Where The Heck Have I Been?

(originally posted 07-21-06)

Click On Picture To Buy!

My friend told me awhile ago that she thought I would surely post in my blog after our CD came out. I thought I would, too!

Our CD, “Sparrow“, was released on June 9. It was exciting, yet scary, to hold the actual, professionally manufactured CD in my hands. The Noiseland guy loaded the 5 boxes of CD’s into our trunk, except for the one CD I was hanging onto, which we popped into our CD player for the drive home. Immediately, of course, Red River’s Other Half (Producer Guy) became strangely silent. Later, I found out that he was noticing all the mistakes (of course!). I, on the other hand, chose to just enjoy the finished project.

So, what do I think? Objectively? ha ha ha ha ha - No seriously. I can be objective……to a degree. One must keep in mind that these songs are my “children”, however. I think the songs are damn good. That said, yes, there is always room for improvement. Even highly successful artists are never completely satisfied with the end result, and anyone who is, is not a true artist.

The recordings I think are the best (as opposed to the songs I think are the best) would probably be “Ring In The Old” and “The Way”.

The feedback from the CD’s we’ve given out to family is overwhelming…..ly non-existent. I’m sure it’s nothing personal. It’s true, however, that artists are filled with self-doubt, and silence is basically the same as, “You suck.”

But, just when I thought, geeez, maybe it isn’t any good, I got this email from the director of a GREAT country station, Classic Heartland:

Dear Michelle,

Congratulations! “Sparrow” is great! In my opinion, you guys have the sound that epitomizes the singer/songwriter movement, and it is a pleasure to play this stuff during our “Alt. Vault.” We hope to give independent country, western and bluegrass more attention in the near future as we begin operating under the name Heartland Public Radio and we add more streams.

Thanks for sending the disc.

Sincerely,

George Fair
President, Classic Heartland

So, I’m feeling better. And now, on to new songs.

The Dork Visits The CD Manufacturer

(originally posted 05-13-06)

Well, today was the day. We (I) gathered up all our important papers, pictures and of course, our master, and trudged down to the CD manufacturer. I thought we were quite well prepared, in light of the fact that we had no idea what we were doing.

Last night, I’d carefully spell-checked and printed out all our song lyrics (for the CD insert), I printed up our track listing and our credits page with our little bio and other important information.

I had been told that the pictures were “my decision” (ha ha ha ha). So my other duty last night was to cull through the pictures we’d already isolated as possibilities and come up with some that might actually work. By the time I was done, I had about three pictures, which quickly were reduced to one, after David flatly stated, “No”, “Don’t like that one”, “That one won’t work”. So much for my decision-making.

Additionally, I played stenographer, as I dutifully wrote down all the questions that David wanted to ask the CD rep today.
So, we (I) had my folders ready with the papers, the pictures, the picture disks, the questions. And off we went today.
As we walked into the place with our “deer caught in the headlight” stares, we wandered around aimlessly, accurately mimicking characters from “Night Of The Living Dead” until it was our turn.

The man was very nice, although I was hoping he’d kind of give me a cue as to where to start. Since he didn’t, I babbled incoherently, rustling papers, talking nonsensically, trying to communicate the look we wanted to achieve.
Meanwhile, Mr. Question Person sat back on the couch, suddenly becoming an innocent bystander. I looked to him for assistance from time to time, but he appeared to not know why we were there or what it was I wanted him to do or say. “Remember, you wanted to ask about ……?” “Oh, that’s not important now.”
So, I somehow stumbled through the “conference” (??), left with the terrifying impression that the man had no idea what we wanted.

And the papers I’d so carefully prepared ~~ “Can you just email those to me? Otherwise I’ll just have to retype everything.” Oh, duh. (Hand slapping forehead). Gosh, golly, I never thought of that. I’m an idiot. Shoot me and put me out of my misery.

Then the “head guy” (I guess) came out and greeted us. Husband did finally manage to utter almost one complete sentence. “Head Guy” asked us if we were in a rush for the CD’s - if we had any upcoming gigs. “Not yet”, I replied. (Not yet?? - ha ha - good one, I laughed to the voices in my head - since Husband was apparently still employing the “silent communication” style of conversation.)

So, Dan (our guy) told me that he’d prepare some preliminary graphics and email them to me, and we can revise and consult as needed via email. That will take about 8 - 10 days. Then, once that has been settled, the actual manufacturing process will take another 10 days or so. So, our CD should be ready around the first part of June!!!

The moral of the story is, be prepared, talk nonsensically to cover for the “silent partner” sitting next to you, cross your fingers and hope we don’t end up with a giant tongue on the cover or something similarly inappropriate.

Will People Just Take Anything?

(originally posted 04-29-06)

I was scrolling around through SoundClick today, and I noticed that someone actually stole our band picture! How lame is that?? How bad do you have to be to steal someone’s picture?? As if that wasn’t bad enough, the DJ who was going to play us on her show got us confused with the lame-ass group that stole our picture, so she’s been playing their songs, instead of ours! Oh, wait, it gets worse. I actually did a promo for the show, so it’s basically me introducing the other group - ha ha ha ha. I’m sure it will all be straightened out soon (the picture is already gone - insert evil laugh here), and I’m laughing about it now, but good grief! Oh, and they’re a bad band, too. If they were really good, hey….we could just let sleeping dogs lie (just kidding). If this is what indie folks do, it must be brutal in the big-time music world……

Just Sitting Here, Blogging Away

(originally written 04-22-06)

It’s a beautiful Saturday morning here in my sunny enclave in Plymouth, and I’m feeling lazy. It might have something to do with the fact that I stayed up late, making a music video, listening to our latest CD master, and just generally drinking.

The “video”, as I call it, simply consists of pictures set to music, but it was fun to play around with. You probably have Windows Moviemaker built into your computer (I actually wasn’t even aware that I had it). So, if you want to have some fun, create your own video, add some nice music, and enjoy. Of course, if you want to get really involved with the process, you could shoot some one-minute video on your digital camera, download it, and make a video that actually has moving pictures. I’m (as stated above) too lazy to do that.

What’s new with Red River? We’re moving slo-o-ow-ly but surely toward getting our CD ready for release. Still gotta find some cover art that we actually like. Gosh (gosh?), music is hard enough; then you’ve gotta become some kind of graphic artist? This project may kill us yet.

I recently changed our website address, and thus had to change my business email, and now I’m not getting emails like I used to. This could present a problem when George Strait comes calling and wants to record one of our songs. How will he reach us? I would email him, but dang if these famous folks aren’t possessive of their personal email addresses. You’d think people are hounding them all the time or something, asking them to record one of their songs. Geeeeeez, talk about paranoid.

Since this is my first official entry, I’ll keep it brief. But I’ll be back soon. I was just thinking ~ blogging is just like the diaries of old….except now it’s not just your mom who’s reading it.