With much merriment, Linden Tree near the Water was officially launched last Saturday night. Some 30 songs and many servings of cheese and crackers later, I'm still recovering. ?

I'd like to thank Trinity-St. Paul's Centre and their helpful, courteous staff; the Metro at Bloor & Robert for the fine food and drink; my helpers for the evening, N.C. and C.W., without whom I couldn't have possibly pulled this off; and especially, all those who were able to make it out. It was a pleasure to play for such a friendly crowd, and as a result, my usual performance jitters were absent.

Missed out? No, you didn't. Not really, because the whole show was recorded and we even managed to shoot some video. It'll take a few weeks to sort through it all and work my post-production magic, but look for highlights on my music page as soon as I can get them up there.

In the meantime, you can purchase the album in my online store. Also available there: a 7" single featuring "That '70s Lifetime" and "Lady Air." Thanks for your support!

It's less than a month to release day! And about that ...
 

I'll be playing a ton of music for you on guitar, dulcimer, mandolin and harmonica. If you can make it out, it'd be a pleasure to meet you.

Now to the topic at hand: releasing an independent CD is a huge undertaking and finally, the legwork I've done over the last year is paying off. Yes, it's been a full year since I started researching blogs, magazines, podcasts and college radio stations that might be receptive to my music. The submission process is, to put it charitably, a one-size-fits-none affair. Some want physical CDs; some want downloads or streams; some insist that you submit through their online interface. A few come at you with such exacting, convoluted demands that it makes you wonder if they want to hear your music at all (answer: probably not).

Tip #1: Address Your Packages in Advance

This means well before you have anything to put in them. I blew out a long weekend in August doing just that, but because I did so I picked up my CDs Thursday and completed my mailout Monday, 165 discs in all. I'd have endured at least a week-long delay had I not addressed the envelopes beforehand.

Tip #2: Make Your Music Downloadable and Streamable

Industry people will go ballistic if you e-mail your songs as attachments. More to the point, they won't listen to them. Instead, use Dropbox (it's free) for all your downloadable assets (bios, one-sheets, music, artwork, photos) and SoundCloud (also free) to stream your album. Make it easy and painless for interested parties to hear and download your music.

Tip #3: Send Your Music to the Right Stations

Fair enough, but how do you decide which college stations are "right"? I used a few criteria:

• Does the station play my genre of music? Take a deep dive into their program schedules. Yes, this will take bloody forever—that's why you do it a year in advance. For me, keywords in show descriptions were acoustic, singer-songwriter, folk—and on the fringes, Americana/roots and power pop. But don't stop there. Read the blurb carefully and ask yourself: is my material really a fit? In my case, some folk shows feature exclusively Celtic, traditional or old-time hillbilly music. Pass. And Americana/roots may mean one thing to me, but if (as was often the case) in the DJ's mind it meant country, rockabilly or bluegrass, I passed.


• Lean toward the home team. Of course, the stellar quality of your music ought to trump everything, but I suspect that for unknown indie artists, your best chance of getting airplay is via the "I'm local" angle. I'm lucky. I live in a major city with tons of college towns within a 100-kilometre radius. I made sure every last one of them got a CD, even the tiny, low-profile ones. I also live in Canada, where stations must play a percentage of Canadian content, usually 35%. Your home country should obviously be perched atop your target list, but this is especially true if your country has something similar to our CanCon mandate. (Special note for Canadians: make sure your MAPL logo is filled out correctly and placed on your back cover and the disc itself.)


• Has the station made any "best-of" lists? These higher-profile, well-run stations, if they're a good fit for your music, ought to be on your priority list. I can't emphasize the "good fit" aspect enough. If a top-ranked station plays mostly urban/hip-hop/EDM or punk/metal/noise, no matter how great they are or how vast their audience, why would you send them your folk CD? As for which lists to draw on, the Princeton Review is a good source and is current. I also scoured the Pigeons and Planes Top 25, even though it's a bit out of date. There are others as well. I've yet to see a list that includes non-US stations.


• What's the station's reach? Ideally, you want to target stations with reasonably strong signals in major markets. As a longtime radio geek, I was all over this one. Radio Locator features coverage maps, frequency info and more; it's also a good resource if you can't find the station's mailing address any other way. You can make 20 inquiries a day, I think, for free. After that, you either splurge for a paid subscription or wait till tomorrow. (Guess which is my preferred method?) Finding US stations is easy; the search engine is more cumbersome when it comes to Canadian radio.

Now in a way, the title of my post is misleading. What I've outlined here is but a small slice of all I'm having to coordinate in order to put my CD out. I'm a tad obsessive, I know, but the fact is I have 10 to-do lists going. Hey, it was either that or have one list with 437 items on it.

As always, comments or feedback welcome, and I wish you all the best in your quest to get your music heard.

Mark your calendars, folks: Linden Tree near the Water is scheduled for release on November 4, 2017. Details on the CD release show coming soon. I'll be playing a ton of music that night—the album, some great new songs and a choice selection of my favourite covers—on guitar, dulcimer, mandolin and harmonica.

With the help of artist and photographer friends who wish to remain anonymous and the fine folks at Indie Pool and Bandzoogle, I've been immersed in designing the CD package and ancillary stuff (website, one-sheet and so on). Releasing an independent CD, even on a small scale, is hard work. But it's been fun, too, as I find myself having to stretch in unexpected ways. Why, this week I even did a sketch in Microsoft Paint in an effort to point my designer in the right direction. "Kindergarten Klimt," I've called my naive style, and believe me, I hope to retire after just the one drawing. (Artist and designer were hired for a reason!)

This week's breakthrough: I've found my font, the typeface I'll be using on the CD and promotional materials. Not giving too much away other than to say it's been used in a music-related context before (many years ago) and you'll love it when you see it. I sure did.

A little teaser for you: yes, there will be a single and yes, it'll be released on 7" vinyl, just like we did in the good old days. The songs are "That '70s Lifetime" b/w "Lady Air." For now it'll be a (very) limited run—short-run vinyl being quite expensive—also released on November 4. To whet your appetite, here's my video for "Lady Air." Featuring captions because, well, that's my day job and whenever I encounter a video, I can't help but caption it.