Music On At The Moment - I'm just listening to the fundraising show on CKLN Lowdown to Uptown (Toronto campus/community station). The studio was filled with local players, and I think most of the donors were part of what feels like a pretty small group of hard-core blues afficionados in this big city. What's going on? Well, maybe it's because it's the last game of the world series but ...the Blues Is Hurting... the
Speaking of my album, today was another milestone. I finally handed-off the final "completion report" that is required to get the final payment for the FACTOR loan that we received to finish this project. FACTOR is a government programme up here in Canada that will loan you money to do a recording and will understand if you don't sell enough CD's to pay them back. But they make it pretty complicated...You need copies of the invoice, the cancelled cheque and a signed, witnessed, declaration from each musician and engineer that they actually received the money. Phew! I shouldn't be complaining so loud until after the cheque is in the mail.
Anyway, this life in the blues lane is having it's ups and downs. It was nice to hear my CD included in a "prize package" from NorthernBlues - alongside some very credible blues artists, Carlos delJunco, Paul Reddick, Mem Shannon...
then I get a reality check from some bad reviews (I think the record company has been shielding me, but my friend Jacquie googled me and found them - hmmm, it takes a real secure friendship to get away with that). Some guy said the album should be called "Underqualified to Make a Decent Blues Album". Another guy knew that I had asked all the players to listen to John Hammond's "Wicked Grin" album before we started the sessions. How did he know that??? Anyway, drummer Michelle Josef was the only one who took my advice....and in the end we didn't really capture that sound - but then we created something all our own, thanks the engineer Paul Benedict who spent years and years doing live sound and has what they call "big ears"