Alright, continuing the count down to May 31st when I’ll be releasing my first music video for Conveniently Yours on Facebook HERE, here’s a 2nd clip from some extra footage we had during the video shoot – hopefully this will be proof enough for Neal Wyborn that I’m not wearing the blue toque 100% of the time…
I also just finished a 5 day tour of Michigan with my friend Mike Vial – we visited some very cool spots, one of which was the Raven Cafe where we played on an elevated stage – check out this clip:
I also took a few pics along the way (as well as ripped some off of the twitter machine…):
Hanging out with Mike and Natalie's "puppy" Lois - she stopped licking my beard long enough for a shot...
Chatting with host Pam Rossi at UDetroit cafe - I was interviewed live on air and performed 4 songs they also put my record into their rotation.
Dueling merch!
Getting ready to go at the Rustbelt Market - the Tim Horton's cup was always near by...
Songwriter's circle during an amazing house show - to my left is Corey Glover and Mike Vial on the right
I’m currently typing this at the kick ass home of Mike Vial in Howell Michigan – I just arrived tonight after about a 5 hour drive as we start our Michigan Tour together tomorrow! I’ve only been here for a few hours but I’m already covered in dog hair and had my faced licked to death by his two adorable dogs…
I’m excited to also be counting down to the official release date of my very first music video for the song “Conveniently Yours” which will happen on Facebook, Thursday May 31st. Leading up to that I’m posting some behind the scenes footage from the filming and here’s the first clip:
NEW Interview and album review: I recently had the good fortune of being interviewed and reviewed by Ryan Pratt who runs a fantastic music blog called Skeleton Crew Quarterly – Ryan is a very talented writer and I’m grateful for his flattering and generous remarks! Read the interview HERE, Relative Importance review HERE.
Video update: So Kirk Starkey, who played cello on the record, connected me with a great videographer named Kris Chandroo from Ottawa who made the drive down last weekend and we spend about 14 hours filming over two days (Thursday April 19th, Friday April 20th) for the song “Conveniently Yours.” The picture below is a screen shot Kris recently sent me from some of the footage we shot at Catherine North Studios. Kris was amazing to work with and had a ton of cool ideas so I’m really excited to see how it all turns out! I’ll keep updating the progress here and have more behind the scenes shots and videos up soon.
Summer tour dates announced: I’ll be on the road quite a bit this summer with some great venues booked, and here’s how the next month is looking:
Friday April 27th @8pm Brownstone Café, Orillia Saturday May 5th @7pm Little Bean Coffee Bar, Kitchener
Thursday May 10th @12pm Pam Rossi Radio Show, Detroit Friday May 11th @8pm Wrought Iron Grill, Michigan Sunday May 13th @8pm Raven Café, Michigan Friday May 18th @10pm Milk Coffee Bar, Windsor Saturday May 19th @1pm Cheeky Monkey, Sarnia Monday May 21st, @7:30pm, Covernotes, Richmond Hill
Album progress: My song “On My Mind” was just featured on Indie Launch Pad’s podcast which you can listen to HERE - so thanks to Colin Meeks for adding me in with the other great musicians. I also found out today that the folks at Humber Radio 96.9FM really like my album and have added all 8 songs to the their rotation! I’ve even somehow managed to crack the top 70 on a German alternative radio station in Sinzig which is pretty cool. Aside from that I’ve been binge mailing the record to radio stations across Canada, and I’ll blog about the outcome (barring the development of some unforeseen stamp licking illness.)
Show stuff:So I had a great time performing last Saturday at Strega Cafe in St. Catharines – it’s an awesome venue and thanks to everyone for coming out! The only “minor” issue was that my car got towed mid set, which is always uplifting…I suppose my long history of disregarding obvious traffic signs is finally catching up to me, but its been a good run. On a positive note Graham generously gave me a fee gigantic cookie, which did in fact help quite a bit. I’ll be back again at Strega on Saturday April 21st performing as part of a Ride to Conquer Cancer fundraiser being hosted by a lovely young lady I met at the cafe, Jeannette Yvonne – so please come on out and support a great cause, the night starts at 7pm. I’m also really excited and flattered to announced that I’ll be playing in Hamilton this Thursday April 5th at the Artwood Artbar (15 Colbourne Streeet) as part of a new Catherine North Studios event that will feature some old and new talent that has recorded there. The evening will feature 4 great acts and my set will start at 9:30pm – I hope you can make it! I’m aiming for no parking violations on this one…
Upcoming tour: As if Mike Vial hasn’t been generous enough already, he’s inviting me to Michigan from May 9th – 14th, 2012 to do a series of shows together! I’ve never been to Michigan before, and I’m really looking forward to this trip as it sounds like there are some really cool places to play, and I’m pumped to watch Mike do his thing live! We have a number of dates/venues confirmed (click the SHOWS tab above for more info), one of which will be a radio interview and performance on the Pam Rossi show while streaming live – I’ll have more details about it all very soon!
FREE STUFF: I’m also going to be giving away free t-shirts and CDs in the coming weeks based on responses to my email newsletter! I’ll be asking some questions and all you have to do is respond for a chance to win – if you’re not on the listsign up here!
Oh and here’s another video I took in Nashville on an iPhone 4:
Ok, first off I was excited to learn that my album was reviewed in the Brock Press this week by Matt Flemming which you can read HERE, or by picking up a copy on campus. The album seems to be drawing a lot of positive feedback, so thank you to Matt for taking the time to write this up! Outside of that, new songs are in the works along with new show announcements (click the “shows” tab for more info):
March 24th, 8pm, Strega Cafe St. Catharines (Click for facebook event) April 5th, 9pm, Artwood Artbar Hamilton (Catherine North Studios feature event HERE) April 21st, 8pm, Strega Cafe St.Catharines (Ride to Conquer Cancer fundraiser) May 5th, 7pm, Little Bean Coffee Bar, Kitchener (Pull the Plug feature event) Upcoming May tour to Michigan with Mike Vial! Stay tuned…
Sooo…I decided to hit the road recently with my partner in crime www.shamecake.com (check out her amazing cooking blog) for a little jaunt to Nashville Tennessee to see what all this commotion was about – and the talent there was not disappointing! In particular I met a guy by the name of Mark Croft who happened to be performing the same night as I did during a songwriter’s showcase and I was blown away by his talent. Check out the video below of the song he played that night called “She’s a Landslide” – it’s pretty insane and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head since. You seriously should listen to his music at www.markcroftmusic.com, I think beyond his obvious guitar skill, he’s a gifted songwriter and I’m totally baffled why he isn’t on the radio 24/7 and Niki Minaj is…I’m pretty sure there’s 0 justice int he musical world, just sayin’
Along with seeing the sights/being a tourist (Country Music HOF, Music Row, studios, Graceland, Gibson factory, Loveless Cafe) and nearly having full blown panic attack due to a severe tornado warning, we were fortunate enough to being staying with two great local musicians who generously allowed me to play around with their incredible collection of vintage acoustic guitars. Ironically, along with the Martins and Taylors sat an old Canadian Norman guitar that sounded just as good if not better than the others. As soon as I played it I feel in love with it and somehow managed to convince the guy to sell it to me and it’s quickly become my favorite guitar (I love great sounding, beat up guitars) Their music room also had some pretty kick ass acoustics so I decided to film a couple of one take videos on an iPhone 4, one of which you can see below. The best part is that the couple really enjoyed my album and decided to feature some of the songs on their acoustic radio show The Acoustic Guitar Revival broadcasting on 107.1FM, Nashville. My album is going to be featured again this coming Monday March 12th from 12-2pm and you can stream live HERE.
I’ll be posting some other videos soon from the trip on myFACEBOOK and TWITTER pages and I also have a number of press and media items in the works which I’ll be blogging about in the coming weeks! As always the album is available now on iTunes and/or you can name your own price for it at www.paulfedericimusic.bandcamp.com.
