Stephen Gould's MAGIC Cover

This guy is not only a personal friend but he's also incredibly talented. I've posted about Stephen Gould before but man, he just gets better every time I hear him.

We met a year ago in Nashville when I was there visiting friends and hanging out at CMA Fan Fest. My girl friend Cynthia and I were headed to Broadway to catch my good friend and another super talented Nashville singer songwriter Adam Bruno's performance when Stephen picked us up in his Lyft.

Not only was he super sweet and humble about his own music, we chatted about Adam and he put some of his music on his iPhone. When he mentioned that Adam reminded him of Jon Foreman of Switchfoot fame, who happens to be my favorite band, I knew we'd become fast friends.

Check out Stephen's latest cover. You won't be disappointed.

Coldplay Gives Back to the Fans with FREE Music

For those of you that are Coldplay fans, or if you live under a rock somewhere and don't know their music.. now's your chance, follow the link below to download, for FREE, live tracks directly from Coldplay.

As a thank you to the band's fans, the guys wanted to give something back. I've always known Coldplay to be generous with the people that make them who they are - FANS. This is one of the key reasons that I'm willing to give them my money - because they're not afraid to give back. When you reward people (this includes companies rewarding their employees) you will get more from them in return.

Last summer I spent almost $100 a ticket to see them live for the first time at the HP Pavilion in San Jose. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to bring my camera into the venue because you just never know these days. I decided to sneak it in. The trick, for ladies anyway, is to hide it in the small pocket inside your purse. In the event that security wants you to open the pocket so they can see inside, place a personal female item on top of the camera which will make them so uncomfortable they'll let you go without searching further. Voilà. You're in.

So I snuck my camera in only to discover that the place was lit up by flashes going off all around me. So I joined in. The band was amazing. They played all the classics and almost everything off the new album (Viva La Vida). Chris Martin rocked it out. I took over 200 photos that night. We sat 18th row so I got some great shots with my little SLR digital camera.

The highlight of the show was when the band ran off the stage, down the side of the floor seats and up a side aisle, right into the audience. They set up shop in the middle of screaming fans and jammed on a couple of songs with people standing arm to arm, feeling every drop of sweat that fell from Chris Martin's body. Ahh... what a thrill!

The show ended with a bang as thousands, if not millions, of fluorescent-colored paper mache butterflies were released from above and came floating down onto the entire arena. Beautiful.

If you get the chance to catch Coldplay out on the road now I highly recommend it. These guys do NOT disappoint.

Get your FREE tracks here:

http://www.coldplay.com/lrlrl/lr.html