Greetings from the big red mud! Summer is here almost. Good things are happening with Sandbar artists.

Catherine MacLellan has just wrapped up a run through Ontario with her band the Provincial All Stars playing shows in London, Sudbury, Coburg, Wakefield, Sarnia, Windsor and Toronto before heading back east. She is part of a big event taking place at Stanley Bridge Resort on Saturday for the opening of Sutherland’s restaurant. Other performers besides Catherine include Thom Swift, Nathan Wiley and Meaghan Blanchard. They’ll each be doing a set in the afternoon outdoors to be followed that evening for patrons of the restaurant with a songwriter circle.

Sunday Catherine flies back up to Toronto for an appearance at the Mississauga Waterfront Festival opening for Bruce Cockburn. She keeps busy back on PEI with a 2 night stand at Trailside Saturday and Sunday nights June 27th and 28th. Saturday night will up close and personal with Catherine while Sunday night she shares the bill with an outstanding singer/songwriter Lynn Miles. Catherine will also be doing a tour of western Canadian cities in September with Lynn Miles, Melanie Doane and Annabelle Chovostok which will cover the west from Winnipeg to Victoria.

October will see Catherine on tour in the Atlantic region with the Canadian Songbook featuring her, Murray MacLauchlan , Barney Bentall and Nathan Rogers. A European tour is in the works for the latter part of November and early December. We are also looking for some time in there to go back to the US for some shows.

Her latest CD Water In The Ground continues to make new friends based on sales and the media response to the album.

The live recording of Catherine’s performance at the Harbourfront Jubilee Theater in Summerside on May 23rd is now available from CBC Radio as a “Concert on Demand” item.. Listen to it here: http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/cod/concerts/20090523cathm .

Here are some reviews from the UK:
lonesomehighway.com       leicesterbangs.co.uk/        thebeatsurrender.co.uk/

Clinton Charlton’s new album Parade continues to receive accolades and chart listings. Currently it’s sitting at #2 with his hometown university station CFMH at UNBSJ. Clinton will head out on the road in July for dates in the Maritimes with hometown songwriters Jessica Rhaye and newcomer Billy Braydon. Clinton tells us he may have a publishing deal in the works as well. We’ll have more on that at a later date. Tourism NB is looking at using the first single from the album “Bee In October” in a commercial. It should be up on the site soon. Sandbar will host for download and streaming a live show that was recorded a while back with Clinton and company in Saint John. The download will also have some art work to with it.

Pat Deighan is on the road for some more dates with In Flight Safety playing guitar. John Connolly has been busy with the musical theater production about Stan Rogers and his music. Another Saint John songwriter working with Sandbar Music Andy Stevens aka White Rabbit was on the Island for a visit this past weekend. Purpose of the visit was to talk about his new release under his own name Andy Stevens called “Awakening” which will come out sometime in the fall on the Sandbar label. This will be the follow up to the White Rabbit album. Andy played me some tracks and it sounds good. Marketing and promotion plans were also discussed in between the brews.

The 9th annual Close To The Coast showcase extravaganza is coming to Babas August 24th to 29th. This will be the biggest year ever for local bands. The number of new bands in the past year is simply amazing. There should be quite a crop of talent in the pipeline by the time the ECMA’s return in 2011 to Charlottetown. That is exciting.

Just wanted to extend Congrats to the PEI NXNE showcase bands in the big smoke this week to showcase at NxNE ‘09. Grass Mountain Hobos and Boxer The Horse are representing out music community this year. Good luck guys!

The Haunted Hearts much anticipated new release will have its launch July 25th at Babas. Special guests are Racoon Bandit and Boxer The Horse. The album is called “Thank you! Goodnight” and it sounds great! I’ve been listening to the fully mixed but not mastered album for a while now. I love the Johnny Ross keyboards both on the record and live.

Meaghan Blanchard is starting to demo new tunes for her next album project due out in the summer of 2010. She is also getting ready to spend two weeks in Nashville in mid October which among other things we hope gives her an opportunity to co-write while there. Stay tuned for updates on the Road to Nashville activities for PEI artists Dan Currie, Dan Ellsworth, John Connolly and Meaghan as they get ready for their mid-October trip.

A heads up to tell your friends about down on the south shore of Nova Scotia. Meaghan will be joining 3 other songwriters for a night of sharing songs at the beautiful Pearl Theater in Lunenburg NS on Saturday September 19th. Other songwriters on the bill include Christina Martin and Norma MacDonald with another to be named later. If you haven’t picked up a copy of Atlantic Voices please do so. It’s a compilation album featuring some of the best female singer/songwriters on the east coast including Meaghan and Catherine. Both Christina and Norma are also featured on the compilation. I believe it’s available at most record stores including Back Alley. Meaghan is also doing two July Songwriter events at Harmony House. One circle will be with Tim Chaisson and Kris Taylor on July 2nd and another one will be with Lennie Gallant and other guests on July 25th.

The Sidewalks are in the process of finishing up their EP for release to their growing legion of fans in mid summer. The band has the opening slot for the Babas date on July 16th with Irish buzz band FRED as they begin a tour of eastern Canada with select dates in our region. FRED is a very cool band and the album Go GOD Go is absolutely fun to listen to. We are over and out.

Music PEI grants have been announced for the April ’09 round. A number of Sandbar artists have been successful including Meaghan Blanchard $3100.00; Dan Currie Band $3227.00; Chas Guay $4000.00; Battery Point $4000.00 (Targeted Demo plus Emerging) John Connolly $3272.00, the Sidewalks $1000.00 Targeted Demo and Sandbar Music $401.60 under the Industry Professional designation. The grants have been awarded for a number of different activities. The money is certainly useful and comes in handy when trying to achieve certain goals in the music business.

On this latest round there were 51 submissions (a record) with 18 applications receiving funding or 35.29% of the total. Since the funding program began 157 applications have been submitted to Music PEI for funding requests resulting in 91 successful applications or 57.96% of the total. Between January 2008 and April 2009 there have been 4 funding deadlines. Sandbar Music and its clients were successful on 26 grants during that time or 28.57% of the total.

This time around funding was awarded to Meaghan Blanchard that will allow her to attend Contact East and showcase to her best advantage for all the talent buyers who attend that showcase event. It will also allow her to pay for musicians at the Music PEI International showcase in September and it will enable her to spend two weeks in Nashville in mid October meeting other songwriters, showcasing, possibly co-writing and building her Nashville songwriting network. This trip will be the first of a number of Nashville visits by PEI songwriters over the next few years. She will be making this trip with three other Island songwriters. They will stay at the SOCAN House while in Nashville from October 19th -November 1st.

The blueprint for this idea is the trip to Nashville that John Connolly made in the early part of May for two weeks which he had worked on since last fall. Our intention is to build a PEI to Nashville connection over time. For this next trip each artist/songwriter will put a game plan in place they hope to accomplish while in Nashville.

A small part of Meaghan’s grant will be used to help pay for some costs of marketing materials for the buyers room at Contact East in addition to the direct costs mentioned above. Her contribution to the costs of this project will be $775.00.

The Dan Currie Band will use their grant to enable Dan to be part of the PEI Songwriters To Nashville initiative mentioned above. It also will provide marketing support
for the creation of a new press package consisting of the band’s new CD demo along with a one sheet plus photo. The funds would be used to pay for graphic design work to create the CD label for the demo along with a one sheet and for the expenses of manufacturing a small quantity of the demos for promo purposes and the printing of the one sheet and photos. It would also be used to help with the costs of photography.

The package would be used as a mail out to venues, media, select publishers, music supervisors and college/community radio. On line it would be sent to select music blogs, internet radio stations and podcasters. Additional expenses under this component for this purpose would include mailers and postage costs for the mail outs and posters including graphic design and printing costs. It would also include the renewal of the band’s sonic Bids EPK due in July ’09.

The band has also obtained funding support to share a marketing intern to assist with on line community management. The band will also pilot a new “booking incentive” approach designed to increase the number of off-island and out-of-the-region gigs for the band. The grant for all of this was $3227.20. The band’s contribution to the project will be $806.80.

In the case of Battery Point funding was received from the Targeted Demo program in the amount of $1000.00 and from the Emerging Music program marketing component for $3000.00 for a total of $4000.00. The funding will be used to travel to Athens Ga in September to record a demo with high profile producer David Barbe (See Bio here) at his Chase Park Transduction Studios in preparation for him working with the band on a full album for release in the summer of 2010. Their contribution to this project directly would be $600.00 directly related to project proposal expenses including NACA showcase fees and an investment proposal for private investors. Additional costs to the band over & above the project approval costs would be $4200.00 approximately for studio time and producer fees while in Athens Ga..

John Connolly received funding of $ 3272.00 to help pay the expenses of showcasing at Contact East in October ’09 and the Music PEI International showcase in late September ’09. His next trip to Nashville was also approved for funding as one the four writers designated to spend two weeks there in October’09 as part of the PEI Songwriters in Nashville initiative. Some of John’s funding will also be used to implement some marketing ideas and allow him to be part of the marketing intern pilot project for on line community management. His direct contribution to the approved project would be $818.00.

Chas Guay on behalf of his new album Little City received a full $4000.00 under the marketing component. His direct contribution will be $1000.00 for a total budget of $5000.00.

The funding will help pay for 50 vinyl promo copies of the project and 100 promo CDs. It will also help pay for new photos, a one sheet, a new Sonic Bids EPK, posters, graphic design fees, a publicist and a marketing intern for community on line management. In addition the grant will help to pay the costs for mailouts to radio and media.

Sandbar Music also received a grant for $401.60 to attend Contact East in support of its two showcasing artists, Meaghan Blanchard and John Connolly. A contribution of $101.40 will be made by Sandbar to the total budget for this project of $502.00.

Each successful grant applicant at the completion of their project has to file a “Final Report” detailing the successes/failures/results and any issues with their project. They also must submit a statement of expenses along with receipts and invoices equal to the total project costs outlined in their application, e.g. Chas Guay must show proof he spent at least $5000.00 on his project proposal and Sandbar must produce receipts and/or invoices for $502.00 not just the amount of the grant and so on. This is a requirement for every successful applicant who received funding. The money goes where it needs to go to help the artists to achieve their goals.

The Sidewalks received a $1000.00 Targeted Demo grant which when combined with a chunk of their own money will enable them to produce a high quality 4 song demo which when combined with a track already recorded and another track which will be done out of pocket will give them a demo/EP for commercial release later in the summer at an average cost of $600.00 plus per song. The key to using demo grants is to be prepared to spend as much of your own money in order to get the best quality demo. An applicant needs to match the funds available and the number of songs they will demo. For example if you only have enough money to do two songs, then do 2 songs. There is no requirement that you do three or four. Music PEI asks that it be no more than a maximum of four songs. It does not set a minimum number. Targeted demo grants are intended to be a contribution to the cost of a demo not the sole source of financing the demo.If all you have is the targeted demo funding then do two songs. Remember you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

From what I can gather and this is by no means conclusive many applicants are not following the advice clearly laid out in the guidelines to sit down with Music PEI staff and discuss their proposal and their needs for as long as it takes before submitting their application. New applicants are still learning how to write these proposals. A number of them are doing it the hard way with no input from Music PEI. The association will be doing more seminars on how to write good and effective proposals in the coming months which should help if applicants attend. At the end of the day it is a learning process nothing more. How critical might that meeting with Music PEI be or attending one of the seminars be? Consider that a difference of ½ point was the difference between a successful application and a not successful application. What if? In another case it was a point and a half. What if? These grants are becoming very competitive as the number of applicants increases.

Many of the artists who you might think should be getting money either do not apply in a given round or are ineligible because they have previously received a 3 year export development grant. This would include artists like Paper Lions, Two Hours Traffic, Tim Chaisson and Vishten.

Paper Lions and Two Hours Traffic for example will be eligible to apply again in April 2010 while Vishten and Tim Chaisson should be eligible in 2011.This round you can eliminate Nudie & The Turks and Teresa Doyle from applying for any other funding for the next 3 years or until 2012.

With each artist we have to assume they makes decisions on whether to apply or not on the basis of what is best for them at the time. Nobody can force someone to apply. I think it’s safe to assume that the vast majority of artists know about the deadlines for grants. The reasons for applying or not applying are theirs alone.

January 2008 was actually the deadline for the entire 2007 funding year. That was due to an election being called in the spring of that year and the budget not being passed in the spring as is the norm. Instead the budget containing the Music PEI funding was passed in the late fall of 2007 following the election of a new government. The January 2008 round of funding was an entire year’s worth of grants being awarded as a one time only disbursement. Since then the funding has been done twice a year spring & fall which means half the money is being handed out on each round. Next deadline is October 9th.

In other news, I managed to get out to the CD launch for Rhythmn Rules and their album “To Serve The Song” at the Guild last Saturday night. Good stuff! I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw and heard. It was a real show. There were back up singers; a killer horn section and opportunities for everyone on stage to showcase their talents. It was all in all a most enjoyable evening. I think the band may be on to something by providing the audience with old fashioned entertainment as well as some great music from the new album.

Little City from Chas Guay and Parade from Clinton Charlton are the featured coming attractions for this summer along with the Sidewalks new EP. Clinton Charlton’s Parade album is already charting on the Earshot college charts. A show coming up July 16th at Babas could be one to put on your calendar and mark don’t miss for this summer. The band is FRED from Cork, Ireland. They have been making noises on this side of the Atlantic at showcases like CMW and CMJ. They will be playing the Atlantic Jazz festival and Hillside on this trip. The latest album got picked up in Canada by Sparks Music and the band are coming back to Canada to play some dates on the east coast and Ontario in July. One of those dates will July 16th at Babas. The Sidewalks will open. It should be a high energy fun night. Check them out on My Space. http://www.myspace.com/fredtheband.

Close to The Coast preparations have begun for another year. Look for the usual music filled week from August 24-29. This year is the ninth year for CTTC.

Here’s another great review of Catherine MacLellan’s latest album “Water In The Ground”

Hello there folks! It’s been a while hasn’t it? It has been eight long months to be exact. And a lot has happened and more is to come. To start the story let’s begin here. We changed servers back in February ’09 and were out of commission for most of February and some of March ’09. Work continues on the back end and store while in the not too distant future you will begin to see a few cosmetic changes on the front end but not before we rebuild the back end of the store. This has been a big reason why the site looks a little neglected at this point. It will be back on all cylinders soon.

We had a great ECMA weekend in Corner Brook NL. We made some great contacts and managed to catch some fine showcase performances by Island artists. Also took in a seminar this year called “Breaking Nashville” sponsored by SOCAN. It was my first in many years of attending the ECMAs. It turned out to be the absolute best seminar I have attended at the ECMAs except for one in 2001. It turned out to be a blueprint for anyone who wanted to make headway in that town. John Connolly just got back from two weeks in Nashville applying the lessons and advice from that seminar. It turns out he had an amazing experience. In fact Sandbar has set up a trip in October for John and three other writers to return to Nashville. John will build on what he already has connected to while the other three songwriters Dan Currie, Meaghan Blanchard and Dennis Ellsworth will begin the process learned at that seminar in Corner Brook NL. All four will live at the SOCAN House while in Nashville for two weeks. The trip is scheduled for mid-October.

Catherine MacLellan continues to receive rave reviews for her “Water In The Ground” release from various parts of the globe. No Depression has one of the best ;you can read here. Other great reviews for Water In The Ground can be found at: music-news.com and here.

Catherine played the Jubilee Theater in Summerside PEI Saturday night for the taping of a Canada Live concert to be heard on CBC Radio 2 and Atlantic Airwaves sometime in the near future. Vishten also taped a show as part of the same concert for Canada Live & Atlantic Airwaves. Both will also be available for streaming at CBC Radio’s web site at some point. Just click on Concerts on Demand.

Last week Catherine was busy with a radio promo tour of the western US. This week she covers part of the Eastern US with various radio stops. She touched down in New York City for a live showcase performance at the Living Room on Wednesday night at 7 pm. The show was also a taping for the XM/Sirius radio show “The Loft” which has large audience of music fans. She will do another showcase set at Club Passim Thursday night at 10 pm for Boston area media and fans. Previously she was in Charlottesville and Washington DC.

Catherine takes the Provincial All Stars to Ontario for a string of dates starting June 10th.
The dates are scheduled as follows with Madison Violet providing support for for all shows except The Black Sheep Inn in Wakefield PQ and Hughs Room in Toronto ON:
Jun 10, 2009 10:00 PM The Bank Lounge Niagara Falls, ON
Jun 11, 2009 10:00 PM London Music Club London, ON
Jun 12, 2009 10:00 PM The Townhouse Sudbury, ON
Jun 13, 2009 10:00 PM TBA North Bay, PE
June 14 2009 8 pm The Black Sheep Wakefield, QC
Jun 16, 2009 10:00 PM The Blind Dog Windsor, ON
Jun 17, 2009 10:00 PM Hugh's Room Toronto, ON

Spread the word and let your friends and family know about these dates.It should be a fine show with these two artists.

Catherine will be heading back to the UK in November hopefully with a couple of dates in Sweden and additional dates in Germany where her last album Church Bell Blues did very well and the new one is also looking good. Check out Catherine’s current schedule at www.catherinemaclellan.com.

Congrats are in order for Meaghan Blanchard and John Connolly. Both have been selected to showcase this year at Contact East in Moncton NB. Dates for the showcase are October 1st – 4th. Check them out at www.myspace.com/meaghanelizabethblanchard and www.johnconnolly.ca.

Speaking of Meaghan and Catherine, congrats are in order again for both artists who have been included on a brand new Warner Bros. Music compilation CD called Atlantic Voices due out May 26th across the country. Fourteen female artists representing the region are included on this compilation. It’s a great collection of female singer/songwriters and we are proud to have two of our own included. Two other artists we work with for distribution purposes, Colleen Power and Amelia Curran are also included. This album should attract some attention with the marketing and promotion effort Warner is putting behind the project.

For example here is what will be happening over the next few months: Bell/Aliant is running a two month promo on their web site. Breakfast TV will run a promo at the end of this month. CTV will run ad spots in July & Aug.The Scope (NL), Here (3 cities NB), The Coast (HFX), Metro (HFX), The Buzz (PEI) & The Chronicle Herald (NS) will all be running print ads. Many of these papers (and others) will also be printing reviews & conducting promotions.

Radio stations throughout Atlantic Canada will be running promotions. HMV will have a special Atlantic Voices rack with the artwork as the rack header. The CD will be racked in HMV, CD Plus, Costco, Walmart, Indigo/Chapters (tbc), Franks & Freds. The CD will be catalogued in Future Shop/Best Buy.

CBC Radio will be conducting a national contest on all their morning shows and the CD will be serviced to every CBC in Canada. The CD will also be serviced to every major college radio station in Canada.

New releases coming soon from Sandbar Music include Parade from Clinton Charlton and Little City by Chas Guay. Also coming sometime this summer will be the new EP from the Sidewalks and some great new material from the Dan Currie Band. In our music for grownups category expect to see the long awaited Rhythmn Rules album “To Serve The Song”. This is a band made up of Reg Ballagh on drums, Chris Gauthier on guitars, Remi Arsenault on bass and Jon Rehder on vocals and various instruments with a slew of very special guests showing up on different tracks. CD launch is at the Guild Saturday May 30th at 8 pm. Vishten now have their digital distribution handled through Sandbar. The album should be available at all the leading download stores.

That’s it for this time. Just want to say it’s good to be back!