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All right, y’all. I know I’ve been talking a LOT about the album lately – and I’m still feeling pretty cool about it, of course – but let’s all remember that the reason I did this album was for my gig tonight.

Two forty-minute sets of me. Can you even imagine such a thing?

This is kind of cool, because it’s the longest I’ve ever played on my own. I’ve done full nights in bands before, and I’ve done a single set on my own, but this is a whole lot of me. Seriously, how can you even be considering missing such a spectacle?

So just in case you are thinking of coming, and haven’t been paying attention, I’m playing from 7pm until 9pm at A Thing for Chocolate. That’s at 1262 Wellington West (here’s a map), in the Westboro area (of Ottawa), just about a block west of Holland Avenue.

Come try Omar’s tasty chocolate delights, while listening to my tasty (but possibly not tasteful) music. Sounds like a great night?

Hey y’all,

So the day is here. As I announced on CKCU this morning, The Living Room Recordings has now been officially released. You can buy it on my Bandcamp page.

This is kind of exciting, isn’t it?

 

I was on CKCU’s Special Blend this morning to play a couple songs on the mandolin. That was a pile of fun! I was pretty nervous, but Trish and Ka just did their thing and made it very easy for me. [Note: I buggered a few notes on the mandolin solo on one of the songs; it happens!]

They also played track 11 from the CD, which was cool. That’s the only song that I have other musicians on. My kids play washboard and kazoo, and do backup vocals.

If you want to hear the show, you can go to the Monday Special Blend Playlist page of the CKCU site and click the round CKCU On Demand logo in the top left corner. My portion of the show starts at about twelve and a half minutes in.

Now that the album is out, don’t forget to come to my album release party on Thursday. It’s at 7pm at A Thing for Chocolate, in Westboro.

It could even be fun. You never know.

So, I’ve decided noon tomorrow (Monday) will be my album release. That in itself is pretty cool, but I’m also going to be on the radio!

Yep, The Brew is a show on at 7:00 on Monday mornings. I’m getting up at the crack(-ish) of dawn, bringing my mandolin and a CD, and I’ll be on CKCU. That’s 93.1 FM, y’all. Or you can go on www.ckcu.com and listen to the live stream on their site.

When I get the link for the archive of the show, I’ll post it on here as well.

So, after a trip to Staples (I don’t own a printer), and an intense afternoon of crafting. We have a limited number of CDs of The Living Room Recordings. I’ll be bringing them to my album release party on Thursday night (have I mentioned the album release party?).

If you don’t get one of these on Thursday, have no fear, citizens! Everything you will need to create your own will be included as a PDF with your digital download that you’ll be able to buy off of Bandcamp.

And by the way, my friend Tess Frost sent me a picture of a painting she is doing of a bunch of my instruments and stuff. That’s what you see on the back cover of my CD sleeve.

Here’s a better look at it:

How frigging cool is that? I mean, really! Look at that!

Tess was quite sure that it wouldn’t be done in time, but she totally came through. Of course, there are mutterings of how she could have done this or that better, but I really can’t imagine how.

Let me know if you want to get in touch with Tess. As you can see, she is quite amazing at this stuff!

Okay, so I know I had said I was only going to do downloads – and I had made a plan for making some cool download cards to hand out at my album release – but Trish (of “managing the gig” fame) convinced me that I could do some homebrew CDs  to sell at the gig. I guess that’s a good idea for the people who want something right now, right? Once they walk out the door, they may not love me and want to support me as much as they previously did.

And we DO want to spread the word, after all. So first, I made the download card:

My technical liaison (that would be Mickey-of-the-twelve-years) made the QR code on it. That will take someone directly to this web site, if they feel inclined to scan it.

Then I made some nice little CD sleeves that can be folded and taped up to hold some righteous tunes.

Anyone feel like doing some crafting this afternoon?