Thursday, May 27, 2010

exciting news! I’m recording my new song,"Boxes of tears” with Nashville’s top studio musicians!

Exciting
news!!!
I went in to the studio to record my new song,” Boxes of tears” with my
producer this past Monday! We tracked his acoustic guitar and my lead
vocals.Today we’re going to record drums, bass, electric and steel
guitar, piano and Hammond B3! The musicians on the session are some of
the top studio musicians in Nashville.
Here’s who I have playing and who they play with… Very exciting!

Drums - Vinnie Santoro - Johnny Cash, Shania Twain

Bass - Dave Francis - Pam Tillis, Trisha Yearwood

Electric Guitar/Pedal Steel - Russ Pahl - Vince Gill, Willie
Nelson

Keyboards - Catherine Marx - Reba, Kelly Clarkson

Fiddle/Mandolin - Andy Leftwich - Ricky Skaggs

I love my life.

So, my album is coming along and it’s going to
be
beautiful. Like I’ve probably written already, it’s the first album I’ve
planned out before hand. The others were recorded with the songs I had
ready at the time, with many different styles. This one is all Country. We just saw Willie Nelson in concert and the pedal steel
guitar player was amazing and he’s now going to be on my song…
Blessed. I feel very fortunate.
I can’t wait to share my music with the world!!!!

To summer,

 

Jessica Star, NYC

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Exciting news!!!Exciting news!!!  I’m going in to the studio to record my new song,” Boxes of tears”

Thursday, March 04, 2010

Jessica Star blogging from Brooklyn!

Holy socks Batman! It’s been a while since I wrote! Sorry!!!

Okay, I have the best excuse in the world; I’m raising my
little son!

So, Grandma and Grandpa are here with him and I have some
music time. I’m using part of my very precious “me time” to write to you and
keep in touch with my readers.

Hi! Music, music, music. Country music and Country music in
NYC!

Apparently there are some people in Sonoma County, where I
used to live and perform, that thought I was still out there and I guess just
hadn’t been playing out for a while. Funny. I’ve been here in NYC for almost
eight years! That’s a long time not to see someone. Thanks for thinking of me
you folks who have gotten in touch recently to ask when I’m playing next in
Northern California. That’s a nice feeling.

  I’m reading
the best book. It’s called “Finding her voice” an illustrated history of women
in Country music. Such a good read. I love learning the history of things I’m
interested in. This book starts in the Appalachian Mountains with women teaching
their daughters and granddaughters songs that came over with their mothers from
Europe and goes all the way to almost the present time. So many female artists,
who spent their lives and energy making their brand of Country music, most are
names most people have never heard of. 
Does it make their missions any less valid that they weren’t rich or
famous? Some of them were very rich and famous but it was so long ago that no
one knows of them now. I met a girl in her 20’s who didn’t even know who Chrissie
Hynde is (The Pretenders).

  So, learning
that NYC once had a very thriving Country music scene is very interesting to
me. Nashville wasn’t always the epicenter of Country music! I’m learning about
all these folk rock singer/songwriters who came out of California that went on
to be Country musicians! That’s like me! So cool. I mean, cool to be a pioneer
for sure but also nice to know there were others that came before you doing
pretty much what you do, just forty years earlier.

  I just had my
first guitar lesson this week with a new teacher. I’m learning music theory.
Wow. My teachers name is Hiro and he plays jazz guitar. We both agree that Led
Zeppelin is the best Rock band ever.

  Alright, as
much as I’d like to go on, I need to play some music. I’ll just try to write
more often.

 

Live that dream!

 

Jessica Star, NYC

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Jessica Star blogs on 11-11-09 about music and mommyhood

Wow. I’m a new mom and time sure does go fast! So, I’ve been
working my music back into my new life as a full time mommy. I have A LOT of
creative energy right now and a lot of music and lyrics flowing through my head.
And now thanks to family members who love hanging with Joshua, I have a fairly
regular schedule of time that I can work in my studio while they get some one on
one time with little man. It’s a win-win situation. It’s also cool because when
I finish after a few hours in my studio, Joshua and I miss each other!

I’ve been playing my black electric guitar when I practice.
It’s so cool. I’m like a kid; I just get so excited with new instruments.

Alright, I just wanted to keep you all informed of what’s
going on in Starland.

 

I hope you’re enjoying yourselves!

 

Jessica Star

Monday, July 27, 2009

Jessica Star rocking out the Dinosaur BBQ this coming Friday, July 31st, 2009!

Hey y’all!

I’m back at the Dinosaur with Jason Rosen and his band this Friday night so, get ready to rock. See the previous entries for the address. The time is the same, 10-1am…

See you there!

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Jessica Star blogs about her new Country cd and recent show

Hey y’all!

Greetings from Brooklyn, NY where Country music does indeed live!

I’m still writing new songs for my upcoming Country cd and I’m well on my way. I’ve got about 14 so far and my goal is to have about 20 and then choose the strongest 12 songs for album. I’ve never written a whole album before and it’s a really fun process. My past three albums have been compilations of songs that I already had finished that we recorded and put out as an album. The thing about that way of doing it is, at least for me, you get a variety of genres. This way of writing is more focused and I think it’s going to end with a very cohesive Country cd.

My show last Friday at the Dinosaur BBQ in Harlem was very fun. I sang with Jason Rosen’s band for a good three hours and then went home and enjoyed delicious barbeque at 3am.



That’s all for now,



Jessica Star

Monday, May 18, 2009

Jessica Star sings with Last Tribe at the Dinosaur BBQ in Harlem, Friday, May 29th!!!

I’ll be fronting Jason Rosen’s band this night. The band is smokin’ and the food is delicious. This is a very cool venue with a vibe all to itself right in Harlem.

My first show since I brought little Joshua into the world!

This is a very fun, high energy gig so come on down!

See you there,

 

Jessica Star

Friday, May 29th

10-1am

The Dinosaur Barbque, Harlem

646 W 131st St. (behind Fairway market)

New York, NY 10027



212-694-1777

Monday, April 20, 2009

Jessica Star writes about the birth of her son Joshua Star Sanders

Hey world!

I had my baby! His name is Joshua Star Sanders and he was born on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 12:04 pm in Greenwich Village, NYC at St. Vincent’s hospital via cesarean. Little dude was breech and we did EVERYTHING to try coercing him in to turning but no, he had his own plans.



We were planning on a home birth but when you have a breech situation that’s not really a great way to go. So, I had to suck it up and go do the thing I feared most about this pregnancy, getting cut open and having the baby just taken out. I was actually looking forward to the rite of passage that comes with the natural birth process. I’d read up on it for 8 months and really done my homework, only to have a spinal block in the operating room and be totally numb from the torso down when he was brought in to the world. Ah, well.  Everyone kept saying,” You’ll forget about the actual birth when you have that beautiful little baby in your arms.” I heard that so many times that it actually started to annoy me. I wanted the experience of giving birth and after seeing Ricki Lake’s movie,” The business of being born” I really wanted a homebirth.



Before I went in for the cesarean, I felt like I’d gone through my fears and disappointments about the change in our birthing plans. My husband Ben was with me the whole time and he wore my majorly mojo-filled birthing necklace that I planned on wearing, as they don’t let you wear any jewelry during surgery. The necklace is a long and heavy piece containing 23 different friends beads, trinkets and charms that they’d given to me for the necklace, sending their support for a safe passage. Well, all the mojo worked! It was a weird experience having a cesarean, but honestly all the staff members at St. Vincent’s were really cool and very personable. I felt I could connect with all of them which made a weird, sterile situation much more tolerable.



We stayed in a private room in the hospital for three days so that Ben could be with me the whole time. All of the nurses were really helpful with teaching me how to breast-feed. Our room was on the ninth floor overlooking Manhattan, the Hudson River, and Jersey. The three days I spent in the hospital were pretty painful with the stitches and staples in my lower abdomen but I was on a pretty high dose of Motrin that whole time.  One part that sucked was that both Ben and I had the flu at the time, and with it an awful cough. Every time I coughed it hurt a lot! Luckily there’s cough syrup that’s safe for breast-feeding so, at two in the morning after we were home for a day, Ben went out and got it for us.



By Saturday we got to go home but there was a possibility that they wanted to keep Joshua for a few days because he had a high Bilirubin count, indicating jaundice. We had to take him back to the lab and the pediatrician the following Monday and Wednesday to have that checked and you can imagine how much fun it was traveling with a newborn after having a cesarean. Thankfully, his count went down by the second appointment to the pediatrician. It was so good to be back home. I was so grateful for our nice home and a quiet environment.



At the time of this writing, Joshua is seven and a half weeks old! Time is really flying by. I can now go back to yoga, which I did yesterday for the first time (you’re supposed to heal for six weeks first).

After hearing stories from women who had their babies around the same time as me, I don’t think having a cesarean was really all that bad. Sure, it’s not what I would have chosen but there are positives like, I never went in to labor, I didn’t go through labor, I’m not stretched out down there at all, I’ve actually healed up rather quickly, and Joshua’s head was never cone shaped- he has a cute, round head.



Now, I do know there are aspects of a natural birth that I wish he and I would have gotten to experience; the first being him going through the birth canal. There is the stretching and squeezing of the baby that awakens their nervous system and lengthens their bodies that we didn’t get to do. Also, there are hormones that are released in the mother during the delivery that make her naturally protective of her baby. I’m super protective so, that happened even without the natural delivery.



So, in conclusion, I’m very grateful that we’re at a point in time where cesarean is a safe option if you need to do it that way. We are both healthy and that is what’s important, just like everyone said. I don’t feel cheated out of my birth experience because I feel like this WAS my birth experience. For whatever reason, the universe had it’s own agenda.



Jessica Star, mother of Joshua Star Sanders

4/20/09 Brooklyn, NY

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

New Year’s in New Mexico

We just got home from nine days in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico! What’s there? Friends and natural hot springs! We soaked at least two to three times a day, every day and ate a lot of Mexican food. It’s such a trippy place. We were there for New Year’s and went to a party at an Italian restaurant in the town. I’m very happy to be home even if it is to come back to the city of cold, wet weather.

If you’ve been reading my blog, then you know I’m very pregnant. I’m in my eighth month and I’m pretty huge. More rotund every day. It’s cool, I’m digging it. One of the things we noticed once we left NYC for our travels is that people say things to pregnant women that they really shouldn’t. It’s like they think that just because you’re pregnant, it gives them license to stop editing their mouths and just say whatever they want and the pregnant woman is supposed to just take it. Lucky for them I did hold my tongue. I have a pretty sharp comeback unless I’m trying to be good. Also, when you’re pregnant, you’re way more emotional and hormonal so it’s kind of ironic that that’s when people start saying whatever they want to about your size, looks, etc. If you’re reading this and you know someone or interact with someone who is pregnant, the only real good thing to say is something along the lines of,” you are absolutely radiant!” Get my drift? We don’t need to be reminded of how huge we are. We also don’t need the unprofessional opinion about how we look like we’re going to “pop one out any day”. Geez! Learn some manners! It’s alright, I wrote a song about it.  More fuel for the fire!



Jessica Star and little Nugget

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Jessica Star rocks with Last Tribe at Harlem’s Dinosaur Barbque on November 15th!

I’ll be fronting the smokin’ band Last Tribe once again at this AWESOME venue!

The show starts at 10pm and there’s no cover. There is great food at this place!

**************************

Saturday, November 15th

10-1am

The Dinosaur Barbque

646 W 131st St. (behind Fairway market)

New York, NY 10027

212-694-1777

My Gizzi’s Coffeehouse appearance is cancelled although, the show will go on

hi folks,

I had to cancel my solo show for this Friday, Nov.7th at Gizzi’s Coffeehouse. 

Sorry if you planned on coming there to hear me! Come to the Dinosaur BBQ on the 15th and hear me with Last Tribe instead!

 

Jessica Star

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Jessica Star is having a baby boy!!!

Well, we got our 20 week sonogram yesterday in NYC and the baby is a boy! Looks very healthy, smart, funny and cute. Oh, it also looks very talented. It is so mind bending to watch a little person moving around in your belly! I mean, I’m aware of it and I know it’s happening inside me but when you actually see it on a monitor with those 3-D shots where you can really see it’s (his) features… Absolutely wild. The funny thing is, it’s the most normal thing in the world and that’s how every one of us got here! I watch so much sci-fi that sometimes when I think about birth and how women are the only way people are born onto this planet, it seems almost old fashioned. Like the test tube way of doing it and science taking over is the more “posh” way to create babies but, at this point and hopefully forever actually, babies are born through women. Nothing else can recreate the loving environment that a real mommy provides.

I’m hoping to glean some songwriting inspiration today from our sonogram experience yesterday. Oh, the baby was moving around the entire time we were watching it! A Very active New Yorker!

 

Jessica Star

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Jessica Star rocked with Jason Rosen’s “Last Tribe NYC” at the Red Lion tonight!

Wow! Just came home from the Red Lion show… Nice one. The band, “Last Tribe NYC” was SMOKIN’!!! We ripped it up for 3 hours on a Monday night. That crowd down there on Bleeker Street really knows how to have a good time!

My belly is growing and growing! I just saw the pictures from tonight’s show. It’s amazing how much your body can change in so short a time. I really am having a blast being pregnant. I was the girl who didn’t know if I ever wanted to have kids; it didn’t look all that appetizing as I looked around at people who were doing it but, I read somewhere lately that it’s God’s secret really that you never know how amazing the journey is until you’re on it. I believe that. We’re just beginning the journey and it’s amazing.

I think this was Nugget’s fifth gig so far. Yes, Nugget is what we call the little one inside. Of course, we’ll name it something more appropriate once it’s born!

Okay, it’s 4:14am and I am officially TIRED!





Good night fair reader,



Jessica

Monday, September 29, 2008

life in NYC

The Honky Tonk Angels show was FUN! I played solo for a half hour and had a great time doing it. I debuted two new songs: Boxes of Tears and Wild Rose. Yep, hopefully soon I’ll be able to add the video from these shows I’ve been doing onto my website and myspace!

And for all of you who haven’t heard yet…

I’m pregnant! As of now, I’m 17 weeks! Pretty cool. I’ve had three shows so far as a pregnant lady; one in Greenwich Village, one in Harlem, and one in the East Village. Thank God they make stylish maternity clothes! It’s relieving to me to be able to get really cute clothes as I grow bigger and bigger.

  I guess our baby is going to be a New Yorker! I have no desire to live anywhere else.  I love it here. I feel like I’ve thrived as a person and as an artist in this crazy environment.  I’m spoiled now too. Where as I used to shop at flea markets and garage sales, now I never find anything I actually want to have in my possession at those places; nothing used really. I have a theory about the clothes that you get used here in NYC compared to the ones on the west coast; I think the ones here are just more used and stinky. More likely my taste has just changed. Although, because there are so many stylish people here, every once in a while I’ll happen upon a stoop sale with ladies my size and find designer stuff like Betsey Johnson dresses, and they’re cheap! Those I pick up.

  I’m so happy to be home after so much traveling in late August and mid September.

We went to Burning Man, our annual pilgrimage, and as you can guess, I was super tired this year! I never even made it out on the playa at night to check out the art and the parties. Ah well, I was having my own inner party. I pretty much just hung out at camp, ate and slept. It was a hotttt year too. We left two days earlier than planned and thank God for that. There was a nine-hour dust storm on Saturday that pushed the burn back til like, 2am or so. We left on Friday. I’m so grateful for my intuition. We were in my favorite spot, Mt. Shasta, before and after Burning Man and that was awesome. It was our one-year anniversary of being married so we went up to the spot on the mountain where we had our ceremony. What a special place.

  We flew home for one week of sleeping (for me) and then flew out to Seattle for my best friends’ wedding near Port Townsend, WA. It was a beautiful wedding on the beach.  We flew home and it all added up.. All the traveling, all the socializing, I was so pooped! The Dixie Chicks said something about never plan a tour when you’re pregnant and I can totally see why. Just the plane flights are exhausting!

  I’m all better now and just very happy to be home without any big travel plans in the too near future. I just wanted to write a little more than I have been, let you in on a little bit of my life here in this wild city. I wish you, the reader, all the best and hope you’re enjoying your time on this fair planet.





Jessica Star

Monday, September 08, 2008

Jessica Star’s single,"What she is” is in rotation on American Country Radio Network!

Hi!

Things are definitely heating up here for my music!!! This is a radio show my newest song,” What she is” is on AND in rotation!!! Check out the show! Notice that my air date happens to be on the anniversary of 9/11. I dedicate this show to everyone who was affected by this tragedy. May we all experience greater and greater bliss in the times to come,



  Jessica Star



**************************************************************************************************************

The following is the playlist for the Ladies of Country Music Radio Show which will air on American Country Radio Network on 9/11. This new show will broadcast at 11 am and re-broadcast at 6 pm and 10 pm (Central Time).

To tune in click on the link below:



http://www.acrn.fm/listen





Thursday – 9/11/08:

Artists featured in this show are:  Jessica Star, Rustie Blue, Danielle Tucker, Natalie Logan, Tabatha and Southern Fryd, Kelly Lee, Valerie Borman, Tori Bigelow, Jenny Brooks, Shauna Faegan, Amanda Nagurney, Ashley McWalter, Ashleigh Cole, The Kelly J Band, Katy Kiefer, Sherry St. John, Sarah Vetrano