Bandshed Records - "The (not) Willie Mack album"

[GMaq]

Hi LM's!

With very unhappy times occurring on the other side of the  world it's difficult to be too happy about anything but after more than a year of work and collaboration the (not) Willie Mack album is released! The good stuff is at the bottom of the post but hopefully you will enjoy at least some of the story of how it came about...:

These notes are as much for me to remember how this project came to be as to inform the listener... The story of the (not) Willie Mack album.

  Early in winter of 2021  while the Covid-19 Pandemic was going full bore I brought a drumkit into my living room..  Society was still locked down and vaccines were a dim and distant light on the horizon so really why NOT have drums in the living room?!  There was plenty of time to work on music so my original plan was to arrange a couple of Cover tunes I wanted to record and as something new to fend off Covid dementia I planned to track the drums myself. I laid down some bed tracks for 'Grandma's Hands' and 'Have You Ever Loved a Woman' and busied myself with adding some guitars. Around this time there was a bit of a lull in the Covid restrictions and I got a call from my friend Dave "Benny" Williams who was climbing the walls looking for some music to work on so I told him about these new tracks and we agreed to get together so he could lay down some Hammond and Piano parts. Tracking with masks on and remaining in separate rooms took some of the fun of of the proceedings but it didn't hinder Dave from laying down some amazing keys. As the mixes began to take shape I was getting the feeling that these tunes had potential to be much more than demos and an idea to do a collaborative fanboy bluesy album to pay tribute to some of my favourite artists started to take form. A dark and dusty cupboard in the back of my brain opened and I remembered a couple of unreleased songs I had done a few years back as a collaboration with another Dave: Dave Phillips..(yep @davephillips ) This Dave is also a very talented musician, songwriter and one hell of a singer and this I knew having never met the man in person! Dave and I met on the Interwebs pursuing our common interest in Audio software and he'd written a great song called "Get On Board the Blues" and was looking for collaborators a few years back and as it turned out we were both Blues affectionados as well as Geeks. His song and a version of Blind Lemon Jefferson's "See That My Grave is Kept Clean" we had also collaborated on were in need of a little sprucing up but were perfect candidates for this project. As I dug deeper in my tickle trunk of broken dreams and languishing songs I found a couple of Instrumentals I'd written:  'Confluence' orginally worked on with Peter Cox and Jake McLean, and  'Hammond Fried Eggs' and indeed you could have fried eggs on the tubes after Peter and Benny were done with that one! Another Cover that I had been dying to try arranging was Fenton Robinson's "You Don't Know What Love is" and it turned out to be a perfect fit as well. As the tracks were coming together I thought some Funk might provide a nice contrast and a funky lick I'd been messing with as a couch doodle grew into a James-Brown-and-the-Average-White-Band-had-a-love-child called "(She Digs My) Funktionality". It grooved but something was missing... it turned out what it needed was some saxophone and Benny came through and hooked me up with his friend Ken Foster who was missing gigging and looking for something to do. Ken came into the studio and proceeded to slay, his great work transformed the song from lacking focus to being one of the highlights! Meanwhile the eternally sunny disposition of my partner Nancy and our mutual admiration for the slide guitar work of Derek Trucks inspired a Rootsy new song called 'When You Smile (I Can See Your Light)" complete with a surprise sax solo.. I'm blessed to play live with the best rhythm section in the world with my literal and musical family in 'Rated Blue' and my son Connor lent his considerable drumming skills where the old man wasn't quite cutting it and my soul brother Peter Cox manifested his patented 'Thunder Magic' on bass and took some of these tunes to funky town!

  My heartfelt thanks to everyone who were so incredibly generous with their time and talents, this is a really special project to me and it wouldn't have turned out nearly as well without everyone's unique contributions. One last thing to clarify... since this was a collaborative effort I really wanted to release it under a group name and the names Williams and MacArthur gave me a brainwave to use 'Willie Mack' ... I thought it was a lock, it sounded Bluesy and southern and at the very last second when I submitted the album for streaming Distribution I discovered there were already a few artists working as 'Willie Mack' so I had to think fast. Anyone who has ever had to name a band will tell you it can literally takes months to years to think up a good one and after working on this album for more than a year I didn't want to lose my spot in the submission queue so between that (and the ongoing malignant narcissism of course) I made a snap decision to put it out under my name. It really wasn't what I had envisioned it's just a formality that doesn't change the fact that the music is the product of a very fruitful collaboration of chefs... I'm just your waiter!

You can listen free online here at Bandcamp:
https://bandshedrecords.bandcamp.com/al ... soul-roots

If you are already a Spotify subscriber, you can find it here:
https://open.spotify.com/album/7lG7aax0 ... CLhjt-yXQQ

It is also available on every other major music streaming service, just search 'Glen MacArthur'. CD's and 8-track tapes are in the works and should be available in a couple of weeks..

I'll close with a thought/prayer/meditation for the unthinkable situation across Ukraine, especially in Kyiv. It's very disheartening that we really can't do better than this as a species...

Best, Glen

[oscillator]

I agree with you on the state of the world right now...it is very sad.

I have just listened to 'When You Smile (I Can See Your Light)", it is a great song!!! It is a cold and beautiful morning in Gothenburg, Sweden, I have just been out for a walk with my dog Shelley and I really enjoyed this song to my coffee. That sax solo was a wonderful addition! But there is so much more to listen to in that song! Wonderful work!

On to the next tracks! Thanks for sharing all this music. I haven't listened to much blues, but I already know I am going to enjoy this album.

I liked to read the story behind the album too.

[GMaq]

I agree with you on the state of the world right now...it is very sad.

I have just listened to 'When You Smile (I Can See Your Light)", it is a great song!!! It is a cold and beautiful morning in Gothenburg, Sweden, I have just been out for a walk with my dog Shelley and I really enjoyed this song to my coffee. That sax solo was a wonderful addition! But there is so much more to listen to in that song! Wonderful work!

On to the next tracks! Thanks for sharing all this music. I haven't listened to much blues, but I already know I am going to enjoy this album.

I liked to read the story behind the album too.

Thanks very much, it really is appreciated especially when it isn't a genre you would normally listen to!

[bhilmers]

I'm surprised how much I'm enjoying this, this style of blues doesn't usually hold my interest. Makes me want to break out some SRV. Really wild take on Grandma's Hands, I have a special attachment to the original. The organ is incredible. Thanks for making this album.

[GMaq]

I'm surprised how much I'm enjoying this, this style of blues doesn't usually hold my interest. Makes me want to break out some SRV. Really wild take on Grandma's Hands, I have a special attachment to the original. The organ is incredible. Thanks for making this album.

Hi and thank you!

I worked a lot with mic placements on the Leslie and of course Benny brought the magic, I just had to capture it. I'm a huge Bill Withers fan too, what a genius artist!

[bluzee]

Did you remember to send a copy to CKUA radio?

I downloaded MP3 then thought FLAC would be nicer so downloaded that too. Hope that is OK.

Probably not hard to tell that I'm a big fan of the Blues.

[j_e_f_f_g]

Although you don't mention it, I hear quite a bit of american/canadian modern country music influence. For example, "Grandma's Hands" would be right at home on a Country radio station. In fact, if I were marketing the recording, I'd bill it as a country album, because that's what most of it effectively is.

[GMaq]

Did you remember to send a copy to CKUA radio?

I downloaded MP3 then thought FLAC would be nicer so downloaded that too. Hope that is OK.

Probably not hard to tell that I'm a big fan of the Blues.

Thanks! Download away and thanks for doing so! Tell me about CKUA??

[GMaq]

Although you don't mention it, I hear quite a bit of american/canadian modern country music influence. For example, "Grandma's Hands" would be right at home on a Country radio station. In fact, if I were marketing the recording, I'd bill it as a country album, because that's what most of it effectively is.

Well modern 'Country' has become is pretty diverse these days, anywhere from Roots to Rap so sure I'm sure it fits that description to a degree.. I don't play modern country or listen to it but I live in a rural area that loves that stuff to pieces so I'm sure over a lot of years some of it has seeped in. Certainly 'When You Smile' leans into country territory..

As far as I'm concerned if I'm playing minor Blues and Pentatonic scales it's 'Blues' and if I'm playing major scales it's 'Country'...

[bluzee]

CKUA https://ckua.com/ broadcasts province wide on 16 transmitters in Alberta and streams on the web. Also on Shaw Satellite service. Started in 1927 so one of the oldest radio stations in Canada. It's now funded by listener donations.

Home to Holger Petersen and I believe the longest running blues show in Canada at 50 years Natch’l Blues. Holger owns Stony Plain Records.

Also home to the Friday Night Blues Party with Cam Hayden going on over 40 years now. Cam and his partner run the Edmonton Blues Festival.

The rest of the programs go from Classical to Country, R&B to Jazz, Reggae to Trance and sometimes all in the same set.

Your album would attract the attention of a number of CKUA hosts. I can hear Lionel Rault's voice in my head right now introducing Hammond Fried Eggs. The hosts are passionately supportive of independent Canadian artists and the airplay they give allows a lot of artists who might never have been heard of otherwise to gig in places in Alberta they would never have thought to book. Last weekend Suzie Vinnick and Tony D played our local hall in Demmit, Alberta as part of the Borderline Culture series https://www.borderlineculture.com/ You would never think in a million years to gig there.

While I think they do have a general programming director at CKUA the hosts primarily have free will on who they play so I would suggest just selecting hosts you feel might likely be interested and emailing them directly. I'm positive you will get some airplay. This album is quite good.

[GMaq]

@bluzee

Thanks very much for that info! Lol, I better not mention I'm from Ontario.. Not a fan of Trudeau though, maybe that will help!

[bluzee]

We just don't understand his apparent fear of bouncy castles.

[Rainmak3r]

Going to listen now, so I'll have feedback soon!

As a first quick tip, though, I wouldn't make the featured track the 8th song That's what started when I opened the page, and I had to notice that was happening. I did the same "mistake" with my album, and from the stats noticed a lot of people were never listening to the tracks before that because they thought they had listened to the whole album. This is probably a UX issue in Bandcamp itself, but one that convinced me that setting the featured track to the first track is less of a headache.

[Rainmak3r]

Just finished listening, and it was quite enjoyable. I was expecting something that would carve painfully in my heart, but maybe I was thinking of more suffered blues à-la Gary Moore ("After hours" is such a good album!)

I particularly liked tracks 1, 6 and 7, including 8 that you had already shared as a WIP (and I did remember, in fact). As usual, very professionally recorded and played!

[GMaq]

Going to listen now, so I'll have feedback soon!

As a first quick tip, though, I wouldn't make the featured track the 8th song That's what started when I opened the page, and I had to notice that was happening. I did the same "mistake" with my album, and from the stats noticed a lot of people were never listening to the tracks before that because they thought they had listened to the whole album. This is probably a UX issue in Bandcamp itself, but one that convinced me that setting the featured track to the first track is less of a headache.

Thanks for the listen and the advice! I'm brand new to Bandcamp so I'm making all the usual Newb mistakes.. Indeed I'm no Gary Moore, great player!