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looking toward 2012..

so here i am at panera bread - making good use of the free wifi and even better use of the free coffee refills on this, my last week of from work of 2011. it has been a great year for me and i'm looking at 2012 with optimistic eyes.

for starters - Black Cat Bone Music has taken off in ways i cannot begin to believe. i have partnered up with Lee Jergensen and we are planning some really fantastic events for next year! we are working with a couple different venues now - setting up events that will put western massachusetts on the muddy roots/deep blues map! between the polish american citizens club in south hadley, the elevens in northampton and the waterfront tavern in holyoke housing my ongoing deep blues jam series - we have the ability to bring bands into the area that we had some difficulty with placing or housing in the past.

my goal is really to make BCBM a staple in the northeast - ideally being able to host the Deep Blues Festival in the next 3-5 years.

the elevens has a new little jolt of motivation these days. the feeling is that it's got so much potential to be a really great club for live music and artistic events. i am usually the perpetual optimist in these situations - but i really feel like with a little work it can perform very well. part of that is a little action on the clubs part in getting involved with the events they have - which i think is exactly what we will see in the near future.

anyway - i'm going to shut down my netbook and refill my paper cup one last time of that glorious nectar of the gods. i have a bit of time to kill before i pick up my little buddy at school. i'll spend it checking out a couple new CD's i've been digging lately and driving around town sipping aforementioned nectar!

Have a happy holiday - i'll be back a lot more often in 2012!

-BRB

post muddy roots/deep blues jam session.

so i have been so nervous all day about this first installment of my series at the waterfront in holyoke. on the one hand - i have been promoting this event and hoping for a large turnout to get some good 413 exposure for Henry's Rifle. who, by the way, provided a unbelievable set for all the people who were in attendance! on the other hand my nerves were rooted in the uncertainty of playing host to this open jam with players whom i have never - EVER played music with before. sure, it was loose and sloppy... but that's  ok - because it kind of set the vibe for the room a bit. 

upon arriving i began to set up my kit. once that was in order - and John Pipino from Henry's Rifle had arrived i began to set up the PA and get familiar with it. one issue was that the PA was MIA. Luckily the bar owner was around and made some phone calls to get Benjamin Jon from Stillwork Media on the horn. Ben essentially saved my ass. Not only did he arrive with a full PA - the guy sat in on Bass with us to open up the jam! it was a lot of fun - and a few moments in the short set were especially cool because John jumped up and did some improvisational vocals for us. it was really cool that it all kind of clicked at the right time like it did.

i did get some time to talk with some people about my vision  - it seemed to be very well received. upon packing everything up from the session i had mentioned that i was looking for a second date to line up right away. i'm looking forward to 10/15 for the time being - it all depends on who i can find that is touring in the region to feature for the next session. i really dig the support the waterfront has been giving me with this - very nice to have the backing of a venue like that!

anyway - i'm beat. lots of whiskey early in the night makes for -  a lazy night at home followed by a great nights sleep!!!

later!

wow - things have completely fallen apart and miraculously come back together again for this Saturday's BCBM Muddy Roots Deep Blues Jam Session. Being the first one, I have no real expectations other than having fun! this is more about learning and applying that knowledge to make the next installment more of a success. I'm really lucky to know some completely awesome people pulling this together in the 11th hour. For starters - John Pipino from Henry's Rifle has been great. After not thinking that this would be able to happen - he was able to stick with it despite everything. I'm really looking forward to his set too - I think it's going to be great!

As for what happened that threw a wrench in the works for this. Essentially, I got kicked out of my band due to musical differences with Damon. This messed up a lot of shit - I knew the band was not on board to play the host band roll for the jam. It was fairly clear that i was going to be scrambling a bit to pull this off. Fortunately, with the help of a bunch of great people it came together.  I got really lucky that Dave LaValley is game to jam with me while I host this thing. Being that we haven't played any music together before - it's gonna be something! I'm looking forward to it though - also looking to play those new hi-hats too damn it!!!

So - what is next on my plate after Damon Reeves & The Love Thieves. Well, primarily I'll be focusing on Black Cat Bone Music events - however - my passion is playing drums. I do have an ad up right now looking to form a punk blues group. As luck would have it a very good and old friend of mine is also interested in putting something along those lines together - so I have something to work with fairly soon and I'm psyched! I'm not going to get too into the details right now. More like just waiting and see what happens in the next few months. One thing that is for sure - it's gonna be good!

That's all I have for tonight. I'm planning on a post session update to go over the details.

what a week it has been!!! i've been so unbelievably busy all week long with a handful of things happening  - the first and biggest is the release of Damon Reeves' debut release "Coming Home"! i've been under the gun trying to get the release together in time for my own 8/2/11 deadline and i made it by the skin of me teeth. in the end we put out a really great sounding product and even have a nice little set-up going so that we aren't investing megabucks into a huge inventory to carry around. since that all came together in time - the next bit of work to do was get the word out about our online sales AND our little celebratory event happening at Theodores' on Saturday (8/6)! I'm holding back from calling it a "CD Release Party" only because we can't afford the upfront cost for CD's for the show at this point - so we won't have them actually available at the party. Still - the party will still be awesome! more than anything we plan on playing the CD live and a bunch of other fun tunes too. There is no cover and without there being any pressure to move units at the party to make up costs - i think it will be a ridiculously fun night!


now, i have set up a little store widget in this blog. it's located just to the right on top of al the other widgets. Basically at this point we have the album available as a digital download OR a CD that you can order. each of the individual tracks are also available as 99 cent downloads too. there are ringtones available - which is awesome if you're into that. we also have a handful of shirts designed as well - they are all new and yes, we had a lot of fun with some of these. hey, this band is a fun band - we want that to come through in the products people buy from us. oh, we will be distributing very soon through many various online music retailers as well. sites like itunes, amazon mp3, last fm, yadda yadda yadda - are all in the process of carrying "Coming Home" - yay!


this is the first time that i have had product available like this - where technology has been at the forefront as the primary method to distribute music and merchandise. i'm working toward getting a small inventory together for live shows. a short run of CD's and some digital download cards are in the very near future. we'll get some shirts to have on hand and some of the smaller promo items - but the large selection will be mainly online as far as merchandise goes. that's not to say we won't offer some live show only "special" stuff however! the feedback so far has been awesome - i'm just hoping to hear from even more people about their thoughts on the release.


we have a slow month lined up for August as far as shows go - that's a good thing though! after saturday's party we have one more event lined up - the BCBM Presents: Paper City's Muddy Roots/Deep Blues Jam Sessions on Saturday 8/27. i'm really looking forward to this as a regular series for BCBM. my goal is to bring in more artists to feature and develop working relationship with larger touring acts. a place where an artist could swing in knowing that this has a good core group of participants and spectators - and feel like it was a good stop to make on their tour. The 27th features Henry's Rifle - and i'm feeling pretty excited about having John on the bill for the kick-off BCBM Sessions!


we'll leave it at that - i do plan on a sunday morning blog entry as i work while half asleep chugging coffee in order to cling to consciousness. ahh - the life of a blue collar musician!

cruel summer

wtf is it with summer!?!? august is right around the damned corner and i feel like summer just started. sure right now it's 2000% humidity outside and it feels like walking into someones mouth each time i step outside my front door - but still - summer is fun and it's flying by this year!

This summer has been really busy. lots of shows that have been played and it's been a lot of fun! one big downer for me was missing the Deep Blues Festival 2011. By the time the time came to go - it just wasn't going to happen. Money got crazy tight in the spring with my wife's unemployment benefits ending and the job situation being shaky at best. We had set aside some cash for the trip when our tax returns came in - but ended up having to use it for groceries and other bills.

Holly was actually really awesome and said that I should find some people to take along to help pay for the expenses. I had even considered going up with Damon and doing a little busking around Cleveland to help compensate the expenses - but that didn't work out either. He booked a fundraiser for a biker club at the last minute and was very intent on playing it. In the end i stayed home an took a night to spend with my wife sans kids and enjoy some live music from the crowd for a change. t'was very nice!

From what I understand however, the DBF was an amazing show and experience! I've gotten the chance to check out a lot of pictures and some videos from the show. I so badly wish I had been there, but I am looking forward to the next one.

I did accomplish one big goal this summer - to set up a series of event modeled after Geezer's Garage Night At the Granite Rail. I got the Waterfront in Holyoke to jump on it and hold the events on a monthly or bi-monthly basis. The first one is slated to be on Saturday 8/27 @ 4pm. Henry's Rifle is going to be the featured artist too! HR is a solo country blues/Americana act - John Pipino (who also plays drums and sings for The Killerados) plays some killer banjo, guitar, harp and stompbox - I have been listening to the songs available on the HR Reverbnation page and have really started to dig them - looking forward to seeing him perform at the Waterfront!

More later - watching a documentary about Tourette Syndrome.

deep muddy hillgrass bluebilly movement in the 413!

so the past few days an idea had popped into my head that i am very excited about. i have been really juggling the available dates at venues with available dates for artists coming through the area. it's been a challenge with a lot of loose ends. so, after a suggestion a while back from a friend - i decided to try and put on a regular event. one part featured artist showcase and the other part open mic/jam.

i'm thinking that i would like to hold this during an earlier slot than other shows - partially to avoid competing with other shows in the area. i would also like to have it at a venue that serves food - decent food too. the reason is that perhaps people may stop in for a bite or a few drinks around the dinner hour. a good house PA would be nice too - but not a deal breaker.

the theme would be blues, roots music, country and folk. most gear would be provided by my band as we'd be hosting and acting as a house band. i think a sticking point is to hold this no more than once a month - in an effort to keep it from burning out and being too much of a demand on the participants. speaking of participants - i would love some feedback from people interested in coming out, playing a set, jamming, or just hanging out and networking while checking out some different music.

so i am talking with one venue fairly seriously about this whole thing. they have everything i am looking for - but i am a guy that likes options, so i can weigh them. i'll ask all of you for some input on some cool venues - and contact info of it's something i might not have worked with in the past.

on another BCBM note - i am psyched that i have booked another BCBM Showcase for later in July with Husky Burnette at Snowzee's Music Shack in Sunderland! It's on 7/22 - Damon and the crew will share the bill and it's going to be nuts! i'll be posting some event information soon, standby.

ok - i am gonna wrap up watching this episode of weeds and hit the hay.

g'night folks!