Last Chance To See

As many of you already know, I'm soon heading out on my annual adventure to make music. A friend of mine asked me yesterday why I'm calling the tour in August and September "Last Chance To See." The reason for the title is that this tour will probably be the last time I head out as a road warrior. Fellow musicians will understand it but it's becoming increasingly difficult to organize a tour as an independent musician. Venues are closing, only hiring local artists, prefer bands to solo performers, all kinds of reasons. Couple that with hitting a milestone birthday next year, which will mean a sizeable jump to the cost of health care insurance, and an increase in the cost of a P-2 Visa to cross the border into the US.

Don't get me wrong - I love being out on the road, playing for an appreciative audience, meeting people and talking music and guitars (and capos). It's been a little over 16 years since I first stepped out on the stage at Don's Coffee House after many years of not playing. Since that fateful day (for which I still have the Don's Coffee House Newsletter), I've played countless songs, run up myriad kilometers on a succession of vehicles and seen the inside of a lot of all-day breakfast joints. I will miss it but as Billy Joel said, "It's sad and it's sweet and I knew it complete when I wore a younger man's clothes."

What I will miss most of all is the interaction with so many people, some of whom have become close friends. Other travelling musicians (and our hosts) know that there is comfort in having places on the road where you can lay your head, have a shower in the morning, eat a home-cooked meal and maybe a glass of wine, and enjoy conversation on a range of topics. For example, I learned a lot about Rwanda from one of my hosts who had been there to dig into the stories behind the headlines.

So if you're close to any of the places I'll be playing in August and September, please join us and help support live music. Some of the gigs will be solo, some of them are song swaps where I'll be sharing the stage with other musicians. Much of what we do is fun but we're also trying to earn a living at it so we appreciate that you pay the cover or throw a few bucks in the donation jar and also support the venues who continue to present live music in increasingly difficult conditions.

So where is the Last Chance To See?

August 2, Crow Town Gallery, Lubec, ME (Song Swap)

August 3, Welshpool Hall, Campobello, NB (Song Swap)

August 5, Fireside Restaurant, Campobello, NB

August 6, The Puffin Room, Lubec, ME (also being live streamed)

September 7, Riverdale Park, MD (Song Swap)

September 12, Natick, MA

September 13, Maynard, MA (Song Swap)

Sept 15, Orleans, MA

Sept 16, Norfolk, MA

Sept 17, Hopkinton, MA

Sept 22, Hopewell Junction, NY

Sept 23 Hyde Park, NY (Afternoon Workshop and Evening Concert)

More detail on locations and times are available on my website, bobardern.ca.

New Music and More

It's the middle of October and we've been very busy (and uncharacteristically quiet ).  We made it home from the July/August/September tour, turned around quickly and back on the road for the next place to see.

We put around 13,000 kms on the van between the end of July and the middle of September.   We had three festival weekends in a row:   Fog Fest on Campobello Island, NB followed by Live From The Rock in Red Rock, ON and rounded out with Trout Forest in Ear Falls, ON.    After "The Trout," we headed off down into the US for a few weeks playing some smaller rooms in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Virginia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania.  It was a great honour for me to wind up the tour by opening the 2016/2017 season at Old Lynn Concerts, in Lynn, PA.

Shortly after we arrived home, we took off to Iceland for a week for a little R&R and to help my cousin's wife celebrate a milestone birthday.  Iceland is a stunningly beautiful place and if we're Facebook friends, you may already have seen a few pictures.

Now we're home again and back to work, we've been back in the Otitis Media studio with David Findlay.  We've been working on new compositions and with the whirlwind of travelling finished, we sat down and completed a couple of new pieces.   One is a mellow, relaxation piece which Dave says is the next Spa Channel™ hit.  It's called Marigot Bay in honour of some time spent in St. Lucia enjoying a little winter warmth and sunshine.  The second is an upbeat song with a celtic flair called Is It Reel? which is a backward glance to Flea's Reel (which is actually not a reel) from Wires Rosewood & Roots.

Like many musicians nowadays, we are exploring our options for the release of the new music.  Sales of physical CDs are on the decline as people are using other technologies to listen to music so the idea of a 12-song album with a physical CD for sale is coming increasingly under pressure.  As yet with only two songs recorded we are a little bit away from having to make a decision but as we develop more tunes, we will be looking at various options for making the music available to our audience.

The other activity we've been undertaking in the last week or so is a makeover of bobardern.ca.  The new website is a cleaner version that should load a little quicker.  The mobile version uses less graphical content to save your data plan if you're not accessing the site over WiFi.   The site is essentially an electronic press kit, where you can watch videos, listen to all our music, and obtain bios and pictures for your own use.  We also have links to some of the radio stations that are playing our music and if you're a radio host and you want us to add your station to the list, drop us an email.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the shows on the tour and thank you for your continued support of Nova Scotian New Age music.   According to the Guardian newspaper, New Age and Instrumental music is being recognized as "cool" and those of us who have been playing it for a while can't agree more.

Cheers, Bob

Setting off on Tour

A few days from now, I'll be heading out on the road for a seven week tour of Maine, New Brunswick, Ontario, Wisconsin, Minneapolis, Massachusetts, Virginia and Pennsylvania (along with transit through points in between).

The tour starts in on July 29 in Lubec, ME at the Puffin Room, crosses over the bridge to Campobello Island for Campobello Fogfest (July 30), then up to Northwestern Ontario for Live From The Rock (Aug 5/6/7) followed by Trout Forest Music Festival (Aug 12/13/14).  From Ontario, I cross into Wisconsin and Minnesota for dates in Appleton (Aug 17), Eau Claire (Aug 18), Madison (Aug 20), and St. Paul (Aug 21).

Norfolk, MA is next up on Aug 26 with a double bill featuring a song swap with Debra Cowan - my Local 1000 Musicians Union sister.  The next afternoon, I'll be live on Root 'n' Branch, hosted by Russ Smith on WUMD 89.3 FM in Dartmouth, MA. No trip to Massachusetts would be complete without a stop into Abundant Haven in Hopkinton and that's where I'll be in the evening of Aug 27 after the radio appearance. 

Labour Day weekend sees me in Roanoke, VA (Sept 2) and Chapel Hill, PA (suburban Harrisburg - Sept 3) and then the following weekend (Sept 10) the tour winds up by kicking off the 2016/2017 season of The Old Lynn Concert series in Lynn, PA.

In between these dates, there will be some travel time and I'm hoping to find some open mics along the way to pop in an strut and fret my hour (or at least a couple of songs).  And if you're somewhere close to the route and were wondering what it would be like to host a Bob house concert, please get in touch.

You can find more details including locations and contact information at bobardern.ca/giglistings.html and if you want the schedule in a simple table that you can copy or print, you can find it in PDF format here.

I'm looking forward to heading out on this trip.  We'll be visiting some places we haven't been to for several years and others that are new territory.  It will be great to connect with some old friends and to make some new ones as well.  In particular sharing the stages with other musicians at the festivals will be a treat.

Best wishes as you travel down your own musical journey - hope to see you out along the road.

Cheers, Bob

bobardern.ca
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Three Weeks On The Road And An Award

May is almost over and it's been alternating busy and lazy.   As regular readers will know, we went down to New Orleans early in the month to attend the 12th Annual Zone Music Reporter Awards.  Zone Music Reporter is the industry source for many genres of music including Instrumental, New Age, World, Ambient, Electronic, Solo Piano, Relaxation and  others.  They track radio play and publish a monthly album chart and a yearly top 100 chart.

Each year ZMR puts on an Awards show to recognize the best in 13 categories of music as voted for by member station DJs and Program Hosts.   The festivities include a Meet & Greet the night before the show, which is held in the French Quarter of New Orleans.  The evening was a great opportunity to catch up with people from far-flung places that we communicate with electronically most of the time.

If you've been reading this blog, you will already know that Eight Winds was a nominee for Best Instrumental Album - Acoustic and we are thrilled that it won.  The competition for my category in particular and all the categories in general this year was pretty strong so to have been chosen the best is an incredible honour.  Many, many thanks to all the DJs that voted for Eight Winds and for all the hosts that play my music in particular and the genre of instrumental music in general.

After the Show, we headed off into the Gulf Coast of Mississippi and the Florida Panhandle for a few days R&R.  Given that it snowed two days before we left, it was lovely to enjoy the hot weather and dip our feet into the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.  We discovered several State Parks and National Forest campgrounds that were peaceful places to relax and recharge - most of them were internet-free zones pretty much forcing us to turn off the electronic connections for a while.

After the break, we headed to Montreat, NC for our first time attending SERFA's annual conference (South East Regional Folk Alliance).  We've been to the North East Region (NERFA) a couple of times and were looking to extend our reach into the south.  SERFA is three days of workshops and seminars during the day followed by evening and night of live music, jams, song circles and showcases.    It's not as big as NERFA, making it a little easier to meet people and have conversations and share the business and the playing of being an independent musician.

As soon as SERFA was done, we hit the road to come home with brief stops to visit friends along the way.  We're now back in Lunenburg, with a task list to work our way through including all of the advance work for the next tour, which starts in Lubec, ME on July 29, runs through several festivals in New Brunswick and Ontario,  a series of coffehouses and house concerts in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Massachusetts and Virgina, winding up in Lynn, PA on September 10.    We are still adding a few more dates to the tour and we'll let you know more details as they become available.

In the meantime, thanks for giving us a listen and we wish you well on wherever your musical journey takes you.  Hope to see you out there soon.

Cheers, Bob

bobardern.ca

Best Instrumental Album - Acoustic Nomination

Winter's last blast (at least I hope it's the last) hit Lunenburg just as we were coming home from a couple of weeks in St. Lucia.  Still, it's sunny today and Environment Canada is calling for a warmer than normal spring.  YAY!

One of the ways Canadians escape the cold is to head south and we'll be doing just that come May.   We've just learned that Eight Winds has been nominated for Best Instrumental Album - Acoustic in the Zone Music Reporter (ZMR) 2015 Awards.   It came as quite a surprise because the CD has only been out for a short time.  It broke into the ZMR chart in November at number 41 and has since risen to number 17 in the January charts.   Eight Winds made it on to the shortlist for the award by getting into the November chart and we were very pleasantly suprised to hear from ZMR that it is one of 5 nominees for the award.

Thanks are due to David Findlay for his excellent job of production and to Duncan Woodcock for co-writing three of the songs and lending his finger-style playing to the tracks on the CD.  The competition will be stiff - the other nominees are also great albums.  Of course it's an honour to be nominated and it would be an even greater moment on the musical journey if we should win. 

Also, a great vote of thanks is due to all the radio program hosts who have been featuring Eight Winds on their shows and who chose the CD in the initial round of voting.   The winners of all the categories will be announced at the ZMR Awards Presentation and Show at the Joy Theater in New Orleans on May 7.  We were planning on going to NOLA for the show and already had our hotel reservation when the nominees were announced so now it's going to be both entertaining and nail-bitingly nerve-wracking in equal amounts.  It will be great to connect in real life with people we met a few years ago (when Wires Rosewood & Roots was nominated) and to meet more of the people who support New Age and Instrumental Music on radio.

In related news, reviewer extraordinaire Bill Binkelman has had a chance to review Eight Winds and put up his thoughts in Binkelman's Corner.  To read Bill's thoughts on the CD, pop over to ZMR.

Now we're off to the grocery store to restock the fridge which is empty after two weeks away.  More to come in the near future about our musical journey.

Cheers, Bob

bobardern.ca

A 2015 Retrospective and Some 2016 Plans

It's New Year's Eve in Lunenburg and time to have a quick look back at 2015 and to let you know about some of the things coming up in 2016.  We had a green Christmas but the snow started falling a few days ago and now we're in the white wonderland that is Nova Scotia in the winter.

We are celebrating a number of successes from this year and looking to build on them for 2016.   2015 started with Craftsman being ranked at #15 on the Zone Music Reporter top 100 albums of 2014 after peaking at #2 on the monthly charts.  Thanks to Ed and Stacey Bonk of LAZZ Promotions for their efforts in support of the CD.

I was off on my travels in May for a tour through New England, playing coffee shops, house concerts, and a couple of festivals from Maine to Rhode Island.  

The big news was the release of Eight Winds in the latter part of the year.  The CD went out in early November and we're very pleased that it has been receiving airplay and very positive feedback.   The production of a CD is a team effort and many thanks are due to everyone who contributed to the recording and manufacturing:

• Lisa Buchanan of Focus Gallery in Shelburne, NS provided photographs;
• David Findlay produced the project, mixed and mastered it and played on a number of the tracks;
• Alex Hickey helped with artwork layout and converted it to InDesign for production;
• Duncan Woodcock co-wrote three of the songs and played on those duets.

Of course, a huge debt of gratitude goes to all the program hosts who play it, all the loyal fans who have bought it or streamed it on-line and everyone who has come out to a perfomance to hear me play live.

The other major high for me was that I was invited to play at the Lancaster (UK) Music Festival in October.   The LMF was my first major festival in Britain and it was a great pleasure to participate.  The LMF organizers estimate that around 60,000 people attended festival events over the weekend.  They didn't all come and see my performances <smile> but it was great to meet everyone who did come out and support live music.  I also found time to hear some of the 200 or so other musicians, which is a fringe benefit to playing at festivals.

Work is now underway to make 2016 another great year of music.  The music gods are continuing to treat me well and sending ideas for new compositions.  One of the reviewers of Eight Winds asked me where the ideas for my music come from and I had to answer that I honestly don't know.  Melody lines come in to my head and I tinker away at them until I have a cohesive piece.  Sometimes it takes a very short time, sometimes it takes weeks before it all comes together and I do understand the process I go through;  I just don't totally understand how the ideas get there.

Live performances will be a big part of 2016 as well.  I'm very pleased to announce that I have been booked for a couple of festivals in North Western Ontario in the summer and plans are taking shape for a return to Nova Scotia through the Midwestern US and the North East as well.  So far I have a confirmed date at a monthly concert series, and we're working on details for three house concerts.   More to come once things are confirmed.

Best wishes for a happy, healthy and prosperous 2016.  Hope to see you out on the road somewhere and we wish you all joy wherever the journey takes you.

Cheers, Bob

bobardern.ca
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Eight Winds Available Online

Eight Winds Released

We are extremely pleased to announce that Eight Winds is now available online.  It has been a while in the production;  I started composing almost as soon as Craftsman was released and a couple of the songs date back to the 1970's.

Eight Winds comprises 11 guitar instrumentals with a bonus re-arrangment of one of the 11.  Eight of them are Bob originals and, a special treat for me, three are duets co-written by my long-time friend Duncan Woodcock.  In case you haven't seen some of the earlier blog entries,  Duncan and I met in school back when dinosaurs were still the dominant life forms.   When I first started learning to play guitar, Duncan showed me how to play finger-style and that way of playing has stuck with me ever since.

We have always been attuned musically and back in the 1970's we co-wrote two guitar instrumentals but never had good recordings of them.  This past May, Duncan came to Lunenburg on vacation and we had the perfect opportunity to record them.  They are good enough pieces to include them on the album and with Duncan's approval and active participation, Eight Winds includes the two songs.   While he was here, we composed a third piece and it too is on the CD.

As with the previous instrumental albums, Eight Winds owes a great deal to David Findlay of Otitis Media in Lunenburg.  Multi-instrumentalist Dave adds his considerable musical talents to the CD and is responsible for mixing, mastering and overall production.    For more information on the album and the process that went into the production, please read the feature article written by Michael Diamond of Music and Media Focus.  You can find the article here.

Listen Online

You can listen to Eight Winds online at my website.  You can also listen and purchase the CD direct from Bandcamp. The album is also available on iTunes, Amazon and CD Baby if you prefer those outlets. 

Leaving For Lancaster 

I was Leaving for Lunenburg on Come From Away but now I'm packing my bags to leave for the UK. I have been invited to perform at the Lancaster Music Festival October 8-12.  They have booked me in for 6 performances throughout the weekend.  Duncan lives in Lancaster and I'm very pleased that he will be joining me on stage throughout the festival.

Full details of dates, times and locations are available on the Shows page of my website.  All of the festival venues are in the heart of Lancaster and complete details of performers, venues and much more information are available on the festival website.

While I am in the UK, I also have the great pleasure of performing an opening set for one of my musical heroes, Wizz Jones.  Wizz is playing at the Folk - Blues and Beyond Club in Hope, Derbyshire on October 15 and it will be a great honour for me to share the stage with one of the masters of English folk music.  Details on the club website.

That's all for now.  Hope you enjoy the new music and I hope you can make it out to one of the shows.

Cheers, Bob
bobardern.ca

CDs and Tours

August has rolled around and we're suddenly in the midst of an election campaign.  Fear not.  I'm not going to express any political opinions in this blog. There are enough people out there who will deluge the country in political statements without me adding to them.

Eight Winds
That's the title of my new album which is in the can and will be going to the presses shortly.  As with the previous two instrumental CDs, Eight Winds has been produced by David Findlay at Otitis Media in Lunenburg,  In addition to the production, Dave has also lent his considerable musical talent to the project.  We were in the studio doing final polishing a few days ago and he expressed the opinion that it is the best we've done so far.

A particular treat during the production of Eight Winds has been the addition of three duets co-written by my friend Duncan Woodcock. Duncan was the one who introduced me to finger-style guitar when I was first learning to play.   He lives in the UK so we don't get together very often.   In May, he came to Lunenburg for a visit and we spent a good deal of the time playing guitars.  

Several years ago, we co-wrote a couple of guitar duets but we never had good quality recordings of them.  While Duncan was in Nova Scotia, we wrote a third piece.   I asked if he would play on Eight Winds and whether we could include the three tracks on the CD.  I'm pleased to say he was very happy to participate so we went up to the attic and recorded the guitar parts then spent a couple of afternoons with the talented Mr. Findlay.

The finished version of the CD will include 11 tracks plus a bonus.  Eight of them are Bob originals and three are the afore-mentioned co-writes.   The bonus track is an alternative mix to one of the co-writes.   While we were mixing the new song we'd written, David added some percussion, piano and a bass track.    After listening to both the guitars-only duet and the "full band" version, we had difficulty deciding which should be on the CD, so they both are.   I prefer the guitars only version;  Duncan prefers the full band version.   David was very diplomatic and didn't cast a deciding vote.

Eight Winds will be available on CD and as a digital download.  You will be able to order CDs and digital copies from my website and I will have CDs and download cards available at live performances.  As I'm composing this blog, download cards are at the printer.   The CD artwork is complete and is being entered into the format that the manufacturer requires for printing.  If all goes to plan, we should have the CDs made in September and we will be looking into a formal release some time after that.

UK Tour
Also coming up in the near future is a visit to the United Kingdom on a short tour.   In October, I'll be performing at the Lancaster Music Festival.  I am pleased to announce that Duncan will be joining me on stage for some of the performances.

Through the miracle of technology, we've been working up a number of songs for the set list, including the three duets on Eight Winds and also working up duet arrangments of some of our other songs.   I'll be in Lancaster for a few days prior to the festival and we're going to be spending most of the time rehearsing.

In addition to the festival, I will also be appearing at The New Mills Folk Club doing a short guest set and I'm in negotiations with a venue in Poynton, Cheshire.  More details will be announced as they become available.

I'm still waiting for final confirmation but a big thrill for me will be performing an opening set for one of my musical heroes, Wizz Jones.  Wizz will be playing in Hope, Derbyshire near where I'm staying.  I was originally just planning to be part of the audience but on the basis that you don't get it if you don't ask, I emailed the club organizers and asked if I could do an opening set.  They have tentatively agreed so it will be my great pleasure to share the stage with Wizz.

I'm still looking into additions to the tour but for now, that's all we can formally announce.  It's been a busy summer and it will be a busy fall.  As always, thanks for reading this far and thank you for your support.

Cheers, Bob

bobardern.ca

Home again from New England

May has been a bit of a whirlwind.  My long-time friend and occasional collaborator Duncan Woodcock came to Lunenburg for a visit.  We spent much of his time here playing music.  Way back in the annals of history, we wrote a couple of instrumental pieces.  One piece is called Crusaders and Jesters, the second, written three years later, is called Three Years On.  We had only a poor quality recording of one and Duncan had recorded the other on one of his CDs but we did not have good versions of the two of us playing them together.

First thing we needed to do was a bit of rehearsal but it didn't take us long to get back in the swing of it, so we popped upstairs to the Lincoln Street Studio and recorded Duncan's parts and my parts for the two tracks.  We then went over to Otitis Media where David Findlay, producer extraordinaire, added a little bass and percussion to one of them, did his usual excellent clean and shine and gave us what we believe are the "definitive" versions of the two tracks music.

With that experience under our belts, we started working on new material and in surprisingly little time, came up with another duet, called 50 Not Out.   Upstairs we went again to the studio and laid down the two guitar parts and then went back to David's where we came up with two versions of the new piece.  One is just the two acoustic guitars, one has bass and percussion.  Duncan really likes the "full band" version and I prefer the acoustic version, but they're both good.

As you may know if you've been following my blog, I've been working on a new album, called Eight Winds, over the winter and with Duncan's approval, I'm going to include all three songs on it with the acoustic version of 50 Not Out probably the one that makes in onto the album.

It would be unfair of me to tease you with the prospect of new music and then not let you hear it so here is a link to preliminary versions of the three duets on a hidden page on my website.

The second half of May was equally active as I headed down into New England for a short tour.  The anchor date was the Water Wood & Wire Festival sponsored by Cobscook Bay Music in Lubec, ME.  WW&W featured your humble correspondent and two other talented guitar players, Frank Fotusky and Attila Vural, playing a variety of concerts and workshops over the weekend.

Following that weekend, I was down into Massachusetts and Rhode Island for a few more days before heading back to Lunenburg.  In the interim, I was corresponding with Duncan over another musical opportunity which may come to fruition in the coming months.  More about that when plans are starting to gel.  Keep your fingers crossed and watch this space or follow me on Facebook for more details in the next few weeks.

Cheers, Bob
bobardern.ca

Better Late Than Never

Winter appears to be over finally, although we did get some wet flurries on the South Shore yesterday.  It has been a brutal winter by Nova Scotian standards but the snow has melted, the tour bus has been rescued from its sleep under the cover and in the drifts, and soon your humble correspondent will be heading off to New England for a couple of weeks armed with a couple of guitars and some new material.

During the inclement weather, we've been busy working on a new album which will be titled Eight Winds when it is released in a few months.  As with Wires Rosewood & Roots and Craftsman, Eight Winds is being recorded at Otitis Media in Lunenburg and produced by David Findlay, who has also added his many musical talents to additional instrumentation to complement the guitar.

So far, we have eight songs completed and plans to add a few more.   Plans include a guest appearance from Duncan Woodcock, a friend of mine who taught me to play fingerstyle long ago in the dawn of time.  Back then, Duncan and I co-wrote a couple of instrumentals that have stood the test of time and we're going to put them on the album.  We're getting together in Lunenburg in a few days and the plan is to see if we can come up with a couple more that we can add to Eight Winds so the album will be a something of a collaboration.

As soon as Duncan heads home (in fact, the day before), I will be heading back out on the road to play a two week, three-weekend tour of Maine, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.  Dates confirmed are as follows.  Follow the links for more details on each event.

May 15/16/17:   Water Wood and Wire Festival in Lubec, ME.
This three-day festival will feature Bob, Atilla Vural and Frank Fotusky - three different styles of guitar playing performing in concerts, songwriters in the round and instructional workshops.

May 22: House Concert in Hopkinton, MA
Bob returns to one of his favourite venues - Abundant Haven in Hopkinton, MA Reservations and directions at the Abundant Haven website.

May 23: Sandywoods Folk Festival in Tiverton, RI
Memorial Day weekend sees the Sandywoods Folk Festival originally scheduled for two days but scaled back to a one-day extravaganza on May 23. The festival runs from 11:00 am to 10:00 pm. The schedule is still being finalized so check back with the festival or with Bob for more details.

May 26: The Center for Arts in Natick, MA
TCAN (The Center for Arts in Natick) hosts an open mic every two weeks and Bob will be the feature performer in May. Come on down, bring an instrument and show off your talents during the open mic and hear Bob's set in the middle.

May 29: Acoustic Cafe Open Mic in Groton, MA
It's off to Groton, MA for a new adventure - the Main Street Cafe for the Acoustic Cafe Open Mic. More opportunity for you to strut and fret your hour (ok, 15 minutes) and catch Bob again.

May 31: The Java Room in Chelmsford, MA
Last stop on the tour is in Chelmsford, MA playing for the Sunday Brunch Crowd at The Java Room. Bob will be jealously watching the bacon and eggs being brought to your table while he plays for your entertainment.

At all of these events, we will have download cards with the pre-release versions of the new material on them.  The download cards will access a private Bandcamp page that will allow you to download the finished versions of the eight songs so far complete for Eight Winds.   Of course, if you're reading this far from New England and won't be able to attend any of the shows, just email us and we'll make sure you can get to the download page.

Hope to see you somewhere along the musical journey.  As Dean McTaggart says, "The joy's in the ride."

bobardern.ca

All Quiet On The South Shore (for another few days)

Regular readers will have noticed a certain quiet emanating from the Musings in the past few months. While much has been happening behind the scenes, it has not been so earth-shatteringly important as to warrant blogging about. However, that is all about to change. . .

Next week your humble correspondent is heading back out on the road for a visit to New England and Ontario playing seven shows plus hosting a guitar workshop along the way.  One more was scheduled in Westport, CT but I've just heard it's been cancelled. Here's a list of the confirmed dates on the tour (all times Eastern):

• Nov 8, 2:00 pm -  Guitar Workshop - Thomas More College, Merrimack, NH
• Nov 8, 8:00 pm - Concert - Thomas More College, Merrimack, NH
• Nov 12, 7:30 pm - Songwriters Circle - Harvest Cafe, Hudson, MA
• Nov 14, 7:30 pm - House Concert - Abundant Haven, Hopkinton, MA
• Nov 17, 9:30 pm - Open Mic Feature Set - Horseshoe Cafe, Southport, CT
• Nov 19, 8:00 pm - Concert - Musiikki Cafe, Kingston, ON
• Nov 21, 8:00 pm - House Concert - Take Note Music House, Barrie, ON
• Nov 22, 7:30 pm - House Concert - Hilltop House Concerts, Perth ON

My website "Shows" page contains more information on the events - including contact information for the house concerts and addresses for all the other events. You can also send me an email and I'll send you all the details. We'd love to see you out at any of the events.  Here's a video of the kind of thing you'll see.

We are very excited to announce that through the facilities of Hilltop House Concerts, the last house concert on the tour (Nov 22) will be live-streamed to the internet. Here's a link to the NuMuBu music industry nextwork website whichHilltop will be using to share the show.

I've also started work on a couple of tours in 2015 already - one in May (which may included the cancelled Wesport show) and another one in November. I can't talk about details yet because much of it is still to be confirmed but a "Guitar Summit" may well be part of the May tour. Watch this space for more details.

In the meantime, as they used to close out The Dead Dog Cafe - Stay Strong, Be Brave and Wait For The Signs.

bobardern.ca

Fighting with Computers

Ah, the joys of computers.  They're an essential part of my job - you know, being a musician where I spend every night playing in front of thousands of cheering fans, go to after parties and ingest recreational pharmeceuticals, have sex with nubile young groupies (sometimes two or three at a time), then sleep till 4 pm in the tour bus while my driver gets me to the next gig.

Sorry, I should have put "irony alert" at the top of that description. 

In the real world where I live, I spend a lot of time at my desk using my computer - like right now as I'm composing this blog entry.  Don't get me wrong.  I need the computer and the new one I have is blindingly fast with a hi-res wide screen monitor.  It is an essential tool for many of the things I need to do as an independent business person whose product is music.

The problem I have is with the programs.  Actually, it's with the programmers and developers.  Full disclosure: I am a retired computer geek.  My degree is in Computer Science and I spent 17 years of my earlier life writing software.  So I know the theory and I remember a lot of the things I was taught in programmer school.

The concept of an "almost working computer program" was compared to the concept of being "almost pregnant."  Also when someone said, "The computer screwed up" at least two human errors had occured, one of which was saying the computer screwed up.

When I was learning the trade, people were cheap and hardware was expensive.  It was better to spend person-hours developing incredibly efficient software so that it would run fast on slow small machines.  We were taught "Don't just get it working, get it right!"  and we were graded on how good the software was, not just whether it worked.

Now hardware is cheap and people are expensive, so priorities have changed.  It's cheaper to get bigger and faster hardware than to spend expensive human resources on developing efficient code.  With the pressures of the marketplace to bring out something newer, bigger, shinier, the mantra is "Don't get it right, just get it working."   In other words, get it out the door and we'll fix the bugs in a maintenance release.

I just installed a Windows 7 partition on Julia's Mac, so she can use some software for which there is no Mac version.  It's a legal copy with Microsoft logos and product codes all over the DVD.  The very first thing I had to do after installing it was to download 152 security updates. 152 - and that's just the critical stuff, not even the optional ones.

Julia came into my office a couple of days ago and asked what all my cursing and swearing was about.  I've been editing videos of the All Day Breakfast Tour and the editing software has some "interesting" behaviours.  Again, full disclosure, I'm learning how to use it but I have run into several instances of counter-intuitiveness coupled with an absence of detailed documentation.  A number of times I have wondered what they were thinking? 

I could go on.  I'm sure you've had your own fights with computers.  It's a love-hate relationship.  I couldn't do my job without one but sometimes the idiocy of the people who designed and wrote the programs drives me crazy.  Maybe if they did a bit more research into what people do with the software, the programs would be better.

With the video editing software, I'm ahead on points and I think if I go the distance I'll win but it will be a split decision.   Watch this space - when we're ready to release the finished videos, I think you'll like them. 

May - The tour's over and it's back to work.

As you know if you've read earlier posts in the blog, a good portion of April was spent on the road touring in the US Northeast with Manitoba Hal on The All Day Breakfast Tour. See the previous posts for how we started out. In summary, we had a fabulous time playing at house concerts, arts centers, radio stations, coffeehouses and a couple of open mics.

The performance evolved as we played. At the first gig, we did a separate solo set each followed by a third set of duets. After a conversation in the van, we changed the format so that we did the first set as a song-swap, both on stage at the same time. This format allowed us to exchange ideas, play off each other and generally have fun with the music. As Hal has said many times, "We're not just musicians, we're entertainers." We are good musicians and the audiences are music fans but the All Day Breakfast stage show is about connecting with the crowd and making sure they have a great experience.

There were many memorable experiences, including getting up at 6:00 am to drive from Orleans, MA to Provincetown at the end of Cape Cod. Our host, Tim Sweeney, told me that Provincetown is a beautiful place but it was a cold foggy day and we couldn't see much of anything. It was very like Lunenburg when the fog rolls in off the sea - the mournful cry of the foghorn and visibility measured in centimetres (OK, inches because it was the US). The reason we were up so early was to appear live on WOMR Radio with host Kathy Tarr. I discovered later that OMR stands for OuterMostRadio because of its position at the end of the road.

Later that night after zooming from Provincetown to Malden, MA, we played in the First Lutheran Church in a fund-raising concert for the church's Food For Life program. The next night we went back to Orleans (I gotta talk to the booking guy about itineraries for the next tour) for a show at the Old Firehouse. It seems that a lot of people are up and about at 7 am on Cape Cod listening to Kathy's program because half the audience had heard us on the radio.

A few nights later, we're having dinner before our gig at the Bing Arts Center in Springfield, MA. I'm facing the door and I see a woman who looked a lot like Nicole Colbeck (our manager) come in. I said to Hal, "That woman looks like Nicole." The reason it looked like Nicole is because it was Nicole. She was on her way to Lennox, MA on family business and it's only an hour from there to Springfield, so she and her lovely daughters, Carolynne and Léanne, came out to the show. Hal knew they were coming but they kept it a secret from me until they actually arrived.

The fun side of the ADB tour was about finding breakfast joints along the road. Our best story was in Brewer, ME outside of Bangor. We're on our way to the last gig in Lubec and we stop in the Eagle's Nest, a lovely little diner right on the Penobscot River. Their menu says Breakfast Served Till 11am. Undaunted, we cast our eyes down the menu and discover on the lunch menu a "Toasted bacon and fried egg sandwich." They tried to dress it up as lunch by serving it with french fries and a dill pickle but what part of bacon, eggs, and toast is not breakfast and if they can cook all those things at 2:45, why can't they serve breakfast after 11?

The finale of the tour was held at The Crow Town Gallery outside of Lubec, ME. It's a beautiful spot with a great view across Cobscook Bay. We had a fabulous time. The room was pretty much full and we received a standing ovation and did a couple of encores. Fred Pierce (head honcho of Cobscook Bay Music) shot a video of the entire performance and one of my next tasks is to do a little editing and post some of the performance on YouTube. Watch this space for details.

So now it's back to work:  bookkeeping, booking the next gigs, editing videos, preparing showcase applications, writing blogs and if there's time, perhaps playing the guitar (and my new bouzouki).  A huge shout out to everyone we met on the first All Day Breakfast Tour. Many people came out to see us play, gave us bed and board, had enough faith in us to book us for their venues and bought our music. At one show, I was adding Facebook friends during the intermission. To quote Chuck Brodsky, "For the kindness of strangers, I often give thanks." Without all the kindness you have given to Manitoba Hal and me along the happy trail, we would be much poorer. We're planning another tour in the fall. Hope to see you along the road. 

bobardern.ca

April - Craftsman and The All Day Breakfast Tour

Hello from the road.  Your humble correspondent has embarked on the All Day Breakfast Tour with my good friend Manitoba Hal.  At the time of writing, we are ensconsed at the Abundant Haven in Hopkinton, MA rehearsing and getting ready for the first gig on the tour.  We did a dress rehearsal this evening in Northborough and it sounded pretty good for a first time on stage.  In truth, Hal and I have been on stage at the same time before at festival workshops but this is the first time we're doing it as a planned double act.

On my way to the first gig on this tour (one of two Bob solo dates) I stopped in the post office in Calais, Me and sent out around 150 or so copies of Craftsman to radio stations around the US.  Just before I left on the tour, I took another 35 or so copies to the Lunenburg post office for destinations in Canada and overseas - mostly Europe but also to Korea and Australia.

As an aside, a few more reviews of Craftsman have come in and you can find links to them on the reviews page of bobardern.ca.

But back to the All Day Breakfast Tour.  The show comprises three sets, a solo set of Bob (mostly instrumentals but the odd vocal might creep in), a solo set of Hal (with offerings from his new double CD Down In The Kitchen) and a closing set of duets featuring both Bob and Hal originals arranged for two guitars or guitar and ukelele.  The dates include Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Maine.  Full details of dates and locations are available at alldaybreakfasttour.com  Contact information for us is also available on the tour website.  In addition to the performances, Hal and I will also be appearing on radio station WOMR in Provincetown, MA on Tuesday morning (April 8).

Interlude. . .

I put down the blog for a while and am now just getting back to it.  In the interim, we went to the Luthier's  Co-op in Easthampton, MA for the first official gig.  The Co-op is an interesting venue, part neighbourhood bar part guitar shop concentrating on vintage and used instruments.  Hal and I wandered around the place looking at instruments before the show.  Tonight (as I type this) we're off to the Armagh Coffeehouse in Concord, MA. 

It's the usual whirlwind of a tour and if you want to follow what we're doing (including pictures of every diner where we go for All Day Breakfast) you can follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BobALunenburg and https://www.facebook.com/hal.brolund.

Coming to finer diners and breakfast joints throughout the Northeast, this is the All Day Breakfast Tour signing off for now.

Cheers, Bob

bobardern.ca

Don't just take my word for it . . .

While Dave Findlay and I were working on Craftsman, we were confident we had a good album.  The music was good, the performances from all the musicians were good, the artwork was good, but there's always a feeling of trepidation when you show off your baby to the world for the first time.  We needn't have worried.  We've just had the first review and the news is good.  Bill Binkleman likes it too.  Cue the huge sigh of relief. Here's a couple of  snippets from Bill's review:

Craftsman is a delightful album, one that, if you are a fan of "down home" acoustic music, with influences from the rich tradition of folk and roots music, as well as hints of Appalachian hill music, you are certain to enjoy it.

Craftsman is an apt title for this highly listenable and hugely entertaining recording. Bob Ardern takes the making of music seriously, but not the music itself, i.e. there is a lot of fun present on the recording, and while there are some quieter or slightly darker moments, they are few and far between. Along with his guest players, Ardern puts his "craft" on display throughout the album, not in an overly showy "look-at-me" way, but in simple, unostentatious fashion that leaves no doubt as to the quality of the "product."

The review will be posted on Binkleman's Corner at Zone Music Reporter in a few weeks, but in the meantime you can read the entire review on my website at: http://www.bobardern.ca/reviews/binklemancraftsman.html 

Our Indiegogo fundraising campaign is winding down.  We haven't raised as much as we'd have liked so we're asking one more time for any support you can provide.  Many thanks to those who have pre-ordered the CD and thanks in advance if you're planning to join in the next few days.

Here's where you can view the campaign and contribute.      

The manufacturing is done for Craftsman and I have copies of the disk in my office so if you order the CD before the end of the campaign, an autographed copy will be sent to you as soon as we process the order.

Now, in an agony of haste, I have to get ready to go out on tour.  At the end of the month, I'm hitting the road for three weeks to do a couple of solo shows and several double bill shows with my good friend Manitoba Hal.  The All Day Breakfast Tour will take us into New England, New York and New Jersey.

Details of all the dates on the Performance page of my website.   

We're still looking into the details but there may be a stop in Lunenburg at the end of the tour as well.  Watch this space.

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

December and Home Again.

It's great to be back on the South Shore after 6 weeks on the road.  It was a fabulous tour with a couple of conferences, many new friends, invitations to come back and play again.   One of my favourite comments from a host after my performance, "That was absolutely great.  This is why I host house concerts."

But that was then and this is now.  The life of an independent musician comprises so much more than the time on stage.  I had a conversation at the NERFA conference with someone who is not a musician and she asked if I did music full-time.  I said, "The short answer is Yes.  The long answer is that I'm a small-business entrepreneur whose product is music, so I do booking, rehearsals, recording, bookkeeping, sales, purchasing, etc, etc, etc."

The next project is the completion of Craftsman, the new album.  The CD will comprise 11 instrumental pieces.  Three of them are guitar solos and the other eight have other instrumentation on them to complement the guitar sound.   There will also be a bonus track, which will be a guitar-only version of one of the eight.   The album is being produced by David Findlay at Otitis Media in Lunenburg, NS.   The recording is more or less complete and we still have final mixing and mastering to do which will take place over the next couple of weeks.

To help with the cost of production and marketing, we're going to be launching a crowd-funding campaign in January.   Details are still being worked out but the campaign will allow you to pre-purchase CDs and downloads of the music - you'll get your copy in advance of the official release.   You will also be able to arrange a house concert - I will come to where you are and play for you and your friends or you will be able to book a two-hour instructional workshop with your humble correspondent and learn some of the techniques and tips and tricks of finger-style guitar. 

In addition to finalizing the CD, I'm booking some tour dates in the spring to coincide with the official release.  The current target date is the beginning of April and I already have a couple of dates lined up.  The spring tour may also tie in to a collaborative project with another South Shore musician. Watch this space for more details.

Finally, a huge Thank You to all the people who supported me along the Finger-Style and Fall Colours Tour.  Meeting house concert hosts and becoming friends, sharing a stage with other musicians, just hanging out at conferences listening to others play and seeing places in the world I've never been before - these are some of the reasons I became a musician.

Best wishes for the holiday season - Happy Hannukah, Merry Christmas, Happy Solstice - whatever your reason to celebrate, we wish you a happy time.

Cheers, Bob

Visit the website at bobardern.ca 

Musings from The Road

This will necessarily be a quick note.  Your humble correspondent has been on the road for nearly 6 weeks and have been having great fun and adventures.  I'm sitting in the foyer of the Outer Space in Hamden, CT doing a quick update while waiting for sound check for the gig.

Last weekend was my first attendance at the North East Regional Folk Alliance Conference (NERFA) in Kerhonkson, NY and it was a great experience.  Thanks to the NERFA board for all the organization that goes into putting on a conference of that size.    I met a number of people during the weekend and as soon as I get home next Sunday, I'll be updating my e-mail list and a putting in a much longer blog entry with some stories from the road.   I've been pretty good about keeping a journal so I can remember all the details of the Finger-Style and Fall Colours Tour.

The tour so far has included Montreal and Missisauga, Williamsport and Lock Haven PA, Hopkinton and Westborough, MA, Tiverton, RI, Kerhonson and Hyde Park, NY, Montpelier, VT and soon-to-be the afore-mentioned Hamden, CT.   Still to come are Morrisville, VT,  Framingham, MA, Lubec, ME and Breadalbane, PEI.    Details of the remaining dates are on my website Performance page and I'd be honoured if you get a chance to come out to one of them.

Many thanks are due to a load of people we've met along the way.  Aside from new fans, I have a load of new friends.  One of the benefits of playing in new places is meeting new people and when those people make me their friend it's a additional plus.

Keep watching this space for more details.   One of my favourite places is coming up - Lunenburg, NS.   I won't be playing out but it's my own home and my own bed and my sweetie, Julia.   And we've just added a date in December at Fundy Folk at the Evergreen Theatre in Margaretsville.

Hope to see you on the road and wish you safe travelling wherever the music takes you.

Cheers, Bob

bobardern.ca

Finger-style and Fall Colours

I'm excited.  It's almost time to get out and play some music.  Your humble correspondent is just about ready to load up the tour bus, plug in the tunes and let it roll down the highway.  On October 10th, I'm starting out on a 6-week adventure to play 17 shows and a finger-style workshop and attend two conferences.  All the details of dates, locations and time are on the Performance page of my website.  

The Finger-Style and Fall Colours Tour first date is October 11 at the Side Door CoffeeHouse in Pierrefonds, QC (Montreal - the west island).  From there it's a family Thanksgiving weekend, then off to Toronto on the 17th to play The PaintBox Bistro for Coast to Coast Folk - four fine musicians from BC, Ontario and Nova Scotia. As soon as we finish that show, I'm heading off to Mississauga for this year's Folk Music Ontario conference.

I'll be playing some private showcases at FMO followed by a feature set at the Hamilton Folk Club on October 22.  Then I'm then off to the Northeastern US to play Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont and Maine.  Nestled in there is my first attendance at the North East Regional Folk Alliance in upstate New York, where I'll be playing a few guerrilla showcases.  After all the US dates, it's back across the border and over to PEI for a return to The Dunk to make up the date that was snowed out in March.

In between all the preparation for the tour, I've managed to get into the Otitis Media studios in Lunenburg and spend some time with producer David Findlay.  We're working on my new CD, titled Craftsman, which is scheduled for release in early 2014.  Aside from the acoustic guitar by yours truly, Craftsman also features musical contributions from Kev Corbett, Alyssa Wright and David Findlay.  We've completed a preliminary mix of the tunes and I'll have a few pre-release copies with me on the road.  It's going to be a good one.  If you liked Wires Rosewood & Roots, we think you'll love Craftsman.

I hope to see you out at a show on the tour or just hanging out along the way.  I have some off days in the schedule which I'm hoping to get some more writing done and start organizing some spring and summer shows. - Ah, the glamourous life of an independent musician.   I'd give it all up but it's just too much fun.

See you on the road.

Cheers, Bob

bobardern.ca