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Post by Michael Messer on Apr 13, 2016 7:49:54 GMT
April >World Music Network Chart! Shine On Michael
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Post by Michael Messer on Apr 22, 2016 12:09:06 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2016 16:41:37 GMT
Done - you're way ahead again on 67% Next nearest is Sainkho Namtchylak - so maybe avoid voting for them TT - btw, you must have had an idea that your album was going to do this well, or is it a shock? TT
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Post by slide496 on Apr 22, 2016 21:09:43 GMT
Done by a forum host supporter and Mitra fan! Lawd lawdy, HArriet
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Post by Michael Messer on Apr 23, 2016 8:48:48 GMT
Thanks TT & Harriet, much appreciated.
TT, I really had no idea how the album would be received, especially as the first release on my own label. I have never done it this way before. All my previous albums were financed, released and promoted by record companies. With Call Of The Blues I have done the whole thing myself, including working without a press and radio plugger (these days called a PR person), which almost everybody in the industry told me not to do. The only outside involvement is that I am in a very good situation having negotiated a worldwide distribution deal with Proper Music Distribution. So everything to do with the sales of CDs and downloads side of things, such as Amazon, iTunes, HMV, local record shops, export, US release, Spotify, etc...etc... is handled by Proper Music Distribution. Everything else has been done from MMHQ.
I really did not know what to expect. There was a good lead-up to making the record, pretty much everyone that heard us play gave the project a green light, which did give me enough encouragement to record an album. I also had seen the reaction from audiences when we played at a festival in Switzerland in 2014. By the time we did our tour in April 2015, I had already booked the studio to make the album. However, it wasn't until we got on the road and did some gigs in that April, that we knew what the album would be.
Before deciding to form my own 'Knife Edge Records' label, I did try a few record companies, but nobody was brave enough to invest in a sound that had not been made before. They all told me that creatively it was kind of cool, but radio would not touch it and these days nobody buys CDs, so good luck with your project.
The short answer..... VERY SHOCKED!!!
Shine On Michael
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Post by Michael Messer on May 3, 2016 9:27:05 GMT
May > World Music Network Chart! #1 for the second month running! Thanks to everyone that voted for Call Of The Blues Shine On Michael
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Post by Michael Messer on May 6, 2016 11:22:38 GMT
USA RELEASE DAY!Shine On Michael
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Post by mitchfit on May 8, 2016 0:50:18 GMT
Michael,
gotta cop to it that even back in the Ravi Shankar era i was one who could never import enough chemical supplements to the system to get into the genre. attributed it to a simple case of beer/wine preference. or popularity by osmosis due to his Beatles connection. just never acquired a taste for the scales commonly used the far east, or so i thought.
congrats to you and your band for showing me i just hadn't explored the possibilities in depth.
[or that no one else had]
you really nailed the JJ Cale vocal sound in "Any Way The Wind Blows". was that two separate vocal tracks doubled, or a varying delay length between a wet/dry signal?
also, beginning around 5 minutes through the end in "Sweetheart Darling", are the very high freq ghost sounding notes from the Mohan Veena, or electronically created?
will be getting a copy of this now that it is distributed in the US.
well done to all, mitchfit
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Post by Michael Messer on May 8, 2016 9:21:44 GMT
Hi Mitchfit, Thank you for your kind words! Very much appreciated There is no reason why a person from one culture should enjoy the music of another culture. Music is like food and tastes vary. To answer your questions: The vocal on Anyway The Wind Blows was double tracked, just the same as JJ Cale's original recording was done. (I know this because I once spent two hours on the phone with JJ, but that is another story!) The high frequency notes that you are asking about, are not from the Mohan veena, they are palm-harmonics played by me on my Tricone. There are absolutely no electronically created sounds, effects, or anything like that on this album. Apart from the second double tracked vocal on Anyway The Wind Blows, the album is a recording of what we played completely live, all together at the same time. The electronic drone in the background on Sweetheart Darling is an electronic drone from the iTabla Pro App through an old amp and a few notes from a Hammond organ and Leslie speaker. The keys were wedged down with knives so they just drone right through the song. The two types of drone sounds, iTabla App and Hammond/Leslie, create an eerie version of the Indian classical tampura drone sound. Going back to your original point about Western and Eastern scales; while Manish's Mohan veena playing on this album is unquestionably Indian in every way. He is in fact not playing Indian scales, he is playing blues scales and major scales, but with his own Indian accent. Even the ornamentations that sound so Indian are coming out of the blues or major scale. It is the touch and the accent that makes it Indian sounding. When I play the Mohan veena, which I do at our shows to demonstrate this point, it doesn't sound Indian in any way at all. But when Manish plays my Tricone it sounds completely Indian! Thanks Mitchfit, I am pleased you like the music Shine On Michael
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Post by mitchfit on May 8, 2016 17:45:36 GMT
(I know this because I once spent two hours on the phone with JJ, but that is another story!)
would love to hear more about that in another thread some day.
mitchfit
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Post by Deleted on May 9, 2016 15:59:38 GMT
Are you up for any awards this year? Let us know how to vote if so. TT
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Post by Michael Messer on May 9, 2016 17:10:16 GMT
Thanks TT, you are very kind. There is nothing that know of.
I did just hear that in June Call Of The Blues will be on all BA aircraft inflight entertainment! Thanks to Songlines magazine for that one.
Shine On Michael
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Post by Pickers Ditch on May 9, 2016 17:44:40 GMT
Flyin' High, Michael, Flyin' High.......
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Post by Deleted on Nov 29, 2016 17:14:04 GMT
Congrats to MM and Manish on having the 7th best CD in the universe!!! TT
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Post by Michael Messer on Nov 29, 2016 17:27:03 GMT
Thanks TT!!! USA: >The 100 Best Albums of 2016 by Ted Gioia - 'Call Of The Blues' is #7. Thanks to Ted Gioia for this incredible accolade! tedgioia.com/bestalbumsof2016.html(Ted Gioia is an American jazz critic and music historian who wrote The History of Jazz and Delta Blues, both selected as notable books of the year by The New York Times. Gioia is an editor-in-chief of the Encyclopaedia of Jazz Musicians and one of the founders of Stanford University's jazz studies program) Shine On Michael
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