Thursday, September 27, 2012

What a magical night!

Wow. I am still a little breathless after the beautiful show we had here in West Dublin this past Saturday night (September 22, 2012) to launch the new CD, Blackbirds.

A packed house: photo courtesy of Katy Hopkins of The Picture House.

We packed the old hall out and made the rafters ring. There were friends, neighbours and family galore, we sold heaps of cds (if you couldn't be there, you can get yours at Bandcamp or CDBaby), and received kudos from one and all. We brought our community together to hear songs about right here - songs written on the beaches, on the ferry, along the river road. There were also songs about anywhere, any time - an anti-fracking song (Can't Be Rich On Shattered Land) that would work just as well in Colorado or upstate New York, and Moonshine and Mischief which is as timeless and placeless a love song as I've ever written.

The band was smoking hot: Jude Pelley played lead guitar, Jordi Comstock was on drums, Jim Bell on bass and Liam Finney on banjo and mandolin. Our opening act was Pennybrook: Jude Pelley and Charlie Wilson playing and singing their fascinating original tunes and a few old-time covers. 

Charlie helped decorate the hall (including the brilliant idea of having blackbirds fly out of the poster), Shelah Allen of Lunenburg Town Walking Tours kindly staffed the door and merch table, my parents did a million amazing, wonderful things, my mom and her friend Cynthia made cookies, the Little River Folk Society helped sponsor our amazing sound man, Art Eaton and Mike Western, of Free Range Designs, made this gorgeous show poster. 


Of course, the CD itself uses a painting as the cover art: "The Caretaker" by Lynn Misner of the Power House Gallery in Lunenburg. Lynn and her 129 Lincoln compatriot, Steve Welsh (who's also my housemate) of Steve's Art Supply kindly donated decorating supplies for the occasion. 


It was a tremendous group effort and I feel very, very grateful to be surrounded by such love and support. Thanks to everyone who came. You made every bit of work feel totally worth it!

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Never enough hours in the day...

Have you sent it here? Have you sent it there? Have you sent it everywhere?

There are so many things to do when launching a new CD. Sending out promo copies, making sure everyone hears about the release show, updating this web site and that one, Facebook updates, tweets, rehearsals, figuring out how to pay the band for the release party, blogging...

Sometimes it feels like I could be working 16-hours-a-day and still not have time to do everything I SHOULD be doing. Sometimes my head spins.

There are helpful suggestions from friends and family. There are made calls and missed calls and made opportunities and missed opportunities galore. Whoo-hoo, got it on the radio! Oh, you should have... Oh, that festival deadline was yesterday...

It is easy to lose sight of the big picture.

The big picture is this. I got together with a bunch of friends and colleagues and made a record and it is awesome. There is stunning musicianship and original songs that tell part of the glorious stories that I'm living or imagining. These songs resonate with many people.

It'd be great if you came to a show or bought a copy of the CD. It'd be great if you told some friends and they came to a show or bought the record, too. It would be great because then you and your friends would get to enjoy some brilliant songs. And I would be under less crippling debt. Who knows, I could break even - or maybe make some money.

But, that's not part of the big picture. Money aside, if I died tomorrow and my parents were left carting all these boxes of CDs out of my apartment, not even that could change the fact that I made something beautiful and unique and interesting. And as long as I'm alive (which I hope will be for a long, long time), I'm going to celebrate.

I'm going to celebrate at the CD Release Party on September 22.

 
I'm going to celebrate at my other shows in Nova Scotia and Toronto this month and next

And I am celebrating in my heart. Right now. 

Feels good. Why don't you come along with me and my Blackbirds.