Tag: Austin

On the night of May 24, 2015, my sleeping little city of Wimberley, Texas received more rain than the beautiful rolling hills could handle.

Within hours, the Blanco River rose over 40 feet — not inches, feet — and began to wipe out homes and lives.

• My webmaster lost his home.
• My mechanic lost his home – while he was out of town getting married.

The list of shocking casualties is long.

The mainstream news called it catastrophic.

It was.

But the good news is, the people are rallying, joining forces, cleaning and rebuilding.

You can’t stop the human spirit.

Your positive thoughts and prayers clearly help, so now let’s add some rocket fuel behind our mission to rebuild Wimberley.

I’m writing to ask for your assistance – and I will give you gifts for any help you give.

Please go to one or more of these sites and make a contribution:

You can help just married Mike and Katie: http://www.gofundme.com/paggg8

You can help Chuck and Tina and their children: http://www.gofundme.com/penningtonfam

You can help build Wimberley Radio: http://www.radiowimberley.org/donate.html

You can help Wimberley, Texas Area Support: http://barnabasconnects.org/join-us/

And after you give, you can go to these sites to claim your gifts. (Good till June 8, 2015)

“The Miracles Manual: The Secret Coaching Sessions” – all 3 volumes (priceless) http://miraclesmanual.com/thankyou73-dl.html

“Invoking Divinity,” the heavenly instrumental album by Guitar Monk Mathew Dixon and myself (worth $20): http://www.nimbitmusic.com/invokingdivinity/promos/Love

And here’s a bigger reward when you give even bigger –

Give $500 or more and receive a box of signed books from me

When you give $500 or more to one of the above sites, I will personally send you a box of signed books, including my new bestseller, The Secret Prayer.

And –

When you give $1,000 or more to one of the above sites, you can have a private mastermind dinner with me in Wimberley. (Worth: $5,000)

For the last two larger donations, just send your receipt and your snail mail address to: mrfire @ gmail.com (Take out spaces to make it a workable email addy.)

Please note this offer expires June 8, 2015. Please give right now.

I appreciate you and whatever you can do to help my friends in Wimberley, Texas.

And once it’s cleaned up, please come and visit.

You will love the little community and its wonderful people.

It truly is a little bit of heaven.

Ao Akua,

Joe

Member BBB 2003 - 2015

PS – I think the Wimberley flooding is partly my fault. After years of drought, and the Texas wildfires of too recent memory, I prayed for rain. Well…

Note: Please note that a good reason to be at peace with money is at times like this. You can help people who need it. I am directly helping people, and I am asking that you help them, too. Together, we can make a difference. If you haven’t read my book, “Attract Money Now,” it’s still free at http://www.attractmoneynow.com

Member BBB 2003 - 2015

Well, I did it again.

I wrote about attracting Grammy nominated saxophone sensation Mindi Abair last November.

I attracted her again the other night.

Mindi Abair likes my sax album

While Mindi performs with the legends – from Aerosmith to Bruce Springsteen – and is a legend herself, she rarely if ever performs private acoustic house concerts.

She’s done it twice now for me and my friends.

And we all love her.

Mindi and my friends

I can’t say enough good things about Mindi.

Not only is she beautiful and mega talented, but a warm, loving, fun, generous person, as well.

Her seventh solo CD, Wild Heart, debuted at #1 on the Billboard Jazz chart and was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Contemporary Instrumental Album category. Featuring special guests such as Gregg Allman, Joe Perry, Max Weinberg, Booker T. Jones and Waddy Wachtel, Wild Heart is my favorite of all her albums (so far).

She played tracks from the recent album: raw, acoustic, and steaming with emotion. And she and her keyboard player, Dave Yaden, a Grammy winning songwriter, hung with us for almost six hours.

They didn’t have to.

They wanted to.

And everyone was amazed, happy and grateful.

Mindi with keyboardist Dave Yaden

A highlight for me was having Mindi teach me how to control my breathing for better saxophone playing.

The basic idea is to make a slip of paper stay stuck to a wall by focusing your breath a few inches away and keeping the air flow out steady, so the paper doesn’t fall.  (You can watch that lesson at http://youtu.be/LQDUS9tFbAk)

Like most women, Mindi swoons to my sax album

Another highlight was Mindi sitting on my lap, swooning to the thought of my own saxophone album, Afflatus.

And both Mindi and Dave answered our questions, which was remarkable and educational, as they openly discussed music, improvisation, and breathing, to where to get hot pants and sexy boots. We also learned about hack-sawing a mouthpiece to get it in tune, the musician’s crush, and more.

As in the last private concert, Mindi introduced each song with a story behind it, which brought the songs to life in a more intimate way.

A poignant story was about Mindi’s sax, which was stolen last January.

She had a custom made alto saxophone which was her baby, her pride and joy, and her workhorse. She took it everywhere, used it daily, and relied on it for her income.

It was stolen out of her car.

Mindi approves of the new album "Higher Octaves" by Guitar Monk Mathew Dixon and myself

While she was devastated, it turned into something great, as she attracted a new Yamaha Custom Z alto sax and her own signature Theo Wanne mouthpiece.

While the theft was not perceived as good at the time, she later saw it as the Universe kicking her into her next growth spurt.

As she put it, she was an instant Buddhist – learning non-attachment on the spot.

I love this woman.

To nourish us all, Nerissa made pizza and brownies from the grain-free, gluten-free, all natural recipes in her bestselling cookbook, Bread-Free Bread.

All in all, another unforgettable evening with the astonishing Mindi Abair.

Please go get her albums and enjoy this terrific woman’s gifts.

Her site is right here.

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS – You can see the first private house concert with Mindi Abair (and guitarist Randy Jacobs) online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEZahXwrTeQ

NOTE: Just a friendly reminder: you can still pre-order my fifth singer-songwriter album — the one where the songs are like 3-minute self-help books — and with Grammy nominated singer Ruthie Foster on one steamy track — at a dramatic discount at One More Day: Life Lessons in Hypnotic Song. This will be a limited edition collectible booklet and CD package. You’ll want it. I’m no Mindi Abair, but I also play sax on the album. 

Member BBB 2003 - 2015

I’m in the recording studio with Grammy nominated legend Ruthie Foster and award-winning singer and producer Daniel Barrett. We have joined forces to create an album together.

I’m flattered beyond belief that these two superstars want me on an album. After all, I’m relatively new to being a musician. And I’ve been a long time fan of both of them. To be in the studio with them is mind boggling.

I was so excited to record with them that I showed up for our first session thirty days early. (!)

But what’s really interesting is how we are all stretching ourselves.

For example —

Daniel Barrett, Ruthie Foster, and me

Ruthie is famous for her singing but not her lead guitar.

On our album, she is playing lead electric guitar.

Daniel does everything, from engineering to singing and more, but he doesn’t play the drums. Or at least didn’t.

On this album, he does.

I’m a newbie to music and don’t have all that much experience doing anything (even though I’ve released eight albums in over three years). I certainly am brand new and uncomfortable on the saxophone.

On this album, I am playing a baritone saxophone.

What’s going on here?

Ruthie Foster stretching

Each of us is stretching out of our comfort zones.

Why?

How?

When you stretch your comfort zone, you reach a new level of comfort and confidence.

“Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s a heaven for?” – Robert Browning

When Daniel, Ruthie and I go into the studio, we talk, share, joke, and play. Out of our openness, we come up with songs. Out of our willingness to take risks, and exceed our comfort zones by pursing our desires, we create new possibilities.

The result is magic.

And some pretty cool music.

This is an important lesson for each of us.

You have “comfort zone limits,” too.

When you find them and nudge them a bit, you extend your power and attract new results.

We aren’t doing daredevil stuff in the studio.

When you look in the mirror, what do you hear?

We are taking what we haven’t done before but want to do, and focusing on making something happen by doing it.

We are simply following our inspiration and taking action to create something new.

Yes, there is often fear involved, but we feel the fear and do it, anyway.

We turn the fear into fuel.

Here’s an example —

One day, while Ruthie was playing lead electric guitar (and truly wowing me at it), I received an idea for a song.

I jotted it down.

As she kept playing, I started singing the song in my head.

The lyrics and her melody seemed to work together.

When she was done playing, I did something daring.

I said, “I want to sing!”

This was a huge move on my part.

Singing at all, any time, any place, has been a challenge for me.

I’m new at it.

I’ve been insecure about it.

And to sing for Ruthie Foster — one of the best singers I’ve ever heard in my entire life — was a courageous even outrageous thing to suggest.

Even though Ruthie had mentioned just the day before, “I like your singing, Joe. You can sing with me if you want,” I didn’t feel ready to leave my comfy mindset and step into her arena.

But.

But I wanted to push out of my comfort zone.

My heart was racing but I knew I had to do this.

Daniel and Ruthie are loving and supportive, and urged me on.

After all, each of us was doing something new.

We were all stretching.

So I took a deep breath, got in front of the mike, and belted out my tune.

After I sang, Daniel said, “That was some of the best singing I’ve ever heard out of you.”

Really?

Adding Bari Sax

I looked over at Ruthie and she was beaming a sunny smile and nodding her head in agreement.

It was amazing.

Daniel’s drumming, Ruthie’s lead guitar, my vocals — it was a stretch for each of us but it all came together into a powerful new song that will be on our forthcoming first album.

And that song will probably be titled, “Stretch Yourself!”

All I’m reminding you here is do what you fear.

If you have a dream but feel nervous about it, that’s good.

It means you care.

The next step is to get up and do something about it.

Your comfort zones are invisible lines in your mind.

You can melt them with a little stepping forth.

I’m packing up my baritone saxophone and heading back to the studio right now.

It’s time for Saxman Joe to do his thing.

What are you going to do today to stretch yourself?

Ao Akua,

Saxman Joe

PS — Ruthie Foster told me she got an “Aha!” from listening to my song, ‘Reflection,’ off my latest singer-songwriter album of the same name. You can hear samples of all the tracks on that album and grab the CD (which comes with a collectible, limited edition booklet, and with a surprise gift) over at http://www.ReflectionCD.com

BONUS: If you’ve never heard Ruthie Foster sing, watch this…

Member BBB 2003 - 2015

Here’s an update on the Texas Wildfires situation that I asked you to help resolve in my last post:

The last I heard, the largest fires are mostly contained or stopped. The people I personally know in the Austin or Houston area have all returned home. And rain is expected by mid-next week.

All of your praying, meditating, visualizing and more, have all helped.

But we can’t stop now.

There are at least 1,500 people who lost their homes.

All of the fires are not out yet.

And we need more than a little rain.

To get an idea of the size of the fires, one fireman told a reporter that the fires are “beyond man.”

He was explaining that firefighters on the ground aren’t going to be able to stamp out or hose down fires so big that I could see them from the air on my plane ride home.

What do you do with fires this large?

Besides whatever the firefighters can think up, you also pray, visualize, intend and anything else you can do internally to bring peace to yourself and to the planet.

And to be clear, when I suggest that our inner world is creating our outer world, I’m asking you to look within and see where you may have “fires” burning within you.

Where have you maintained anger and/or a lack of forgiveness?

Even if you don’t think your inner state helps create the outer experience, wouldn’t you agree that finding inner peace would be good for you?

Again, please find love and peace within yourself, and release all anger and forgiveness issues.

When you hold on to anger and resentment, the energy system you burn up is your own.

It would be healthy for you to let the issues go, and it just might assist the planet in healing, too.

As I mentioned in my last post, do whatever meditation or technique you know to reach that inner place of serenity. Use ho’oponopono/Zero Limits or Tapping/EFT, or anything else you know of or can think of.

Meanwhile, we also still need to help others. Here are a few places to donate:

American Red Cross of Central Texas
http://www.centex.redcross.org/index.asp?IDCapitulo=F9ZLZNZ3KD

Austin Pets Alive
http://www.austinpetsalive.org/

Capital Area Food Bank
http://www.austinfoodbank.org/

Austin Disaster Relief Network
http://www.adrntx.org/

Catholic Diocese of Austin
http://www.austindiocese.org/

I’m not affiliated with any of the above, and they are Austin, Texas based as that is near where I live. You can do your own Google search to find other places to help or donate.

Again, what we need is inner peace, especially in times of high stress.

The outer dangers and scares aren’t a call to fall into fear, but a door to experience faith.

Thank you for your help.

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS – What’s more important than serenity while taking action?

I love you.
I’m sorry.
Please forgive me.
Thank you.

Member BBB 2003 - 2011