Post by Gene on Oct 27, 2010 7:20:03 GMT -5
Well, the days are getting dreary, dark and cold, and you know Northern Michigan: Live music starts getting lean. But, somehow, I still have a few gigs to report (and I’m damn lucky to have them!) :
Jr.'s Tailgate Pub, Mackinaw City, SAT, OCT 30, 9pm-12
Jr.'s Tailgate Pub, Mackinaw City, SAT, NOV 6, 9pm-12
Jr.'s Tailgate Pub, Mackinaw City, SAT, NOV 13, 9pm-12
Trout Lake Tavern, Trout Lake, SAT, NOV 20, 9pm-1
I’m quite the hit at Jr.’s, so I’ve been booked for three more there. I may even get a few more to bridge between Thanksgiving and ski season, but that’s not solid yet. I wanted to do a deer season gig at a U.P. hunter’s bar, and the Trout Lake Tavern has agreed to have me. I’ve played there a couple times before, but never for the hunting crowd, so I’m looking forward to it! I’d better start learning that Ted Nugent “Fred Bear” song...
The slower gigging pace has allowed me to take care of quite a few promotional chores, though. I’ve been mentioning in these e-newsletters that I’ve wanted to get some video performances done, and, I’m finally through TALKING about it: It’s DONE! Yep, you can go see the results by clicking on the “Music” lantern at the top of this page, or just go to my website at www.gene-perry.net and you’ll figure it out. If you favor YouTube, enter “gene perry acoustic” in that Search engine, and the four videos will all list at the top.
I sure did learn a lot about video production, doing all this. I’m still not 100% satisfied with the audio quality, since it seems that I overdrove the pre-amp a bit going into the camera. (I’m certain I did not overdrive the camera itself.) I know today’s do-it-yourself YouTube standards are low, but I wanted a pretty good product, here, since I’ve built up my “brand” over the years to have people expect good quality from me. I’m happy with the performances themselves, and I think I prove to potential hirers that I can be a conventional or eclectic performer. The four videos showcase a few different things I can do, so hopefully a viewer can make a mental match to just what they’re exactly looking for.
Since the videos needed to be included on my website, I took the liberty of cleaning up and organizing a lot of other stuff as well. I changed the “Album” page to be a “Music” page instead, and placed all the music and video in one place. I’ve made an intentional decision to de-emphasize my original material, since who I’m marketing toward is not much impressed with this, nor are really looking for this, anyway. I’ve removed a lot of dead links on the Pix & Linx page, and added and re-worded a lot of other local musicians’ links of folks that have helped me along the way. I’m one of the few local guys that does this, since I have a pretty uncompetitive outlook about all this, as you probably know by now. If you have a link you’d like me to put here, get in touch with me and “make your case” for it. A proposal of a SWAP of links, in other words, our sites linking to each other’s, is definitely persuasive!...
Cedar Straits must have been thinking along the same lines as me, since THEIR video project is also done, pratically within the same week as I finished mine! Go to YouTube and enter "cedar straits" in the search engine to see their product. It's very good!
As I say, live music is sparse this time of year, and for what little there is, I’ve probably seen these reputable acts multiple times anyway. One exception is that I finally caught The Hixx Band at Kewadin in St. Igance one weekend, for the first time. This is Gary Hatch’s (Grooves Music owner) and Brian Drumheller’s project out of the Soo. I’ve heard that they are one of the three good bands out of Soo, Michigan right now, and I learned firsthand that it’s QUITE true! They are definitely top echelon players, but not only that, they’re tight-sounding together, know their audience and what they want to hear, and cordially provide it. I can tell that their song choice musically “aims high”, but not to worry; They have the talent to spare to pull it off. No pretense at all though; They know it’s all about the partying good time. There’s very little obscurity to confuse the partying crowd, and what’s wrong with that? There’s just a bunch of good ability and smart choices going on with this band, and from what I see, they are definitely enjoying the resulting success of it. Check them out sometime to see what I mean!
I’ll reiterate that the Village Inn in St. Ignace should be kicking up Open Mics on Tuesdays in November, but nothing solid on that yet.
That’s about the size of it. Hope you’re doing well!
–Gene.
Jr.'s Tailgate Pub, Mackinaw City, SAT, OCT 30, 9pm-12
Jr.'s Tailgate Pub, Mackinaw City, SAT, NOV 6, 9pm-12
Jr.'s Tailgate Pub, Mackinaw City, SAT, NOV 13, 9pm-12
Trout Lake Tavern, Trout Lake, SAT, NOV 20, 9pm-1
I’m quite the hit at Jr.’s, so I’ve been booked for three more there. I may even get a few more to bridge between Thanksgiving and ski season, but that’s not solid yet. I wanted to do a deer season gig at a U.P. hunter’s bar, and the Trout Lake Tavern has agreed to have me. I’ve played there a couple times before, but never for the hunting crowd, so I’m looking forward to it! I’d better start learning that Ted Nugent “Fred Bear” song...
The slower gigging pace has allowed me to take care of quite a few promotional chores, though. I’ve been mentioning in these e-newsletters that I’ve wanted to get some video performances done, and, I’m finally through TALKING about it: It’s DONE! Yep, you can go see the results by clicking on the “Music” lantern at the top of this page, or just go to my website at www.gene-perry.net and you’ll figure it out. If you favor YouTube, enter “gene perry acoustic” in that Search engine, and the four videos will all list at the top.
I sure did learn a lot about video production, doing all this. I’m still not 100% satisfied with the audio quality, since it seems that I overdrove the pre-amp a bit going into the camera. (I’m certain I did not overdrive the camera itself.) I know today’s do-it-yourself YouTube standards are low, but I wanted a pretty good product, here, since I’ve built up my “brand” over the years to have people expect good quality from me. I’m happy with the performances themselves, and I think I prove to potential hirers that I can be a conventional or eclectic performer. The four videos showcase a few different things I can do, so hopefully a viewer can make a mental match to just what they’re exactly looking for.
Since the videos needed to be included on my website, I took the liberty of cleaning up and organizing a lot of other stuff as well. I changed the “Album” page to be a “Music” page instead, and placed all the music and video in one place. I’ve made an intentional decision to de-emphasize my original material, since who I’m marketing toward is not much impressed with this, nor are really looking for this, anyway. I’ve removed a lot of dead links on the Pix & Linx page, and added and re-worded a lot of other local musicians’ links of folks that have helped me along the way. I’m one of the few local guys that does this, since I have a pretty uncompetitive outlook about all this, as you probably know by now. If you have a link you’d like me to put here, get in touch with me and “make your case” for it. A proposal of a SWAP of links, in other words, our sites linking to each other’s, is definitely persuasive!...
Cedar Straits must have been thinking along the same lines as me, since THEIR video project is also done, pratically within the same week as I finished mine! Go to YouTube and enter "cedar straits" in the search engine to see their product. It's very good!
As I say, live music is sparse this time of year, and for what little there is, I’ve probably seen these reputable acts multiple times anyway. One exception is that I finally caught The Hixx Band at Kewadin in St. Igance one weekend, for the first time. This is Gary Hatch’s (Grooves Music owner) and Brian Drumheller’s project out of the Soo. I’ve heard that they are one of the three good bands out of Soo, Michigan right now, and I learned firsthand that it’s QUITE true! They are definitely top echelon players, but not only that, they’re tight-sounding together, know their audience and what they want to hear, and cordially provide it. I can tell that their song choice musically “aims high”, but not to worry; They have the talent to spare to pull it off. No pretense at all though; They know it’s all about the partying good time. There’s very little obscurity to confuse the partying crowd, and what’s wrong with that? There’s just a bunch of good ability and smart choices going on with this band, and from what I see, they are definitely enjoying the resulting success of it. Check them out sometime to see what I mean!
I’ll reiterate that the Village Inn in St. Ignace should be kicking up Open Mics on Tuesdays in November, but nothing solid on that yet.
That’s about the size of it. Hope you’re doing well!
–Gene.
