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Oh yeah -almost forgot Samish Sea Mike – apology accepted but not necessary as I didn’t do what I said and the last thing I want is for anyone to feel as if they are not being respected -most of all those of you show such fantastic support.
By the way I noticed on the front page that it’s your big day–Happy Birthday.Here’s some more info on Blessed–the release date is now 3/1 and we are very much going to try and make that date. The record is also officially finished as of last week. Here is the tracklist and sequence:
1. Buttercup
2. I Don’t Know How You’re Livin’
3. Copenhagen
4. Born To Be Loved
5. Seeing Black
6. Soldier’s Song
7. Blessed
8. Sweet Love
9. Ugly Truth
10. Convince Me
11. Awakening
12. Kiss Like Your KissThe deluxe version will include the Kitchen Tapes and probably an alternate slow version of Ugly Truth that is completely different from the album version – and also a long version of Convince Me.
Still debating the super deluxe as some of the possible components of that are in progress -but I am excited about what we are trying to get done.Wow-Are you reading my email? I just confirmed the N.O. Jazzfest for 5/5 this afternoon. Quite a coincidence that you would inquire on the very day it was made official.
I also confirmed another show today- 5/8 in Houston as part of the International Festival.
More dates coming.Answers to the questions above:
1) I believe it will be an hour opening slot but haven’t confirmed that yet
2) Too early to say on Europe -we’d like to do it is about all i know right now
3) In regards to Elvis and Spectacle, I don’t know if there will be a third season -he told me that he surprised that they got to do the second season. He did want Lucinda to do the first season -in fact I think it was for the first episode, but we couldn’t work the schedule to make it happen.LWJ-The makeup of the band is being worked on -Butch and David will be there but Val aka Beau Shit is not able to do the tour next year.
We are only opening the shows in Toronto so we will not be in Buffalo with Levon.Please accept my apology-certainly no disrespect to anyone was intended-I hope, and believe that most in here know that. I made that statement fully expecting that I would have an update the next day-in fact I had already started to work on it but ran out of time before I was finished so I quickly posted the short message- and then couldn’t get back to it-nice job on my part.
Not an excuse -but right now we are at the stage where everything is being proposed, scheduled and coordinated so it all fits together like its supposed to. When I say “everything” I am referring to the record, the artwork and packaging, the tour, the website and all the marketing opportunities and ideas that need to be timed around these to make it all work. This is the time everything changes daily and when one thing changes it is a domino effect with all the others. I don’t like to come in here unless I have solid or at least reasonably solid information to share and when we have a delay in getting the record across the finish line the result is that there isn’t much info to share until the record is done because everything is planned around the the release of the record. Nobody gets more frustrated than me when i come here and say that the record is coming on xx date and then it doesn’t. Anyway, enough of all that, here is what I know right now:THE RECORD-
The good news is that the Bob Clearmountain mixes came out fantastic and then of course the new mixes had to be remastered and that’s where the delay came in. In the last month we have mastered the record 2 1/2 times with different mastering engineers and I think we finally have it sounding like we wanted it to. To say this was frustrating is an understatement and i’ll leave it at that. In any event, we having a final pow wow with Don and the plan is to officially deliver the record to the label early next week.
Right now the release date we are trying to make is 2/8, but it is more likely to just say Feb. as there are time variables with some of the things we want to do. One of those things involves the record package -I have proposed not only a deluxe version but also a limited super deluxe version- we are currently figuring out what that will be and the viability of doing it. I am really hoping it can happen as I think it would very unique. The only drawback is that deluxe packaging takes a little longer to make and we definitely want the to versions to be released at the same time, so that is one reason for the possibility of a later release date. I can also add that we have a very special artwork idea that everyone is very excited about, and it will play very prominently in the marketing plan.THE TOUR-
I do have at least a little solid info on the tour front. We will definitely be doing two dates in Toronto opening for Levon Helm at Massey Hall on March 4 & 5. We will also be doing a show in Austin during SXSW 3/18 or 19 I think that will be part of a special Lost Highway Records 10th Anniversary event. That should be quite a night as I know they are reaching out to a lot of special guests to be a part of that. It would be safe to assume that there will be dates that will take us from Toronto to Austin but at this point I don’t know what those will be. We have also discussed dates prior to Toronto but until the record release date gets set those will be tentative.MISC.
In general I can say that I have proposed many things to the label for the set up and marketing of this record -a bigger undertaking than we’ve ever tried to do before. I am really hoping that all of the ideas or at least most of them come to fruition, but nothing is solid enough to say much more than that at this point-but one of them may be a full hour PBS TV show taping in Dec.
We are also planning to completely redo the website, and have been wanting but the holdup is that we have to wait for the Blessed photo shoot to be completed so we have new images etc. to use.
I do also still want to create a fan club before we go on sale for next year’s shows -or at least have some mechanism in place so we can do special pre-sales etc. I know I have asked before but I do again welcome any ideas anyone has -or any things that you’ve see someone else do that you thought was great and effective.
As you can see there is a lot going on -and i’m very excited about what we’re trying to do.
Again my apologies for the delay in getting this posted -it was my f up. Hopefully there will be a lot more things soon to update.
Thanks always for the interest and support-it only happens because of that.No Stoger you don’t have to come out of your cave. Lucinda was on FB the other day and beat me to the punch. I’ll have an update tomorrow.
I just wanted to share some of the recent developments that have been happening with Blessed. Shortly before we left for the Nashville/Fayetteville trip there started to be some concerns as will happen sometimes when you have been working to keep on schedule and trying to make a release date before the end of the year etc. After having had a chance to live with the version we had some of the mixes were not feeling quite right. At that point it was decided to have legendary mixer Bob Clearmountain remix Buttercup so we could see what the difference was. The difference was very clear, and we realized, though it was a difficult decision for several reasons, that we needed to do more than just one or two songs. In the end the record is the most important thing and while that may seem obvious its easy to let other things affect your focus. When all was said and done we knew that we had to remix the entire record.
Which brings me to today. Mr. Clearmountain started yesterday and so far, in addition to Buttercup, he has remixed Copenhagen, Seeing Black, I Don’t Know How You’re Livin’ and Born To Be Loved and the results are simply stunning. It can be very easy to “lose” a record in the mixing and mastering stages and we are really feeling like we have found the record that we were so excited about when we recorded. It’s really been a very eye opening experience.
The good news also is that I don’t expect this to affect the 1/11 release date–in fact once we decided to go with that date it made the decision to remix the record a lot more easier. The 1/11 datea also gives us the time to do a deluxe version, which has been reported elsewhere in here, but I can now confirm that. It will include the Kitchen Tapes, and possibly any tracks that don’t make the regular version – it will definitely be available at the same as (or maybe even before) the regular version. I can’t stand it when the deluxe comes out a couple of months after the original release so I would never do that.Sound quality should be equal as they were done exactly the same way. Lucinda’s engineer on the last two studio records, Eric Liljestrand, was on site and mixing into Pro Tools from the live board feed.
It’s really hard to say which set is better, although I know the band feels like NY is a little better performance wise, while LA might have a little more between song storytelling about the songs. Overall they are very close.Thanks so much – Lu and I really appreciate it. In the year since it all happened Lu and I have talked many times about how great it was to share that night with everyone -both with those who were there -in body and in spirit. It is something that takes on a greater resonance with each day.
Somebody will put it out here soon. A lot of times they will release records in the home country first to prevent importing.
Let’s see where should I start… Yes Robert Plant was at the Bob Harris interview/acoustic performance and I was told he was very into it and stayed for the whole thing. In addition the night before he showed up and stood right next to me right before Lu went on -when she started Born To Be Loved he and Rosanne Cash and myself stepped inside the curtain-suddenly I realized he really wanted to see Lu. That became more obvious when she finished – after Rosanne went over to Lu and gave her a big hug and told her how amazing, deep and sexy BTBL was (her words), Robert stepped over and very politely introduced himself and Lu had one of the complete OMG moments–a real highlight.
The truth is that the Bob Harris thing didn’t have anything to do with the acoustic show(s) in Fayettevile. It was an idea I threw out one night to Lu right before we left for Nashville -and while she didn’t remember having that conversation when I brought it up again in Nashville she was open to it so I called her agent and asked him to look into it to see if there was any chance. He got back to me and said we could the 20th or 21st and then later said the 19th was an option also. We discussed it on the flight from Nashville to Fayetteville and we didn’t actually confirm it until we got to Lu’s mom+dad’s house on Mon night. Her agent was a little nervous that we had enough time to sell the tickets being so last minute so we were thrilled when it sold out in 24 hours and Weds morning they had a waiting list for a possible second show so we said “let’s do it”-and here we are -the city is really excited about these shows because everyone here considers her the hometown girl. Should be real special shows and it looks like we may be able to film some of it, which I really hope works out. Anyway -that’s the story.
