Hello Everyone,

"Braver Than You Think You Are" is out now! You can pick up your copy through my website: www.tanyagordon.com . The six-song CD is only $10 AUD plus $2 AUD postage (within Australia) or $5 AUD postage (for international buyers). You can pay securely by credit card or bank deposit through paypal. There's a postage discount for two or more copies.

All money raised from the sale of the CD is being donated to a children's refuge in Tapachula, Mexico. Check out www.tapachula07.com for more info.

If you'd like me to sign your disc before we post it, just shoot me an email and let me know whose name you'd like me to make it out to.

If you enjoy the CD, please let your friends know about it - maybe even send the link to this blog. It's for a great cause.

Love you all lots. We really appreciate your support!

Cheers

Tan

Hi guys,

I just spent the morning with some of my best friends in the world, one of whom is Caleb James.

To say that Caleb is like a brother would be completely undervaluing our relationship. He is my brother (even though he's not) :).

We first worked together 11 years ago on my first EP of originals. At the time, I thought songwriting credit should be awarded for lyrics and melody. I didn't understand that it's hard to pinpoint what makes a song great. For one listener, it could be a lyrical phrase, for another, a guitar riff. So, these days I credit songwriting differently.

Anyway, when Caleb and I worked on "Brain" - the aforementioned EP - I gave myself full songwriting credit because I had indeed written the lyrics and melodies and a few chords as well.

Caleb was given arrangement credits for all the songs, but he should have been given 50/50 writing credit with me.

So, to set the record straight, Caleb and I wrote all of the songs on "Brain".

You would imagine he could have felt quite ripped off by that experience and never wanted to work with me again. But, true to his loyalty and character, he jumped back in the studio with us to record two singles in 2003 with our band Farlow Star.

Last October, we joined forces again to record "Braver Than You Think You Are". Caleb has put so much of himself into this record that Dale and I joked that it was really a Caleb James record with Tanya on vocals and Dale on drums.

I am so proud of this record and it is what it is, because of my brother. He pushed me to write better lyrics, to completely reinvent the way I sing and to include some cool moments eg. the rockin' guitar solo in Weight of the World, that have taken the songs from ok to above average. I was gonna say A+, but I want to sound like I have some shred of humility. :)

Anyway, I just want to say to Caleb, "Brother, Dale and I love you. We respect you to the hilt as a musician. But we respect you to the stars and beyond as a person. You and Mel and Lucy are family to us, and we count it a privilege that you would work with us and share your creative brilliance. Your blood should be bottled!"

And, if you're an artist or a band, anywhere in the world, looking for someone who can take you to the next level creatively and push you to be the best you and your songs can be, talk to Jamesy McFamesy. I guarantee it will be a solid investment. You'll come away feeling like you struck gold.

You can reach Caleb at www.calebjames.com

Happy weekend everyone.

God bless.

Love Tan

Hello beautiful people!

Hallelujah! The record is finished!!! Woohoooot! I've added a couple of songs from the new EP for you to check out. Let me know what you think.

I started calling my friends in radio here yesterday and we're getting a really positive response to the first single, "Don't Look Back". Three major metro stations have agreed to play it which is awesome.

If you want to help me out, please call your local station and request it and then leave me a comment here to let me know which station it is. That way we can follow it up with their music director and see if we can get it on the air.

The more stations that play it, the more people will hear it, the more people will buy it, and the more money we can donate to Mission Mexico.

The CDs will be available for sale from the end of January.

Thanks to everyone for your support. You're awesome.

Love Tanya

Hello Kiddies!

Today's the big day! My EP is being mastered as we speak. This is the last process it has to go through sonically before it's ready to be sent away and manufactured. We will send it away on Monday and should have it back by January 29th. Woohoot!

The new record is called Braver Than You Think You Are and I think it rocks. Well, it probably pops more than rocks, but there are definitely some rocking moments on there too.

I've also written a little book too called Braver Than You Think You Are - The Stories Behind the Songs. It will be available separately to the record. I still have to get it printed, but hope to have it out by the end of Feb at the latest.

I'll be posting a new track or two on myspace once I get them back from mastering and would love to hear what you all think.

God bless and have a fantrastic day!

Tanya

Hello Beautiful People!

I did the stupid thing that you tell yourself you won't do, but then you get all excited and do it anyway...

I told everyone we'd have the new EP out and about by now, but it looks like being a late Jan '07 release now.

Caleb, my producer, has heaps on his plate at the moment, so we're finishing my EP in amongst a bunch of other stuff he's working on.

The bulk of the songs are done. All that's left is bvs, piano and one lead vocal on one track. So, overall, we're pretty close.

I'm not going to talk the project up, except to say that I'm VERY happy with how it's sounding. Caleb and I have known each other for a long time and I'm a huge fan of his. He's added in some tasty little riffs and bits and pieces that have lifted the songs to another level. I'm stoked.

So, I'll post something up here as soon as I can. But don't hold your breath. I'm thinking it'll be mid-Jan before Caleb gives us the go-ahead to let the outside world hear what we've been cooking up at "The Palace".

Hope you're all well and gearing up for a fantastic Christmas with your family and friends. If you're looking for an out-of-the-ordinary gift idea, check out www.worldvision.com.au and their Smiles Gift Catalogue. I think it really puts the meaning back into Christmas. I'm giving my mum a lamb and my dad a goat.

God bless.

T

My top 5 tips to save money:

1. Don't buy anything

2. Don't watch commercial television

3. Don't read your junk mail catalogues

4. Stay away from the mall

5. Don't have any friends who have more or better "stuff" than you do :)

What do you think?

Any tips to share?

T 

Hello Everyone!

Well, it's started. We just got back this afternoon from Studios 301 in Byron Bay. We drove down Wednesday night to track the drums for the new record.

My devastatingly handsome husband tore it up on the drums and it was fun to pretend we were rock stars again for 48 hours.

Our producer, Caleb James, his wife, Melissa, and their gorgeous daughter, Lucy, made the trek to Byron with us and we all had a ball hanging out. Our engineer, Paul, is an absolute legend and a great guy to hang out with. We befriended a beautiful Croatian named Christina who was assisting Paul and made very good coffee. Thanks Chris!

So now we go hard, because we're not going home. Caleb will get cracking on the tracks in the next few days, once drum editing is finished. It's going to be a bit of a juggling act for me while all this is happening, because Dale leaves for the US next Saturday, and I'm going to be playing supermum and wannabe tambourine virtuoso for three weeks, while Caleb and I finish the recording. Well, actually, Caleb will be doing 95% of it. I'll just be sitting there going, "Are you sure that's not heading towards country?" and, "I was hearing more of a Barry Mannilow vibe for that piano track." You know, all the annoying things people who can't play instruments say to producers...

But Caleb and I have worked together enough to survive this....haven't we? :)

We hope to have something for you to hear, and buy for your friends and family for Christmas, by mid-late November. Yes, that soon. That's one of the best parts of being an indi artist. You don't have to wait three years after you record your current record to release a, by-then, outdated product to the world. Get in, get out and get it on the i-pods. That's the way we do it here in suburban Brisbane.

The coolest part of this whole thing is that I've been dreaming of this record for nearly three years and now it's finally underway. It's amazing to watch all the pieces fall into place. I've had this idea since 2003 to record a project and give all the sales to a charity for orphaned and abandoned children. It's been such a huge dream and, at times, an incredibly frustrating one. You know when it's just not falling into place and you don't know why? And all you're left with is gravel rash on your forehead from bashing your head up against a brick wall? Well, it's been three years of periodic head bashing and I'm ready to roll - well and truly.

But, it's only been in the last couple of weeks that we've come across the perfect charity to support. I had been talking to one aid agency which I love and respect so much. It seemed obvious to me to do something with them. But obstacles kept coming up all the time, during the discussion process with them and I hung in there because I had a strong sense that it would become really clear what to do.

Well, last week I bought a copy of the Australian Women's Weekly. I never buy mags - it was over $6 - but Steve Irwin was on the cover and I've really been feeling devastated for his family. So, I buy this magazine and flipping through the pages come across this amazing story of a couple from the Sunshine Coast here in Queensland, who went to Mexico 6 years ago to volunteer in an orphanage for 12 months. Six months into the trip, the orphanage closed down and there was no funding to continue. This couple, Pam and Alan Skuse, felt so compelled to help the children that had been in their care, that they sold their home back here in Australia and moved to Mexico to establish Mision Mexico.

Today, they care for 33 permanent children and take in temporary placements as well - children who are migrants or waiting to be adopted. The building they currently use for the refuge is government-owned and could be resumed by officials at any time. It's also falling down around them, literally. The board who run the refuge have taken out a loan to buy and refurbish an old carpenter's workshop, which will be much better designed to house that many children and their carers. To complete the refurbishment, they need to raise $100,000 AUD. Of late, everytime I thought about this recording project, I kept saying to Dale,"I want to raise $100,000." This was before I'd ever even heard of Mision Mexico.

I believe discovering the Mision in the magazine, and the obstacles I've faced with the other aid organisation, have all been providential. Some would call it fate. Some would call it luck. But I would call it the hand of a loving God, directing and guiding me to these beautiful children on the other side of the world. Yes, I want to help them. But, I'm also sure that I will learn lessons from this journey about people and life and faith, that will indelibly change the way I approach my life and my Saviour.

If you want to find out more about Mision Mexico, go to www.lovelifehope.com . If you want to jump on board with us and donate to the refurbishment project, "One Hundred Thousand Ways to Make a Difference", please contact me via myspace.

Even if being part of this project isn't for you, please don't ever feel like you are powerless to change what you know isn't right - things like poverty, homelessness and abuse. We are more powerful than we realise. If you want to make a difference, start out small. Start a conversation. Start a weekly ritual of a random act of kindness. Start reacting to anger with compassion. Start giving up your parking space occasionally - even if you got there first.

You'll feel amazing and you'll probably start a chain reaction of positive steps towards a better world.

God bless.

Tanya

"Oh I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair

In '77 and '69 revolution was in the air

I was born too late into a world that doesn't care

Oh I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair"

- from "I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker" by Sandi Thom

Sandi Thom has got a catchy little tune going on there, but I think she's misrepresented my generation. I believe that revolution is in the air and I believe that I was born into a world that does care. I believe that I am part of a generation that wants to see justice, that wants to show kindness and wants to make poverty history.

The fight for fairness is not an unwinnable war.

As a Christian, I am deeply challenged about what my response to poverty should be. If I am a Jesus follower, in the truest sense, shouldn't I be responding as He would be if He was physically here right now?

What would Jesus do? It's not just a slogan on a wrist band. It's a challenge to all of us, who profess to be followers of Christ. The Bible has more than two thousand verses relating to poverty and justice. They are obviously subjects that God feels very strongly about. So I should feel strongly about them too...if I really am a Jesus follower.

What can a 33 year old mother-of-three from Brisbane, Australia do to help make poverty history? The problem seems insurmountable. The stats are devastating. More than 1 billion people drink water from unsafe sources. More than 800 million people will go to bed tonight hungry. In the 10 minutes that it's taken me to write this, 10 women have died in pregnancy or childbirth. One mother, every minute. Today, 30,000 children died from preventable diseases and tomorrow another 30,000 will die. And the day after that. And the day after that...

Helen Keller said something like this: " I cannot do everything but I can do something. And I must not fail to do the something I can do."

God, show me what You want me to do, and give me the courage to do it. Break my hard, western heart. Help me not to be swallowed whole by the culture of consumerism I live in.

The message of helping the poor is not one that can easily be argued against. But that doesn't mean it's a popular message either. It's hard to chew, let alone swallow, digest and do something productive with. In a culture that prizes exciting preachers who tell us how great we are and how brightly our blessed futures are burning, it's a little bland to be fed a plate of sacrifice and self-denial.

We want bells and whistles, not cries of emaciated children screaming for parents lost to HIV, who could have lived another 30 years if someone had made outrageously expensive anti-virals available to them before it was too late.

And yet, I believe there are some of us, who are dissatisfied with a theoretical understanding of the teachings of Jesus. We genuinely want to see the Kingdom come, here on Earth as it is in Heaven. We want to experience faith that is living and passionate. We want to live out a belief system that is radical, self-less and terrifyingly honest.

We want to do what we can to revolutionise Western culture. To invest ourselves in people rather than home theatre equipment. How many flat screens can one family need?  

Jesus, open our eyes and our hands and our wallets.

And may Sandi Thom be proven wrong. Viva la revolution!

Hello,

When was the last time you deliberately did something that really freaked you out? Something that took you so far outside your comfort zone that your heart was racing, your stomach felt like it was going to climb out of your throat and your hands were shaking like branches in a wild summer thunderstorm?

When we decide to live a "full" life, we're basically asking the uncomfortable to be part of our daily bread. Every day of my life, I choose to partake of the difficult and the challenging. I don't want to be comfortable if it means I'll miss out on the amazing journey that God has planned for me. I'm learning to accept that discomfort is par for the course. I guess I'm learning to be comfortable with the uncomfortable.

So, what challenge have you been avoiding or delaying? Life wasn't meant to be easy all the time. Just because something starts to hurt doesn't necessarily mean you should stop doing it. Don't get me wrong. You've got to have healthy boundaries. If you're in a destructive relationship or situation, that's a different story. But I'm talking about circumstances where you know the stretching, the pain, is a good thing because it means you're growing and experiencing things that will make you a bigger person.

As some fitness guru once said, "Pain is your friend". 

Don't run away from the challenge if you know deep in your gut that it's something you're meant to do. Freak yourself out a little. You might be surprised at what you're capable of. Actually, I know you'll be surprised.

T

It's very easy in this life to feel like too many things are too hard to do anything about. But I don't believe we are powerless. We are much more powerful than we realise. No one person can solve every problem, but if we all did something, our own bit, I think we could start to see things turn around for the better. You've gotta do what you can. And once you've done what you can, encourage others to do what they can. And then, give the rest to God.

T