Just back from seeing an old musical buddy (I use the term advisedly, he came to stay with me in Montreal thirty years ago and seduced one of my back-up singers - the one I was seducing!) His name is Alan Gerber, he's opening for Jesse Winchester at Hugh's tomorrow night. Real high energy - puts on a great show, multi-instrumentalist. I haven't seen him in 30 years and I don't think the show has changed a whole lot. They love him in Quebec.
He was saying he get's a lot of work from the Folk Alliance Conferences. Maybe I'll break down and invest in the next one. I have been to a few, usually on my Media Credentials - once when I was on a panel on creating a web presence for yourself. I'm sure Alan is successful because he is such a good "salesman". Meanwhile I haven't gotten a single festival invitation for this summer (not counting Downtown Jazz who I work for). The Downtown Jazz gig is in a noisy bar on the Danforth so no wait I'm going to take in my laid back country blues. I'm going in with a guy called Caspar Project, doing electronic ambient/groove sounds on synths, sequencers and a MIDI wind controller. We only had one rehearsal so far but I can tell already this is going to be a lot of fun. And I won't have to worry about the audience being more noisy than me!
No matter, the CD won't be out till September - Street Date September 9, Fred says. And in order to do it right, he needs finished product reday to go by mid-June. Yikes! I just gave him the final mixes last night. He called this morning with some feedback... loved the last song... move the first song...Harry Manx is not loud enough...more comments to come, I'm sure. I told him it was going to be laid back and it is - this is an album I'm going to enjoy putting on for many years to come - something I couldn't say about the last one.
Now we have to decide about mastering. I have heard so many comments about mastering voodoo and you would not believe the extremes...from "there's nobody in all Toronto that has the toys or the ears" to "so-and-so" will do a great job for $300. The producer recomends one place then somebody tells me their equipment is fucked - that they took all the transformers out of their Neve board and put in ICs (thus eliminating that elusive "warmth".
I always thought the trick to mastering was to not lose what you got in the mix (come to think of it, the trick to mixing is not to lose what you got in the tracks). This will be the album that took TWO DAYS to record, TWO MONTHS to all all kinds of shit and another TWO WEEKS to take it all off again - most of it anyway. Less is more, eh?
What do you think of the title "Cold Country Blues" instead of "Overqualified for the Blues"? Or Frazier says I should just call it "Brian Blain".
Fred wants me to make a CD Launch Party but I've been a little negative on that idea. It's so hard to get people out in Toronto - not to mention getting any attention from the media... anyway I'm going to give it some thought. Considering I know so many of the media and "industry" types, I think I am living proof that it's *not* "who" you know...Bye for now