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Friday in Toronto–Speakerfile and Day 3 of NXNE

June 15, 2012 /0 Comments/in , , /by

I began today by taking the Toronto subway crosstown from my hotel over to Yonge and College Streets where my new client Speakerfile has their office in a handsome old brick building that used to be an Odd Fellows Hall (who were those odd guys, anyway?). I met several people I’d been working on the phone since I began working with Speakerfile last month; it was good to put faces to names.

CEO Peter Evans had asked me to speak to his colleagues a bit about how Speakerfile can answer a need in the wider author/publisher space, so I explained that in an age of diminished shelf space in brick & mortar bookstores, and less print space for traditional book reviews, the discovery of new books by the reading and consuming public is among the greatest challenges that authors and publishers face in marketing their work. I’d bet that a comprehensive Web search for the use of the word “discoverability” would probably shown it’s multiplied many times over the past year or two–it is one of the watchwords of our business.

After our informal meeting, I made a few calls to Speakerfile prospects I’ve identified, including one Toronto literary agency, and headed off to my afternoon and NXNE activities.

An hour from now, members of the informal CBC Radio 3 blogger and enthusiast community will meet at the CBC building, and be given a tour of the CBC broadcast facility by radio producer Pedro Mendes. After the tour, we’re going to do a group photo in the CBC building atrium, and soon after head off to a group dinner. The musical highlights tonight will include label and management company Hidden Pony’s showcase at the Dakota Tavern featuring their bands and artists Rah Rah, Jeremy Fisher, the Danks, Elephant Stone, and Rah Rah’s Erin Passmore. Other music tonight which will challenge my ability to be in two places at once include the Rheostatics’ Dave Bidini current outfit, the Bidini Band, and blues-soul performer Andre Williams playing with the great band The Sadies. And outdoor, at Yonge-Dundas Square Plants and Animals will be playing, along with the Matthew Good Band.

It’s been a good day already, and it’s only going to get better at the CBC and the Dakota Tavern.

Thursday in Toronto–Speakerfile and Day 2 NXNE

June 14, 2012 /0 Comments/in , , /by

Afternoon update from Toronto: Just had lunch–salad, soup, cornbread–at a soul food place on Queen Street West called Harlem. Good wifi. Kinda funny, coming from NYC to eat here, but it just shows we do live in a global village, and that NY’s reach as a cultural touchstone remains strong.

It’s a warm sunny day in Toronto. Despite getting back to my room late and managing less than five hours sleep, I woke up excited and ready to roll.

My first activity was breakfast with Speakerfile CEO Peter Evans. He met in my hotel lobby and we walked to a little place nearby. It’s Peter’s vision that’s fueling this new web platform that connects event planners and conference organizers with authors, experts and thought leaders. With discoverability being the primary challenge for authors and publishers today, Speakerfile promises to be a discovery engine that puts authors in front of avid audiences. It’s significant that even amid the struggling economy of the past few years, conferences continue to grow in frequency and in the numbers of those who attend them. To me this shows that even with a greater percentage of the population working on their own, people remain hungrier than ever to connect in person with peers and colleagues, and make new contacts. It’s a parallel and key concomitant to the growth of social media.

Following on the successful work Peter and I did at BEA last week–introducing Speakerfile to many publishers, literary agents, authors, and indie publicists–this morning the two of us focused on a number of new initiatives we’ll be working on together. I’m more excited than ever to be sharing word of this extremely useful discovery tool with my many publishing friends and contacts, and will be stopping at his office Friday morning to meet his colleagues, and speak with them about how I see Speakerfile helping authors and publishers in their efforts to build their careers and sell more books. If you want to find out more about the platform, pleae click on the Speakerfile box at the upper-right corner of this site, and click through to their website.

NXNE, of course, is largely a rock ‘n roll crowd so festival activities won’t commence until later today. I’m excited about seeing more bands tonight, including possibly Boxer the Horse at El Mocambo on Spadina near my hotel; Baby Eagle, which features Daniel Romano, who is also playing solo later, and Julie Doiron, all at the Great Hall on Queen Street West; Belle Star at the Dakota Tavern; and Zulu Winter, at the Rivoli. Now, if I could just work on being in two places at once, I’d be all set!

Settling in and First Bands at NXNE

June 13, 2012 /0 Comments/in , , /by

Registration and checking in today was fun. Compared with last year, when I was a neophyte, I knew what to look for in the exhibits of the Interactive strand of this tri-partite conference and festival. There were game designers, graphic artists, music tech people, inventors, and everyone’s extremely friendly.

Other than encountering some problems with my cellular service here in Toronto–owing to the fact that incredibly, Verizon in NYC had failed to properly set me up, even though I dealt with half a dozen over the past several weeks, things are going great.

I’m at the Gladstone Hotel Ballroom, with good wifi, where the Tracks on Tracks showcase is happening. It’s between sets right now. The evening features all the bands that just traveled across Canada from Vancouver and headed east to Toronto over the past five days. Shred Kelly, named in honr of the Australian outlaw Ned Kelly, were fantastic. They’re a five-piece, driven by a terrific rhythm section–Jordan on bass, who I met after their set, and a barefooted drummer, who kicked the hell out of his bass drum–a female keyboard player named Sage; a rhythm guitarist; and a fellow who played banjo and mandolin. They played foot-stompers, including the showstopper, “I Hate Work,” but also some more pop-sounding tunes. A great blended sound.

I’m here with many CBC Radio 3 pals, as we’re enjoying a reunion, since many of us met here last year.

I’ll get photos from their set up on the blog later. For now, I’m going to take a break from live-blogging and get ready to listen to the next bands.

Late Update: Following Shred Kelly, the highlights for me were the bands Portage&Main and then The Matinee,” a lively five-piece with a great lead guitarist and dynamic lead singer. On the walk back to my hotel, through lively blocks filled with locals and tourists I took photos of many interestingly designed storefronts, photos I will post later. Near the end of my stroll, I stopped at another music venue listed in the NXNE guide, Cameron House, and discovered a great four-piece called Dodge Fiasco. They had a sort of NRBQ-feel, and also reminded me of the great Canadian all-instrumental group, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, famous for providing the theme music to the classic TV show, “Kids in the Hall.” I also a female singer-songwriter, Erika Werry, friend of the band, who told me she’s recording new songs of hers tomorrow, and is hoping to hear Andre Williams and the Sadies on Friday night. It’s always fun to make one more musical discovery before the night is over.

Done with BEA, on to NXNE

June 11, 2012 /0 Comments/in , , /by

With Book Expo America (BEA) now a wrap–and time enough over the summer to review the publishers’ catalogs I collected and follow up on email with people whose business cards I exchanged for my own–this week I’m preparing to attend North by Northeast (NXNE), Toronto’s annual music/film/digital festival. Among the band and artists I’m eager to hear live I’m especially excited about Belle Game, Shred Kelly, Adaline, Daniel Romano, Julie Doiron, The Elwins, Brasstronaut, Jeremy Fisher, Plants & Animals, and that’s only through Friday on the schedule, leaving me the weekend line-up to scrutinize. Last year when I went to NXNE I was a bit overwhelmed with all the choices, but still had a great time. Even with a year under my belt, I’m feeling daunted again, but with useful guides like this one by producer Elliot Garnier on the Radio 3 blog, I know I can’t go far wrong. I’ll be blogging, posting to my wall on Facebook, tweeting from NXNE, and connecting on LinkedIn, so please watch for updates if you’re not attending NXNE and would like to know what’s going on in Toronto.

While I’m packing my bag and readying my kit for a Wednesday morning flight to Toronto, friends from the CBCRadio 3 listener community have been traveling by train since last Saturday from Vancouver, B.C., across the Canadian Rockies and prairies, in a musical excursion called Tracks on Tracks, that has placed ten indie Canadian bands on a train with dozens of indie music fans, including Radio 3 host and author Grant Lawrence. It’s a 21st Century version of 1970’s Festival Express, when Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, The Band, and other musicians all trained across Canada. The documentary chronicling that trip is still fun to watch all these years later.

While in Toronto from June 13-18, I’ll also be meeting and working with Speakerfile, my new client who I introduced to many bookpeople during BEA. They have a great Internet platform that connects the events industry and conference organizers with authors, experts, and thought leaders. I’m pleased to host a promo from them at the upper-right hand corner of my site, so if you do public speaking, or work with authors who do public speaking, and you’re curious about what they can do for you and your authors, please click on the promo and surf through to their website. I can also provide you with information, if you want to ask me for it directly.
While I’m packing my bag and readying my kit for a Wednesday morning flight to Toronto, friends from the CBCRadio 3 listener community have been traveling by train since last Saturday from Vancouver, B.C., across the Canadian Rockies and prairies, in a musical excursion called Tracks on Tracks, that has placed ten indie Canadian bands on a train with dozens of indie music fans, including Radio 3 host and author Grant Lawrence. It’s a 21st Century version of 1970’s Festival Express, when Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, The Band, and other musicians all trained across Canada. The documentary chronicling that trip is still fun to watch all these years later.

While in Toronto from June 13-18, I’ll also be meeting and working with Speakerfile, my new client who I introduced to many bookpeople during BEA. They have a great Internet platform that connects the events industry and conference organizers with authors, experts, and thought leaders. I’m pleased to host a promo from them at the upper-right hand corner of my site, so if you do public speaking, or work with authors who do public speaking, and you’re curious about what they can do for you and your authors, please click on the promo and surf through to their website. I can also provide you with information, if you want to ask me for it directly.

Neil Young to Patti Smith: Don’t Chase the Rabbit

June 11, 2012 /9 Comments/in , , , /by

June 12 Update: Happy to have had this post linked to by music writer Chad Childers, with the websites of radio stations like Kool 100 FM in Abilene, TX, and 98.3 FM in Twin Falls, ID, picking up his piece. It looks as if Childers’ piece is being syndicated on the Web. Childers reports on the conversation between Patti and Neil, quoting from my post below, and properly attributing it to this site. Childers also recently reported on a great performance by the Canadian band City and Colour, led by Dallas Green, who at this year’s Bonnaroo festival ended their performance with a scintillating performance of Neil’s, “Like a Hurricane,” which you can listen to via this link.
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The BEA conversation between Patti Smith and Neil Young was one of the most anticipated events of this year’s convention, and I had previewed it with this blog post a few weeks ago, with a recollection of hearing Neil live when I was only fourteen years old. It turned out that last Wednesday’s program was not only a highlight of the convention, but a life highlight. The two artists shared a comfortable rapport and their dialogue reached a serious level about how songs are written, art is created, and artists and audiences connect in a reciprocal space where creative work flows.

Patti’s first remark, at seeing dozens of photographers below the stage snapping pictures of them was lighthearted: “I feel like Sophia Loren at the Milan airport.” Referring to Neil’s new album “Americana” and his forthcoming book–and her new album “Banga,” which David Shanks of Putnam, Neil’s publisher, had cited in his introduction–Patti said “all the things that one creates comes from the same soul, the same heart, the same hopes.” She asked Neil about a song he’d retitled for the new album, a cover of “She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain,” which he’s retitled “Jesus’ Chariot.” He chuckled and attributed this to “the folk process” and new understanding of the song he gained through working with it, in which he now sees an unknown composer’s long-submerged intimations of “the Second Coming and the end of time.” Patti marveled at how a song we’ve sung “since we were little kids by rote, with no emotion” is totally reimagined by Neil and Crazy Horse.

After about fifteen minutes, the event organizers finally remedied a low-volume mic that Neil had been equipped with, or that his serape was perhaps masking, which until then had left the more than one thousand bookpeople in attendance uneasy and dissatisfied, leading one person to call out “May we have more volume on Neil’s mic.”

Much of the rest of the talk has already been reported well and comprehensively, by John Mutter in Shelf Awareness, Claire Kirch in Publishers Weekly, and Bob Minzesheimer in USA TODAY, and yet even with bad audio at the outset these two consummate and uncompromising artists engaged in such a full and wide-ranging converation that there are a few aspects of it I want to emphasize in this space.

  • The first concerns Neil’s father, Scott Young. Judging by Patti’s first question on Waging Heavy Peace–about how his dad happened to call young Neil by the nickname “Windy”–Scott is an important figure in the book, and well he should be. It is too little known in this country that long before Neil became a musician and creative force, Scott was a prominent sportswriter and author in Canada, publishing bestselling books of fiction, nonfiction, and YA titles, and a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame (tantamount to a baseball writer in the States being inducted into Cooperstown). The book of his that I’ve read and treasure the most is Neil and Me, a heartfelt, double portrait that offers a mea culpa for the divorce and family break-up his constant travel as a working journalist caused, at least in part. Listening to Neil’s “Helpless” I hear echoes of that family pain. It’s a beautifully written book, as revealing as anything written about Neil, with the exception of Jimmy McDonough’s comprehensive Shakey. I recommend it highly.
  • The next was the discussion between Patti and Neil over the writing of “Ohio,” and how the song came forth from Neil unbidden as a spontaneous response to the cataclysmic events at Kent State. He explained how CSN&Y got into the studio within days to record it, and how they rushed acetate copies of it out to radio statios so disk jockeys could respond to the shock and outrage provoked among their listeners by the campus killings. Neil described this as “the social networking of the time” and added “you could only get seven or eight plays off” the acetates, which degraded quickly. The ephemeral quality of the recording materials prompted an unlikely association in my mind, but an apt one, I think.

I was reminded me of the samizdat editions that writers in the Soviet bloc produced of their work during the Cold War. Without access to printing presses, they would roll multiple sheets of carbon paper into their typewriters, and with each key struck they hammered another ringing blow for creative expression. The medium had limitations, however. A Czech writer and publisher I met in Prague in 1991–post-Cold War–Vladmir Pistorius of Mlada Fronta Publishers, showed me his samizdat editions and explained that a rebel author could only put about five sheets of carbon paper in their typewriter, inter-leaved with as many sheets of typing paper, because each succeeding copy became more faint and less readable. It was humbling then to see what writers had done to create and share their work.

The writing, production, and perforce distribution of “Ohio” also reminded me of the genre of the “instant paperback,” like the Watergate Hearings books published by mass-market publishers back in the day, Norton’s edition of the 9/11 Commission in more recent years, or The United States v. I. Lewis Libby, which I pulled together with reporter Murray Waas at Union Square Press in 2007, after Scooter Libby’s trial in the leaking of Valerie Plame’s CIA identity. Neil and his bandmates were responding authentically and spontaneously to events around them, and meeting their audience in the public square, much as publishers have long tried to do for their readers.

  • The last point is Neil’s discussion of how he never forces the writing of a song. Patti observed that Neil’s songs, “even ones produced from pain . . . seem so effortless, like they just came out of the wind, maybe that’s why your dad called you ‘Windy.'”

Neil answered, “Well, they do come that way. I don’t try to think of them. I wait till they come. A metaphor may be that if you’re trying to catch a rabbit, you don’t wait right by the hole. . . And then the rabbit comes out of the hole, he looks around. You start talking to the rabbit, but you’re not looking at it. Ultimately, the rabbit is friendly and the song is born. The idea is, he’s free to come, free to go. Who would want to intimidate or disrespect the source of the rabbit? And in that way if the song happens, it happens. If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. It doesn’t matter. That’s why I’ll write a lot of material and why I’ll suddenly not write any material. There’s no reason to write, it has to come to me, if it doesn’t come to me, I don’t want to have anything to do with it, I don’t want to see it, I don’t want to look for it. I really hate things that people work on. There’s nothing about music that should be working on it. There’s no reason to be something you’re not. Or trying to be somebody that you think is good.”

I am more eager than ever to read Neil’s book when Blue Rider Press publishes it in October. Patti and Neil seemed like old friends, to each other, and to us in the audience. It was a treat to hear them in conversation, a BEA moment I’ll treasure forever.  If you couldn’t be there I hope this report and the photos will make it come alive for you, and if you were in the hall, I hope I’ve lent some useful perspective on such a special occasion. / / More . . . please click through to see all photos.

Dumpstaphunk & Chaka Khan in a Funky Groove at PGW’s BEA Party

June 10, 2012 /0 Comments/in , , , /by


Each year during BEA book distributor Publishers Group West (PGW), and a number of their client publishers,* throw one of the book convention’s best parties, with a tradition of live music over the years (John Wesley Harding for one) and good venues (Chicago’s Green Dolphin, for instance). Last year they booked the superb soul singer Lee Fields, and this year longtime PGWers Elise Cannon–and I learned during this year’s party, Sean Shoemaker–really outdid themselves. The party was at the Highline Ballroom, a new state-of-the-art club with great sound and a terrific lighting system in Chelsea on 16th Street near Tenth Avenue. The acts they booked this time occupied a solid groove in funk and R&B, just right for a dance-ready crowd that’d been working the Javits convention floor for two days and craving some serious fun.

The opener was a Brooklyn outfit called The Pimps of Joytime, a five-piece that featured three percussionists–a conga player, a drummer seated not behind his bandmates, but right amid them, and a woman who played wood blocks and all manner of solid sounding and scarped objects, and sang too–along with a bassist who doubled on keyboards and synths, and guitarist and lead vocalist/front-man Brian J. Though Brooklyn-based, they plowed a very New Orleans-Little Feat-Caribbean groove and were a terrific warm-up for the evening, really enjoyable enough to be a headliner on another bill, duties they were scheduled to handle Saturday night June 9 at NYC’s Bowery Ballroom.

After a brief intermission that saw the stage get made over for a different sort of ensemble, the headliners hit the boards. This was Dumpstaphunk, also a five-piece, one that includes two nephews of R&B royalty–Ivan Neville on organ and vocals, whose uncle is Aaron Neville, and Ian Neville on lead guitar, whose uncle is Art Neville. In addition, they uniquely feature a two-bass attack with Nick Daniels and Tony Hall. On drums is Nikkie Glaspie, a powerful young woman who also sang from behind her kit.

Their repertoire’s solidly rooted in the delta and New Orleans, spiced with an edgy social conscience and song titles like “Turn This Thing Around,” Everybody Wants Some,” and “Livin’ Ina World Gone Mad.” They exhibited great stage presence, with Tony Hall, who also played a Fender Stratocaster on some songs, regularly engaging the audience, while Ivan also introduced some songs from behind his wide keyboard. I was fascinated that the pairing of Hall and Daniels, already unique for comprising a two-bass section, featured five-string instruments, rather than the standard four-string basses. In this band, it’s clear that the bass is very much of a lead instrument.

A highlight arrived with word from the stage that a special guest was in the house, and I heard murmurs among fellow audience members as to who it might be. Soon we heard an invitation shouted out to “Miss Chaka Khan” to come take the stage. The audience response was a huge rush of enthusiasm for “the queen of funk.” She instantly showed herself to be an incredibly dynamic performer, as Dumpstaphunk, which had already been playing at a high level, raised their performance to a pinnacle for the rest of the night. The crowd on the dance floor, eager all night to work out, was going like blazes now. Chaka Khan played the most believable and scintillating air guitar I’ve ever seen, or “heard,” as I hope the photos with this post will attest.

After one song with Chaka Khan, Dumpstaphunk played a couple more numbers, and left the stage full of thanks and bows to the audience, while the crowd gave the love right back. In fact, this seemed to be one night when an encore was really not in the cards, as several minutes of hooting and foot-stomping had not produced a return of the band. Finally, they re-emerged from backstage, playing one more song to close out the evening, with Tony Hall gesturing to us and raising his hands high in calling forth participation from the exhausted and still dancing crowd. When I saw friends on the floor at Javits the next morning, we all agreed it had been one of the best PGW parties ever.   // more . . . Please click through to complete post see all photos.

The Recorded Voice of Virginia Woolf, 1937

June 9, 2012 /0 Comments/in , /by

This is an amazing audio recording of Virginia Woolf, as heard on the BBC in 1937, with her speaking about the properties and subtleties of the English language. Thanks are owed to whoever put the pictorial slides together. This was recorded two years after she and Ruth Gruber met in London; Ruth had earlier written her doctoral dissertation on Woolf, the first feminist interpretation of her work, with an essay called “Virginia Woolf: The Will to Create as a Woman.” I wrote about their relationship in April, with a blog essay called Virginia Woolf and Ruth Gruber, Driven to Create as Women. H/t to Suzanne Marie Queen-komerous for sharing the audio on Facebook.

Sunset Singing Circle in Battery Park with Terre Roche, June 8

June 9, 2012 /3 Comments/in , /by

Last evening Kyle and Ewan and I took part in a New York summer ritual, the Sunset Singing Circle led by Terre Roche, one of the three singing Roche sisters, from longtime fave group, The Roches, whose “Hammond Song” I am listening to right now, with its lovely theremin-like sounding lead instrument, joined to the trio’s arcing harmonies. I recently read and enjoyed sister Suzzy’s splendid novel of music and redemption, Wayward Saints, and it’s been great being in touch with her and Terre on Facebook and through this blog.

The Sunset Singing Circle is held at the tip of lower Manhattan, facing New York harbor and the Statue of Liberty. It is a grand place to listen to music as evening falls. Notebooks, including lyrics to more than 100 songs, are shared among folks sitting on the grass, with guitar players and people like the three of us offering up requests from among these selections. Last night we sang “The Weight,” in honor of a memorial Ramble being held tonight in memory of Levon Helm; “Happy Trails;” “The Times They are a Changin’;” “Bird on a Wire;” “The City of New Orleans,” among many others, and following a brief but heavy downpour, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” and “You Are My Sunshine.” Wet as it was for a while, everyone was stalwart, even the guitar players whose instruments were being rained upon. After the sun shower ended, a real rainbow emerged out of the eastern sky and a considerate Parks Dept. staffer offered towels for people to dry their instruments and seat cushions. It was a special New York night. Click through for all photos.