New "Pilgrim" Book Released

I'm excited to announce the release of the new "Pilgrim" book. And yes, it's a bit of a companion piece to my Pilgrim Man CD project. I guess I'm pretty serious about this whole "Life is a journey" thing... Right?! This inspirational fable, set in a Norwegian mountain village, is about rising above the day-to-day grind to find a way of life full of meaning and significance. It is about rising what other people think to become the person you have dreamed you could be. It is about making a connection with the Source in order to receive life, and then giving it away to everyone around you. (Please click on the cover for more info!)

Wanna Help?

Thanks so much for your willingness to help me out. As things keep progressing for me, I'm learning I can't do any of this on my own. Any of the opportunities I've had have come from someone taking a chance on me, putting a checkmark in my box, and believing in me. I'm truly grateful. I'm also finding that there are people out there, like yourself, who would love to help me out, if they just knew something they could do! That's what this page is for! I'd like to form a team - maybe you can help me come up with a name - but a team of people who are interested in helping spread the word about my music. Why? Number one - because I believe we are surrounded by people who desperately need the message of hope found in my songs.

Send me an email through the contact button above, the reply box below, or simply mark@marksmeby.com. Let me know how you'd like to help - let's start a dialogue. And let me know if you don't have a copy of Pilgrim Man yet, I'd be glad to send you digital copy for free—just for helping out! I plan to send out regular updates about what's going on, and if there are any particular needs. By regular I mean, no more than monthly...

So how can you help?

#1 - CONCERTS - This is the most effective way I connect with people. I'm constantly looking for more places to sing. Perhaps you know someone at a place that you think would be good for a Mark Smeby concert. Perhaps you'd like to be a rep for a certain area where you live—focusing on multiple locations for concerts. Having someone reach out to a venue on my behalf is 100% more effective than me doing it myself. You can help tremendously! And FYI: I love to use church choirs or involve other musicians/vocalists from a church during my concerts, if they'd like to do that. Click HERE for more detailed info about concerts that you can pass on to someone who might be interested.

#2 - SHARE THE MESSAGE! This is super easy. Share lyrics, song clips, or video clips with anybody you know—whether it's through email or Facebook or Twitter, you can spread the message to your circle of friends, and people will listen because they know you! If you share something, don't just cut and paste, make a specific comment about how this song inspires you, for example. You can find song clips to share just to the right on this page - or HERE - each of the songs on Pilgrim Man are at the bottom, you can click on one, or the whole album, and share through whatever means you desire. Post a lyrics as your status update, or link to a blog on my site, for example. I also have a ton of videos on Facebook and YouTube that are ripe for sharing. Or if you're feeling really ambitious, I've seen some people create videos of songs they like, just using the lyrics on the screen and maybe some photos...go for it! I'd love to see what you can create - and you can use my music in any way you'd like! Maybe you'd like to sing one of my songs in your church, or have the choir sing a song—awesome! I have choir charts & accompaniment tracks for many of my songs and I'd be glad to send them to you for free!

#3 - INTERACT - As we build our team, it's going to be very valuable to interact. We can do that on my Facebook page, Twitter, or here on my website/blog. Let's keep this from being one-sided, or just about me, and more about you and your thoughts. I hope to simply be a catalyst.

#4 - REFERENCE - If you've seen me in concert, I'd love to get a response from you...you know, like a short little review like they do for movies? I'd love to get a video clip—something super basic on your phone or computer is fine—or even something written, just saying what you thought the concert was like, why other people should go to a concert like this, or even just what the music means to you, etc. I want to build a collection of these and use them for promotional purposes. You would be a great help to me with this! Email whatever you come up with to: mark@marksmeby.com.

#5 - PRAYER - This is so important. If you want to join the team simply as a prayer warrior, I'd love that so much. The more I travel and get to share with people, the more desperately aware I am of my need for prayer support.

Again, please let me know how you'd like to get involved, just type in the reply box down below or shoot me an email. Thank you so much for considering how you could help! I'm very open to any other creative ideas you might have. So let's talk!

In closing, I'd love to share with you what John Piper writes about Hebrews 10:24 - as a fleshing out of the vision I have for my music, but especially for this team: "Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds." Here is the focus for your life. Here is what you aim at from morning till night as a Christian. Notice carefully: it is not what you might expect. It is not: consider how to love each other and do good deeds. That would be Biblical and right. But it's different: "Consider how to stimulate each other to love and good deeds." Focus on helping others become loving people. Aim at stirring up others to do good deeds. And of course the implication would also be that if others need help and stirring, we do too, and so we would be aiming at what sorts of ways we can think and feel and talk and act that will stir each other up to love and to do good deeds. The aim of our lives is not just loving and doing good deeds, but helping to stir up others to love and to good deeds.

AMEN!

Exciting Fall Shaping Up

Hey Everybody! This fall is shaping up to be pretty exciting. I'm planning on getting out on the road for a few larger stretches of tours - I'm excited about that and will let you know more as I know it. I'll be visiting radio stations along the way, saying thank you for playing my music, and begging them to keep doing it. And hopefully visiting schools and churches and sharing HOPE along the road. (Well, not on the side of the road...you know what I mean!) PLUS: I'm actually working on some new music...I know, all my music is NEW to most people. But, I have a few Christmas concerts booked (with a few more on the way!) and so I thought it'd be nice to do a Christmas CD. I'm thrilled to be able to share this new stuff (and traditional tunes!) with you over the coming months. I have some new HOPE t-shirts ready to make their debut...and possibly a book that I'll be getting printed off and ready to hand over to you and all your friends. Thanks especially to: WECC, KCFB/KTIG, WHCB, KCRN, WTGN, KPOF, Pilgrim Radio Network, WAFT, WBGW, WCSE, WDYD, WFST, WGMA, WJFY, WLIH, WMVV and WXML for playing "Here's Your Life!"

Mark Smeby Interview w/Wendell Gafford of Creative Promotions

[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/21044511"]

Throwing A Party

"Why must my life be so hard?" I ask myself because I can't find a spare stamp and still don't have a record deal. High class problems, that really aren't problems. Silly, right? Still, things are pretty quiet around here. Inquiry emails sent out rarely get responses. Phone calls are useless. How in the world am I supposed to have an amazing life if people aren't willing to do their part to help me out? Sometimes, I'm just baffled by the amount of potential I seem to be drowning in.

A few years ago, in conversation with a friend, we decided that we could waste our lives waiting to be invited to all the cool parties. Meaning, sometimes it seems like the "people that have" (in the music industry, but really anywhere!) keep getting, and the "people that don't have" don't get anything. I'm talking about opportunities here, pardon the difficult analogy. But me and my friend decided that if we were tired of waiting to be invited to other people's parties, the best answer would be to throw our own.

So...

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