This event pairs songwriters with works of visual art to use as their inspiration and muse. The end result is a gallery show in tandem with live performances of the works created...
Examining the language used in other art forms helps us to expand the language which we use within our own. The Love On Holiday collaboration between musicians and visual artists reaches to do just that.
While many parallels can be drawn between the two art forms, there are obvious undeniable differences. Music has a broad palette to work from through words and sounds and even through medium and distribution; there is more of an immediacy to its access, translation and understanding, while visual art--outside from the obvious--sits still and quiet, telepathically transmitting purpose, history, emotion, intentions. The visual artist is speaking to us through what we are viewing but all too often we cannot understand. It is that quiet, nagging, often unsettling wonderment that changes our own thinking and perception, that alters our synapses and thought processes and remains with us long after we leave the space of a work that moved us.
It is emotion manifested in the visual.
Perhaps this is how the visual artists “sing.”
Visual artists generously loan their work for this annual songwriting collaborative and bravely allow their works to be mined and explored for inspiration, story and meaning; to have it interpreted and translated through the immediacy of the art of songcraft performed before the public within days, if not hours, of being written.
Unavoidably influenced by the songwriters’ own history and experiences, the collaboration between these two worlds yield music of a depth and power that only this unique cross-collaboration can inspire.
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Released February 14, 2013
Songs written and recorded LIVE at The Holiday Music Motelevision Theater February 10-14, 2012. Recorded by Billy Triplett. Produced by pat mAcdonald.
All proceeds & royalties donated to the Steel Bridge Creative Foundation.
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Released February 14, 2014
Songs from the 2nd annual 'Love On Holiday' songwriting retreat (2013). For full credits visit: steelbridgecreativefoundation.org/love-on-holiday
All proceeds & royalties donated to the Steel Bridge Creative Foundation.
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Released February 10, 2017
Recorded and mixed at the Holiday Music Motel, Sturgeon Bay, WI during Love On Holiday 2016 by Steve Hamilton, Steve Smith, and Barrett Tasky. Produced by pat mAcdonald. Mastering Steve Hamilton. Additional mixing Dan O Stoffels. Digital editing pat mAcdonald. Cover photo Ty Helbach. Art insert layout Kelly Avenson Goettelman. (Thanks, Kelly!!) Air Traffic Control melaniejane. Additional assistance Teresa Young, Teflon, Tony Menzer.
Thank you to all the contributing visual artists who took a leap of faith to participate in this melodious collaboration!!! Special thanks to Third Avenue Playhouse for their generous cooperation and never-ending support!
*** contributing visual artists include: Joe Kaftan, Ty Helbach, Jeremy Popelka, Stephanie Trenchard, Eleanor and Elizabeth Knippel, Jeanne Kuhns, Samantha Baun, Dan Collins, Alex Sowinski, Tawnie Perkovich, Dawn Patel.
All proceeds & royalties donated to the Steel Bridge Creative Foundation.
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Released February 8, 2019
Over the course of a week in early February of 2018, thirty songwriters huddled up in the warm confines of The Holiday Music Motel in Sturgeon Bay, WI to take inspiration from local visual artists in a one-of-a-kind pairing of image and song. The participants played a nightly game of spin-the-bottle to randomly select groups of 3 writers and one visual work to provide the muse for a new collaboratively written song. Artwork was displayed at a week-long pop-up exhibit at Door County Makers Space; songs were performed on Feb 9th and 10th at the historic Third Avenue Playhouse. Herein lies the recordings of those songs created during that frosty magical time from a motel snugly tucked midway up the thumb of Wisconsin’s Door County island peninsula.
Special thanks to: The Holiday Music Motel, Steel Bridge Radio, Third Avenue Playhouse, Making Sausage Music, Teresa Young, Teflon, Door County Screen and Sign, Tony Menzer, Sturgeon Bay Music Exchange, Ty Helbach Photography, Door County Makers Space, Chris Opper and Door County Short Film Fest, Kelly Avenson Photography, Painted Recordings, Mark Theide, Jon Calhoun of Econo Foods and all of the wonderful people who helped to feed the artists, take tickets, hang posters, shared photographs, and on and on and on… the outpouring of support we receive is essential to making it happen.
Recorded in February of 2018 at The Holiday Music Motel and Tambourine Collaboratory in Sturgeon Bay, WI by Steve Hamilton, Steve Smith and Bruce Butkovich. Mastered by Steve Hamilton at Makin’ Sausage Music.
Cover art by Carley Baer. Package design Greg Welch.
Air traffic control and artwork curation by melaniejane. Produced by pat mAcdonald.
HolidayMusicMotel.com
Engineers: + Steve Hamilton % Steve Smith ^^ Bruce Butkovich
All proceeds & royalties donated to the Steel Bridge Creative Foundation.
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Released February 7, 2020
Over the course of a week in early February of 2019, thirty songwriters huddled up in the warm confines of The Holiday Music Motel in Sturgeon Bay, WI to take inspiration from local visual artists in a one-of-a-kind pairing of image and song. The participants played a nightly game of spin-the-bottle to randomly select groups of three writers and one visual work to provide the muse for a new collaboratively written song. Artwork was displayed at the Miller Art Museum; songs were performed on Feb 8th and 9th at the historic Third Avenue Playhouse. Herein lies the recordings of those songs created during that frosty magical time from a motel snugly tucked midway up the thumb of Wisconsin’s Door County island peninsula.
Special thanks to: Steel Bridge Creative Foundation, The Holiday Music Motel, Steel Bridge Radio, Third Avenue Playhouse, Makin’ Sausage Music, Teresa Young for admin assistance and a million other things, Teflon, Door County Screen and Sign, Tony Menzer, Sturgeon Bay Music Exchange, Ty Helbach Photography, Chris Opper and Door County Short Film Fest, Kelly Avenson Photography, Mark Theide, Jon Calhoun of Econo Foods, Adam Goettelman of Healthy Way, Donny’s Glidden Lodge, Sturgeon Bay Visitors Center, Miller Art Museum, and all of the wonderful people who helped to feed the artists, take tickets, hang posters, shared photographs, and on and on and on… the outpouring of support we receive is essential to making it happen.
Recorded in February of 2019 at The Holiday Music Motel and Tambourine Collaboratory in Sturgeon Bay, WI by Steve Hamilton, Steve Smith, Bruce Butkovich, Liam Hall, Eric “Wobbles” Rowe and Barrett Tasky.
Mastered by Steve Hamilton at Makin’ Sausage Music (Milwaukee, WI). Cover art by Carley Baer. Package design Greg Welsh. Air traffic control and artwork curation by melaniejane. Produced by pat mAcdonald.
Engineers: + Steve Hamilton ^^ Bruce Butkovich % Steve Smith {} Eric “Wobbles” Rowe !¡ Liam Hall & Barrett Tasky
All proceeds & royalties donated to the Steel Bridge Creative Foundation.