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Hej vänner, den här veckan har jag haft två elever
– Thomas Karlsson och Alexander Bergström - här för lektioner i pedal
steel. De har nyligen börjat med instrumentet men enligt min åsikt har de
bägge gjort stora framsteg. Men så övar de också regelbundet varje dag
vilket är nödvändigt för att lära sig ett instrument. Kanske något att
tänka på för de som hellre pillrar med sina steelar eller ägnar sig mer åt
datorer. Ska man komma någonstans som steelpicker så måste man ÖVA. Här
lite nyheter! JL.
SISTA
UTROPET:
AFF - Amerikanska Folkmusikföreningen
- anordnar konsert den
10 februari i Farstateatern (söda
Stockholm).
Dörrarna
öppnas kl. 16.00 för mingel och social verksamhet. Dessutom har ni
möjlighet att få veta "allt" om
intonering
genom Anders Sterner.
Kl 17.00
börjar konserten där följande svenska band att uppträder:
17,00 Downtown Ramblers
- från Göteborg och svenska mästare i Bluegrass 2007.
18.00 Steamboat Entertainers
- håll-i-gång-oldtimegäng med Mange Norrman i spetsen.
19.00
Paus för inmundigande och 19.15 AFF Årsmöte.
20.00 Grassride
- med bl.a Lars Blom, Tommy Backström och Mats Haglund (mer än 150 års
bluegrass-erfarenhet i det bandet).
21.00 G2 Bluegrass Band
- valda till Europas bästa BG-band 2007,
Diverse
försäljning i foajén - cd, mösser, streamers m.m.
Biljetter kan beställas via email till
info@amff.se och finns då för betalning och hämtning i entrén.
Biljetter finns även att köpa på JAM Akustiskt på Roslagsgatan 7 samt hos
Western Store i Passagen, Kornhamnstorg/Västerlånggatan t.o.m. fredag 8/2.
Se
www.amff.se för mer info. I konsertens paus håller AFF sitt ordinarie
Årsmöte!
Servering av trevliga drycker och tilltugg!
ALLA är
välkomna, men förköp/beställning av biljetter gäller!
Hallå magistern!
Nu
har jag fått order från chefen att spela dobro på flera finstämda
akustiska låtar som vi ska köra in till Karlshamn. Då uppstår 2 trängande
frågor:
Hur
är en dobro stämd? (Det handlar inte om blågräs utan vanlig country med
bara något enstaka moll ibland.)
Vilka är strängdimensionerna?
Hdg! Sign. "Gammal man gör så gott han kan".
Från
grövsta G H D G H D Tjockleken kan vara 056, 046, 036, 028, 018 och 016.
En smaksak. Det förekommer också en del andra stämningar.
Hej
janne!
Reagerade lite på Din
åsikt om ECMA. Visst kan man diskutera huruvida organisationen finns eller
om det är ensam person som sätter samman topplistan med de 100 populäraste
countrylåtarna i Europa, men att påstå att det inte inrapporteras några
spellistor är att fara med osanning. Gör ett besök på
http://www.eboards4all.com/828672/ så
kan Du och alla andra intresserade studera de rapporter som lämnats. Flera
svenska radiostationer rapporterar sina spellistor....
Att
påstå att listan inte "ger nånting" är också lite galet, eftersom många
skivbolag, inte minst amerikanska, betraktar denna lista som den
officiella europeiska countrylistan. En plats på listan skapar därmed ett
intresse i branschen.
Även
om man kan undra hur listan egentligen sätts samman så fyller den, enligt
min mening, en funktion: Att lyfta fram countrymusiken till ett större
erkännande i Europa.
Kanske skulle vi svenska radiostationer som spelar countrymusik samarbeta
och skapa något liknande, dvs en Allsvensk Countrylista. En sådan lista
skulle kanske kunna lyfta fram countrymusiken, både den inhemska och den
utländska, och skapa ett så stort intresse för country att IFPI även
börjar utdela en Grammis i country-genren!
Göran Ohlzon
FOLKRADION
www.folkradio.se
studion@folkradio.se
Medlem av Närradions Riksorganisation (NRO)
Rapporterar till European Country Music Association (ECMA)
Mina åsikter om ECMA
står jag självklart för då jag aldrig har uppskattat folk som hittar på
saker och ting för sina egna syften. ECMA är just en sådan s k
organisation och som inte har det minsta kött på benen. Som jag för länge
sedan rapporterade så är det ett fåtal stationer i Europa som rapporterar
sina spellistor till ECMA och bara för att än en gång förtydliga detta så
har t ex de senaste veckorna i januari 2008 följande stationer skickat
sina spellistor: Holland 11 st, Danmark 6 st, Frankrike 2 st, Sverige 2 st,
Spanien 3 st, Belgien 2 st, Norge – Tyskland – Österrike 1 st vardera,
ungefär 30 stationer alltså. Observera att samtliga dessa
närradiostationer är små, väldigt små och når endast en handfull lyssnare
i sina respektive länder. Och även om nu stationerna sänder sina
spellistor till ECMA, hur vet vi att det går rätt till då man sammanräknar
allt. Om nu någon gör det?
Många amerikanska
artister har under åren blivit jättelyckliga då de hamnat överst på ECMAs
listor och jublat högt. Men deras glädje har grusats ganska snabbt då de
insett att en plats på den listan inte betytt ett enda smack för deras
karriärer, varken i USA eller i Europa. Dessutom så speglar ECMAs insända
listor musik endast ifrån ett tiotal europeiska länder. Var finns de andra
39? Endast en fjärdedel av alla Europas länder finns alltså representerade
i ECMAs listor. Kan man göra en europeisk ”Award Show” av detta? Jag
tycker inte det. Fusklistor kan vi klara oss utan!
Jag minns en gång en
artist som fuskade sig till en förstaplats på Kountry Korrals omröstning
över årets populäraste artister. Artisten i fråga sände in mängder med
röstsedlar på sig själv då det på den tiden var tillåtet för vem som helst
att skicka in sitt bidrag. Men vad tjänade han på det? Ingenting då ingen
sett eller hört talas om honom sedan den gången. KK ändrade sedan sina
regler och endast medlemmar kan numera rösta och då endast en gång.
Om IFPI skulle skapa en
ny kategori för countrymusik så tror jag att countryartister aldrig skulle
ha en chans att hamna i en nominering. De stora bolagen skulle givetvis
jubla över att de fick ännu en kategori att bemästra och deras s k
countryartister skulle bli allt från Kikki Danielsson till Rednex. Det
vill i alla fall inte jag ha! Då är det bättre att vi har våra egna
rättvisa listor och ”awards” som t ex KK publicerar. JL.
Tackar
för ännu ett intressant nyhetsmail!
Du
skriver att många inte bryr sig om att informera nyhetsmailet om sina arr
på förhand för att de tror att deras arr säljer sig själva, och det
stämmer säkert alltför ofta. Många är väl i allmänhet rätt dåliga på att
puffa för sig själva och sina arr, och jag är säkert en av syndarna.
DCMCs
månatliga jam i Kvarnsvedens Folkets Hus i Borlänge sista torsdagen varje
månad är så väl etablerat vid det här laget så att vi faktiskt inte gör
något väsen om det - det är knök fullt nästan varje gång i alla fall. Men
det skulle förmodligen komma ännu fler om vi puffade mer för det - du och
Carolina har ju själva varit där några gånger (välkomna tillbaka när som
helst, förresten!) så visst har vi också en del potentiella besökare på
relativt långt avstånd som behöver påminnas ibland.
Vårterminens återstående jam är
28/2,
27/3, 24/4 och 29/5.
Sen gör vi uppehåll för sommar och semester och drar igång till hösten
igen.
Kolla gärna på
http://countrydalarna.forum24.se där
vi har skrivit en del om bl a jammen.
Hdg!
Anders i Falun
Jammet i Kvarnsveden har
blivit en legendarisk tillställning och behöver som du skriver Anders
ingen reklam då de flesta vet vad som händer där. Men det är ändå bra att
puffa för den och liknande konserter, jam eller countrydanser i mitt
Nyhetsbrev då jag ibland når lite udda personer som inte alltid är så
hemma i vad som händer i countrySverige. Ingen som är i närheten av
Kvarnsveden vill väl missa jammet, där allt kan hända. Varför har vi inget
liknande i Stockholm? JL.
Hej!
Har
någon en aning om var man kan få tag i info om svenska bandet Endless
Road? Jag har en låt med dem på en samlingsplatta ”Aktuell country” och
hoppas verkligen att det finns mer av dem nånstans.
/Thomas Carlson, Arvika
SCMC kallar till årsmöte i klubblokalen
den 23 februari 2008 klockan 15.00
Jeg er
tilbage med min Live 365 Country Radio Station, nu under titlen
Country – on
Purpose !
http://www.live365.com/stations/countryhighway?play&site=live365
Mvh
Per Kammersgaard, Sönderborg
(Nashville, TN) The Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music
Association Awards were held last night at the Sheraton Music City Hotel
in Nashville, TN and the New Queen of Bluegrass and her very talented band
members were honored with many prestigious awards.
“It was an especially exciting night because it was Kenny’s first Banjo
Player of the Year Award,” said Rhonda Vincent. “He’s been my own Banjo
Player of the Year for quite a while. It was also wonderful to see Kenny
and Hunter awarded for all their hard work. It was thrilling!”
The group won in the following categories:
Rhonda Vincent & The Rage- Entertainer of the Year
Rhonda Vincent & The Rage- Vocal Group of the Year
Rhonda Vincent- Female Vocalist of the Year
Hunter Berry- Fiddle Player of the Year
Mickey Harris- Bass Player of the Year
Kenny Ingram- Banjo Player of the Year
Rhonda’s latest album,
Good Thing Going is the #1
Album on Billboard’s Bluegrass Chart for the third consecutive week since
its debut. Her first single, “I’m Leavin”, has garnered the # 1 spot on
the Sirius Satellite Radio Countdown for the third week as well.
Rhonda & The Rage are also burning up your television airwaves with
upcoming appearances on
Fox & Friends (airing February
17th),
GAC’s Master Series with Bill
Cody (airing February 3rd), and
The Crook & Chase Show (airing
February 7th). Check local listings for airtimes.
For more
information on Rhonda Vincent, please visit
www.rhondavincent.com.
Hello
fellow players,
As all of
you know by now if you have a television set, several southern states were
devastated by tornadoes and hurricane velocity winds. Although there were
several deaths in several states, Tennessee seems to have gotten the brunt
of damage and death.
The Stan
Hitchcock show on RFD television was taped in a museum of Civil War
origin. It was a gorgeous building full of relics from the past and was
totally demolished. This was in Castillian Springs. When I was called to
co-host the show, I loved it because of the beauty of the surrounding
area. As a matter of fact, it was so beautiful that less than half a mile
away, I bought a vacation home on Old Hickory Lake which has disappeared.
Luckily there were no steel guitars, pets or people in it at the time.
One of
the hangers where I kept my airplane up until three months ago was
demolished. This is all very mute compared to the lives that were lost
within walking distance of these locations. I’m letting you all know this
as we have had hundreds of phone calls asking if Steel Guitar Nashville
and the homes of our employees have been hit.
Even
though we had horrific winds and lost some trees with some power outages
for awhile, we are still in business and doing well. I would like to
thank all of you for your concern.
This week
the subject is what we in Nashville call scab producers. This type of
producer is totally different than what I am talking about from a major
musical direction.
Music Row
in Nashville used to be lined up from one end to the other with companies
that advertised that they would do a recording session on you. What they
actually wanted and in a big way, was your money. Most of them would
promise you anything in the world to get your money and get you to record
an expensive session with them.
Some of
them actually did try to do a good job, however they would cut corners all
they could by getting studios as cheap as they could and quite often,
non-union musicians or musicians they can pay way under scale and they
actually put on a really good dog and pony show for their clients, even to
the point of picking you up at the airport in a limo and getting you an
inexpensive motel room for a couple of days.
These are
not the type of producer that I referred to in my newsletter last week and
most of these guys are not really producers at all. The only thing they
produce is money for their bank accounts. They don’t do any of the
session arranging, hiring of musicians, choosing songs and most important
of all, they have no where to go with the finished product when they get
through. They have no major label connections at all. They are only
making money off the dreams of their victims.
Now for
the good side of what these so-called scab producers can do. They do keep
musicians working even though they don’t pay them the right amount. And
let’s face the real fact. At least 95% of their clients really have no
chance at all to be a major artist in the first place.
Now, many
people come to town knowing that they’re not going to be a big star, but
want to have a CD to sell off the bandstand when they play in their local
area. This is wonderful and I am all for this.
As a
matter of fact, I myself have produced several sessions on folks that I
knew couldn’t have a major record deal. However, their finished product
was good enough that they personally sold many hundreds of copies of the
session off the bandstand directly to the people, stocked their local
records stores on consignment and many of them even had their local disc
jockeys play them on the air and tell where the CDs could be purchased.
I have
heard many times from these singers that the CDs that they have cut with
me have allowed them to find much more singing work in their local area
and actually the session paid off in many different ways like this.
So far
we’re talking about master sessions for immediate financial gain.
Now
another great reason for people to do a high quality session is to
demonstrate your wares or ability. If you are a steel guitar player and
want other bands to know how good you play instead of just auditioning for
them, do a good little CD.
Actually
over 95% of the recording sessions done in Nashville, Tennessee are demo
sessions that you will never hear. They are done by publishing companies
and songwriters. Most of these are done by the writer to demonstrate and
pitch the song to major label artists, hence the term demo session.
A steel
guitar player or any muscian can make a very rich living doing nothing but
demo sessions in Nashville. They don’t pay much as master sessions, but
with 95% more going on, you stand much more chance of working a demo
session. Plus if you do something that the major label hears and likes
when they listen to the demo, they may want you to play the same licks on
the master session that you did on the demo. This could pay three times
as much as you got paid the first time around and you already know the
song.
Don’t
ever forget, Paul Franklin, John Hughey, Hal Rugg, Weldon Myrick and every
other professional musician in Nashville fought tooth and nail for demo
sessions. Not only do demo sessions pay pretty cotton picking well, but
they also lead to master sessions.
So we’ve
covered four different kinds of sessions in Nashville. There are major
label master sessions, there are legal union master sessions that are
called limited pressing that can be done by independent producers, there
are demo sessions and then there are what we call the outlaw or scab
sessions that are done just to give you a CD just for your own personal
amusement and take your money. I hope this helps you understand Nashville
a little better.
Finding a
steel guitar album that was recording totally legally through the union is
a very rare bird. Most were done under limited pressings or just flat out
under the radar with no record of anything either. No more steel albums
than are actually sold, staying under the radar may be the intelligent way
to do it if the steel player wants to recoup his investment.
Now for
you girl singers out there, if you’re absolutely positive you’re an
incredible singer and deserve every break in the world to come your way,
you still need a demo to let major label A&R people know how good you are
and don’t ever expect a label or producer to pay for your session. Even
Garth Brooks spent $100,000 on his first master. Of course, he ended up
getting it back through sales.
What
qualifies me, Bobbe Seymour, to make the statement’s I’ve made? I’ve been
a studio musician in Nashville for forty years, have owned two major
studios on Music Row in Nashville, have produced over 400 profitable
sessions, have found several artists who are now major artists recording
for major labels. As a musician I have worked for Nashville’s finest
producers and have watched and learned from the very finest, most of which
are dear friends today.
Make the
right decisions even though it’s hard to know what you’re doing in this
maze. Just remember, my advise is always free.
I’m
including some of the responses I got from last week’s newsletter.
Bobbe,
this newsletter on producers is very interesting. I, for one, would love
to hear more about scab and ripoff producers out there. Over the years I
have seen many hopeful people get ripped off by self described "Top
Producers" only to wind up with a thousand Cd's in their basement and an
empty bank account. One good friend of mine has spent over $80.000 on her
daughter's music career in the last three years. I think she is being
taken because any hacker can see this young lady is NOT star material! Of
course I could be wrong, but that's how I see it. So I hope you get a lot
more requests for more info on these guy's. They have ruined a lot of
lives ,and I think the more we know about how to spot these types will be
good for everyone!
Thanks
Bobbe, Rob Anderson
Good
work, Bobbe. Hopefully you opened some eyes. Having produced many good
country and country/gospel albums myself, I fully understand the time and
effort that goes into the project - LONG BEFORE the musicians are even
booked. That's why I only do a select few each year "CAUSE I AIN'T
CHEAP' !! If I'm gonna put in that amount of work, I'm gonna get paid for
it. LOL You always shoot from the hip and I appreciate that.
I'm the
same way. I always enjoy the time we get to visit. We must do it again
soon.
Your Ol'
Bud, Rex
Hey Bobbe
-
You live
(and work!) near Nashville...What is really going on in Nashville these
days that put the direction and future of traditional country music in
serious jeopardy?
Most of
the individuals, groups, and music that comes out of Nashville these days
is anything but hard, traditional country music -- Like that of
"yester-year!
Are all
the good producers gone? Do the Nashville elitists believe that no one
really wants to hear good steel guitar, guitar, and fiddle music anymore?
You have
hinted at this in several of your email newsletters, but seems like the
way of country music is not only just headed down-hill...It has already
arrived!
Consider
the music, guests, and direction of the Grand Ole Opry the last few years
(letting Stonewall Jackson go, not to mention many other capable singers
and musicians), all in-favor of some other type of "Nashville Sound." It
is just plain dumb, and makes no sense.
Are there
no traditional country music artists, producers, and record companies in
Nashville anymore? Just wondering your take on this.
Steeling
Away in PA,
Barry
Minnick
Hi Bobbe
- I am a musician/recording artist/producer/songwriter with 30 years
experience. I have songs in movies and tv. I am new to your newsletter,
mainly because I recently took up the non pedal steel/dobro.
I enjoy
your weekly topics. They are informative and interesting.
I would
suggest to your readers a book called "Confessions of a Record Producer"
by Moses Avalon. You can get it on Amazon.com This is a great book that
I would highly recommend to any and all musicians if they have ever made
$10 as a musician, or ever wrote a song or wanted to make a cd.
It also
tells many stories and is an easy read.
Lance
Bakemeyer
That’s it
for this week.
Your buddy, Bobbe
Så var
torsdagen till ända. Vi hörs på söndag igen!
Janne Lindgren
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