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Category: new music
Towns Van Zandt Record Release THIS WEDNESDAY!
Doing any kind of official Towns Van Zandt tribute in Austin is like earning an entire Merit Badge en route to Eagle Scout. Truthfully most folks have never heard much of his music outside of “Pancho and Lefty,” but his legend looms large. And for good reason.
It’s a big deal to be asked, so thank you Chicken Ranch Records for asking.
The Event is THIS WEDNESDAY, and yes, it’s old school to promote via a Website or Blog, but we here at Alpha Juno only have Instagram, this blog, and word-of-mouth.
YouTube Streaming link incoming ASAP.
CD’s and Patronage
You need something physical to sell at shows, to give to record stores, to impress your granny, or to prove to yourself (or your wife) that you are a real-live musician.
Coffee mug? Too nerdy.
Maybe a ‘pocket’ koozie? Please no.
Cassettes are a bit niche.
It’s really down to CD’s, even though plenty of folks have no CD player at home. Actually many folks have cars with no CD player. Worst of all, most folks have no phone w/ a CD player. Everybody streams. Everybody.
Today’s question is: what’s the right thing to do? Do you load up your hands with something that’s going in s**t drawer #11, or do you do you ting and sell? And what are you selling?
This brings up nothing but more questions: What are you in it for? Legitimacy? Money? Job? Are you down with by-any-means-necessary? Are you pumping an old model?
Before you sell CD’s to fans you have to ask yourself: why would they want one? If that answer is no, is there then something that I have that’s of value to my current and future fans. And today, that seems like a tough question to answer. But the solution is poking it’s head out. Finally. (Especially in a current world where there are few-to-no live shows.)
What works and connects? The oldest of schools method: patronage.
People are giving to musicians with no expectation of anything physically in return. As a matter of fact they’ve already taken a partial share of whatever it is you do. If you have their attention you have them. All you have to do is show them the way. 1,000 people paying $1.50 a-month moves the needle. A lot.
The new-olde way seems like a lot more fun than the old way. I’m going to try some new-olde ways.
Stick with the blog to follow my journey.
-jd
All Down Hearts
Working on a single, and I am going deep.
Previously okay with writing and only flopping it out there (like this), I am now working with someone that does not accept this kind of disrespectful behavior.
The key word above is, “only.”
With some re-writes, a lot of what felt like wasting time, and some heartache (but not much), what I have now is way better than what I started with.
And hearing from so many artistic’s that they are having a real rough time creating (I feel it too.), it is a perfect time to keep it all moving forward by finishing. Mainly the good songs, but I’ll be finishing the suspiciously-usable too. (And doing it all without starting another podcast!)
I really feel like I have not fully completed the elemental framework of a song (and a record and an ep). But now I have, and I kept watch on the way to happened, so I can repeat it! I, I, I, I …
NO there are the complete songs in the first record, but boy was it a blur. And out of a total of about 150 finished, I am just now figuring this part out. (The Acoustic EP was easy, since it was basically acoustic.)
This not all to say that you should not show your work because you should. This blog is about: process. And that if you are past your prime according to the the numbers, the numbers probably exist in you your head only. So you should go on and do what you feel you should be doing, artistically.
-jd
AM Jams = 2’s to 1’s!
I get up super early. I never really know what to do with myself post-coffee. Happily, due to getting these songs out, I’m trying to plan a little more. Cutting out a lot of the farting around. So I’ve taken to some headphone jamming down in the studio.
I didn’t ever like to call it jamming, but Sebastian pulled me over the line. (This video, containing a lot of jamming, really changed the way I think about a lot of music.) Getting a jam out is an amazing way to start your day, and electronically, you can just throw on the headphones. No one’s the wiser.
Even if you do not yourself jam, you get it, yes? (It’s like a walk by the creek, which I also do in the am.) There is something to doing all of this when your world is not up. Breaking the silence with headphones.
So, en route to getting these 35 songs out, I plan to work them out with the morning jams. This means words done (night before), song ID’d and cued up on the system, and chords generally known. Day on has been a complete success.
More on how it goes later.
-jd
