“Oh Juno, do you know…she’s a banana dog, banana dog, a waggy waggy waggy!!!”
Hey Friends,
We are heading smack into our production month. A very awesome and somewhat prestigious show at Boise’s premiere Sapphire Room concert showcase at the Riverside Hotel! The beauty is…it’s SOLD OUT and this is about the 5th time we’ve done just that! The great part is…the tickets went very quickly this time and it’s a true blue sell out! We were half full one week after they went on sale back the end of January. What that tells me is, people enjoy what we are doing. It also tells me they are learning to buy earlier as their chances for a seat will get away from them if not (and that is always sad for us too!)
So what a production entails for us is, kinda like getting ready for a wedding. There are all these arrangements to make, practice, promotion, hype, organizing players, picking songs, creating a set list, scheduling rehearsals and nailing everything down so you are prepared for the big show. The set list and the song order is about the hardest thing to determine. You want it to be a fun “roller coaster ride”…take your people on a journey with you; bring them up, then allow for some soul reflection time, pierce the heart a little bit, then back to some great laughs! I expect a lot from our shows. I want it to be an experience that opens folks or at least entertains!
With a world that is so grabby for time these days, I want these productions to be a place of “home” in a way, perhaps refuge from all the crap that goes on in the world, a moment to forget and enjoy. They can have a few laughs and a bit of, dare I say, “Spiritual food” for the soul.
This year we have an all lady band. This is a first. There is usually a gentlemen or two that join us and that is totally cool. But it is great to have the opportunity work with only women, and this is a first for us aside from our trio ensemble with Rochelle Smith on mando/vocals or Meghan Watters on percussion. We have played out in the world with our “lady band” but not at a ticketed event-production.
Here’s what I noticed while working with all women (please forgive me if this sounds total sexist, NOT my intention). No one is trying to take over. That is the biggest difference. There is no ego that is so huge in the room that wishes to dominate! So…it’s been REALLY fun to rehearse! It’s been just lovely seeing these ladies amazing energies (aka the Waggie Tails), and we want to bring that love to the stage! We will truly miss them when this whole thing is all over. We are going to have to do something else…and that is the kind of “glue” I’m talking about! There is this energy, this new “family” if you will, and you miss it when it’s over.
So we have a sell out, and I’m well aware that CD sales are dropping. Why would anyone want to buy a CD if they can’t play it? Right? All the new fancy cars and even computers that don’t have CD players. Well, I thought about thumb drives for the past few years now but people have always talked me out of it. Why?
Why have I allowed others to poo poo on this idea? Perhaps it’s because THEY are resistant to change? Ya know folks, my last name use to be Bayley. I made two records with that name, you can find them on itunes still under that name. Mo and I use to run around as Niccole Bayley and Mo Kelly.
I decided back in 2008 that I wanted to ditch the name. It was a married name (long story there) in which I was grown out. I had a huge calling one day on the road, I remember exactly where we were and it was like a lightning bolt and it said, “Change that last name!”. Actually, it felt like my Mother said this to me, with a few swear words in there and her little Jersey accent. That’s how I heard it.
I thought about it, a bit shocked and a bit grieving. That name carried me around over 15 years (like I said it was a LONG story). It was like a favorite coat you wore around. But, it wasn’t where I wanted to go anymore. I wanted something different.
Blaze is now my LEGAL name. And, akin to my family name Blaese. Everyone in the world would mess up my birth name, which is pronounced Blay-zee. Growing up and having an unusual spelling for a first name, (Niccole with 2 c’s) and then the desecration of my last name was just a tedious and constant correction for others. I have a little song I created when I was 12 that spells my name. When people asked how to spell my name I would sing it to them. Ha! Every kid in camp new how to spell my name! I imagine if I ever became a doctor I would have a song for all the bones and long medical words! Songs truly are a great way to remember things!
Anyway, back in 2008, you would not believe the blow back for me to NOT change my name. I had so many people giving me advice NOT to do it. They told me how much I would mess up my career. I already had a two CD’s out and a website and all my promo had my old name on it. And I sat back and looked at what a pain in the ass it was going to be…but guess what, “I had new fans that didn’t even know me yet” I thought, and “Blaze and Kelly has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it!?” So, even though it was hard, I did it. Even though maybe there are some folks wondering where that Niccole Bayley went…she’s right here, kickin’ ass! Ha ha!!!
So in the same Spirit of change and moving with the trends, I selected to proceed on the thumb drive endeavor. And let me just say, it’s been an endeavor! Not so much the physical aspects of getting sharp looking thumb drives, but the internal workings and technology has been a bit of a bugger!
Did you know, that EVERY song you pull into iTunes gets a thumbprint? Yes, every song comes with meta-data, which is information about that song. This allows for the artwork to be attached to the song in the car when you play it and tells you what genre it is and what order it is on the play list and who is the artist.
CD’s when they are manufactured correctly have this encoding built in. Thumb drives do not! Ugh. I’ve learned WAY too much about this technology. Thumb drives don’t have the capacity to have a menu play list. And they like to shuffle and screw up what picture goes with what song. So, there was that. I called a genius to help get me through it and he basically told me this.
Gracenote is an operating system that is the media sync for all the cars out there. Gracenote, iTunes, Spotify, Pandora…they all work together. “These people don’t want you to create and sell your own medium for music!” And it’s true, unfortunately. Infact, if I drag my mp3’s that I produced into my iTunes player, my iTunes puts a finger print on the meta-data and you go to play it in the car and it will say “Unknown”. or “Corrupt Media”! So, I have had to bypass my iTunes player to put the files directly to the thumb drives.
I’ve gone round and round with techy folks and friends. It’s been quite an education. All that is to say, I’ve created some sharp thumb drives that work! Folks can put them in their computer, the artwork shows up, drop them into your phone, blue tooth them into the car and have the music where ever they go.
If you put the USB right into the car, it will play it…after there is a rejection warning from the car but that is only because Gracenote operates all car sync and doesn’t recognize the media, however after those warnings if you still go to brows and play (or propagate the songs), it will eventually play the thumb drive. And when it plays them it will shuffle them, so it won’t be in order.
I was so holding on to the order of these songs, and my buddy told me to let that go. For some reason I wanted people to go to a folder in there car, hit the folder button and open the CD to their choosing. The more fancier cars can do this (my car is a 2010 and can not) but here’s the thing. I ran around in my car for a few days with the drive in…test driving, pun intended, and it played the drive in “shuffle”; a song I wrote when I was 29, then one I wrote when I was 36 then one I wrote when I was 42. That was wild! To bounce back and forth in my “diary of songs” which is quite a collection these days! I’m pretty darn proud of our catalog!
Deciding a price. Ugh! Well, I have 2 drives I am going to release at the Sapphire show. One will be a walnut 4 GB with 50 songs on it. These songs are my pick for “Best of” and I will provide a list of the tunes that are on there, and since that data only takes .5 GB they have and extra 3.5 GB to utilize for whatever they wish. I decided to sell that at the price point that would basically beat iTunes and be affordable. Since I have all these song…$50.00 bucks for 50 songs + a sweet thumb drive! Killer deal I think.
Next, the Sapphire show from 2019! Last years show was so fun! So epic of a night! We had Mo and I, Bonnie Johnson on electric lead, our buddy Roxx Smith on vocals, mando and Cajon, and Earl Huges on pedal steel. It was a high energy phenomenal night! We recorded it and I have been finishing up the last of the mixing and making it sound good. Wow! THAT has been a learning curve too, but I’ve had a lot of fun with it! I’ve learn SO much this last month! I am super proud of the 2019 production and I found these sharp thumb drives that are a sweet Sapphire color with our logo engraved and I will put the whole show on a 2 GB and sell that for $25.00. It’s 20 songs of unreleased material! I am excited! I know I will run into the occasional, “I don’t know how to work this thing in my car?” question. But I will encourage most folks to download it to their computer, then put it on their phones and blue tooth it. But for those that like a challenge, pushing buttons in their car, it WILL play. The folders ARE on the thumb drive!
I also know that I will get those folks that will say, “When are you going to make another CD?” And for those folks, I will say…”Here’s the drive, download it on your computer and rip it to a CD”…there ya go! Right!?
Sometimes ya just have to stand up to the change that is inevitably coming. I feel like I have my independence back with these things. They are sharp utilitarian devices and I am proud of their quality. So we will run with these and probably learn a lot. It will be the first Gen. of TD’s we do.
50 song Collection!
Live at the Sapphire! 20 newly released tunes!!!
This months Mp3!
Oh JUNOOOOOO Waggy waggy waggy do Yooou know! Waggy waggy waggy!!
Here’s the back story. We were at a rehearsal here at the house with our drummer Meghan and keyboardist Evelyn. We were hammering out the set for a few hours and we all got hungry so I ordered pizzas and Mo went to pick them up.
During the time Mo was gone, I was tinkering on my guitar and told them I “wrote a song for Juno” that morning that went something like this…. Now, I never wrote a word down, and still haven’t. I just picked up the guitar that morning and Juno came in and put her head on my feet. So I sang her a little tune off the cuff. Well, I remembered the cord progression from that morning, played it for the girls and the pair of them immediately got on their instruments and embellished what I was doing. We had a GREAT time! It was super fun!
Some of the verses were awesome, others not…but to have these ladies just chime in will give you an idea of the playfulness and vibe we are sharing. Super stoked! So note that this recording is COMPLETELY IMPROV! I had no words written down, or changes. We just had a super fun time! Hope you like it and it gives you a “waggy tail” ! What’s cool is I had no idea the girls recorded it! I was just goofing off! They GOT me!!! So here you have it! Maybe I will develop the tune to be a real song someday. Juno is worth having her own song!!! That doggie makes me smile every day!
Thanks so much for taking the time to check in with us and thanks for being part of our faithful team! We appreciate you!!!
