August Newsletter 2020
toniland
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| Hi Everybody,I hope you all are well and doing ok in this difficult time. My heart goes out to those who are suffering and pray there is relief in sight. To you up in Portland and Seattle, I’m so proud of you for taking a peaceful stand. I’m working on a new album now right through the pandemic by recording remotely with my producer Jim Walker in Portland, Oregon. First I had to learn how to do that but now I’m fully engaged. We’re about half way done. Several songs are fully mixed and mastered and can be downloaded on my website. Jim and I have done all the tracks ourselves. He’s an amazing talent and a complete joy to work with. I’m so excited to share the songs with you!  I’m sending just the people on my email list the first chance to hear a taste of “Fit Into My Future”, a new song that will be on the next album. Here is a link for you to stream. This song is personal and introspective. I hope you enjoy it. Please send me comments and comparisons to other artists that you hear. News flash! You can now visit my website at www.toniland.com to download my music. Again thank you Robbie Kaye for the photos and my dear sister, Juli at ImageNet for the beautiful graphic design and website prowess. As many of you know, “New Girl”, is currently charting nationally on radio across formats (Top 40, Adult Contemporary, and Country). It is such a wonderful surprise to see how well the record is doing on the various charts: Country Digital – #1 Western Region Country – #2 Western Region Adult Contemporary – #3 Adult Contemporary Indie – #6 Country Indie – #7  She just popped onto the Top 40 format with artists like Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Dua Lipa, Harry Styles, Katy Perry…all the big kid acts. “New Girl” has been moving up all the charts for 5 months now. She’s a beautiful beast and has some “legs”. Me and my buddies here in Brookings, Oregon refer to “New Girl” like this, like she’s alive and breathing since she appears to be doing just that. Other News:How did I transform my speech therapy practice in a pandemic? This is a question that some of you have asked me who know I’m a speech therapist. I thought I would answer that in this newsletter. It’s kind of like putting on a TV show with my 2 year olds which is the largest part of my caseload . For one, I have to be very organized and animated myself to keep their attention. I use a lot of music! My parents are key to the work being successful since they help keep the programs moving and effective. They report in every week with data for me on how kids are generalizing communication skills with others. It helps me continually adjust what I’m doing.  I continue to use more music in my therapy. Some of my kids learn some of their first words or phrases from songs. Here’s what I know for sure…almost every kid loves music. I love watching them try to sing the songs when they barely talk. They often can imitate the gestures that go along with the song first like “Itsy Bitsy Spider”. You know the finger thing we all learned. Since I’m a speech therapist AND a musician, music is a perfect tool to use with kids and adults as well. I have an adult client who lost the ability to speak . He was a musician. With that client I use a lot of music in my therapy. We even have jam sessions (harmonica and guitar)!That’s it for now. No live performances on the horizon. You can purchase my actual cds and download them and individual songs on my website at www.toniland.com . You can download or stream my music from Apple Music, Amazon and Spotify as well. Thank you all for your support. Buy my records! It helps me keep going. I’ll autograph the CDs before I send them! This is fun! Toni |