Waves on the Shore has its first web-review, over at music blog The Pagan Wheel. Many thanks to both Dave M. and to Shelly R. for the “electronic introduction”.
“What is heard is Emily’s strong confident voice singing tales of battle or love, and love lost, as only one experienced in Bardic tradition can. To stand within a circle of peers and audience alike without accompaniment to sing a capella verses and tales one has written oneself is a true test of Bardic worth.“
What an amazing Pennsic War! More than 2 weeks out of the modern world, camping with friends new and old, days full of relaxation and nights full of campfires and songs… I had a great time!
On top of being just a fantastic vacation/event, it was truly awesome for my CD promotion/distribution. On Saturday, August 1st my encampment threw a huge CD release party & bardic circle. I think it exceeded everyone’s expectations!! (I had originally suggested a CD release circle because, in my foolishness, I though it would be more low-key that way.) The headcount was at nearly 150 people at one point in the evening, and I’m estimating more than 250 stopped by throughout the night — wow! My friend Justinian ended up acting as MC for the circle, lining up performances from singes, storytellers, and poets from around the Known World all night long. There were some real luminaries of the bardic arts attending that night, as well as people who stood to sing for the first time ever!
Perhaps the most surprising was that the party was covered in an article in the Pennsic Independent!! This was the first of 2 newspaper appearances for myself & “Waves on the Shore”. The second was a review that came out a few days later. I felt very flattered, as I was mentioned both in the context of WotS and also as a songwriter for the tracks on Heather Dale’s “Green Knight”.*
All that “free advertising” in the paper certainly made great help to my CD sales! “Waves on Shore” was carried this year at two merchant booths, both Master Efenwealt Whystle’s Camelot Treasures and Master John ap Wynn’s booth. At Camelot treasures I sold more than 1/4 my total initial run of CDs!! On the Wednesday of War Week I was a part of the “Marian of Heatherdale and Friends” concert, which was a tonne of fun and got my name out a bit more. I also made lots of one-on-one sales, from the generous folks in camp to kind bards around fires.
So now I’ve returned to the modern world, many CDs lighter and truly inspired to write new songs! My goals for the next few weeks (apart from tackling the post-Pennsic laundry mountain) include finguring out how many CDs to press in a 2nd run (eep!), how to get my music out further (podcasts, SCA/Bardic magazine reviews, etc. — suggestions welcome!) and getting online sales (disks & digital) up and running. What a grand adventure this is!!
*I’ll work to see if I can get the text for the article & review up on the site somewhere soon.
I picked up my CDs today! (All 100 of them, goodness!). I’m really pleased with how they came out: both the insert and the CD face look great, really professional and clean. The shrink-wrapping is another nice touch. Thanks, Sliverbirch!
Now that I have the box of disks this project feels truly “actualized”. It’s made me realize how much work goes into these things!
It’s also made me think about all the work ahead of me: if I’ve got them, I should sell them! All in good time though. Now I’ve got copies to give to friends, and Pennsic sales can wait for a week. For now, its enough that they’re here!!
I received and email today asking what songs would actually be on the album. I suppose that would be good information to give to people, wouldn’t it? It got me thinking I should perhaps put out the track list here, too!
Waves on the Shore track list:
1) The Bard
2) Come & Be Welcome
3) Foot to Ground
4) Soldier Boy
5) The Poachers’ Song
6) Roll On Up the Hill
7) Warharvest
8) Mourning Dove
9) For Your Honour
10) Arise Young Wolf
11) Northern Virtues
12) Dusk to Dawn/Mead & Wine
13) The Washer at the Ford
14) Waves on the Shore
I think I’ll also put up my lyrics on this site, too. As a “bardic-folk” songwriter, I love hearing other people singing songs I’ve created around their own campfires. I’ll either make a “Lyrics” page, or perhaps devote a blog post to each piece and write a bit about the song’s background as well as the lyrics.
Otherwise, the wait continues. Any day now, Silverbirch should be calling and the disks will be finished!
United Breaks Guitars: If you haven’t seen this video yet, you really should.
The full story can be found here. It’s a really prime example of how dangerous it can be to piss off bards. ancient or modern!
“…I realized then that as a songwriter and traveling musician I wasn’t without options. In my final reply to Ms. Irlweg I told her that I would be writing three songs about United Airlines and my experience in the whole matter. I would then make videos for these songs and offer them for free download online, inviting viewers to vote on their favourite United song. My goal: to get one million hits in one year.”
The art of “shame-poetry” is surely not dead, nor ineffective, even today. If you go to YouTube, you can also find several video responses, one from the artist himself. In this, you can also see how the bard has a responsibility to “own” the works s/he has produces, and the effects they might have upon others. (Poor Ms. Irlweg!)
I just spoke to Jordan at Silverbirch again, and it seems like I’ve got everything I need to get this manufacturing started! The audio master is at hand and sounding great, the graphics are amazing and ready to be emailed over, and I’ve decided what format I’ll be going with as well. All that’s left to do is to go drop off the disk, sign the forms, and pay up!
I almost can’t believe it’s all coming together. This is terribly exciting!!
When I have a spare moment, I’ll write about this past weekend. Business cards printed, War of the Trilliums went great, and I even pre-sold a few CDs!
I’ve got “business” cards printed, and a small carbon-copy receipt booklet ready to go. War of the Trillium is on this week/weekend, and another friend is having her own CD release party Saturday night, so I’ll be pre-selling my CD there too!
I’m really excited. Things are moving along really well, and it looks like I’ll be ready to take things to the presses early next week. Hooray!
More details after the weekend. I’m going to go sing by campfires and relax with good friends. Maybe I’ll even be inspired to write a new song!
I got the proofs for the CD cover insert this morning from my graphic designer-friend Michaela. It’s so interesting for me to see what gets created from the slightest of criteria (in this case, a Facebook message with a link to Silverbirch’s templates and a “here’s my name, here’s the album title, I like things Celtic”). I really like what she’s put together, and look forward to unveiling it all soon!
I also actually managed to write up the inside text (acknowledgments and whatnot) this morning and sent that back to Michaela as well, in spite of the flurry of kidstuff going on around me (hooray for the first Monday of summer vacation!) Now I just have to get in touch with H.D. and I might be ready to get this off to manufacturing!
To Do:
- figure out Paypal, get order system in place
- finalize master for Silverbirch (digital track titles, etc.)
- get master to Silverbirch; begin production!
- update website with new graphics & better information
Today I actually got off my duff & called up Silverbirch Productions“>, a local CD manufacture/duplication company Heather recommended to me.
One of the complications of having the album ‘dropped from above’ is that I’ve had no plans in the works. Nothing has been priced out, no graphics-in-progress, no saving of capital for production. (At least, I really hope other indie artists are thinking ahead to this stuff when they’re recording!) So I don’t currently have any mental energy expended or cash set aside toward actually making CDs. However, since I’ve got it I want to put it out as nicely as I can.
I was a bit worried that I’d have to home-burn the disks and print inserts myself — not that there’s anything wrong with home-grown CDs, theyre a perfectly reasonable and valid thing to release. I just am fairly lazy, and don’t want to have to invest too much time right now, but do want to try to get CDs ready to sell/give by the end of July.
Silverbirch looks like they will totally be able to meet my needs (and not break the bank). I spoke with Jordan, who was super nice, friendly and informative and encouraging. He gave me a couple of quotes for various options on small-run duplication (slimline cases, full jewelcases, etc.) for batches of 50 or 100. And apparently the turn around time is crazy fast, about 3 business days! (Another reason to love this city!)
So I’m pretty sure that’s where I’m going to go to get the CDs actually made. It’s very exciting, every step I take brings me closer to my own CD! The next one is either getting down to the graphics or figuring out how to get the money…
About a week ago I met my good friend Heather Dale for lunch. Heather is a phenomenal independent musician and truly lovely person, and I don’t get many opportunities to connect with her due to her very busy touring schedule. I was expecting Vietnamese pho soup and good conversation; I received much more!
Sometime around 2004 I had been coming in to Toronto to spend weekends with Heather, exploring the big city and occasionally recording some of the songs I had written. Both of us shared the hobby of doing medieval recreation in the SCA and a love of Celtic myths and music; I wrote songs to share around the campfire, and for Heather it had launched a full career as an indie artist. I’d had a lot of fun learning about the process of recording music (so very different from a capella live singing!), but never planned on pursuing my music professionally, so when her touring dramatically picked up I wasn’t too worried about my recordings not making it to CD. But I’d always remembered they were there, waiting in the wings as it were. Occasionally friends would ask, “Is your music every going to be on CD?” and I’d reply with a vague “maybe…”
Fast forward to a month or two ago, when Heather asked if she could cover a few of my songs on her latest album (The Green Knight, for release summer 2009). I was honoured, so of course agreed! It also brought those old recordings back to mind, and I asked her if she thought we’d be able to do anything with them. She was encouraging, but also said it might take a while. (Now I know she’s just got a good “poker face”!)
So there I was at lunch, a tiny cup of green tea in hand, when Heather presented me with a CD case, which had a mock-up of an album cover with my name on it and a 14 track listing on the back! Inside were 2 master audio disks: my very own album was complete!!
This is a really interesting snapshot of my songwriting and my voice at that period in time: since then I’ve written new things and my singing has changed over time. It’s been great to revisit that time for me, and I think it’s an album to be proud of. Now I have it in my hand, I have to take the next steps to get it duplicated and distributed!
