Jason Didner

On Sunday, May 21 I'll open for Manny Cabo ("The Voice," “La Voz,” Wizards of Winter Tour) at Just Jake's in Montclair, NJ. 

🎫🎫 Get your tickets here. 🎫🎫

I've performed live in Montclair since the early 90s when I used to come here for open mic nights. By 2005, Amy and I moved here. Over the course of decades performing in this arts-rich town, I've gotten to know some of the movers and shakers. I've also become aware of when my show idea was unconventional enough that I'd have to plan and organize the show myself. 

This led me to work with Joann Smalls to create events like a Family New Year's Ball in the Old Mogul Theater (now known as the Vanguard Theater). At the time, Joann was promoting a Manny Cabo show in the same space. So I began to follow this former “The Voice” contestant on social media. I really liked the way he represented himself online - with sharp, professional images and a consistent, inspirational tone verbally. 

One way I support local artists in town is through the use of my “Montclair, NJ Music Scene” playlist on Spotify. So, when Manny was recently promoting a new single, I added it to the top of my playlist and let Manny know about it. He messaged me to say he would like to return to Montclair to play an intimate, acoustic show. So I got to work on how I might best make that happen. 

 Just Jake's struck me as the right sized venue for a well-known performer to give an intimate show in town – but with a bit of imagination for another unconventional show.  Just Jake's is mostly known for its Friday and Saturday night cover bands that get the room up and dancing. Back in 2014, I booked a daytime concert at Just Jake's to mark the release of my debut album for kids and families with my band “Jungle Gym Jam.” So I understood the power of the venue to serve different audiences at different times of the day or week. I've also spent several afternoons there with my family watching our friends' kids perform in special School of Rock concerts. There you had young rockers' parents and siblings listening attentively at tables, rocking out to songs they grew up on. 

Knowing all this, I approached Patty, the venue's co-owner and booker, about putting on an acoustic show with Manny that wouldn't disrupt the cover band schedule her patrons expect. We settled on a Sunday in May - before Memorial Day and summer weekends could take a big enough bite out attendance.  Still, how would we ensure enough turnout to cover costs? For this piece of the puzzle, I looked to School of Rock and those packed weekend afternoons I'd experienced. I've never seen School of Rock put on an acoustic show, so this struck me as an interesting twist and a valuable skill for these students to pick up. It's also an opportunity for up-and-coming music students to open for a touring musician who's been on TV multiple times. Also, given Manny's deeply-held belief in inspiring the next generation of artists, giving the school's students this shot to open for Manny made a great deal of sense. 

For my part in the show, I've recently opened for Willie Nile at Outpost in the Burbs, notching a high-water mark in my music career. Now I'll bring that stage-tested show in front of Manny's audience and hopefully bring many of you, my followers, into the mix. My set will lean more toward my rock songs to create a cohesive experience with Manny's rock stylings. 

I believe our show - my set, School of Rock's house band performance and Manny's headlining set - will delight and inspire you and your family. This is the culmination of decades of my love for making music in Montclair. 

🎫🎫 Get your tickets here. 🎫🎫

If there's a useful lesson here for other artists, it's that taking the moment to promote other artists and your local scene can make good things happen. We independent artists are advised to promote ourselves, but not to be spammy about it. Promoting other artists like I do with my Montclair playlist helps form partnerships and coalesce scenes and movements - gets audience interested in multiple acts that might fit together. Our cross-promotion of other artists makes our presence more multi-dimensional and useful to others. Of course we should include ourselves in it. I'm on my own playlist - with one song like all the other local artists - and I'm usually not at the top. 

When I cross-promote with Manny, my fans take an interest in him. His fans take an interest in me. If you want to go faster, go alone. If you want to go farther, go together. 

When you learn to listen to your body, many things in life get better. I've gotten several benefits from recognizing when my stomach is about full. One of them is in rehearsing, recording and performing with my singing voice. 

Chronic stomach acid issues had me frequently clearing my throat or singing through intermittent spikes of burning pain. My voice was hoarser with less range and endurance. Doing vocal exercises a few times a week helped, but did not prove sufficient. The acid was affecting me as it occurred during singing and it was having a cumulative effect by coming up for much of the day and night. 

What really helped was cutting my meal portions in half and recognizing that 20 minutes later I wasn't actually hungry. When my stomach is less full, I'm less likely to have acid rush into my esophagus over the course of several hours a day. 

It also helped to see John Taglieri, a singer with a voice strong and true, share stories of his own struggles with gastroesophogeal reflux disease (GERD) and its effect on his vocal abilities. This keeps me more aware of the importance of managing my own case of GERD.  

Mindfulness plays a role

I credit my meditation practice with the Ten Percent Happier app for a subtle improvement in my awareness of my bodily sensations. I believe this is how I'm better able to know when I'm full. I still want snacks between meals, but I'm better able to discern want from need. Also, by eating smaller meals, I know that a snack will not overfill a stomach already inundated with the most recent meal. 

Benefits offstage too

I've experienced benefits besides the onstage ones. I've lost weight after I'd been gradually gaining. I sleep better and am now unlikely to wake up an hour into sleep with my throat on fire, which would happen after a late, rich, big dinner. I worry a little less about my heart (My ongoing issues with anxiety have sent me to the ER three times now). I've slowed my consumption of cough drops by a lot, because I'm not spending hours a day feeling the burning of acid in my throat.  

Self-care, not deprivation

I view my new-found eating habit as a matter of self-care rather than deprivation. It's rooted in feeling better and safer, not in feeling badly about myself, my appearance, etc. It's reinforced by my having given the best vocal performance of my life when it mattered most. I was on top of my game in front of the Outpost in the Burbs audience in my hometown of Montclair last week. 

I understand a little better what the inside of my body feels like from meditation practice. This way I know when I'm satisfied with what I ate. When I feel satisfied, I don't feel like leaving food for later is punishment or deprivation. Plus when I save the rest for the next day, I get to enjoy more of my favorite foods at a time when I will be actually hungry again.   

Self-care also means checking in periodically with my gastrointestinal doctor, Mark Tanchel with Gastrointestinal Associates of New Jersey (GANJ). I take famotidine to limit the amount of stomach acid that comes up my esophagus at Dr. Tanchel's direction. I also get endoscopies when my symptoms are particularly troubling. 

I'm not on a diet

I'm not on a diet program. I'm not accounting for point values of the foods I'm eating. I'm not “being good” or “being bad.” I'm not “sticking with a program” or “cheating.” I'm simply, for the first time in my life, at age 52, eating enough to feel satisfied, no more, no less. 

Most of my life I've been a visual eater. You put a thick 6" sub and chips in front of me and I'll eat the whole thing – because that's what's there for me to eat. I remember hearing of a fascinating psychological experiment with bowls of soup that secretly refilled through a tube to the bottom if the bowl. As long as the subjects had a visual cue there was more soup still in the bowl, they continued to eat more than a bowl full. 

I haven't stopped eating visually; I've just added the element of listening to my body. This has helped me change my visual references. At a restaurant, I'll typically plan on saving half of what's presented to me. I've tried that plan before, and then I'd eat right through it, to the point where there isn't quite enough left over to save for later, so I'd might as well eat that too. And I'd feel the pain in my throat later.  These days, I seem to appreciate the many benefits of limiting my portions to what won't set off my acid. 

Your Story

If you like, use the comments section below to share your story of managing GERD and the difference that control is making in your music or your life in general. 

Sure, I could carry a tune as long as I can remember. But my real passion was always for my instruments, not vocals. 

At age 10, it was trumpet and piano. By 12 I was fascinated with my friend's synthesizer and certain that was my path. When I was almost 16 I attended my first Van Halen concert (because of Eddie Van Halen's synth parts) and became spellbound by Eddie's guitar wizardry. I picked up guitar and gave it my all to learn to play. 

In high school I formed a rock band and wanted to shred like Eddie. I was more than happy for a classmate to handle frontman duties so I could pour my passion into the guitar. It turns out we had a harder time keeping singers in the band than Van Halen themselves! And there were interim periods where I substituted on vocals. All the while I was way more interested in the guitar part. Given my rapidly deepening voice, I was not about to chase the high wailing vocals of Sammy Hagar, David Coverdale (Whitesnake) or Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin). I'd make do by singing their parts an octave lower, in a low, raspy growl. I sang in the school chorus my senior year, but did not enjoy the feeling of vocal fatigue that would come on halfway through a rehearsal. 

This preference of mine continued into college where I was perfectly content to blast riffs and solos and let singers handle the vocal work and the rapport with the audience. 

Two events in my last year of college started to shift my relationship with singing lead. One was the discovery of Billy Joel's live album “Songs in the Attic.” See, I went to college at Stony Brook University on Long Island where Billy is a true hometown hero. Around my school, Billy's deep cuts were heard coming from a dorm or a jukebox more often than the hits. I could hear my baritone voice in Billy's. I could sing his songs and back myself up on piano with some authenticity. I was learning to open up my throat and sing naturally. 

The other event that got me into singing was the early-90s rise of karaoke, which came to our campus bar. I took my chances and signed up to sing Billy Joel, of course. It was a new experience to hold a mic and not play an instrument. Now I needed to figure out what to do with this new mobility of not being stuck behind a mic stand. I continued to enjoy karaoke after graduating, and even while writing songs and getting interested in the acoustic guitar. 

In my cover band after college, I enjoyed taking a turn at the mic to sing Billy Joel's “Miami: 2017” and “You May Be Right.” I started to take on solo acoustic gigs to perform both my originals and a growing number of cover songs. I enjoy the direct communication with an audience that I get by singing my originals right to them. I cherish this opportunity to entertain this way either in-person or in an online performance. 

That kidney donor would be me. The recipient, Catherine Wacha, brings the perspective of someone who was previously on dialysis from the time her case of lupus attacked her kidneys until her life-changing transplant freed her. Catherine also benefitted directly from the services of the National Foundation for Transplants and wants to give back to this organization through her musical talents.  

Together we wrote and recorded a new song "This Gift," which will appear on the 2nd annual "Giving a Second Chance" compilation album, featuring a whopping 45 previously unreleased tracks by artists affiliated with BlowUpRadio.com, an independently-run Internet radio station out of New Jersey. 

This uplifting rock anthem brings together the perspective of a grateful recipient and an awestruck living donor. I had given my wife Amy my kidney to fend off the threat of her diabetic complications. It was one of the most important things I will ever do in my life, and it affected the way I express myself as a songwriter and performer. 

Right now, you can get the compilation that includes "This Gift" for a donation of $10 or more at BlowUpRadio's benefit page. Your donation will help National Foundation for Transplants in its mission to provide financial and material support to transplant recipients as they recover from their operations. 

Then this weekend, March 4-5 you'll hear intimate performances by many of these artists, including separate sets from Catherine and me, by tuning in to BlowUpRadio from their home page. You'll find the full performance schedule on the home page, with Catherine leading off Saturday at 12:05 PM. My performance airs Sunday at 3:55 PM. 

Thank you for considering a donation to this uniquely life-affirming cause. 

Jason Didner  
Jersey Rock with Jersey Humor... and Heart  
jasondidner.com

Bonnie Raitt just won "Song of the Year" with a song about Transplant. I've got a few of those... 

Blues/country singer/guitarist Bonnie Raitt has captured the coveted "Song of the Year" Grammy with an incredibly moving song "Just Like That" about a mother who meets the recipient of her deceased son's heart via transplant. Bonnie had found her inspiration watching a TV interview with a mother who got to listen to her late son's heartbeat in the chest of a transplant recipient; she included that exact moment in her lyrics. 

My wife Amy and I are twice blessed with organ transplants Amy received at Hackensack University Medical Center. Amy is a survivor of a grueling 46-year run with Type 1 diabetes. This cruel condition had damaged her kidneys beyond repair.

The transplant team suggested I get screened to see if I could be a match for Amy and donate a kidney of my own to her. I turned out to be a match and, in May of 2015 Amy and I were wheeled into neighboring operating rooms.

My first question when I was awakened was whether the transplant was working. I was delighted to see the color return to Amy's face after she had been so sick for so long with the failure of her native kidneys. 

But she still had diabetes, which threatened the health of her new kidney and would continue complicating every other aspect of her health. Three years later, the Transplant Team located a pancreas from a deceased donor that would immediately put Amy's decades-long case of diabetes into remission. Today she lives without diabetes, and she'll continue to do so as long as the transplant holds out. 

In 2022 I reflected on our experiences and wrote this song: "A Complicated Miracle." 

As you might imagine, we have frequent doctors' appointments. These days, that means going online and filling out lots of medical forms repeatedly. We've kept our sense of humor throughout the medical twists and turns in our lives. So we lovingly co-wrote this one: "Patient Portal," which appears on my recent album "Side Effects." 

The title track to "Side Effects" takes the "complicated miracle" concept further. The good things in life, from love to medical miracles to that pill that protects your vital organs, come with a very long list of side effects. You may look at that list and still decide the benefits are worth it. 

In support of the National Foundation for Transplants

Since 2022, Internet radio station BlowUpRadio has hosted a webathon to raise funds and awareness for the National Foundation for Transplants - an organization that helps recipients afford not only the transplant if their insurance doesn't adequately cover it, but also the essential costs associated with recovery - lost wages, transportation, food and shelter. 

Kidney recipient and singer/songwriter Catherine Wacha is collaborating with me on a new song about the transplant experience for this year's digital compilation album. Listeners to the webathon who donate at least $10 to NFT will receive this compilation. 

This special presentation of "Giving a Second Chance" airs the weekend of March 4-5 on blowupradio.com. I will perform a solo acoustic set, including the two songs above. 

I felt strongly that I would pair well with Willie Nile when I learned that he was coming to Montclair to perform at our town's Outpost in the Burbs concert series for a Friday night, March 10 performance. And I was delighted to learn that Outpost's organizers shared that belief and chose me to open the show. This booking holds a deep meaning for me based on a special common acquaintance we share. 

I was first introduced to Willie Nile's musical stylings in 2003 when an Internet radio station sent me a promo copy of the Light of Day compilation of Bruce Springsteen covers. Willie played "I'm on Fire" in a signature soulful rasp I'd get to know better over time. 

I was later drawn further into the Light of Day movement when one Lou DeMartino responded to my flyer seeking a bassist for my rock band for kids and families - the Jungle Gym Jam. Lou was also the bassist for Joe D'Urso & the Stone Caravan, a band that was the driving force behind the Light of Day project's musical initiatives. The Light of Day Foundation raises funds and awareness for Parkinson's Disease and ALS. 

In the spring of 2015 Lou joined the Jungle Gym Jam as a side-hustle. He quickly got to work recording and performing with us. He loved entertaining kids from the bandshell stage. Shockingly, he passed away from an asthma attack a mere 3 months after joining us. 

After Lou's passing, I got involved with the Light of Day Foundation, creating kids' music fundraiser concerts to help with the cause. I always think fondly of my brief time with Lou when I think of Light of Day. 

In our time together, Lou quickly made a deep impression on me as a humble and loving human being, deeply devoted to whatever he took on. He confessed to me that in order to improve his chances of getting into the Jungle Gym Jam, he took the the flyer off the wall where it had been displayed so no one else would see the flyer and compete with him for the gig! I wasn't mad. I was impressed that such an accomplished and well connected musician wanted so badly to be in my group. 

He was a quick study and was quick to make arrangement suggestions that added dynamics to our songs. His tasty embellishments on songs like “Jam Packed” took the funny song about family trips to the next level. 

Lou took it upon himself to carry the PA system and other heavier equipment while Amy and I healed from our kidney transplant and were not medically cleared to lift objects yet. He ended all his emails with LLU - "Lou loves you." 

So you can imagine the emotional response I'm having to the news that Outpost in the Burbs said yes to my pitch to open for Willie Nile - a perennial star of the Light of Day concerts and recordings. "Mr. Lou" is very much at top of mind as I prepare for this very special evening of music. I'll be thinking "LLU" when I'm playing that night. 

Sessions Live has Shut Down

Over the holiday week in December, my friends who give streaming concerts from home started posting on social media that Sessions Live had gone out of business, taking with them the last of their in-app currency that fans had tipped them. Performers who earned that currency (or at least their 2/3 of it) were not able to cash it out. Billboard Magazine's web site confirmed the closure.

Live Streamer Cafe is Now Free for Artists to Use

My preferred live streaming platform, Live Streamer Cafe, initially operated by charging artists a monthly subscription fee. In turn, LSC would not touch the artists' tips - simply provide buttons to their Paypal/Venmo accounts so audience can tip them directly. Artists only have to share the usual small percentage with PayPal or Venmo, not the massive 1/3 cut that Sessions took. 

But since Sessions folded, Martyn and Kristopher, the founders of LSC, decided to go with a "freemium" model for artists. It's free to stream. But if an artist elects to subscribe at $1, $2, or $3 per month, they will be listed higher on the site's home page and easier for audience to discover, more so at the higher subscription level.

I am a coach at Live Streamer Cafe and can answer your technical questions about how to use it as an artist. 

Live Streamer Cafe Remains My Favorite Venue to Give Online Concerts 

I've given streaming concerts since 2004 when there was no video - just choppy audio and chat. Everyone in the room would have an opportunity to "grab the mic," which resulted in chaos during virtual open mic events and even concerts. 

Since then, Concert Window came and went. I had a very difficult experience putting on an online concert with StageIt where most of my audience couldn't see or hear me. We quickly scrambled over to Zoom where a new issue popped up - "What's the link?!??!?" 

Sessions Live had moved the process to an app that worked, but between their in-app currency and their convoluted layout for watching the show, having a strange cartoon avatar represent you in a "party" and navigating multiple tabs, my audience was confused and distracted from the show. Also, dealing with the in-app currency made the process more overwhelming for my existing fans. 

Along came Live Streamer Cafe, an intuitive and elegant environment for watching and interacting with a solo performer. This is a virtual neighborhood coffeehouse, comfortable and intimate. I give a streaming performance every 2-3 weeks and manage to attract a friendly, international audience most times. People in Europe stay up very late to catch my show. 

Kristopher, the site's developer, continues to do a great job listening to and implementing artists' suggestions, building the ideal venue to help an artist entertain their audience, raise funds for good causes, earn tips and sell merch. One key to this is the addition of "compliments," which come from a dropdown list and contain words and graphics of applause and appreciation. He creates new compliments that might even fit the theme of a song selection, like "Bigman Forever" when I cover a Bruce Springsteen song and a Clarence "Big Man" Clemons sax solo section comes up. 

Martyn, the site's charismatic co-founder, has created a YouTube channel with numerous tutorials on using the platform's various features to best effect. He's also a marvelous singer/keyboardist with an amazing home studio setup that rivals broadcast television. 

Using ReStream to Broadcast to LSC, YouTube, Twitch and Facebook Simultaneously

I subscribe to ReStream.io which lets me multi-stream to Twitch (my chosen back-end for Live Streamer Cafe), YouTube, and Facebook all at the same time. During the show I urge users watching on any other platform to join the interactivity at Live Streamer Cafe. It's a good way for my Facebook friends, YouTube subscribers and even newcomers to discover my live streaming shows in the first place. 

Artists and Audience - Sign up for Live Streamer Cafe for Free Today!

Hop on over to Live Streamer Cafe's web site and click Sign Up. Whether you're looking for quality entertainment in a friendly online , international space, or you want to put on a show, you will see why I consider it the best.

Here are some tracks by fellow artists on Mastodon I found intriguing - both the music and the way these artists tell their story on the open-source microblogging platform. 

I've embedded two playlists from the third-party site BNDCMPR that enables playlists of Bandcamp tracks. The first playlist has songs with lyrics/vocals; the second contains instrumentals. 

Hit me up on Mastodon @jasondidner@mstdn.social to let me know about Bandcamp tracks I should check out for possible inclusion on these lists. Artists, listen to these tracks and promote each other. You may be tired of shouting into the void about your own music all the time. You'll get better audience engagement and make new fans more readily if you mix in promoting other acts you're excited about. 

Musicians of Mastodon curated by Jason Didner

Go to this playlist on bndcmpr to buy a song you like and support the artist. 

Musicians of Mastodon - The Instrumentals

Go to this playlist on bndcmpr to buy a song you like and support the artist. 

Follow me on Mastodon.

My official video premieres at noon eastern today (1/6/23). "Side Effects" is a funny and touching song that lightly pokes fun at the disclaimers in those pharmaceutical ads while showing people living their best life! Musically inspired by Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson. 

It's the title track for my new album "Side Effects." Pre-order the album and immediately get the 6 singles from the album. You'll get the rest of the tracks on release day, February 3.