The photos above and below are part of a transformation that I’m helping promote. I work with ThingLink but I’m also a musician. And a lucky one that I get to pioneer something I feel is truly new, innovative and important.

Like lots of indie musicians, I’m always looking for new ways to promote and share information about my music. In this case, I’m promoting my debut CD, Sacred Love.

Now this is a post about images but I get to be the star too — so check out the photo below. I’m bronzed like Hans Solo in Star Trek.

You’ll notice small dots inside the image. They are called ThingLinks: in-image links from inside this photo to any place I choose. The tags act like channels to information I want to share. The tags are easy to set up with a description (250 characters) and URL. In this case, I set up ThingLinks to my blog, my latest press release, my Twitter and Facebook pages, to my photographer’s website, and there’s a surprise.

There is a Sound Player embedded in this image. Click on the play button and my song, Edge of Eternal, plays.

That is cool!

So for musicians like me, that photo – which I was only able to observe before – has become something more than a beautiful composite by photographer Mario Covic. It’s now an information wallet I can share throughout my social network.

Here are some things I can do with Thinglinked images that help me socialize me images:

• Announce my ThingLinked photo to friends and fans on Facebook and Twitter, and email a link. Fans can do the same. If ‘m lucky, I made a new fan. Thanks to this ThingLinked photo.
• Embed a photo with ThingLinks… in my other blogs and websites. The links stay in the image. And fans can share it, too.
• Allow readers to add their OWN ThingLinks to the image. I wonder where fans would place links.
• Receive stats from ThingLink (as part of a free account) on how many people are interacting with my images with views, hovers and clicks.

Try hovering your mouse over the image and I put links into – and see what comes up.

After you sign up at ThingLink.com, you add three lines of code to your blog or website page. ThingLink works on websites and blogging platforms. If you’re hosting a WordPress site, there is a beta ThingLink plug-in that you can download via WordPress.

Have fun and share your stories.

When you integrate one proficient acoustic guitarist with select vocalists and instrumentalists, along with the skillful production talents of Windham Hill Records founder and Grammy Winner Will Ackerman, the final product might expectedly be a top rated album compiled by dedicated music professionals that virtually everyone would love and appreciate.

Shambhu is the proficient guitarist clearly asserting in his website news pages that his first album has truly been a “ labor of love “ while composing, performing and co-producing with Will Ackerman, along with his time spent working beside other top music professionals. This I can believe since at the end of the day, Shambhu and his insightful selection of collaborating musicians has paid off rather handsomely, and by their collective time spent together, have helped convert this debut release into a commodity of premium value.

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Thanks to percussionist Dave DiLullo who organized the Global Heart Concert II which featured Shambhu and his new CD, Sacred Love.

We’ll be posting more video from the show this coming week.

Special thanks to Dave DiLullo for inviting me to perform for Global Heart Concert II, and to my amazing band: Michael Manring, Dave DiLullo, Jeff Oster, Todd Boston, and Troy Arnett. And our sound team and image capturers.

Thanks Lee and the East-West team for a great job.

We heard some fantastic song titles contributed by the audience last night for two of my tunes . Did I hear public vote? Hmmm…that’s a good idea.

Here’s a photo of the band right before the show: (left 2 right) – Troy Arnett (keyboards), Jeff Oster (flugelhorn), David DiLullo (percussion), Shambhu (guitar), Todd Boston (dohar, flutes and guitar).

We’ll be posting some videos in the next week or so from the show.

A few of my surfer friends are saying listening feels like riding a perfect wave. Makes me think of Maui Breeze…where all waves are perfect.

SacredLoveCD.com

I got set up with my Taylor acoustic and started playing to get in my creative, cosmic flow. Will and Corin spent about 30 minutes listening to the guitar and walking around me hearing for ideal mic placements. Corin talks more about that in this video.

We recorded the guitar on the solo piece, Through the Eyes of a Child. It’s a difficult piece to play as every single note is nuanced and those mics capture every little buzz of the strings plus shirt and button noise, and breathing etc.  The performance flowed through perhaps 8 takes and everyone was satisfied.

We took some time for lunch and Will and Corin talked about this incredible studio and the various projects we’re working on and people we know. Fun stuff. We then moved right into Revelation and spent about 2.5 hours laying down the main guitar track that Will also asked me to double. That second guitar had to match the first as perfectly as possible, as the guitar is the bed for this song, a kind of consciousness flow upon which the celestial melody rises. After 9 takes, my left fingers were feeling it, and I was getting mentally tired as we wrapped this tune.

Next up was Together, the ensemble piece, which has a really nice groove that will soon be powered by Tony Levin on bass and Jeff Haynes on percussion. It only took a few takes for me to lay down guitar number one and on Monday we’ll finish up the basic guitar tracks.

At the end of the day Will and Corin asked me to add my name to the the door(s) that artists who record there sign. It’s kind of a right of passage and induction into the family of Will Ackerman artists. What an honor!

As a guitarist, there is something royal about being guided artistically by Will Ackerman who has worked with George Winston, Michael Hedges, Acoustic Alchemy, Jeff Oster and many other truly great players. Dreams do come true!

Maui Breeze was composed on November 26, 2009 late in my San Francisco studio and I finished the demo while connecting with the divine Spirit on Maui. This song goes deep with its modal flavoring and sweet harmonic textures. Hope you like it. Leave me a comment on how you feel about it.

Click through the titles on the player for Maui Breeze and download.

Please share this song with friends but please include this copyright info with the song:

Copyright © 2009 by Shambhu Neil Vineberg – All Rights Reserved
Join the Love Groove at ShambhuMusic.com