I’m enjoying my new habit of Podcatsing. Yes, Berkeley Cat Records has the worlds greatest and purrhaps only PodCATS. I have here an embeddeddedded player which will magically update whenever we add an episode. This is turning out to be a really fun way for me to share some music I’ve made or helped to make or released over the eons (well, decades) that I’ve been slinging a guitar about and caterwauling. With so many amazing cats. I’ve been very fortunate to know and collaborate with such kitties and, as I am no longer a kitten, I know I won’t be here forever and I feel inclined to tell some of my stories. There’s no way to tell my stories without including some of the musical tracks herein, so podCATSing I will go. Ya know, I thought about doing this for a couple of years, and made some false starts, before I found my “radio” voice. I would record something and listen back and it sounded forced and weird to me so I’d try again a few weeks later. Eventually I got comfortable with it and now I’m off and podding. Enjoy with or without catnip.
I’ve submitted this pod-feed to Deezer, Pandora, Spotify, Apple and oh my some others too. I really dig Simplecast’s interface for all this. My thinkin’ is that I’ll promote BCR PodCats and that in turn will promote the records we release. Promoting records directly with a tiny budget in a world where thousands of new records (I still call them records) are uploaded every day can seem (and likely is) futile and if one gets attached to the outcome (as one does) it can be demoralizing. So my thinkin’, thinks me, is a better futility is promoting this “radio” show as an entertainment entity in itself, and thus the records may get exposure through it, and, maybe that leads to streams and sales for the artists and music on our label. And if not, I have fun doing it, and hopefully some peeps enjoy it. So far I’ve received some positive feedback, and oh my but who doesn’t like positive feedback? Meow.
New adventures. I have a few days off to do some exploring and visiting and see a (gasp!) live concert or two (wow!), all the while compiling not one but TWO CD packages. Yes Petunia, hard product. I thought I swore off of it but damn the torpedoes, Russ Ellis Songs From The Garden LP on CD in a nice package with lovely art from Russ and his grandson and music from their whole awesome fam and friends including yours truly, is in the works for actual. And a double CD of my songs, with the title: Eric Din plays the songs of Eric Roy Dinwiddie, because that’s what it is. Shannon Wheeler is working on the artwork. He’s done some incredible drawings for my solo singles over the last 6 years or so. Here, I will share, his latest, which I am so knocked out by. See, what Shannon does when I send him a song, is he interprets it. I seldom offer any art direction, because I want to see what comes out of his wild imagination. It’s been a real honor and a pleasure doing these collaborations, in which I send him a song in progress – usually a rough mix and the lyrics when I first come up with or commit to it – and he makes a sketch and sends it. Generally I go “wow that’s awesome!” and he develops and finishes the drawing as I finish the track, and voila. So the idea with this CD package is to include a booklet more like a comic, with Shannon’s drawings for the songs and my lyric sheets and liner notes and, you know, a package. Here for the first time I share Mr. Wheeler’s take on my song GONE FISH3N. I so love it. And I wish you a fine weekend and will be off for a bit, because I have, figuratively at least, Gone Fishen. <3
