If you’re standing in a forest, tilting your head way back to glimpse the tops of all those majestic, thickly trunked trees, it’s just impossible not to be moved by their centuries-old resilience; the stoic strength that sees them through even the harshest storms that Mother Nature can unleash.

Yet locked deep within the core of each of those mighty oaks and towering sequoias is something even stronger than their outwardly impressive surface layers: the heartwood.

A tree’s densest, most durable—and often most beautiful—element, the heartwood is the robust, knotty marrow that keeps it standing proud and tall for all to marvel at. And not only is Heartwood also the name of Canadian singer-songwriter Sora’s astonishing third release, it’s as well the perfect metaphor for her music: gorgeous, rich, endlessly enduring.

Mahogany Digital is offering  a free download of “Detour Ahead” from its newest artist, Jeff Hall.

Vocalist Jeff Hall, Kevin Mahogany’s protégé, premiered on the radio with two singles: “Cadillac Club” and “Detour Ahead.”

Discovered by Kevin Mahogany, Jeff Hall (pic left) has the vocal prowess reminiscent of jazz legend Mark Murphy. Hall brings a new urgency and street sense to traditional jazz, as evidenced by his vocal presentation and his onstage appearance. Hall defines a new direction for vocal jazz.

“When I heard Jeff, there was a quality in his voice there was a uniqueness to his sound,” Mahogany said with regard to his decision to introduce Jeff to the public.

Habitat for Humanity of Bucks County will be hosting Lynn Riley, “Superwoman of the Sax,” at Bucks County Community College in Newtown on March 27. The Jazz in Bloom concert will benefit Habitat’s Youth United program and its goal to raise funds to build a home at the affiliate’s current homebuilding site in Perkasie.

Bucks County residents, Steve and Diane Silverhardt, stepped forward to donate their time and talents to Habitat for Humanity to help plan this amazing event. The Silverhardts are responsible for inviting the very talented Lynn Riley, who is also donating her services for the evening.

“I’ve been part of an interfaith house support group for Habitat Philadelphia and decided to refocus my community involvement with my move to Bucks County,” says Steve. “This concert is the first project of ours with Habitat Bucks and we couldn’t be more excited about it.”

Non-profit organization To Write Love on Her Arms won a Shorty Award in the non-profit category. The Shorty Awards is an award ceremony created for people to pick their favorite Twitter users in specific categories. Categories included in the The Shorty Awards were advertising, entertainment, humor, government, and more.

The Shorty Awards were hosted by Rick Sanchez, a CNN anchor who was one of the first television personalities to ever use Twitter. William Shatner was also in attendance, via satellite, to present an award. Some other Shorty Award winners included Ted Leo of Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, fictional Mad Men character Betty Draper, television show True Blood, and political innovator Newark, NJ mayor Cory Booker.

Indie Bands Get a Shot At Becoming Rock Band Famous

The Rock Band Network music store is officially live. Will it be the greatest thing to happen to indie music since iTunes? Let’s have a look.

For all you kids not in the know, the Rock Band Network is the newest incarnation of the Xbox Rock Brand, er Band franchise. Network allows bands to put their songs on Rock Band 2. And not just big name artists. Using development tools provided by Rock Band, all indie bands can now, theoretically, have their songs available for sale, download, and play at the Network music store. Here’s how it works:

The Investment

Over 100 songs have been uploaded by music labels to the Rock Band Network, and unknown indie bands have the opportunity to expose their projects. So far, established bands have taken the spotlight, but this is a great outlet for unsigned bands to gain funding and get more fans.

Rock Band Network has allowed independent and unsigned bands to submit their own songs for users to download since mid-January. The offer is  for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 versions of the game with the intention of providing the most downloadable tracks to Nintendo’s Wii moving forward.

Indie bands can price their songs between 50 cents and $3, netting 30% of track sales. Users of the game will be able to preview songs before they purchase on the Rock Band Network store.

Featured Blog:

Writer C.W. Ross’s Blog
http://writercwross.wordpress.com/

This blog combines C.W. Ross’ three previous blogs (see below) into a one stop shop for information, commentary, interviews and reviews for a wide variety of Indie and Christian music.
Indie Music Stop- IndieMusicStop.com
The CD Reviewer- TheCDReviewer.com
Christian Rockers Online- ChristianRockersOnline.com

Featured Podcast:

“The World Is…” is off of Matthew Ryan’s recent album, Dear Lover. The indie artist is currently on a U.S tour. Check out the schedule for the tour here.

TheBuzz caught up with indie artist Jay Nash for our new weekly interview feature, TheBuzz-By. Learn more about indie artists with our short list of random questions.

Nash tells us he is currently taking a break from touring and finishing up some collaborative projects with artists such as Caitlin Crosby, Garrison Starr, and Mozella amongst others. Once these projects are complete and after SXSW 2010, he plans to start on a new record. Get to know Nash as he answers our questions…

KH: What song is stuck in your head right now?

JN: “Wish Your Heart Farewell” by Kenneth Pattengale.

KH: What is the best part of being on the road?

ZZK Records, that South American record label everybody’s talking about, is turning two years old.  And for the occasion they are celebrating the only way they know how.  With a Zizek party.

Scott Hardkiss releases an EP, Come On, Come On (Part II), which features all new remixes that take the unique track into completely different sonic territories. Dean & Britta, Joaquin “Joe” Claussell, and DJ Phunkae each put their own spin on Scott Hardkiss’ original song “Come On, Come On” off his album Technicolor Dreamer.

In their gorgeous downtempo remix, NYC indie darlings Dean & Britta (formerly of Luna) reimagine the song into a psychedelic rock meets intimate electronic chill-out ballad with beats, keys, and dreamy vocals by Britta Phillips and tripped-out space guitars by Dean Wareham (Galaxie 500).

Scott Hardkiss delivers his own signature uplifting club mix in both vocal & dub versions that effortlessly shifts between breaks and 4/4 beats in an anthemic tribute to all the old school Hardkiss-heads.

Name: RootMusic

Quick Pitch: RootMusic is all about making musicians’ professional lives better, be it through building software or building community.

Genius Idea: RootMusic’s debut product is called BandPage, and it makes MySpace-like band page features possible inside a Facebook fan page.

At present, Facebook fan pages are laid out in such a way that you can’t share your music with your fans while letting them continue to browse for information. You can deploy a music player tab, but as soon as your fans click on the Photos tab to see pictures of your band, the music stops.

You’re working on a new album. How do you release it? If you have any fans at all, chances are your record will be copied and spread all over the internet before you can say ‘final master.’ On the other hand, maybe you’ve got no fans and even if you do release your album for free on your website, who’s gonna care?

You can operate as did Joanna Newsom, for her hotly anticipated new album, Have One On Me. ­Newsom recorded the three-disc epic in an environment of absolute secrecy in order to prevent, er, leakage.

So that’s one way to go about it. However, many of this spring’s other big indie releases are taking a decidedly different approach. Over the last week, a flurry of bands have been pre-releasing new albums on major news websites. The albums are set up to stream – every song complete, no lame 30-second samples – for the week leading up to their official release.

Broken Bells

Broken Bells, the new collaboration between DJ Danger Mouse (Gnarls Barkley, DANGERDOOM, Ghetto Pop Life, The Grey Album) and James Mercer (The Shins), are streaming their self-titled album on NPR. Broken Bells, officially scheduled for release March 9^th, is a unique new venture for both artists, melding genres in a way that may not pique the interest of indie or electronic fans. By streaming the album online, Broken Bells invites listeners to get hooked on the music before they buy. And they will get hooked. Broken Bells may be one of this year’s best albums, and Danger Mouse and Mercer are betting on its strength to sell mucho copies and concert tickets.