Sheet Music!
Hello and happy December, everyone!
This is mostly just a quick note to let you know that after years of people asking me about it, sheet music for "Montreal Song" is finally available! You can order a physical or virtual copy of a solo transcription of the song by heading over to my online shop at bencosgrove.com/store. (You'll also find plenty of other potential holiday gifts there, so, worth poking around even if you have no interest in sheet music.) This transcription probably wouldn't have happened if not for my old hometown friend Paul, now a music teacher in western MA, who with inexplicable cheerfulness tackled the bulk of all the most tedious parts of putting this ten-page score together this summer while I was racing around juggling other projects. It turns out this song has an awful lot of notes in it, and it was interesting for me to notice how they've subtly shifted over the course of several years and one billion performances. (You can listen to the song here, and again, the sheet music is here if you'd like to give it a shot yourself!)
I'll have a lot to announce early in the new year (make sure to follow me on Spotify and Instagram to be sure you're among the first to hear about all that), but most of what I've got going on between now and then is just a lot of frantic behind-the-scenes preparation for all that stuff. I'll be playing one final and pretty laid-back livestream show for 2020 on the evening of December 23rd courtesy of Blue, one of my very favorite venues, and you can find more details about that show here. I'll also be informally swapping new songs with a few very good friends of mine via videochat this Friday, at the same virtual place (here). Tune in if you can! It's great to be able to play for people, even virtually, but more importantly, support from these little livestream things helps to keep small venues alive, which is becoming more and more critical the longer this pandemic stretches on.
I should also mention this exciting new podcast from Glacier National Park for which I had the pleasure of writing the music this summer and fall. All seven episodes from the first season of "Headwaters" were released at once this past weekend, and you can listen to them here. I also played some keys on these new songs by my friend Tony and on this new record by Maine-via-Texas songwriter Joel Thetford. And, from earlier in 2020, I played some Mellotron stuff on this awesome song and various pianos and keyboards all over this album. And of course, it's always worth noting, at this time of year, that I myself have a couple dozen instrumental, December-themed songs available to stream or download on Bandcamp for anyone who might be interested in that sort of thing!
Finally, here's a good-looking waterfall, here's a cool set of angles, here's a lonely tree in coastal Maine, and here's a nice visual reminder of what fall was like. And here's this still-somewhat-new version of my song "Salt" that I recorded in February and released in July, just in case you haven't had a chance to check it out yet.
I hope all of you are easing into winter okay and weathering this insane year with as much hope and happiness as you can muster. I miss all of you, and deeply appreciate your continued interest in following me and my music, even in a year when I can't drive out to your town and play for you live. I hope we can all be together for intimate concerts in small rooms again as soon as possible in 2021.
Thanks, as always, for your support. I'll be in touch soon, and please be well this winter.
Yours,
Ben Cosgrove