Sunday, December 30, 2012

Original music in coffeehouses

Coffeehouses requiring only original music from their performers would seem to be a boost for singer-songwriters, until we look a bit closer... One of the revenue streams for musicians has been what is known as "performance rights" i.e. funds collected from performance venues on an annual license basis and distributed to members of performing rights societies (ASCAAP and BMI) based on an algorithm that no one understands, but in practice means independent musicians get very little, and major-label artists pretty much divide the pie up between them. One of the means for determining who gets what are set lists (songs played on a given night) with title and composer submitted by the venue, all of which go into the database at BMI (etc) and get munged by the algorithm. Performing rights societies, in the meantime, have realized that an increasing number of their members are 1) independent, and 2) playing in venues like coffeehouses that don't pay license fees. The societies have reacted by asking independent songwriters to submit set lists directly to them, and by descending on the coffeehouses with demands for license fees and/or fines. Songwriters have hesitated to submit set lists, since the net effect could be the closing of the venue. The loophole for the coffeehouses is to only allow songs to be performed "with the permission of the songwriter" i.e. by the songwriter him or herself. The performing rights societies are then out of the loop, and no money changes hands if the songwriter doesn't submit set lists. The songwriter is often performing for tips, meaning the event contributes virtually nothing to the economics of a music career. This is the downside. The upside is that coffeehouses do furnish a space where songwriters can perform in public, though without payment or promotion, audiences can be minimal. All this is a bit technical, but the phenomenon is part of a series of issues that have undermined the economics of song writing and performance, including rampant piracy of recordings, and lack of adequate payment for internet streaming of recorded songs.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Notes from the House Concert on October 27

On October 27th, Ruth Hendricks hosted a house concert for 25 friends and fans at her place in Highland Park. A finely tuned audience who mostly knew what they were there for and gave us great feedback on the evening. Marc Reisman commented "This is the perfect way to hear your songs!" and I tend to agree. It's a listening environment, the lyrics are crystal clear and the acoustic instruments much more audible. David Hart was with me, and contributed vocals, mandolin and second guitar. This is the second time we've done the duo format, and it works really well. David, like me, has a busy professional life, but loves music and knows what it takes to put on a performance worth listening to. Keep an eye out for his bluegrass encarnation--the Stillhouse Pickers.

 Ruth as a first-time host couldn't have been better. She made everyone feel welcome, contributed hors-d'oeuvres and sweets and collected the donations. Ruth is a blogger herself, so you can get her take on her blog, where she's posted some photos as well.  I'm in France as I write this, but the good vibes from the evening are still with me.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Report from the CD Release at Shadow Lounge

A great crowd turned out for the release, in spite of a bit of rain. There were people from the theater, poetry, songwriting, art, community organizing and academic circles as well as some people who actually work for a living ;-). Ben Shannon did a half hour to start the evening which (as usual) got peoples' attention. The octopus behind the musicians (see below) certainly set the tone for the evening. Justin Strong did a good job juggling the 9 musicians who kept popping up and down during the show--a soundman's nightmare, but he often does it twice a night, while managing events in his other room on South Highland. Speaking of working for a living... A vital venue in a hopping part of Pittsburgh--great to move across town for a change. Next Friday Karen, Bev, Dave and I will do it again at Natasha's in Lexington. The musicians visible below left to right are Dave Gillespie, Vince Camut, CMJ, Jim Spears, Karen Jones, Mark Weakland and Marc Reisman. Bev Futrell and David Hart are at the bar on this one...

Friday, March 23, 2012

Suburban 2-Step complete

The amount of work and agonizing that go into an album recording process are pretty amazing. And then it's over, and time to move on...

 Suburban 2-Step involved 12 musicians in total, making the last step in the process--the mixing--especially delicate. As you listen to the song for the 100th time, and you bring the mandolin up and pull the tuba down, you're not quite sure if it wasn't just yesterday that you did the opposite. As performer and writer, I also know the lyrics backwards, so may not be as demanding as necessary in terms of audibility on that front. There's a reason that the classic division of labor has an objective pair of ears or two making final judgements about levels and sound treatments (EQ and reverb, for example). In these days of self-recorded and self-released albums, however, these roles (producer and recording engineer) often get rolled up and handed to the songwriter / singer / musician. This is both a good thing (wow, the control!) and bad (the blind spots). Not much choice, in many cases: sustainability doesn't apply only to energy use, at some point the ledger has to balance, and that is increasingly problematic for musicians, either from performing or recording.

 The CD Release Concerts will happen in Pittsburgh and Lexington, with a follow-up duo event at Harmony in the House in Zelienople in June, so things will be properly launched. Both physical and download version will be available on-line mid-April.

 Next step: new tunes! I've written three already: The Best I Got, Dans la ville (first song in French) and The Blackstone Rangers (about the Southside Chicago legendary organization). Never a dull moment..