A photo of the birthday card I made for my little brother.

Isabelle says hello.

Guys spraying concrete on our new pool.

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Jordin Sparks enters this week with her debut song after winning American Idol. The album is out November 20, and features this first single called Tattoo, sometimes misspelled as Tatoo. Very much pop, but after all Kelly Clarkson started out with this. Jordin Sparks Tattoo may get played on radio, though it’s hard to see how in this quagmire of gangsta music they fill the lists with. She’s got a voice though, that’s for sure. A clip is in the player, click the title if it’s playing something else.

One curiosity- listen to the drums. For those of you who have had the misfortune of hearing Irreplaceable by Beyonce, don’t you think it’s curious their drums sound the same? Could it be…gasp! A drum loop?

For the comment box: Do you like it, and when did you think she was the one who would win?

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Posted in Reviews
Tags: Jordin Sparks

I just completed my first orchestral soundtrack piece. I am very proud of this as it is my first real composition complete with violins, flutes, and a driving, clear piano which I spent hours searching for. I created this piece all myself, starting out at the piano a few months ago and creating the theme, and then moving to my computer and getting everything in perfect order. It turned out better than I expected, so I decided to go all out and make a whole suite for it.

You can hear a shortened (1:30), online-quality version of the song at the ‘Coming Soon’ homepage of www.branhambric.com. I thought if we’re to be coming soon then I might as well have a bit of something different than just a text message. There is a little button in the top, left corner, which will begin to play automatically after it is loaded.

There is another version I will record next week which will include the vocal power of a full cathedral choir, if I can get my hands on it by then. For this one, I made use of the Miroslav Philharmonik Orchestra (and I didn’t even have to fly to Germany to use it).

For the comment box: for those of you who have read the book, does the theme fit? For those who haven’t, does the theme have a reflective and slightly dark edge, though not too sad?

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Posted in Quick Post, Writing

Here’s a clip of the new song from the upcoming Kenny Chesney album called Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates, out on September 11th. This song is a reasonably good track but still isn’t quite up to the mark of his previous songs, though it will inevitably end up somewhere near the top of country charts since they’re in another jurisdiction of music entirely, ruled by the big names which become immediate hits whether the song is good or not (Tim McGraw and Faith Hill’s latest as an example). The song is titled Don’t Blink.

Interesting to note is that I actually saw this guy in concert once, before he was anybody. It was a free show outside a Wal-Mart in the city where we used to live, years ago. He had a sizable crowd for just a parking lot show, but now he’s got entertainer of the year and is one of the biggest guys in the country music biz.

Comment Box: Has anyone ever seen him in concert before or after he was famous? Also, what do you think of the song?

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Posted in Reviews
Tags: Kenny Chesney, music

For the longest time I have searched the world for who I think will be the next big Avril Lavigne. After her latest album, which is a CD hardly worth the plastic it sits in save for 2 or 3 great tracks that sounds like classic Avril (Keep Holding On, When You’re Gone and maybe 1 more), I have been quite ready to move onto other things. Like Lemony Snicket and his awful 13th book, I liked all her previous albums so much that when something flimsy comes out I despise the artist for letting me down, at least for the time it takes for them to get back on their feet and put something real out.

So in my search for something new and wonderful, I have discovered this new track, which was just released though the album isn’t out for a few months. The group is called I-Nine (Inine, I Nine) and the song is called Seven Days of Lonely (the voice of the group is Carmen Keigans). I think she sounds like Avril, she’s got a pro writing her songs (Hinder’s songwriter) and a sound that will bring them up to the top. So listen to the song clip in the player, clicking on the name if the randomizer picked something else, and tell me what you think.

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Posted in Reviews
Tags: Avril Lavigne, lemony snicket