Blue Electric Violin, Pinterest Links, Modern Song Requests (Top 40)

By popular request, I'm going to post a current overview of more modern songs and Pinterest links here as a reference. There will be a lot of information on this post, so please bear with me.

Recent highlights of 2013 include a Metallica cocktail hour in May (my other favorite song to play is "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction), purchase of a blue electric acoustic violin for outdoor weddings, and some great recent reviews:

http://www.weddingwire.com/reviews/catherine-boyd-violinist-cape-may/36e50f6428d45541.html

I brought a tent to the Seaview in Galloway, NJ a couple of weeks ago to keep my 9/21/13 client happy:

The lady on the right is my guitarist (also mandolinist and violinist), Susan Salmon. We are very serious about taking song requests; we feel that we offer an unusual service that can really make your day special. We are focusing a lot lately on current Top 40 hits. Please bring all your song requests to us!

1) I just purchased a blue Barcus Berry electric acoustic violin. It's perfect for beach weddings. If a solid-body electric instrument or the amplifier fail (which never happens, but I have to be prepared), you wouldn't be able to hear me play. So I always have to bring a spare acoustic instrument out on the beach. If the amplifier fails, this violin will still be heard because it's acoustic, too! Check out this 6 second video of "Here Comes the Bride":

You can hear this violin all the way up the beach. Plus, it's blue!

2) Here is the general overview of traditional classical ceremony music:

http://www.pinterest.com/violincatherine/wedding-ceremony-music

a) My most common request is "classical wedding music that's not Here Comes the Bride." Here's a Pinterest board for that!:

http://www.pinterest.com/violincatherine/song-suggestions-for-stefanies-wedding/

b) Here is my wedding from my 10/5/13 wedding (Latitudes on the River in Forked River, NJ), which included songs from Usher, Beyonce ("Crazy in Love" was the recessional!), The Killers, and Maroon 5:

http://www.pinterest.com/violincatherine/songs-for-leahs-wedding

c) Here's my 9/1/13 Ram's Head Inn wedding (Galloway, NJ), which included Bad Company and Soul Collective:

http://www.pinterest.com/violincatherine/songs-for-kims-wedding

d) Here is a selection of Beatles songs for my 4/13/13 Valley Green Inn wedding (Philadelphia, PA). The bride walked down the aisle to "Hey Jude," and her name is Judy! I am on overload still from how great that was:

http://www.pinterest.com/violincatherine/songs-for-judy-s-wedding/

e) Here is a selection of light-hearted songs for 5/19/13 (inside a lovely Cape May rental house), which included the Muppet Show theme, All I Want is You, You Raise Me Up, Home (Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes), and All You Need is Love (Beatles recessional):

http://www.pinterest.com/violincatherine/violin-and-guitar-wedding-selections-for-sunday/

f) Here is more serious classical, opera, musical, and popular music, from my 5/18/13 Cape May wedding (Grand Hotel):

http://www.pinterest.com/violincatherine/songs-for-richs-wedding/

g) Here is my upcoming 11/2/13 wedding in Cape May (Southern Mansion). Highlights: Beach Boys "Forever" for the bridal processional, Adam Sandler "I Wanna Grow Old With You" for the recessional, Phish, Bruce Springsteen, and Chicago: 

http://www.pinterest.com/violincatherine/songs-for-tricias-wedding/

Thank you for visiting my blog!

Love,

Catherine

Playing a 10th wedding anniversary celebration in Cape May NJ:

(P.S. - Here's a 6-second video of One Atlantic in Atlantic City, NJ, taken so you can get an idea of what the venue looks like:

7/13/13 (Friday the 13th) Beach Wedding in Ocean City, NJ

I know, I know. I need to keep up more with this blog. I'll write another post coming today, with a short video and a bunch of Pinterest links. 

Sometimes a wedding is so precious to me that I don't even know what to say. This is one of them.

First of all, Donna and Ryan wanted 80s music for their ceremony. So right there, we've already got a party going on. Secondly, it was on Friday the 13th, and they really played up the theme (I saw some custom-made Jason hockey mask wooden jewelry). Thirdly, Donna really did something very special for me, which I'll mention again at the end.

Here's the song list:

Prelude music: 

Footloose

Bohemian Rhapsody

Vogue

Arrival of officiant: Keep Your Hands to Yourself by the Georgia Satellites 

Groom's Processional: Somewhere in Time

Bridal Processional: Jersey Girl

Medley during readings: 

True Colors/Islands in the Stream

Recessional, cue intro guitar riff at actual kiss: Prince's "Kiss"

Post-ceremony dance on the beach: You're My Best Friend by Queen

Killer, right? Here are a couple of photos of the wedding:

The officiant dances during prelude.

Congratulations, Donna and Ryan!

I told Donna about my own wedding in May 2009, how I ordered a bunch of antique handkerchiefs. One of them had blue embroidery on it, so I carried it during the ceremony and reception and was very sentimentally attached to it. I must have put it down and the catering staff must have thrown it away, because it was missing at the end of the night. When Donna met me, she gave me another antique handkerchief with embroidered raised blue flowers. Even as I type this, I'm in tears. Donna, I carry this handkerchief with me everywhere I go (it's a little wrinkled because it lives in my handbag); I feel that it's even better than the one I lost, and that it carries good luck and the joy of everything that's good in my life. Because it's from you.

Love,

Catherine

Love, in the form of a well-worn handkerchief.

(P.S. - From Donna, here's Bohemian Rhapsody on the beach:

Boyd Salmon Duo available for Christmas Caroler events

I had some great fun recently, getting together with my main guitarist, Susan Salmon. We made some fun little Christmas videos so we could go out in the world and get some holiday party and event work.

Now the fun part: using all my SEO resources to get the word out! So really, this post will be half Christmas music discussion and half SEO joy. I really enjoy doing this stuff.

We're looking for some extra jobs this month in the greater Philadelphia metro area, as well as surrounding local parts of New Jersey and Delaware. Here are all the ways to get in touch with us and hear our music!

1. Pinterest link with all four videos:

http://pinterest.com/violincatherine/boyd-salmon-duo-guitar-and-violin-christmas-music/

2. Such a pretty tumblr:

http://boydsalmonduo.tumblr.com/

3. Because I enjoy befriending google, here is our Google+ page:

https://plus.google.com/b/103881639970883621330/103881639970883621330/posts

4. Updated LinkedIn profile (I'm considering an ad on LinkedIn, too):

http://www.linkedin.com/in/catherineboyd

5. My fun youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/nayacat

6. A tweet to connect you to my twitter activity:

https://twitter.com/violincatherine/status/274433986829352960

7. My webpage for the Boyd Salmon Duo:

http://www.catherineboydviolinist.com/Boyd_Salmon_Duo.html

Thank you, everyone, and have a happy and healthy holiday!

Love,

Cat

7/18/10 wedding in Cape May

First off, I would like to give a shout out to Susan Salmon, mandolin (www.myspace.com/susansalmon) and Kahlil Gunther, piano (www.gunthermusic.com), without whom I could not have pulled off such an amazing musical event. This is the blog post I've promised you for so long!

Our bride, Laura, chose the Peter Shields Inn in Cape May. First of all, sometimes Kahlil plays there for the dinner hour (and his music is on their website), so please contact them: www.petershieldsinn.com. I digress, though.

Laura was the most fun bride in the WORLD. Because the Peter Shields has a 1920s vibe, she asked for a 1920s jazz cocktail hour. Also, since the front porch has a gorgeous balcony over some steps, Susan and I played the ceremony on the balcony and she got married on the steps! It was stunning. She selected "Is This Love" and "In My Life" for processional music, and "Once in a Lifetime" by the Talking Heads for the recessional. Way too much fun. Beforehand, she came to the screen door behind us to chat and requested "Freebird". We laughed and played it for her. I was worried a little about what the guests would think (runaway bride), but they LOVED it! What a fun bride.

The 1920s music is not in most musicians' repertoire. It took me 20-30 hours to organize 4 hours' worth of this music. Kahlil joined us at the piano inside and we rolled through songs like the Charleston, Sheik of Araby, 5 foot 2, and Blue Skies. It was some of the most fun I've ever had on a gig, and it was rollicking and sweet music. Thank you, Laura! As a side benefit, I have all this 1920s jazz music compiled now, which not many people outside of a Dixieland band would have ready to go. Fun and productive, just the way I like it! If you really love what you do, you will put extra time and love into it. I wish Laura all the best and am so grateful she hired us!

Swarthmore wedding, 10/10/10

Sometime soon I'll post about the 1920s jazz wedding from the summer. After extensive research, I compiled 4 hours worth of 1920s music into binders so other musicians would be able to accompany me easily. Dan contacted me and had a set of good ideas about the music. He liked the violin and mandolin. For a fuller sound, we added Susan Salmon on guitar. Dan asked for Django jazz (1920s style!) for the prelude and for the receiving line. I was so happy to swing that out! The ceremony tunes were: Obadiah Parker's slow version of "Hey Ya" for the wedding party + Dan, "Here Comes the Sun" for his GORGEOUS bride, Cat Stevens' "Moonshadow" for the candle lighting, and the Beatles' "I've Just a Face" for the Recessional.

For the record, the Swarthmore outdoor amphiteater is a lovely setting. Large stone steps lead down with a raised grassy stage on the opposite side and a large grassy circle at the bottom. We were surrounded by trees. The wedding planners, (I think they're called Plan to Party, and I regret not getting their business card) placed pumpkins, decorative corn, and gourds EVERYWHERE. They had apple cider waiting afterwards. It really was an autumn wonderland. Well done, Dan!

For the prelude and receiving line, Susan and I happily rocked out on: Minor Swing (here's a youtube link for an idea: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpmOTGungnA), Nuages, Sweet Georgia Brown, Sheik of Araby, Five Foot Two, Blue Skies, oh the list goes on...I was so happy after playing for them, with some guests dancing along, that I couldn't get to sleep for hours. Chord changes were dancing in my head! So, honestly, if you would like a more energetic, lively option, please consider my dear colleague Susan Salmon on guitar/mandolin/violin (she does it all) as backup! Oh, the fun we had!

Cape May wedding, October 9

UPDATE, 2/2/11: There is a short video clip of us at this wedding, plus 4 audio clips HERE:
www.gigmasters.com/violin/catherine-boyd

We had a trio on the beach for David and Caitlyn: me (violin), Susan Salmon (mandolin), and Reid Alburger (guitar). It was just too much fun. We got there an hour early to set up. Our couple wanted the classic wedding music with a twist. The bridesmaids came down the aisle to "The Way You Look Tonight," and we gave Caitlyn a heavy metal version of Pachelbel's Canon (on acoustic instruments, though, so it's not TOO heavy)! My source was TSO's version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_924414&v=wQNirj6lbGY&feature=iv, and click again in the video for sound. At the end, we did a jazzy version of Mendelssohn's Wedding March. The weather was perfect, we played a little reggae and jazz beforehand, and what a blast we had!