Folks, on Saturday the 11th of July, at 10am, Doll and I will wander down to our local beach at Tannum Sands, stand on the outdoor stage, and put on a small show to launch the new album, Discovery Coast Dreaming (click on the link to see some of the songs in YouTube).
It’s in tune with our Saltwater Cowboy/Beach Bum ethos.
We’ll go to the beach, play some music, pack up, then wander along the sand afterwards. We may even pop into the surf club afterwards for some snacks and refreshments.
What’s not to like!
Anyway, on with the blog.
This Week
If I thought last week was busy, well, it was just a warmup for this week.
But everything worked out after I’d managed to tick the T’s, cross the I’s and dot all the boxes on a fairly lengthy ‘To Do List’, while also making time to do my ‘real’ job and all the other excruciating minutiae that modern life requires (including finalising last years’ tax stuff and emailing that particular nightmare to my accountant… always fun).
Now, I’ve never designed an album cover before and look, mistakes were made. Let’s not get into a whole thing about ‘who can’t read template instructions’ or ‘size pictures correctly’, or ‘spell properly’ etc.
Let’s just say, once all the yelling and crying had stopped, and I finished drying my eyes, we got the job done; eventually.
The cover:
The CD:
The download cards:
Say Greg, what’s a Download Card?
That’s a Great Question, and I’m so glad you asked it, because, I had no idea myself.
Apparently, if you haven’t got a CD player, or a USB port to play your music on (and a lot of us don’t nowadays… although people are buying record players again, so who knows?) you can instead, support a muso by buying a Download Card, popping onto the website, enter a code and, voila, my songs will download into your phone.
I liked this idea. I liked it a lot.
Not everyone has a CD player, USB sticks get lost, overwritten or forgotten in some drawer. But everyone is stapled to their phones in this modern age.
But, before I committed to something I knew nothing about, I contacted other musicians to see if they’ve had much success with Download Cards.
Not one of them has.
Because not a single one of them have tried Download Cards, but they all admitted they’re super keen to see how I go with them.
Of course they are
Once again, I feel like an avatar of Davey Crockett, plopping on my cyber coon skin hat and stomping off into the virtual wilderness to find the path forward; and getting lost… a lot.
So, I’ve ordered a 100 of the things and am hoping like hell they work with the ease like the nice lady said.
I’m sure they will
Fun Times!
You know, it’s a tricky time for creators (well, it has been ever since the 1400’s when Johannes Gutenberg invented his diabolical printing press and put all those copywriting monks out of work overnight).
Currently, artists and graphic designers are duking it out with AI, writers of all stripes are having their very voices stolen by AI and musicians, well, they’ve been taking it up the shorts since tape recorders were a thing, but more so now thanks to low paying streaming services and, once again, our ol’ mate, AI.
Although, unlike artists and writers, muso’s have the option of playing live and getting paid for turning up to shows by devoted fans; who might also be tempted to buy some other merch while they’re feeling happy and relaxed (aka: drunk).
What sort of merch I bring to the sales table is for Future Greg to sort out… probably next week.
Right now, I’m hoping the CD’s and cards arrive before the launch. Again, I’m sure they will…
In the meantime, I’ve got to rehearse the songs for next weeks’ launch because I’d hate to get the words, or chords, wrong on my own music on the day…
Anyway, until next time, stay safe and stay sane!
Cheers,
Gb