I have a secret dream that’s not so secret anymore because I’ve told too many people about it. I want to be a late night talk show host. Somewhere between Steve Allen and David Letterman, with a twist of Wallace Shawn from My Dinner with Andre. I have actually been fortunate enough to dabble with […]
Category Archives: Uncategorized
January
04
The Localist: The Return of Scam Services, A Public Service Announcement
posted by bigcityfolks
The underground music world is buzzing from a recent mass casualties event in which many musicians have had songs delisted by Spotify because of an algorithm designed to remove songs that have been boosted by artificial plays via bots and fake plays. I won’t get into all the issues that one might have with a […]
December
26
The Localist: Public Service As A Genre
posted by bigcityfolks
I want to reconfigure public attitudes towards artists who write outside of the industry and proposed the term “pro bono musician” the other day but I think the concept deserves some more thought and I’m proposing that we have a genre term which I will call Public Service Musician. By Public Service Musician, I refer […]
December
03
Knable Gazing: Jasper Lewis and his “1000 Songs” on Yard Deer
posted by jimknable
I thought I was a prolific songwriter. Then I met Jasper Lewis. Probably not an uncommon experience. At the time, he was in the midst of his year of answering every single weekly song challenge thrown out by Niall Connolly (or his proxies) in the glorious days of Big City Folk Song Club at Fawkner […]
November
16
BCF Livestreams/Shows – Week of 11.16.20
posted by Robert Bock
A selection of livestreams/shows from the infinite sea of events in NYC this week: Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020 @ 7:30pm – Allan Harris @ Facebook/YouTube. Allan Harris shares his latest single, “Run Through America” via a live stream performance for Harlem After Dark. (Event) — Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020 @ 8pm – Chris Q. Murphy […]
September
20
The Localist: How to Write an Album, Part 6 – About-ness in Song and Album Writing
posted by bigcityfolks
In Part 4, we looked at a more expansive conception of what a “hook” is, describing good songwriting as involving a multiplicity of hooks in each song. But a good song isn’t just a random series of layered hooks, no matter how densely packed. The hooks support one another in a determinate way that helps […]
July
13
The Localist: How To Write an Album, Part 5 – The Process of Overwriting
posted by bigcityfolks
If you take the next ten songs that you write and make those ten songs an album, then you will have a mediocre album. If your feeling is that those ten songs are absolute bangers, then you have set your sights too low on what a banger is. On the other hand, if you acknowledge […]
June
29
The Localist: How to Write an Album, Part 4 – A Manifold of Hooks
posted by bigcityfolks
In Parts 1 thru 3, we looked at some more abstract aspects of album writing. Essentially, when you decide to write an album intended for release to the public, you are intending that the public listen to your album. However, asking the public to listen to your album places non-insubstantial burdens on you to put […]
June
17
The Localist: You Are Essential If You Make Yourself Essential
posted by bigcityfolks
A few days ago, a meme was being passed around showing a picture of a survey indicating that artists were deemed the “least essential” job, eking out the title by a slim margin over Telemarketers. (71% to 69%). The survey was not done in the United States – it was a survey of 1000 citizens […]
May
20
The Localist: How to Write an Album, Part 3 – Building a Toolkit for Self-Expression
posted by bigcityfolks
In Part 2, we looked at the idea of trying to give strangers a reason to listen to your album, as opposed to the tens of thousands of albums released every year, and in particular the idea of writing something that is both new and substantial. But how do you do that? I discussed the […]
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