One of my favorite lines from Anthony Burgess' novel, Nothing Like the Sun, is when he has WS (Shakespeare) think to himself, "there is nothing new, there is only renewal." One of these days I'm going to work that line into a song of my own, but for now I want to apply it to the song "Beyond Here Lies Nothin'", which Mr. Bob Zimmerman has released today as a download on his website.
Like much of Dylan's music since 1997, this song has got a hot groove to it, and not one technical flaw in the performance (as long as you can dig Bobby's vocal aesthetic). The deep bluesiness of the lyrics and the world weariness of the tone nicely offset this skanky groove.
I'm delighted to hear him experimenting a little more with a slightly more varied range of textures--I'll never stop loving guitars/bass/n' drums, but Bob can bring in as many succulent players as he wants, so why not toss in more flavors?
The thing that differentiates this song from the previous three albums of the man's late renaissance is musical texture. This tune has got a little trumpet vamp and an accordion riff jiving inside of it. There was a touch of accordion on 2001's "Sugar Baby," and a bit of it on the most recent edition of the Bootleg Series, but this is the first accordion I've heard on one of Dylan's upbeat tunes. So far as I know he hasn't had a horn anywhere in his bands since the late 70's or early 80's. It's a fresh track, and I'll listen to it more, and savor it.
But, to be honest with you, here's my take: it's hot, but it's nothing revolutionary. Dylan admits in Chroncles (and in an 60 Minutes interview) that he doesn't know how to write "the songs that put a roarin' in your head" anymore. He says he's forgotton how to get to that place, and so he's become a different kind of artist in his late renaissance period. He consolidates blues traditions from the past century, instead of pushing American musical tradition forward as he did with songs from his first three decades of musical & lyrical experimentation. Now, I'm not telling you that all his music from '62 - '80 was revolutionary--no siree, not by any means. But Dylan will be who he is to me for two reasons: his belief in his vision, his lyrical gallantry and the revolutionary songs he wrote.
Those include, but are not limited to "Hard Rain...", everything on Bringin' it all Back Home thru John Wesley Harding, and Blood on the Tracks, and flashes of inspiration such as "Slow Train" and "Blind Willie McTell."
I still get inspired by what Bob does today, it still stirs a sense of the possibility of great renewal, but it rarely puts that roarin' in my head anymore.
Dylan now, as ever, is going a different direction--he still shows flashes of lyrical force and wit, he still makes music that sounds like no one else, but he is not way out ahead of the rest of American musicians, blazing trails.
Someone needs to be.
March 30, 2009
March 26, 2009
Wake Up Day
It occurs to me that I have done all one kind of writing on this ramblogue, even though I'm always doing multiple kinds of writing. While surely I'll never be foolish enough to post everything I write in this medium--might as well post the freaky fragments that I cull from all my manuscripts for poems and song lyrics.
[ Of course, I won't put everything on here that I think is good, either. I'm like the Beatles when they'd write songs for others--save all the stuff you know is gold for yerself.
But I will say this--you poets or songwriters or marketing advertisers: go ahead and steal freely from me. I believe copyright law has distorted our artistic life beyond measure, and I want you to take ideas phrases paragraphs or what have you from me freely as you care to, since I'll be doing the same from a few of you. What about the lawsuits, you say? Sounds like good publicity to me. Nothing like a juicy controversy about copyright law to draw in the media. ]
Perhaps this requires some meager explanation--one way I write songs, I guess you'd say the usual way I write songs is to write and rewrite ideas until I've found a proper form for the ideas and images at hand. At that point, I get out the guitar and figure out some chords to go along. But long before the guitar's brought in--I type and rewrite (by hand and onscreen) fragments such as the following, synthesizing them anew each time. Here's some samples of stuff I'm inputting into the computer today:
Whores, hip tappers, hustlers, trappers, pimps
loose sailors, cheap players and rich nymphs--
let's put together a grand get together
that drives these sterile blues clean away
and breed a whole new brand 'o blues.
This is not my land we live in now.
It's a flat graveyard that once knew the plow.
The fiery gumption must now blaze anew.
"Let's get lacivious" dull rappers drone today.
The rich man shudders, calls the licentiousness
outta line with the nation's values.
[as if 300 million and counting could ever have one set of values]
So long to your cold, hard hearted cares,
old man. We poor folks rarely were ever
allowed to make much--but still now
we can make light of how you do us in.
Let's do this in New Orleanian fashion
and get the lewd and their lush piano ticklers
roaring forth from out the bawdy doors.
# # #
I believe that if myself and five others took the lyrics above and each made 'em into a song it wouldn't be stealing, it would be glorious, and not just 'cause it's my lyrics. It would be interesting to see how who did what with which of the elements above.
What I've typed above is one half page of a whole (ever growing) stack of handwritten miscellaneous attempts at executing an idea.
I believe in clean and painless execution, but I rarely achive it.
I mean execution of ideas, not humans. I oppose the death penalty.
[ Of course, I won't put everything on here that I think is good, either. I'm like the Beatles when they'd write songs for others--save all the stuff you know is gold for yerself.
But I will say this--you poets or songwriters or marketing advertisers: go ahead and steal freely from me. I believe copyright law has distorted our artistic life beyond measure, and I want you to take ideas phrases paragraphs or what have you from me freely as you care to, since I'll be doing the same from a few of you. What about the lawsuits, you say? Sounds like good publicity to me. Nothing like a juicy controversy about copyright law to draw in the media. ]
Perhaps this requires some meager explanation--one way I write songs, I guess you'd say the usual way I write songs is to write and rewrite ideas until I've found a proper form for the ideas and images at hand. At that point, I get out the guitar and figure out some chords to go along. But long before the guitar's brought in--I type and rewrite (by hand and onscreen) fragments such as the following, synthesizing them anew each time. Here's some samples of stuff I'm inputting into the computer today:
Whores, hip tappers, hustlers, trappers, pimps
loose sailors, cheap players and rich nymphs--
let's put together a grand get together
that drives these sterile blues clean away
and breed a whole new brand 'o blues.
This is not my land we live in now.
It's a flat graveyard that once knew the plow.
The fiery gumption must now blaze anew.
"Let's get lacivious" dull rappers drone today.
The rich man shudders, calls the licentiousness
outta line with the nation's values.
[as if 300 million and counting could ever have one set of values]
So long to your cold, hard hearted cares,
old man. We poor folks rarely were ever
allowed to make much--but still now
we can make light of how you do us in.
Let's do this in New Orleanian fashion
and get the lewd and their lush piano ticklers
roaring forth from out the bawdy doors.
# # #
I believe that if myself and five others took the lyrics above and each made 'em into a song it wouldn't be stealing, it would be glorious, and not just 'cause it's my lyrics. It would be interesting to see how who did what with which of the elements above.
What I've typed above is one half page of a whole (ever growing) stack of handwritten miscellaneous attempts at executing an idea.
I believe in clean and painless execution, but I rarely achive it.
I mean execution of ideas, not humans. I oppose the death penalty.
March 25, 2009
Diversification
Today each musician who's decided to make music into a full time job probably has got to diversify. So, the jobs I do to make it happen can be broken down thus:
Musician-ing
Playing gigs in the following formations:
Teaching
Anyways, the reason I started this post was to pose this question to you: Should I throw all of this activity under the umbrella of "Renegade Minstrels," as I currently do? Clearly solo gigs don't work so well from a grammatical standpoint--I've had it suggested that I just drop the last "s" and just call the whole thing Renegade Minstrel (even when playing as a full band), seeing as I'm the frontman, not to mention the mover and shaker behind what this band does. But I don't like that because I want this band to be about something that's bigger than me, onstage and off.
But from a brand perspective, it's at best a hassle--and at the worst misleading--to tell you Renegade Minstrels is playing tonight, but you show up and it's a duo or trio deal when you expected the full band you hear on most of our album. But then, I can use the freedom of the our mailing list and other new media to make it clear to everyone what they're gonna see when.
So what route do you suggest? Should I just keep plugging along with all the activities above called "Renegade Minstrels" or should I break it down into the various elements of that entity, and give 'em all another name?
Musician-ing
Playing gigs in the following formations:
- As a solo act - Every Monday at noon and every Wednesday at 10am I perform for families at Airplay Cafe, and make good money just off of tips. It also looks like I might get a private party gig later this year...
- As a duo - This very night I'm playing with my bass player and dear friend Luke Dennis at Backspace in downtown Portland. It looks like we'll play together out in McMinville (still developing...) in late May.
- As a trio - Next month our acoustic trio will perform at a grade school (date TBD) through Young Audiences, featuring our program "Northwest Bedrock Songs" which invovles a slideshow of Erik Sandgrens' and Dee Vadnais' paintings (digitally projected on a screen hung behind the band) that play along to folk n' blues songs written in and about the Northwest.
- As a full band. The next such gig will come in May, when we'll be playing Mississippi Pizza Pub (see myspace.com/renegademinstrels for details).
Teaching
- Guitar Lessons - private lessons and classroom lessons.
- Music Appreciation class - I'll start teaching this class for the first time ever next week. I'm stoked for this 'cause it's gonna be a righteous time for me to convert young kids into disciples of the musical traditions they really should know as upstanding American citizens.
Anyways, the reason I started this post was to pose this question to you: Should I throw all of this activity under the umbrella of "Renegade Minstrels," as I currently do? Clearly solo gigs don't work so well from a grammatical standpoint--I've had it suggested that I just drop the last "s" and just call the whole thing Renegade Minstrel (even when playing as a full band), seeing as I'm the frontman, not to mention the mover and shaker behind what this band does. But I don't like that because I want this band to be about something that's bigger than me, onstage and off.
But from a brand perspective, it's at best a hassle--and at the worst misleading--to tell you Renegade Minstrels is playing tonight, but you show up and it's a duo or trio deal when you expected the full band you hear on most of our album. But then, I can use the freedom of the our mailing list and other new media to make it clear to everyone what they're gonna see when.
So what route do you suggest? Should I just keep plugging along with all the activities above called "Renegade Minstrels" or should I break it down into the various elements of that entity, and give 'em all another name?
March 21, 2009
Music in Public Places
When you're in many commercial spaces--box stores, coffee shops, what have you--music plays at a low volume from overhead speakers. Often, you can make out the vocals and a little bit of the musical textures, but we all automatically tune this music out without even noticing it. I think this is part of the reason live musicians (who aren't the focal point of a concert you paid $50 to see) are so constantly neglected. Not only do music listeners have three lifetime's worth of music available to them in rampant digital formats--they are unwittingly conditioned to hear music as a background soundtrack that simply adds atmosphere.
That is not to say there aren't still dedicated music listeners who focus on the song that's playing Now and nothing else; those folks are still with us, and may they prosper. But I believe that our American lifestyles are conditioning the majority of us to turn music into a mere element of atmosphere and not a source of spiritual enhancement or thought provocation. Do you agree?
That is not to say there aren't still dedicated music listeners who focus on the song that's playing Now and nothing else; those folks are still with us, and may they prosper. But I believe that our American lifestyles are conditioning the majority of us to turn music into a mere element of atmosphere and not a source of spiritual enhancement or thought provocation. Do you agree?
Our First Review
We were lucky that, in the first ever published review of our work, the writer was knowledgeable about where we're coming from. Don Campbell's review in the Oregonian was mercifully accurate compared to many of the attempts I've heard made by people trying to characterize or categorize our music. This, for instance, is right on: "'Frontier Blues' ... borrows from the palettes of rural blues and early New Orleans jazz."
Absolutely true; I but I have to quibble with what comes next: "It paints pictures of longing, heartbreak, and woe in a readily identifiable Northwest setting..." And then the conclusion, "Out of the mossy glop that is a Northwest winter, this is a collection of songs that mollify, wholly befitting our soul-gazing introspection and weather weariness." I like that Campbell thinks the songs "mollify," but don't like that the exuberance heard in many of the songs is nowhere mentioned. The closest he comes to mentioning that element of the music is when he points to early New Orleans jazz as one of our major influences. Sure, there's plenty o' mournful, lonesome sounds and songs on the record, but if I was someone who didn't know the music and just read the review, I wouldn't know about the rollicking, rocking, rambunctiousness heard on many of the tracks.
The most critical part of the review comes in this sentence: "Writer of eight of the songs, Seamons has a voice of limited range but it's one that adequately infuses each song with appropriate pathos." As the singer in question, this begs the question--"Does he mean 'limited range' in a technical sense (i.e. I only span two octaves comfortably on the whole record), or does he mean that my voice isn't as varied as he'd like in some other way?" What do you think about the question, and what do you think he meant? I know I have a voice of limited range technically speaking, but I've also had people with doctorates in music tell me that I have a very resonant voice, and I've had people tell me they like how I sing. The moral of the story for me being--improve your voice. From a personal standpoint I am mollified by the fact that Campbell offset his criticism with the bit about "[adequately infusing pathos]." From a professional standpoint I say, "Well, it's past time to get some voice lessons--better technique can only help you realize yer vision more completely." So I'm doing that. Thanks for the nudge, Don.
Of course, if we got a glowing review that really made me proud, the reviewer would also point out the distinctive quality of the lyrics in that no one else around is attempting anything like them. If you think someone is attempting something similar in their lyrics, please let me know, I'd love to hear their music.
Overall, we were just lucky to get a review by such an acute critic--may all of our reviews in the future contain the same ratio of accuracy to disappointment from my perspective (yeah, right).
You can read Don Campbell's review of our album, Frontier Blues, here.
If you know of another media outlet that has reviewed our music, please let me know.
March 16, 2009
Power & Tradeoffs
Here's the main fault line of the trade off for a bandleader in my position--power vs. group effort.
The first thing I gotta say is that my band mates give me more time and energy than I feel I deserve, quite consistently. Sometimes it's a promotional gig that doesn't pay, and they play it without complaint, play it well, and show no compunctions. Sometimes they have to give up precious precious time for other things--like having lives, doing various sorts of work, playing other music--in order to have an unpaid rehearsal for Renegade Minstrels. And each band member's ego is in a place where they will, in the end, defer to my judgement on most every musical issue. I can't remember ever having a spat with a band mate over music--certainly some creative tension now and then (which is only healthy), but never any sort of personal falling out.
That said, there is a price for the creative freedom that my band mates give to me. Beyond to occasional contributions like Luke putting up a few posters, Jon facebooking or handing out fliers now and then, it all comes down to how much work I put into it. I maintain the website, book the gigs, call rehearsals, write the songs, pay for studio time, pay for printing and promotional costs, network with other bands, and so forth. All the thousand things you have to do if you ever hope to be making a livable income off of your music.
Do you think the trade off is worth it? I do at least 90% of the time, usually more. For now at least, there is balance in this band, and that is a happy, and lucky thing to have.
The first thing I gotta say is that my band mates give me more time and energy than I feel I deserve, quite consistently. Sometimes it's a promotional gig that doesn't pay, and they play it without complaint, play it well, and show no compunctions. Sometimes they have to give up precious precious time for other things--like having lives, doing various sorts of work, playing other music--in order to have an unpaid rehearsal for Renegade Minstrels. And each band member's ego is in a place where they will, in the end, defer to my judgement on most every musical issue. I can't remember ever having a spat with a band mate over music--certainly some creative tension now and then (which is only healthy), but never any sort of personal falling out.
That said, there is a price for the creative freedom that my band mates give to me. Beyond to occasional contributions like Luke putting up a few posters, Jon facebooking or handing out fliers now and then, it all comes down to how much work I put into it. I maintain the website, book the gigs, call rehearsals, write the songs, pay for studio time, pay for printing and promotional costs, network with other bands, and so forth. All the thousand things you have to do if you ever hope to be making a livable income off of your music.
Do you think the trade off is worth it? I do at least 90% of the time, usually more. For now at least, there is balance in this band, and that is a happy, and lucky thing to have.
Why Blog
I'm doing this blog for diverse and sundry reasons. One of the main reasons is that I've got a suspicion, nay, a hunch, that there is a way to use this forum to find folks whose aims align with mine and reel 'em in for us to join forces. So you ask, "What aims are those?" And I answer ye thus:
Renegade Minstrels are on a mission
1. to reinvigorate both language & popular music through the use of riveting, crystalline words in moving songs.
2. to contribute to the mighty river that is blues music by bringing new innovations to the form--by acting as a transformative agent in American music (which, at its core, IS blues music), and not simply being a modern culmination of what's come before.
3. to make music that helps folks hold on and hold up throughout those low down and lonesome days that most everyone seems bound to face.
Now, you being a rational & practical being, may say, "Whoa, there, Joe--ambitious, aren't we, why don't you tone it down to something more achievable?" Whereupon to you I say: I'd rather try to do too much and fail than be so cautious that someday I end up looking back and saying, "Why did I only reach that far?"
So one reason I'm blogging is because it's one of the best routes available for building a fanbase and for tapping into potential for collaborators.
There are other reasons too, which I may write upon some other day.
Renegade Minstrels are on a mission
1. to reinvigorate both language & popular music through the use of riveting, crystalline words in moving songs.
2. to contribute to the mighty river that is blues music by bringing new innovations to the form--by acting as a transformative agent in American music (which, at its core, IS blues music), and not simply being a modern culmination of what's come before.
3. to make music that helps folks hold on and hold up throughout those low down and lonesome days that most everyone seems bound to face.
Now, you being a rational & practical being, may say, "Whoa, there, Joe--ambitious, aren't we, why don't you tone it down to something more achievable?" Whereupon to you I say: I'd rather try to do too much and fail than be so cautious that someday I end up looking back and saying, "Why did I only reach that far?"
So one reason I'm blogging is because it's one of the best routes available for building a fanbase and for tapping into potential for collaborators.
There are other reasons too, which I may write upon some other day.
March 13, 2009
What it Takes: Making a Performance an Event
Making a show a success takes six weeks of sustained effort if you are where Renegade Minstrels is in the live musicians spectrum (that is, young and capable of getting a crowd excited about the music, but so little-known that getting a crowd of people to show up is all too rare). The ingredient I've been missing for far too long is collaboration with other bands with a bigger following, so I'm working on booking gigs that feature other bands that play music from a similar sphere of influence. You may ask, "Jeez, Joe, why didn't you see years ago that you have to get crowds in front of your band somehow before you're ever going to go somewhere?"
Well, I always did what I could--some posters, telling friends, getting my bandmates to invite friends, encouraging friends to bring friends--but it just ain't enough. All of which is to say: making this band worth something to someone besides a few friends and family takes work and work and work--here's what I do now for each major performance I book, please at least scroll through the list to get an idea of what's involved. Then, come to our show tonight at Airplay Cafe and see how it is or isn't working for us. If you can't do that, look over the list below, and then write to me and tell me what I'm leaving out, under-doing, or overlooking.
I. Publicity - The earliest step I take is to send out a press release 6, 4, and 2 weeks prior to the performance. Then I call up the media outlets to make sure they got the PR, and then I try to keep in contact with any actual human I can reach at their organization to try to wheedle some radio play, newspaper inches, screenbound pixels, or what have you.
The press releases I write look like this:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 20, 2009 - Portland, OR
RENEGADE MINSTRELS CD RELEASE EVENT
Frontier Blues: Music with a Wry and Jovial Spirit
When: 8:00pm - 10:00pm. Friday, February 6, 2009
Where: Airplay Cafe / 701 E Burnside Street / Portland, OR 97214
Admission: $5 for singles, $10 for families [open to all ages until 9:00pm]
Renegade Minstrels will perform original songs at their CD release party on Friday, February 6 at Airplay Cafe. Rollick and swing across America's musical landscapes with the quintet's vocals, trombone, upright bass, mandolin, guitar, and harmonica. Bandleader Joe Seamons crafts lyrics that play off his bandmates' sprightly rapport. Together they tickle out epiphanies from each listener.
Renegade Minstrels formed in Portland in 2003, and have evolved into a five band cast of musicians whose tight arrangements use unique combinations of instruments to accompany the lucid lyrcs of original songs. Drawing on poetry and traditional song, the lyrics suggest connections between many blues-inflected styles, from the folk ballads of Woody Guthrie all the way to jazz ballads of Duke Ellington. Many songs feature hip-swinging beats that break down the DNA of jazz to its cellular elements of blues and Western harmony.
The opening act will begin at 7:00pm, featuring the talents of several precocious young guitar students currently taught by Seamons in middle schools around Portland. Families are encouraged to attend the event, which will be open to all ages until 9:00pm. Admission for families of any size is $10, and individuals pay $5 at the door.
Listen at www.renegademinstrels.com
Contact Joe Seamons at (971) 533-6299
rminstrels@gmail.com
# # #
II. Brainstorming - Every time I try to think, "What is unique about this gig that I can capitalize on to make it jive with who we are as a band?" So the PR above shows you that I invited my guitar students to open for us at that show (which worked, and so I'll do it again sometime), and this took having a venue that was kid friendly, and so all my guitar students stuck around with some of their parents, and one school where I teach even brought a van load of kids to come watch, so that drew in at least 20 more people than we would've had otherwise. Of course, there's no limit to the amount of brainstorming you can do for ideas like this--preferably, I'd have three or more such tricks to draw in unsuspecting customers, but so far my bag of tricks is sadly limited.
III. Radio Play - The only way I've found to get radio play is making a personal contact with someone at the station. I've walked in to Oregon Public Broadcasting and asked to see the music folks there, and I wasn't allowed to talk to anyone. All I could do was leave the CD in hopes that someone heard it and liked it. But, unsurprisingly, no one ever contacted me about our music. I also email music@opb.org every couple months with a track attached to the CD (which they ask musicians to do on their website), but I haven't receieved a response that way in over a year. So far as I know, our music has never been heard on OPB radio, which is frustrating, cause I know it's got a large listenership in Portland that would respond well to our music. If you agree with me on that assertion, please email music@opb.org and let 'em know that they should feature local bands more on their station.
This is not whining or moaning, do not mistake me--I'm simply seeking to illustrate the manifold avenues, outlets and frustrations involved in promoting a single show. That is, of course, just one radio station, I've had much more success with KBOO and KMHD here in Portland. When I say "much," I mean that KMHD's Mike Meyer had me on for a quick interview (again, to promote the show in the PR above) and played one of our songs off of our first CD. It wasn't much, but much more than I got elsewhere, so I was grateful to Mike for giving me the time. As it turned out one of the owners of the venue had a friend who heard me talk about the upcoming gig on the air, and that friend mentioned it to the owner, so that's extra points for me in his mind, because I'm getting the name of his venue out there and he didn't have to do anything. In the end, it's largely a whole lot of little things like that that build up to make an event successful.
In a vague and general sense, I know how advertising works, and the only way that one single instance of airplay is going to do our promotional efforts any good is if the people who hear that one song like it, and then they see a poster or flier sometime (not too long) afterwards: reinforcement equals effective advertisement. Which brings me to our next item,
IV. Paper Promo - Posters and handbills and post cards are all I can think of for this section. All such items must be in line with the story you want people to know about your band (more on this later). Generally I'll put up posters and fliers 3 weeks prior to the performance--both in the venue and in likely spots in the general vicinity of the venue. Of course, they should be eye grabbing and also a little engrossing. Ideally, our posters make you stop and look twice before drawing you in so that you go, "Hmmm, that looks rather intriguing, I'd like to make time for it." That, of course, being the optimal response. If I put up 100 posters, I'm ecstatic if 5 people have that response to the imagery and info thereon.
V. Word of Mouth - Again, when you're a largely unknown group such as ours, word of mouth is yer best bet for anyone showing up. I call everybody in my phonebook who lives in the town where the gig is 2 or 3 days beforehand, and let 'em know what's going down. Also, I give fliers to whoever seems genuinely interested.
Later, I'll do a post on crafting a band's story, wherein I'll also entreat you for your help and ideas. Until then, go listen to Renegade Minstrels or Roof Access or Fruition so you can know the music being made in our lil' fracture of a fraction of the globe-o-sphere.
Well, I always did what I could--some posters, telling friends, getting my bandmates to invite friends, encouraging friends to bring friends--but it just ain't enough. All of which is to say: making this band worth something to someone besides a few friends and family takes work and work and work--here's what I do now for each major performance I book, please at least scroll through the list to get an idea of what's involved. Then, come to our show tonight at Airplay Cafe and see how it is or isn't working for us. If you can't do that, look over the list below, and then write to me and tell me what I'm leaving out, under-doing, or overlooking.
I. Publicity - The earliest step I take is to send out a press release 6, 4, and 2 weeks prior to the performance. Then I call up the media outlets to make sure they got the PR, and then I try to keep in contact with any actual human I can reach at their organization to try to wheedle some radio play, newspaper inches, screenbound pixels, or what have you.
The press releases I write look like this:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 20, 2009 - Portland, OR
RENEGADE MINSTRELS CD RELEASE EVENT
Frontier Blues: Music with a Wry and Jovial Spirit
When: 8:00pm - 10:00pm. Friday, February 6, 2009
Where: Airplay Cafe / 701 E Burnside Street / Portland, OR 97214
Admission: $5 for singles, $10 for families [open to all ages until 9:00pm]
Renegade Minstrels will perform original songs at their CD release party on Friday, February 6 at Airplay Cafe. Rollick and swing across America's musical landscapes with the quintet's vocals, trombone, upright bass, mandolin, guitar, and harmonica. Bandleader Joe Seamons crafts lyrics that play off his bandmates' sprightly rapport. Together they tickle out epiphanies from each listener.
Renegade Minstrels formed in Portland in 2003, and have evolved into a five band cast of musicians whose tight arrangements use unique combinations of instruments to accompany the lucid lyrcs of original songs. Drawing on poetry and traditional song, the lyrics suggest connections between many blues-inflected styles, from the folk ballads of Woody Guthrie all the way to jazz ballads of Duke Ellington. Many songs feature hip-swinging beats that break down the DNA of jazz to its cellular elements of blues and Western harmony.
The opening act will begin at 7:00pm, featuring the talents of several precocious young guitar students currently taught by Seamons in middle schools around Portland. Families are encouraged to attend the event, which will be open to all ages until 9:00pm. Admission for families of any size is $10, and individuals pay $5 at the door.
Listen at www.renegademinstrels.com
Contact Joe Seamons at (971) 533-6299
rminstrels@gmail.com
# # #
II. Brainstorming - Every time I try to think, "What is unique about this gig that I can capitalize on to make it jive with who we are as a band?" So the PR above shows you that I invited my guitar students to open for us at that show (which worked, and so I'll do it again sometime), and this took having a venue that was kid friendly, and so all my guitar students stuck around with some of their parents, and one school where I teach even brought a van load of kids to come watch, so that drew in at least 20 more people than we would've had otherwise. Of course, there's no limit to the amount of brainstorming you can do for ideas like this--preferably, I'd have three or more such tricks to draw in unsuspecting customers, but so far my bag of tricks is sadly limited.
III. Radio Play - The only way I've found to get radio play is making a personal contact with someone at the station. I've walked in to Oregon Public Broadcasting and asked to see the music folks there, and I wasn't allowed to talk to anyone. All I could do was leave the CD in hopes that someone heard it and liked it. But, unsurprisingly, no one ever contacted me about our music. I also email music@opb.org every couple months with a track attached to the CD (which they ask musicians to do on their website), but I haven't receieved a response that way in over a year. So far as I know, our music has never been heard on OPB radio, which is frustrating, cause I know it's got a large listenership in Portland that would respond well to our music. If you agree with me on that assertion, please email music@opb.org and let 'em know that they should feature local bands more on their station.
This is not whining or moaning, do not mistake me--I'm simply seeking to illustrate the manifold avenues, outlets and frustrations involved in promoting a single show. That is, of course, just one radio station, I've had much more success with KBOO and KMHD here in Portland. When I say "much," I mean that KMHD's Mike Meyer had me on for a quick interview (again, to promote the show in the PR above) and played one of our songs off of our first CD. It wasn't much, but much more than I got elsewhere, so I was grateful to Mike for giving me the time. As it turned out one of the owners of the venue had a friend who heard me talk about the upcoming gig on the air, and that friend mentioned it to the owner, so that's extra points for me in his mind, because I'm getting the name of his venue out there and he didn't have to do anything. In the end, it's largely a whole lot of little things like that that build up to make an event successful.
In a vague and general sense, I know how advertising works, and the only way that one single instance of airplay is going to do our promotional efforts any good is if the people who hear that one song like it, and then they see a poster or flier sometime (not too long) afterwards: reinforcement equals effective advertisement. Which brings me to our next item,
IV. Paper Promo - Posters and handbills and post cards are all I can think of for this section. All such items must be in line with the story you want people to know about your band (more on this later). Generally I'll put up posters and fliers 3 weeks prior to the performance--both in the venue and in likely spots in the general vicinity of the venue. Of course, they should be eye grabbing and also a little engrossing. Ideally, our posters make you stop and look twice before drawing you in so that you go, "Hmmm, that looks rather intriguing, I'd like to make time for it." That, of course, being the optimal response. If I put up 100 posters, I'm ecstatic if 5 people have that response to the imagery and info thereon.
V. Word of Mouth - Again, when you're a largely unknown group such as ours, word of mouth is yer best bet for anyone showing up. I call everybody in my phonebook who lives in the town where the gig is 2 or 3 days beforehand, and let 'em know what's going down. Also, I give fliers to whoever seems genuinely interested.
Later, I'll do a post on crafting a band's story, wherein I'll also entreat you for your help and ideas. Until then, go listen to Renegade Minstrels or Roof Access or Fruition so you can know the music being made in our lil' fracture of a fraction of the globe-o-sphere.
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