Set List: Concert Window – 1000th Show!
March 13, 2016 – The 1000th Show
Broadcasted on Concert Window
Live from Solid Sound Recording in Ann Arbor, MI
- Only the Rain Knows Why
- Don’t Mess Around with Jim (Jim Croce)
- Faster Than Slow
- Empty Cup
- Kalamazoo
- Mahogany
- Freshmen (Verve Pipe) – on mandolin
- Girl on the Mountain, Boy in the Beach
- A World That’s Bigger
- [record player] -> Burning Bright
- Big Yellow Taxi (Joni Mitchell)
- Damn Fine Day
- In My Life (the Beatles)
- Do You Know Your Fears by Name? (on piano)
- Ghostwriter
LSJ Feature for my St. Patrick’s Day 2016 Gig
Big thanks to Anne Erickson for interviewing me for the Lansing State Journal’s St. Patrick’s Day feature in the entertainment. Read story here:
http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/entertainment/2016/03/11/st-patricks-day-lansing-events/81496194/
I’m playing my 1001 gig at Claddagh Irish Pub in Lansing at noon. $5 cover. Guitars, mandolins and Stouts, oh my!
“What’s in a name?” is now “What’s in your story?” – Chris Buhalis at the Ark
You know that adage that it takes seven times for someone to hear your name or song before they remember it?
I was playing a relaxed gig at Fenton Hotel last night, and some kind patrons were sitting at the piano bar next to me, making requests, chatting about the Michigan music scene between songs.
They asked me who my favorite Ann Arbor songwriter was. I said my distant relative, Chris Buhalis, who just released his new record Big Car Town.
“Oh! We haven’t heard of him!”
I started sharing Chris’s story, how he’s been a longtime songwriter, worked with Townes Van Zandt, and recently recovered from a saw accident where he cut his hand.
The patrons interrupted me.
“I just heard him on Michigan Radio! He’s playing at the Ark, tomorrow!
Click here to listen to Chris Buhalis on Michigan Radio yesterday.
I can’t help but chuckle: They remembered that Chris cut his hand in a saw, they loved the songs he played on the radio, but they didn’t remember Chris’s name yet!
Shakespeare posited, “What’s in a name?” and I, “What’s in a story?”
Artists, you got to have one; but I imagine Chris doesn’t recommend slicing your hand with a table saw to find it.
* * * *
Michigan friends, you should go see Chris Buhalis tonight at the Ark, celebrating the release of his new record, Big Car Town.
Doors 7:30 PM, show 8 PM: Show info and tickets here.
Chris returns to the Ark to celebrate the release of his new CD, Big Car Town! Joining Chris will be the stellar musicians who played on the recording. Jeff Plankenhorn (Austin, TX), Dominic John Davis (Nashville, TN) and Michael Shimmin (South Lyon, MI). Chris Buhalis was born and raised on Detroit’s east side, but his songs come from places you can only find if you stick out your thumb and follow fate’s lead. Covering territory from Alaska’s whiskey-soaked bars to the spark- and steel-filled auto plants of Detroit, Chris writes songs that speak of real people in real situations. Chris has appeared on radio’s “Acoustic Cafe” and shared stages with the likes of David Bromberg, Catie Curtis, and Dave Van Ronk. Join us for new music from a true voice of Michigan!
Everyone’s a critic, especially when told to be one
If you give folks a chance to be a critic, they run with it.
If someone stumbles upon your art, they often see the positives and the beauty.
If someone is told, “review this for our website,” they will approach the work from a preconceived negative standpoint.
Artists, we face criticism all the time; but remember that most of it is about where that person is standing, not your work.
#1 selling album this week from 98K of sales?
The 1975, a hard working, always touring band had the #1 selling record this week.
Which isn’t the news in my opinion. The news is they had a #1 with 108K of combined sales (98K of pure album sales), which is anemic, in my opinion (not a reflection on the 1975, but that the public isn’t buying music much anymore.)
And they windowed their record off Spotify.
Let’s put this in perspective: Adele’s “Hello” had 159,051,646 streams on Spotify alone by October 23, 2015.
Billboard considers 1500 streams = 1 sale. Adele had 106,034.40 “album” sales from one single alone through only Spotify streams!
Most news publications in Nov of 2015 wanted to applaud her iTunes sales numbers (1.1 million) that week, but it’s the streaming that’s interesting.
Adele’s the biggest star on the planet, so it’s unfair to compare her impact to the 1975, who have had one major hit single. (Their song “Chocolate” has earned 92 million streams total.)
But it’s not like 1975 haven’t been using Spotify: They’ve released three singles on the streaming platform so far from this album, and the streaming counts are 21, 11, and 6 million of each single so far.
What we have is a war on windowing releases, trying to convince enough fans to buy a record on iTunes or in physical format before putting it on streaming; or releasing one single on streaming to see how it does before holding off on the record’s release.
I don’t know what any of this means anymore. All I know is we should put fans first, and windowing doesn’t seem to do that.
