She is a second generation Gothic harp from Music Maker Kits of Stillwater. Sunny is at least 20 years old. blond with wooden scroll decorations and a nice big bass chamber.

Reuben is a full fledged two time Nominee 2006 and 2009, in the Just Plain Folks (JPF) Music Awards.  This nomination is similar to the Grammy and Oscar nominees though it is for the Indies. 

He was nominated for the Best Solo Instrumental Song Category in the top 20 out of over 10,000 entries in his category alone. A huge accomplishment

 At 1/3 of 1% of the 560,000 entries overall being a nominee is a rare accomplishment and is an honored distinction. Plus Reuben was invited to  perform at BB Kings in the Showcase of Talent and on the huge stage in the Wild Horse Saloon for the Music Awards ceremony.

It was a memorable experience with many connections made and wonderful time spent making new friends and learning about music making from hundreds of other top notch musicians from over 85 countries.

Boy was I nervous/excited/basket case like. . . where'd this instrument come from anyhow? We hit the Nashville like a whirl-wind  to finding the places, parking lots, sound checks, rehearsals and performances. 

 Each night we watched, listened and experienced 5 hours of music, met new friends, made connections, networked like nuts, heard happy, sad, intriguing  and funny stories about how people got to Nashville.

Carol even drove off before I got all my things out of the car once!  ( just the night of the Wild horse performance) -- (no biggee, I chased her down the middle of the street in my nice clothes)   A funny sight I'm sure!

Stress?  did you say stress?  no stress  just AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 We had road blocks, road work, inclement weather, potty breaks and everything else to slow us down and that was just for Carol and I.  We made it in time though our trusty GPS in hand.

  Toward the middle of the trip we nicknamed her "Miss Priss", because instead of saying recalculating over and over, she tries to get us to go the way she originally planned.  "Turn around"  "Go right, then go right"  "MAKE A U-TURN!"

Believe me we would have been lost til midnight without her.

Nashville is a happening place, the night life kicks in at about 9pm and everybody, and every kind of musician is on the streets, dancing, and singing, strumming, drumming, you name it its there.

If anybody needs to catch up on what the excitement was all about I am going to copy all of the prior to Nashville news from the home page, and paste it on the back of this note.

Reuben will be performing Tonight at the Wildhorse Saloon with an International ensemble at 5:45pm Go to jpfolks.com to get the link to watch the show. There are 95 categories and Reuben doesn't know when his actual category will be announced. If they do it in alphabetical order it will be later in the evening, say 9pm or later. If not it could be at any time.

Follow us on our Journey with a daily log on of Journal entries. Click on News/Journal

The 2009 Music Awards show will be Web Cast.  Click on the Links button, then click on the JPF Title it will take you to the site.  Then go to the News category.  They will give you instructions on how to view the show.

YEEEE HAAA! The Just Plain Folks Music Awards has just announced the Nominees for 2009!!! Reuben's song "Mis Hermanos" from his first and favorite cd "Sea Whisperings" has just been nominated for: Best Solo Instrumental Song! It is in the top 20 in its genre (category).You can listen to it by clicking the play button on the little player on top of this page. The Good News Just keeps coming!! Reuben has been asked to perform in a small eclectic classical jam session with some of the other great nominees for the Music Awards Show at the Wild Horse Saloon in Nashville TN!!! More Really Great News!! Reuben has been invited to perform at the Nominee Showcase to be held at BB Kings the night before the awards show. This is a dream come true. Just Plain Folks is a community of over 51,500 Song / music writers, Recording Artists and Music Industry Professionals — and host to the world's largest independent music awards. This organization was created to provide a network of cooporation and inclusion for musicians. Independent Musicians are essentially artists who are not signed by a label who have footed the bill to make their own cds and careers. Statement from Just Plain Folks Music Awards. Congratulations to all the nominees and a special thank you to our volunteers who worked for 14 months to screen the over 42,000 albums and more than 560,000 songs submitted in 96 different genres(categories) from 160 countries. It is the largest music awards of any kind in world history! Only 1/3 of 1% of the entries made it into the nomination round. The awards show will be held in Nashville, TN USA on August 29th! Reuben needs your help getting to Nashville for the Awards Show here are some ways you can help. Being that this is the Independent Musician Awards he is not being paid to go. 1. Purchase Reuben's music at CDbaby.com Click the LINKS button to access the cdbaby site. Then put Reuben Correa in the search box. All of his available cds will be displayed. a. Either have single songs from Reuben's cds, downloaded to your ipod or mp3 b. Have one of Reuben's entire cds - downloaded to your mp3 or ipod c. You can purchase one of Reuben's physical cds to be mailed to you he will sign it for you.

You can watch our progress by viewing the Donations Indicator in the Photo Gallery. Thanks for your wonderful letters and emails of encouragement and donations!!!!! I have only given the last initial because I don't want people to try to contact you for other kinds of donations.

1. Chuck B

2. Charlotte B.

3. Donny B.

4. Lucy B.

But we are not driving all the way through today, so we have some get out of the car time on this 8hr. leg.

Boy did we get a big SUV.  The thing is a monster, our darling boy Trevor disappeared our camera so i can't show it to you just yet. 

We are barely packed and in great need of sleep but I think I've figured out what I am wearing for the performances!...  Clothes!

   I am practicing hit and runs.   That's my term for walking into the room, up to the harp, sitting down and playing the piece.  I do this because chances are I will not get a chance to warm up before I play.   So I have to just carry my harp onto the stage tweak a few out of tune notes and play!

I think I will go to sleep and get up in about 4 hours to pack the silver monster.

  I do a lot of improvisation so I am capable of getting myself out of jams and the harp is very forgiving and magical. it does mystical really well.  my only real concern is the ending where I am playing a running bass motive and flipping levers up at the top of the harp