out at 4:30 a.m. EST on release day and couldn’t speak with a human at my distributor until 12:00 p.m. EST. Good times! Here comes the war of human, Spirit, and faith.

Regardless of how firm we are in our faith, we are still human. I struggle with that everyday. And the human part of me was about to cave to circumstance. After all, In The Quiet is a definite leap of faith for me, especially being a slow, moody, contemplative, instrumental, that you have to take quiet time and reflect. In this smart phone driven world, that’s a tough calling. And not every one of my fans may want to even listen because there’s a Cross on the cover. And now, it’s not even half of a song to hear. And at 8:00 a.m. I’m receiving messages that people were buying the song and not getting the full length! Ahhh!!! How could this have happened? What now? Time to cower? I think not!

Thank God not only for his Word, but the encouragement of my wife, friends, and fans!! At just the right time the right words were spoken to me. And the Spirit of peace was alive. How do I react? Just like the song In The Quiet. How do I react to the Cross? Like an “A” personality? Not this time. It was time to let go and let God do the work. Okay, now I’m exhausted (It’s now 2:00 p.m. and I have to prep teaching music). So, the physical may be weary but the Spirit has been filled.

I spoke with my Distributor and clarified the problem and would have to overnight a CD of the song to correct the problem. A true drag at best, but better than canceling the release and starting all over. Especially since Good Friday is only two weeks away. Yes, that little stinky word (as much as I hate it) taught me once again, in His time, not mine. After all, this song is much bigger than a worldwide release, it has an eternal message!

So my hope is that sometime the week of March 23rd, In The Quiet, in it’s full length, will be available for you to download. And if you’ve already purchased the :48 version, you’ll be able to upload the full length at no extra charge. By the way, thanks for being some of the first fans to download this song, you’re awesome!! Be it good and bad, music and it’s Industry has changed so much over the last 10 years it’s amazing. But the one thing that will always remain is the thread you and I share, the songs God gives me, and the ability to connect in their language. That will always be more important than any technology!

Blessings –

Rhon

“In The Quiet” art work

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Christian, Crucifiction, Good Friday, Guitar, In The Quiet, Instrumental Music, Jesus, Music Blog, Piano, Piano and Guitar, RhonVanErman

In my previous post I spoke about the meaning and creation of the song “In The Quiet”. The process to find the right image for this song was a difficult one, mainly due to the fact that there weren’t cameras back in Jesus’ time. Quite honestly, I’m thankful for that. In the search for the best image I kept coming back to not just Jesus himself but, the Cross. The symbol by which he will always be remembered. So there it was. In this particular image the visual is fairly gloomy but with a bit of light in the back round to add to the emotion of the song in which there is tension and release, anguish and hope. I believe this art work aligns perfectly with the upcoming release of the song “In The Quiet”. The release date is Friday, March 20th, 2015. It will be available worldwide on iTunes, Amazon, CD Baby, and http://www.rhonvanerman.com There is also a new page on my website In The Quiet dedicated to the release of this song. Just click the italicized title in the previous sentence. May this release be a blessing to all of you.

– Rhon

Quiet – Need Some?

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Christian, Christian Music, Classical Music, Crusifiction, Gethsemene, Good Friday, Guitar, Guitar Solo, In The Quiet, Instrumental Music, Jesus, Jesus Praying, Music, MusicBlog, Piano and Guitar, Praying, RhonVanErman, RhonVanErmanBlog, The Cross

We live in a very interesting time don’t we? I’m sure all generations have said this, however, that little rectangular thing you can’t leave home without has changed everything we will ever be. Albeit good or bad. And as always, we are daily given a choice to use it for something good or bad. Kind of like a volume control, loud or quiet? With the previously mentioned device I could use a little of the latter in my life. How ’bout you?

Several years ago I was in my kitchen prepping a music lesson with an old sight reading book I hadn’t looked at in quite a long time. The morning sun was shining in, and the anticipation of Spring was filling my bones with overwhelming exuberance (that means I was fairly excited). The neighborhood dogs weren’t barking, the phone wasn’t ringing, and my little rectangular thing was turned off. Quiet time. The world was on pause for a bit and that was good.

Teaching music enables me to give back but it also allows me to look back. The excitement of first’s. The first time playing a chord that moves my very being. The first time being able to confidently play a solo with all the notes I was thinking at the time I was thinking them (musical conversation). And the most important thing this time was, playing three chords that transcended me into an event that I yearly commemorate, but I was never able to express the emotions until the notes came out. It was very moving. And once again I was the instrument playing the instrument for the emotion to have sound. Anguish, tension, abandonment, weeping, torment, hoping, on a level that we most likely will never know. The quiet had given me the time to reflect on something that was done for me that I’ll never be able to repay. Good Friday.

I want to encourage those that are not Christian, or are Christian, not to click off right now. This is not a post to preach to you, but, to engage you to take a quiet moment and ponder for yourself what Good Friday is. I’ve often looked at paintings of this horrific event and had to turn my head at the shear brutality. How can this be “Good”? But the question that really hit me this time was, what was Jesus going through? The personal side of Jesus. Not what I thought, but what he felt. And how do I react to that? It is said to know another’s life you must walk in their shoes. The thoughts of Jesus on this day I will only read, and never fully understand. And this is the story for the “Inside the music” of the song, “In The Quiet”.

Today all the things that needed to be done for the release of is this song were finished. The uploading of audio, artwork, and distribution. The biz stuff. So now all is good with the technical world, and on the release date you’ll be able to purchase something called an mp3, load it into that little rectangular thing you can’t leave home without, and take a moment from the spinning of your world and listen. “In The Quiet” is an all instrumental of just piano and guitar. Just the intimacy of the two instruments speaking the emotion of the song. My hope is that when you listen with no distractions, the song will help you reflect on Good Friday and it’s true meaning. This will be a digital release only, no CD (yet), and available at all the major music retailers like iTunes, Amazon, CD Baby, etc. The date will be posted in my next blog. If you have any comments or thoughts you’d like to share you can leave them below or email me at rockin@rhonvanerman.com 

www.rhonvanerman.com 

Valentine’s Angel In Disguise

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Angel In Disguise, AngelInDisguise, Angels, Facebook, Foreigner, Guitar, Guitar Solo, Journey, Lovesongs, MusicBlog, Revolution CD, RhonVanErman, RhonVanErmanBlog, Rock Ballad, Valentin'es Day

Ah the day of love, chocolate, romantic dinners, cards, flowers…. Valentine’s Day. For the naysayers it’s a mushy, made up by Hallmark Card Company, self induced choco-coma, waste of time, Holiday. For the true romantic, it is a day other than a anniversary to kindle the fire that started we you first met your better half. What I call “Keeping The Honeymoon”. So if you hate mushy, sappy, love stories please click away now (you could read on and be inspired). If you are the romantic type, here we go.

I have an acronym I’ve used since I was a teen. It was probably brought on by my prideful teenage years, but is very apropos. S.I.T. (Self-Induced-Trauma). To sit, reflect, learn something, and be better because of it. The self induced trauma I’ve gotten a bit better about. And I’ve actually gotten to the point of enjoying time to “sit” and ponder on the past, learn from it, and make my future a little better.

As far back as I can remember, a wee lad most likely, I’ve always thought that being married would one of the greatest things ever. To find that person to share your life with that would be your friend, lover, etc., My confidant through all of life’s up and downs. Ya, count me in! I’ll graduate and we’re off to happiness. I’m ready! Or so I thought.

You’d think that being in my 20’s I wouldn’t be using the aforementioned acronym quite as frequently. Ya, you’d think. Well, this is where wanting something before you’re ready comes into play. Man that’s hard to admit no matter how old you are. Especially when it’s something you’ve been wanting since you were a kid! But, it’s that little voice that goes off in your head and says, “Yep, this is it”, that you’re either listening to or not. It took me until I was 29 years old to finally hear that “Yep, this is it” from the voice that had been telling me from ages 20 to 29, “Um, I’m sorry, this is not it”, but I went in head first anyway. Ugh, more self induced trauma.

I have to give credit to one of the most influential phone calls I made to an old school friend. I remember her saying “There’s a girl up here you really need to meet”. And so I made the trip, made a date, and less than a year later was married. Holy arrows to the heart! I even let go of this possible relationship to try and clean some recent S.I.T. only to have that voice say “Yep, this is it”, with the addition of “Are you out of your mind?, call her now”! I’ll never forget that day either. I knew in my soul she was “it” when the emotion was so deep it brought me to tears. No more S.I.T. I cleared my mind of the past, listened to the voice, and in just a few months I was married.

I truly hope that you have found “The One” for you. I call my wife my “Angel In Disguise”. She came along not in my time, but at just the right time. A true gift of God himself. I will spend the rest of my days in gratitude doing my best to try and come somewhere close to making her as happy as she has made me. Happy Valentine’s Day!

– Rhon

Thank You, I’ll Take Another!

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Facebook, iTunes, Music, Music Video, MusicBlog, Revolution The CD, Rhon Van Erman, RhonVanErman, RhonVanErmanBlog, RhonVanErmanRevolution, Twitter, Videoing, YouTube

Rhon Van Erman & Darrell Powell

Telly Award #2! –

The call, the email, or whatever form it comes, the sound on the other end of the line telling you of the recognition of your peers always sends a jolt of excitement through your being. The gift God gave me I chase with a passion that would be pleasing to Him and to all that it may touch. The icing is when others in your craft note your work and reward you for it.
In the provided picture I am holding Telly Award #2 for one of the videos from this blog for the recording of the Revolution CD. Pictured along with me is Darrell Powell, owner of Studio D in the sleepy town of Summitville Indiana. It’s not the place you live but how you live in the place you are.
This is a great honor, and I would like to recognize some of those who have helped with the making of these videos.

Jared Powell – Cabin14films
Garrett Matney – Cabin14films
Darrell Powell – Studio D
Dane Clark – Drums
Randy Melson – Bass
Phil Maxwell – Back round vocals

These are just a few of the people who were involved not only in the video but the recording of the Revolution CD, thank you all for your expertise!
Onward and upward! This day I have and I will seize, the best of what is given me.

Rhon

Why It’s A Major Award!

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A/CRock, Facebook, Guitar, Music, MusicBlog, Recording, Revolution, Revolution The CD, RhonVanErman, RhonVanErmanBlog, RhonVanErmanRevolution, Rock Guitar, She's Everything I Need, YouTube

Ok, so this is not a Christmas Story video clip but a photo op for me and my crew, Cabin14films. It is always great to be acknowledged for your work, and so our Telly Award came in and I thought I would share this moment with you. This award is given to outstanding video/film for television and video for the web. It was given for the making of “She’s Everything I Need” video we made for this blog. It is so cool to be honored for this, and we are grateful to all of you that read this blog and support my music!
Cabin14films and myself shot the next video from the Revolution CD, “Wanted Man”, this last weekend and we look forward to sharing it with you here. So pop the corks, break out the cake and let the celebrating begin : )

Rhon

The “Revolution” CD Is Live!

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A/CRock, Facebook, Guitar, Guitar Solo, iTunes, Music, MusicBlog, Recording, Revolution, Revolution The CD, RhonVanErman, RhonVanErmanRevolution, Rock Guitar, YouTube

The “Revolution CD was released Tuesday, March 5th, 2013. This was an amazing day that I will not forget! Watching iTunes, CD Baby, YouTube and all the other places that this recording was going live around the world was awesome. I will continue to say that when we lose the amazement of what is afforded to us, we’ve lost gratitude of the blessings that surround us.
I am grateful that this medium of expression called a Music Blog, has given me a more detailed way to share with you how a song starts and continues to grow as time moves on. This body will one day breathe it’s last, but the songs created will live on. These are the things we pass on to our children, how we reacted to life, and what it all meant. Yeah, maybe that’s deep, but without connecting on this level with your family, friends and fans, life is just going through the motions. So, thank you for sharing in this ride with me. Remember the definition that is used for revolution is – “A sudden, radical, or complete change”, and my hope is you experience one of these in your life to make everyday count!

– Rhon

“The Vacuum That Sucks”

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A/CRock, CD, Guitar, Guitar Solo, Lovesongs, Music, MusicBlog, Recording, Revolution, Revolution The CD, Rhon Van Erman, RhonVanErman, RhonVanErmanBlog, RhonVanErmanRevolution, Songwriting, Studio, Videoing

Hmm, quite a title eh? The only vacuum that sucks and does a great job is my sweeper. It does a great job of making the carpet look and feel so nice and I like that. However there is another vacuum that can suck the life right out of you, being or thinking you are an island. I will refer to the saying “No man is an island”. When I was a kid I had no idea what my teacher was talking about but as I started to work with others in sports, rock & roll bands, etc, it all became very clear, even the greatest of my talents need the inclusion of others to really make them shine. The other saying that has gotten a lot of shout lately is “There is no I in the word Team”. Yea, there may be some great things someone can accomplish on their own but they really miss out on the entire experience of life when they don’t involve others and will never achieve their best potential. Besides, sharing the victory with others is a richer experience compared to patting yourself on the back. That makes your arm hurt just reaching around to try it anyway!
I am dedicating this blogpost to all those that have helped me with the pre and post production of the Revolution CD. For most of you that read this these people are total strangers, and at one time, some of these people were total strangers to me as well. And there you go, the vacuum. If I didn’t talk with others, ask questions, involve myself with them to be the best I could be, I never would have met some of these vibrant people. So I’ll just settle for the only vacuum I need, and that’s the one that sucks dirt, not the breath of life I receive from others.
I’ve also included in this post a picture of The Telly Award that was given for my video “The making of She’s Everything I Need”. This was produced by Cabin14films and recorded at Studio D. Always good to be recognized for your work! Now I give
my deepest gratitude and thanks to –

My Father in Heaven, my Wife & Son, my parents, Lynn Graber at the Recording House, Andy Symons (formerly at The Lodge Recording Studio), Darrell Powell at Studio D, Jared Powell & Garrett Matney at Cabin14films, Randy Melson (Bass), Dane Clark(Drums), I miss playing with you guys more often but it’s great being able to pick up where we leave off, Phil Maxwell (Back Round Vocals), the wonderful people at Disc Makers and CD Baby & Greg Chupp. I would also like to thank my Wife for the perfectly packed cooler with my lunch and treats to sustain me for my drive to the studio and the hugs from you and our son that got me there and back! And you, my fans, you give fuel to the fire on this journey. When I complete a song one of the things I can’t wait to do is share it with you. I am blessed and grateful 🙂

Rhon –