Craftsman CD is just about ready ...

Hi everyone.  I’m pleased to be able to let you know about the progress on my new CD Craftsman.  It’s a follow up to Wires Rosewood & Roots released in 2012 and we’re hoping Craftsman will be at least as big a success.  Featuring musical contributions from David Findlay, Kev Corbett and Alyssa Wright, the album was recorded, mixed and mastered in Lunenburg, NS at Otitis Media and produced by David Findlay.

The music is completed but before we release the CD, we’re launching a fund-raising campaign to help with the next stages in the process.  We’d like to ask for your help in raising a portion of the funds we need to manufacture the disks and get the new music out.  For as little as 20 bucks, you can help get the new music into your hands and other fans’ hands.  As well, you will be helping us broaden our horizons and reach out to new fans. 

The campaign is being managed through Indiegogo and we’re asking for your support to cover some of the costs of manufacture, promotion, and distribution.  With your help, Craftsman will be available for purchase and for listening on folk and new age radio programs around the world.   We are targeting an official release date of March 15 and as a thank you to everyone who contributes to the campaign, we'll be sending out pre-ordered CDs at the end of Febuary so you’ll get yours before the general release.

Follow this link to Indiegogo for more information and to make a contribution. 

The campaign page contains a video of one of the new songs, more information on the music, and a set of contribution amounts and the perks you will receive for your contribution.

We know that in these tough economic times, you have a lot of demands on your wallets and we are extremely grateful for any contribution you can make to the project - whether it be a financial contribution or other non-monetary support.  Any musician will tell you that the appreciation of the fans who listen to us is one of the main reasons we make music.  Without you, our audience, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do.

One last favour. . .  Even if you can’t contribute financially, we would be incredibly grateful if you would share the link to the campaign with your musical friends and help us to get the word out. As they used to say on the old wine commercials:  Thank you for your support.

Cheers, Bob

bobardern.ca

Welcome to 2014 and The All Day Breakfast Tour

A year or so ago, my friend Manitoba Hal and I were chatting during the break when Hal was playing a gig in Lunenburg.  I commented on a restaurant that I'd stopped in on a recent tour saying that they served breakfast all day so it was my favourite kind of place.   Hal commented that it's a shame our music wasn't more compatible because we'd travel so well together.   Turns out all day breakfast is one of Hal's favourite things too.

Hal went back on stage and finished his show and life moved on but the seed found a little corner of my mind in which to germinate.  During a conversation with our mutual manager, Nicole Colbeck at Little Acorn Music Management,  I asked her if she thought it was a silly idea because I thought it could work. Hal and I have travelled together for short periods and we do get along so maybe we could tour together.  Nicole was encouraging and said we could call it The All Day Breakfast Tour so Hal and I started talking about the concept. 

I can hear some of you thinking, but Bob is a mostly instrumental finger-style guitar player and Hal is a ukelele bluesman.  How would that work?   Well, when I met Hal, he was a fine finger-style guitar player in his own right and still is.  He has a number of instrumental pieces that he originally wrote for guitar then transposed to ukelele and his fans have been asking for more.

Fundamentally, we are both finger-style musicians.  Although we have differing styles we have worked out a format that will be appealing to both Hal's fans and mine.    We tried it out at the Folk Music Ontario Conference in October.  We played together at a Private Showcase and several people came up to us after and said we sounded good together.  The structure of the tour show is that we  each do a solo set and then have a grand finale set of duets.

The planning for the tour is now underway.  Your humble correspondent is heading back into New England at the end of March and Hal is returning from a tour of Australia through Florida and we're planning to meet in Boston and play some dates together.  Three weeks in April will see us in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maine and we're looking to add more dates to the schedule.

There will be more to come on The All Day Breakfast Tour in later posts but for now, keep watching this space.   As more details are confirmed, we'll let you know.    Also visit us online at alldaybreakfasttour.com - the site is still under construction but please bookmark us.

In the meantime, best wishes for a happy and healthy 2014.  It's been pretty chilly where we are so I hope it's warm where you are.

Cheers, Bob.

bobardern.ca