Mike Janzen Jazzes

I have never actually had the pleasure of working with Mike because he does the same thing as me, plays and sings. Admittedly he is much better!!! Great job Mike!! Love the jazz stuff.

Concert in Oakville Tonight

Really looking forward to the first trio concert for "Buried Thoughts" tonight at Oakville Bible Chapel. Tickets are available for $10 the door. Concert at 7pm. Hope to see you there!!
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CD Review/Feature at Godbeat.com!!

I connected with Godbeat.com in Nashville when I was there for GMA's Immerse, and have an add running to gain some exposure in the US. They have also written a feature on the new CD. Check it out here, and please fell free to share it with many.

Concert tomorrow night in Oakville, come on by and say hi!!

Radio Interview Tomorrow Morning

I am being interviewed tomorrow morning on Joy 1250 in Oakvile, Ontario by Jim Leek. If you are up at 7:05 am and in the area, have a listen.

Another CD release concert this week

Hey come check out the Cliff Cline trio at Oakridge Bible Chapel in Oakville this week and hear the new CD live, and of course pick one up if you haven't!! Tickets are $10 at the door. See you there.

What is meaning for you? {more thoughts on Buried Thoughts}

I think I have always struggled with meaning, meaning for me I suppose. The title track on my new CD certainly deals with this.

What is it for you. Being spiritually centered, not to sound too New Age-y. Doing something meaningful in your day job or free time? Being married and raising kids? Having a significant income and perhaps notoriety. Those that know me know that music has always been a major part of my make-up, but it has never been my full-time thing. No lack of desire, just never happened in reality.

I think the process of Buried Thoughts, which I might add is significantly bigger than simply writing and producing the CD, has taught me that music brings far more meaning in my life than perhaps I have ever known. It is the way I express myself most purely, which for me in part, is poetically. I find more power in words that leave room for the listener to wrestle, to process, to read between the lines. For budget reasons I did not release the lyrics in the CD cover. I have already received requests for them. They will be offered on the site soon.

I have rightly been accused of being very intense in life. I am discovering that I am happiest, most content in that place. Life to me is to grow. Life to me is to serve in the dirt. Life to me is love til it hurts. Life to me is to laugh hard, loud and long. Life to me is to abandon self to the point where God can fill the void. Life to me is big, bigger than today, because if God wills, I can do more and better tomorrow.

Some of the bigness of life has come out in this newest CD. Someone, not my mother:), said that they thought this was my best CD so far. Cool, I hope I can grow and make my next even better, in the meantime I hope that Buried Thoughts is bigger and better in every way than that which I have done in the past.

The Buried Thoughts Evolution

I am having fun with the different kind of work that goes with starting to launch the new CD. Planning gigs (please feel free to call and book more), updating the website and promoting the CD. I really haven't really gone into earnest, this month is really pre-drop month in terms of "the world", with those that know me being first on the list to call as it were.

To that end, the site is a little cleaner now, better flash player with the whole new CD to listen to. If you like it, you can buy it for one more week for $12. After that is goes up to $15, although downloads will be available soon for $10, so keep a lookout if you don't like to have something in your hands (you own an iPod)

As I have mentioned before this CD offers a unique view I think. Not original (see my song 'Nothing New" from the Apartment Sessions on the flash player on my site) but a useful set of stories, songs and thoughts for churches to use as community building concerts. Building community with the outside community I mean. I am excited to see where this leads.

Thoughts on Buried Thoughts "The Tour" (Windsor)

The first stop on the tour was amazing. I must say it was a tiring weekend doing three worship services and then the concert at night, but it was very rewarding. As strange as it sounds, I really did not know what to expect from the songs as I had put them together. I listened to the songs on this CD a million times, but when you go to perform them live you start to get the feel of how people respond to them and how serious the content is. It is an interesting mix between the two CDs (technically three) that I perform from for this tour. The new CD is dark, spiritual, Biblical, but dark, dealing with more of the serious themes found in the Bible that we experience in life. The whole first set basically was the new CD, but I was very pleased to see people respond to the stories and songs by picking up a bunch of new disc!! The second set acted almost as a resolution to the first with many songs from the Noticing the Sky CD.

I will be tweaking the set for sure, maybe adding a few more songs from "The Apartment Sessions" CD. Looking forward to sharing from the next "tour" stop in Oakville in September. Love to see you come out if you are in the area.

Picking Up the CD

I am literally standing in shipping at Cinram to pick up "Buried Thoughts". Hard to express the excitement of finally producing stem to stern myself my own CD. Where this albom of songs and stories will take us (cause it really takes my whole family and "fans" for the ride) is yet to be seen. But I am very excited.

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New CD, New Single

You can listen to the new single One Night on the flash player on my site right now. I hope you like it!! Moreover, if you are on my email list you will get it for free in the next e-news that will be coming out shortly. My last e-news gave away the single Freedom, starting to hit in Christian radio in Canada as we speak. As I try to build a community around the work I am trying to accomplish with my music I hope to add value to those who are supporting me. Keep looking for free stuff and resources from time to time in the e-news. Tell your friends to sign-up for the emails as well so they can get the same benefits.

The new CD Buried Thoughts is coming out in a couple of weeks, but you can get it for 20% off if you pre-buy now. Go to www.cliffcline.com.

Month in Review

This might in fact take in more than a month in review, but I thought I would mention some highlights.

Family
We had an amazing time at a friends cottage last week. The weather was finally summer-ish and hot, and seeing the Cline's, all six, paddling around in a canoe must have made a couple chuckle, but it sure brought joy to this Dad and husbands heart!! The rest was amazing, especially after what you will hear has been happening before it.

The CD, Buried Thoughts
It is finished and currently been replicated. It was an very intense couple of months pushing to get it finished. Not only did I have to finish the vocals and some other tracking, I mixed and mastered this one as well. Honestly, I am tickled with the quality for my first self-produced CD. I think you will love it too. The beauty is you can taste before you buy by listening to the single (and probably some more tunes soon) on the flash player on my main page..right now...really...go do it and then come back and read more. Or open it in another window and do both!!

Touring
It starts this weekend, and I hope it will continue with a fury, so feel free to help me get more gigs.

"Business Development"
I am marketing more than ever this time around, trying to let people know about the music and hopefully inspire them to support and use what I have created to build in their lives and others. I feel it is time to reach out more than ever, I am excited to see where it leads.

Nashville
I feel like my trip to Nashville will be an evolving story for the next year or more. So many great connections and things learned that I need to get into my plans and actually implement. I hope that you will see the growth from that trip in many things I do for the next while!! You can read about some of it in my July and August posts below.

Labour of Love

Buried Thoughts is a title and verse that I remember writing on the top floor of the library at Trinity Western University in my first year of university, over looking the pond at sunset. Yes, that was twenty years ago. It was written as a poem. Years later I ended up writing two more verses to that poem and then setting it to music. Very few have heard it, but they did seem to like it a lot, so I ended up not only putting it on this CD but naming the CD after it. Fair warning, it is an art song ala Leonard Cohen; poetry to music.

There are a couple of songs like that on the CD, but the rest of it is more accessible in terms of pop hooks etc. The production is really simple, piano, drums, bass and acoustic guitar, and I play flugal horn on one song!! It is also not a worship CD like my last one, but more of a listening CD. I am very excited about this project and the prospect of sharing it in concert on radio and the web this next year. You can pre-order it for $3 off right now - $12 (next two weeks only) and have it by September. Download version will be for sale the week of August 24th.

I have my next two projects conceptualized as well. Over the next few months I will unveil how there will be much more consistent content coming from my studio!!

Staying Connected

If you are reading this but you are not on my email list, I encourage you to sign up. I am going to begin being more frequent with the blasts (once every month or two) and there will be free things too. For instance if you sign up right now you get my new single "Freedom".

Also check out the website, www.cliffcline.com, you can now easily link to me on twitter, myspace, youtube and facebook. I am reaching out here people, so tweet, poke, shout out etc, back k!!:)

I am this close to sending the new CD to press, it supposed to go this Friday, pre-sales should start next week as well as digital downloads.

Alas, I must run. Talk to you soon.

Last Day in Nashville @ Immerse

Day four came with even more wonderful conversations with peers and pros. The ones I can remember (mostly because I got cards - see business cards still work!!!)

Don Koch, my goodness. You gave me tonnes of time (that's the Canadian spelling and a Canadian tonne is bigger than a imperical one!!). Thank you for the great teaching conversation. Sorry to gush, but you were very encouraging, thanks.

Hisjuliet.com.....You guys are very cool. Hey I like the foo foo fighters too..lol!!! All the best!!

Dave Mohr and Greg Cobb. Dudes, make it kay!! We will talk. Send me your stuff!!

Michael Ross, thanks for your time. Wealth of knowledge, you are....did that sound like Yoda or Gollum?? PS Michael is from Sweetwater, a sponsor..buy their stuff....

Janelle Ross and Jamie Howe, thanks for the kind words about my music and the great conversations. Bless you in your work.

James Leo Oliver and Greg Brayton, dudes, you have great hearts and spirits. So great to meet you. Killer song dude.

The Wrap-up on Immerse

Well this might not be "it" but here it is. I was dissappointed not to make the finals of the artist competition, but I blame me. Should have chosen a more accessible song.

However, this has been the most encouraging musical week I have had in years. So many folk "loving" on my late night performances. Both pros and joes!!

If peers you think you are great reciprocate in large numbers, it usually means something. Woohoo.

So I am meeting an old friend tonight, it will be a highlight of the trip for sure.

Flying home tomorrow, can't wait to see my gorgeous bride and beautiful children. One more sleep!!


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Still in Nashville

On Nashville

Well I sang in the semi-finals this morning of a artist competition. I know, seems oxymoronic, nevertheless, as I try and discern how to proceed in life with this music thing that so many of you reprimand me for not going full time with, I thought I would humble myself to 19 year old status and sing down here for scary professional people. Man I am humbled. They are all very nice mind you, but the other singers are great people with great voices. To quote an line from a new song from Buried Thoughts coming out in August from yours truly (taken out of context) "and I keep walking, to see what this might all mean".

On weather (in Canada and Nashville)

It's hot and humid and I love it. I wish I was playing outside instead of in the AC. I keep forgetting to ask or look what the weather is in TO, but sweaty armpits rock!!!!! I love the heat. Hey, those who remember me leading worship anywhere know I go through a shirt every half hour, it feels like home.

On the New CD, Buried Thoughts.

Released in August as promised (well that was my last promise and I am sticking to it). Digital last week of August, physical first week in September, except for Heritage Park in Windsor who I get to launch the new CD with. I have two firm bookings Aug and September and a more in the TBD stage.

On God

Wow, the Cline's are growing as a family, spiritually - come on did you really think a fifth child?! We know we irritate some of you with our constant wrestling with God, but can I say something? (Of course, it's my blog) the more we focus on what God wants for this world, how he made it, created it to be, the Bible refers to it as Kingdom "business", the more everything else just works. To be very Biblical, seek first God's Kingdom, and His righteousness, and the other things that SHOULD will follow because God will make it so. Should could mean nothing I imagine hope or dream, but at least it is what God wants.

Credits (new friends or generally friendly folk)

Guy Zabka, dude, God gave me a one on one with you. Thanks for being so honest giving such great advice. I will keep you posted...unless you don't want me too:)

Zandra Brown.com. Ok wow, so encouraging, people have come up to me to tell me you told them I was good. Thanks, gift of encouragement anyone?

Jason Whitehorn, Godbeat.com. You prayed with me. Thanks, that was huge.

Charles Dorris. Again, I know that you were there to do it, but man you were kind with your time, and you are just so very generous in spirit.

Brigette Hammers.com and your husband, (sorry already forgot your name, you need to get a card too Manager.) Again with the encouragement. Thanks for the CD swap!!

Jenna Miller, I felt bad chasing you down, but I got that you were so into the church, so I just wanted to say hi. Again with the kindness. Thanks for the time.

David Breen, dude so real. Thanks for your authetic words on autheticity. Makes sense really, but you can't have one without the other. Drop you a line in six to nine months!!

GMA, thanks for connecting us. For my TO friends, it was worth the drive to Acton, and oh, it's not over.

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Immerse in Nashville

I am so pumped. I found my people!! Learning so much on songwriting and the business. Michael W Smith spoke, great, Travis Cottrell led worship, powerful!!
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Five to Go

Well I was hoping to be done all of the lead vocals for the CD by tonight, but my voice has not been cooperating. Nevertheless, only five songs to go, so I should be to touch ups this weekend and mixing next week. Getting close!

A Way to Change Poverty

Paul Polak on CBC's The Hour w/ George Stroumboulopoulos

City Kids

One of the places we support at FTC Canada. Great story.

We Love City Kidz 1 from City Kidz on Vimeo.

CD Progress

So last night was another late night of productivity tracking BGs for the song Kyrie. This may end up being one of my favourites.

This week is going to be key in getting all the BGs done and maybe some lead vocals. If that is accomplished, I should be good for the deadline.