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Well this is a first - I'm here typing my Blainletter and I don't have a draft, I don't have any notes, I don't have any gigs to promote and I don't have hardly anything to say... what dreadful days for us musicians who want nothing more than to get in front of an audience and put a smile on their face. I feel so bad for my younger musician friends whose career is mostly ahead of them. I've had a good run and I've been quite happy to be semi-retired and play when invited and just be around a lot of great musicians. Anyway, if music is a healer then we never needed it more than now.
So Happy Holidays and all that. My next door neighbour put up a beautiful wreath on her front door and more holiday decorations are starting to go up in the hood but I got a feeling it would be a good idea if we could just cancel the holidays - just this one time. Stay home. Stay safe.
But wait here's some news: Today I sent off the final CD artwork and master to the manufacturer. Long time coming, eh? It was just one delay after another and I finally was just saying "what's the rush?" I knew this had been going on too long when a couple of folks contacted me to pre-order a CD and I had to tell them they already ordered one!
Hey it's another Bandcamp Friday, the one day a month when Bandcamp forgoes their commission on all sales. You can download "I'm Not Fifty Anymore" or you can order the physical CD, which should make it to your mailbox before Christmas. Go to www.brianblain.bandcamp.com.
You can indicate if you want to send it as a gift and I'll be glad to include a personal Holiday greeting to the recipient.
And for serious audiofiles, I am also offering hi-res files (96k/24bit). They're not up on Bandcamp yet but you can contact me directly if this is the way you like to listen.
Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that this might a good time to consider giving a Brian Blain CD as a Christmas gift to a friend who might appreciate "I'm Not Fifty Anymore" or relate to my adventure discovering my birth mother ("The Mother I Never Knew") and I've been amazed at the enthusiastic response to my "Tai Chi Ten" - a long instrumental that I call a "meditation". Well I guess there's lots of folks who are feeling like they could use a little bluesy meditation music these days. It's even showed up on a couple of playlists - who would have thunk a ten-minute instrumental would ever get played on a blues radio show!
I've been watching a lot of the streaming sessions folks have been doing and even send in a few bucks here and there (though I hate paying that $3.00 PayPal cross-border fee). Please support your favourite artists by watching their streams, sharing their streams and, if you're not as broke as them, buying a ticket or sending a donation. I get the feeling we're working our way back to ancient times when artists were supported by wealthy patrons...except nowadays all it takes to be a patron of the arts is a little spare change.
If you ordered your CD on Bandcamp, they are very organized and I will have your mailing address. However, if you ordered through the GoFundMe campaign, I may only have your email so I'll be sending you a message asking for your postal address if you want to receive a physical CD. And then I've got a bunch of addresses scribbled on the back of envelopes and I hope I didn't lose track of anybody. If you pre-ordered directly from me, it might be a good idea to send me your mailing address just in case.
Watch for a Holiday Blaincast and after that I will be popping up now and then to play some of the tunes that didn't make it onto the album. And if you didn't watch the album launch…you might get a kick out of it: https://youtu.be/pPrzSbCcBXY
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"The foundation for happiness is warm-heartedness and compassion" - Dalai Lama
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Thanks for reading this far. Feel free to forward this to any friend you think might enjoy my occasional ramblings (and maybe my music, too). These bits and more are always available on my blog, www.torontobluesdiary.com.
See you out there, eventually...
BrianB, aka Butch, Nappy, Shaker, Two-Lane Blain, Colorblind Brian, Stringbuster, Buddha of the Blues
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