Bill and I were lucky enough to be invited to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band concert last night; in one of those high falutin’ boxes no less! Thanks Theresa! Theresa Gladue, a good friend and a grade A, gung-ho arts and culture supporter, puts on variety shows featuring local talent to raise money for various good causes. Bill and I are happy to help out by providing volunteer performances at these fun events and in an innovative show of volunteer appreciation, Theresa took us and several other ‘lifer’ volunteers to the concert in style! What a great concert it was. Just the right mix of old and new and some outrageously fabulous harmonica playing! The audience was extremely enthusiastic; singing along on Mr. Bojangles and Fishing in the Dark. I think the band could feel the love.
On a professional note; although I don’t let it interfere with my enjoyment of the show, I’m always looking at the stagecraft angle - what do they do - why do they do it - how does it affect the show. NGDB have been performing for decades and their performances are tight and well organized. Each person is featured at various points which adds amazing dynamics to the overall show. One thing I noticed was the person off stage who seemed dedicated to keeping instruments tuned; that’s organized and smart - who wants to go to a concert to see someone tuning? The thing is, it was super organized but it didn’t look contrived, it felt very relaxed and personal. These guys are very good at what they do. If you’re playing professionally or trying to break into that business, I’d recommend having a look at some of the real pros, like NGDB, with an eye to how they present themselves and try to understand why they do what they do. Mimicry without understanding the underlying motivation won’t work unless you’re doing an impersonator act. (and even then, understanding the motivation would make that act more believable). Knowing the motivations and then applying that to your own show will only make it better. I know I’m going to take away some valuable bits to apply to my performances.
Archive for April, 2009
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009Mechanical Licenses (and a note about Chetwynd)
Monday, April 6th, 2009I was interested in recording some cover songs (songs by other artists, instead of my own compositions) so I did a little research and discovered I would need something called a “mechanical license”. That’s basically a license or permission to record the song. I found that the fee is around 8 or 9 cents per song per CD released and that you have to purchase a license for a minimum of 500 CDs. I also did some research on licensing for digital downloads and found it so confusing that I decided that if I recorded a cover CD I wouldn’t even bother doing a digital download release. I’d just do the CDs.
We played as ClassiCountry (country band) in Chetwynd BC (Canada) last weekend and the response was very warm and welcoming. We were asked repeatedly if the songs were available on a CD so I’m pretty sure there’s a market for a CD of country cover songs. The country music we play is all older (hence ‘ClassiCountry’) so the tunes would be Patsy Cline, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash etc… and there’s definately a market for that in Northern British Columbia.
We actually played at two venues in Chetwynd last weekend. We also provided the sound equipment/technical support at the Chetwynd Coffee House and we (Bill and I and Ian) played some songs at the coffeehouse. Because the other performance was the next evening, we decided to stay over night. That gave us some time during the day to do something we’d been promising to do for ages - get a closer look at some of the spectacular chainsaw sculpture that is so prominent in Chetwynd.
- Linda on Eagle Bench
Bill sitting on Wild Rose Bench
Write What You Know
Friday, April 3rd, 2009“Write what you know” seems like good advice but it really doesn’t go far enough. At first glance it would seem to mean that all your songs should be autobiographical. Well, we know that can’t be right because if it were, most songwriters would be too busy recovering from their lives to write anything down!
‘Writing what you know’ infers something more. It encourages us to keep our eyes, ears, and hearts open so we can ‘know’ more. Your powers of observation are a first class, all expense paid ticket to song material. We can ‘know’ things through an empathic connection to the world around us. We see how cruelly someone treats their family and we think “It ought to be a crime.” You can leave it at that or put it to music and call it a song.
Take every experience, every tear, every laugh, every funny episode or tragic event and examine it for inspiration. Examine it for the universal feelings that speak to us all on some level. Love, fear, hope, pain, joy, betrayal, revelation and the list goes on. Harnessing the essence of human emotion makes for powerful lyrics. Even if your life is calm and uneventful, look around you for inspiration. Indeed, coming from calmness, you may be able to interpret the maelstrom more insightfully than someone at its core. Write what you know. Just open your eyes, ears, and heart and ‘know’ more.