Brick and Mortar Review
Monthly Newsletter of the Spokane Songwriters.org
January,
2008, number 3
A Newsletter for Songwriters and Musicians and Music Lovers
Brick and Mortar refers not only to that classic coffee house styled room at the Empyrean where we do our concerts with its old Spokane brick walls and time darkened timbered ceilings. It also denotes the concept of shopping locally, supporting local businesses, and in this case supporting local musicians. Last night (Jan. 2) was a classic example of the concept in action. In a 2 hour show, Jim Faddis, of Prairie Flyer fame, with his often times sidekick Kevin Brown playing mandolin and doing harmony vocals, went through about a dozen of Jim’s songs, with a Townes Van Zandt classic, “Pancho and Lefty” thrown in to honor the anniversary of Townes death, and a Hank Williams tune, “I Can’t Help it if I’m Still in Love With You”, to honor the anniversary of Hank’s death as well. In this organization, if nothing else is obvious, the value placed on good songwriting and good songwriters is. Townes and Hank both died young from too much self-medicating. Our songwriters seem to have managed to avoid that kind of self abuse and live stable family lives, and if you talk to them, chances are that they’ll say they willingly accept the lack of international fame that came to Townes and Hank for the relatively stable and happy lives they lead. So be it. Nevertheless, when you listen to the music put out by people in this organization, you might wonder if it isn’t just as good as some of those much more famous songs, and that’s one of the reasons why we promote these concerts.
Another reason for the concerts is to get to meet new songwriters and expand the network of musicians and music in the area. Tyler Graves, from Ephrata did about a dozen of his songs to a very appreciative audience of about 40 people. Tyler is a sort of Jim Faddis discovery, though the language of that is not quite right. Jim and Tyler met in Nelson B.C. and formed a mutual admiration society, which is how we ended up getting Tyler into our circle of songwriters. Speaking of expanding that circle, Kathy and I met Darin Hildebrand at First Night. Darin goes by Just Plain Darin which is the name of the band that he performs with and he showed up Wednesday night at the Brick and Mortar concert. Darin had been on our schedule of the Songwriters Circle when the first Empyrean went out of business and we had to cancel the show. So he will be on the bill for the April 2nd Brick and Mortar Concert. Next month we will feature Stan Hall and not really lonesome Lyle Morse, both returning songwriters. We will also have about 40 minutes of open mic time available. This is for both newcomers and our regulars, so think about bringing your instrument and your songs. I have not received any play schedules from members lately so I can’t include your performances in this newsletter, but if a bunch of you do send me some info I will publish it as an addendum. The other thing I would like to get from you is song lyrics. Send me a word document of one of your songs and I will publish an addendum to the January newsletter with both play schedules and song lyrics.
The Changing Music
Business
There are fairly regular stories being published about dramatic and perhaps frightening trends in the music industry which may have some impact on us. CD sales, for example have plummeted nationally, and while most of us are not even counted in such a story, we might also find ourselves selling fewer cds as music lovers seem to be downloading tracks off the internet rather than purchasing albums.
A NY Times feature on Natalie Merchant revealed that in her shows now she is singing some new songs that are not available as recordings, because she no longer has a recording contract, and her own label went bankrupt! Another songwriter and performer of about the same vintage, Kristen Hirsh is now putting new recordings on her website, available for download, one a month and asking fans to chip in a little to help her keep performing and recording. Hirsh had to fold her band because she could not afford to pay them. It used to be that “getting a recording contract” was the quest that everyone was on, and then, with the advent of home recording and the appearance of hundreds of small project recording studios, just completing a cd was a prize highly sought and very satisfying. Now there is a question of whether doing complete cds is really going to fit into the new music business.
There were many hundreds of great performers in the late 1920’s getting recorded and seeing shellac 78rpm records with their names on them, and plantation cotton pickers and coal miners alike were looking forward to a “change in luck and a change in life.” After the stock market crash record labels disappeared, record sales tanked, and very few of those first recording artists were able to make it in the music business. Bubbles burst and dreams crashed and burned and during world war II citizens were encouraged to turn in their record collections so they could be melted down for their shellac for the war effort! It’s hard to predict what the music business will look like five or ten years down the road but needless to say, the model of record albums to cd albums that we grew up with has only been representative of a short slice of the history of people making and performing music and the world will not end even if that model does.
Send me your songs and send me your schedules: kostelec@its.gonzaga.edu