Open Stage tobe held at the Blue Turtle This Tuesday

Attention all Medicine Hat and area musicians:

The Blue Turtle will be hosting an open stage this Tuesday (that's tomorrow) at approximately 9:00pm. If you have a favorite instrument, guitar, harmonica, one-man-band, or didgeridoo, bring it along.

This is a great opportunity for all local musicians to get together, network, socialize, and make some music together, especially for those who haven't yet had the chance to perform at the Blue Turtle.

I only mention this, because at least two members of the Savoys will be there.

Don't forget, we will be playing at the Silver Buckle this Thursday. Check the calendar for more upcoming dates.

Monday night opener takes a "powder".

OK. So a monday night gig may not have been the most favorable timing, (tuesday morning would suck), the news of The Powder Blues Band having to cancel their Medicine Hat show on Feb. 5 is something of a let down. Growing up in Vancouver and being involved in the music scene there in the 70's and 80's automatically makes me a huge fan of Tom Lavine's band. Oh heartbreak............... Maybe another day!

The new set and the time the band has put in are certainly starting to pay off. The sound is getting tighter every night and the patrons are giving us great feedback (thank you all). One of the things I've noticed lately is that we seem to be connecting to a younger audience without having to resort to modern techno or drum machine themes. (Hey, the kids CAN dance to a REAL drummer) It's encouraging to be making this kind of connection and tells us we've made some good music selections!

Hope we can get you dancin'.

The Experiment in Marketing

How does one expand his or her fan base? This is an issue I have been wrestling with for several months, perhaps since I started playing with the Savoys. The problem is that around our neck of the woods "advertising" or promoting a gig consists of small letters on a marquee outside the club we are minding that weekend. This is appreciated, however it is not enough to get the word out.

Word of mouth is always the best advertising, but when you play bars, people sometimes forget important details, like the bands' name. I believe Orv has a list of email addresses of friends, family and a few fans which he alerts frequently to upcoming shows. This has always been a tried-and-true method of keeping in touch with your fans; I remember going to punk shows as a kid, and all the up-and-coming bands had a mailing list where you could add your name and address to the list, and you would get (if you were lucky) 2 newsletters per year from the band, or their management telling you what's been new and exciting in the band's career. This, of course, was before the days of email, websites, and blogs.

I particularly don't like the idea of a mailing list. People are more alarmed than ever about identity theft, and I don't like the idea of collecting all this personal information and (God forbid) somebody hacks into my system and takes all that information. The possibility of this happening, however remote, is very real.

This leaves fledging bands like us in a quagmire. If we can't go to our fans, how can they come to us? If we want a dedicated fanbase, we need to communicate with them frequently.

The answer is right here. But only for those who -- out of luck, or an undetermined period of web sleuthing would stumble onto this page. Furthermore, how do our fans even know that we exist on the world wide web?

So I decided to create a business card, something small, economical, expendable, that can sit at the tables and be large enough to attract attention, but small enough to not be a nuisance. Furthermore, if you win over a new table of fans, all they have to do is pocket the business card and take it home. I thought it was a great idea, and the rest of the band agreed.

The image at the top of this post is what I managed to put together over the course of yesterday afternoon. There are two imbedded images; the most obvious one is a photo of Orville's new saxophone, the other is a (heavily) faded image of the band on stage.

Over the next several weeks, I am going to continue this experiment, and see (a) if people take these cards in their possession, and (b) if this generates web traffic, and thusly, a larger fanbase. We should know the results by the end of April.

The Weekend Abstract

This past weekend marked the return of the Savoy Blues Band to the stage since December. Even though we haven't been gigging, we have certainly been busy, and I hope it was reflected in our performances. Since our last show we have added about 5 more songs to our repertoire: Looking Back, (Going Down to) Big Mary's, Sweet Soul Music, Hold On I'm Comin', and I am sure there are a few others that have eluded me.

The addition of all this material puts the Savoys in an interesting position; since the departure of BW and PW, we lost a lot of material, and has been subsequently replaced with a solid set of upbeat blues and funk that will make anyone want to shake their booty. This also means that the Savoys now have more material than can be performed on any given night. So, even though some of the less exciting material can be dropped from the roster, it is more likely that our music will enter a rotation, and every show will be different.

Overall, it was a successful weekend. The crowd was energetic, enthusiastic, and very supportive of our material. As or the band, after dusting off a few cobwebs at the Silver Buckle on Thursday, the band kept getting tighter and tighter, until Saturday, where everything was working like a well-oiled machine. I think this weekend was the best we have played since Mark joined the band.

In two weeks we will be entertaining the Folks at the Redcliff Hylton. Check the calendar for more info. We aim to have a few more songs ready for that show. If you can make it, we'd love to see you there.

Happy Holidays From The Savoy Blues Band

On behalf of the band, I would like to wish everyone a merry and safe holiday season. This is the time of year that nobody should have the blues.

The band will be back for gigs in the New Year. We'd love to see you there. Dates will be posted on the calendar over the holidays.

Warmest wishes,

The Band

Recent News Clippings

As promised, here are a few news clippings from the recent performance the Savoys had at the Blue Turtle. You may have to click on the images to enlarge them.

Jesse Zubot Featured on CBC

You might find it strange that I am writing about another artist on this page, but for those who know a bit about us, will know that Juno Award Winner Jesse Zubot has close ties to the Savoys -- and I mean, very close ties.

The Savoy blues band were thrilled to have an opportunity to make music with Jesse in September at a private function in Kananaskis. What made this possible, is that Jesse's father, Orv, is an integral member of the Savoy Blues Band.

Jesse was featured on CBC today, discussing his music career, and his record label, Drip Audio, whose mandate is to provide a channel for the promotion and distribution of eclectic music.

The "big four" recording labels have spent the last two decades trying to squander every last penny out of the music industry, that there is little room for anything outside the norm. These labels don't even give their artists the leeway to make art for arts' sake. The popular music of today is hardly groundbreaking, featuring fashion and sex appeal over talent.

It seems more and more, that music artistry is a dying art, only available through word-of-mouth, DIY, and (very) small and independent labels.

I enjoy seeing people like Jesse, talented as they are, establishing niche markets for struggling (an starving) eclectic musicians who wish to create art that isn't pre-packaged, homogenized, beaten to death, boring, acceptable for ears of all ages, American Idol-esque, whole grain, non-trans-fats, crap that is crammed down our throats via television and radio. Instead, I am looking forward to seeing what artists Jesse Z. has on his roster. It might rekindle my faith in the recording industry.