Pittsburghers: Where should we have our party?

Great day in the studio yesterday. I took the afternoon off from work and headed out to McKeesport to work with the horn section on some parts. Those guys are amazing. Wait until you hear Eric's sax solo on "Faithful and True," Rick's solo on "East End Avenue," and the great section parts that the guys came up with.

Photos here.

I'm about 95% sure that the CD is going to be called "East End Avenue," by the way. This is the name of one of the songs on the CD, written by Mike Sweeney. The first time I heard it, it sounded like the successor to Eldorado Cafe and Can I Change My Mind, and I made Sweeney and Jeff Ingersoll from the studio swear to me that they wouldn't give it to anyone else. I think it's the song that radio stations would play if they played my stuff (which they don't, so you have to treat this kind of thing as an academic exercise).

I'm doing my final vocals next week. We're aiming to have everything mixed and completed by the end of March. Assuming that some other label doesn't pick us up--always a possibility--and we release the CD on Bonedog Records as planned, we'd be looking to book a CD release party somewhere in the Pittsburgh area in late May or early June.

So, Pittsburghers, help me out here--where should we book the party? Moondog's? The Rhythm House? The Gateway Majestic? The Rex? Mr. Small's? The Palisades Ballroom in McKeesport? The Hard Rock Cafe?

Tell me what you think by adding a comment in the "Comments" link below.

Thanks,
Billy

Photos from recording session

Here.

Updated 2/28 with new photos.

Thanks to Jimmy Britton for the photos.

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The Music Biz

In a comment to my last post, Julie Toye wrote

...release of Hard Rain's last CD and your next CD increases the likelihood that one day music historians will just marvel over the high quality of music made and/or distributed by tiny labels Moondog and Bone Yard Records that most Pittsburgh area commercial radio sadly kicks to the curb rather than support and play. I love Pittsburgh music and never will accept that your cds sit on radio station's shelves collecting dust except maybe for some airplay on public radio's WYEP. You and some other artists here record and produce albums/cds that make us proud as fans to send these pieces of art to far away friends with pride, and to rub it in that this type of excellence in a band is just around the corner at a local venue around Pittsburgh and not in their towns.

I'm grateful for the support of people like Julie and am always happy to have outrage expressed on my behalf, but...I dunno. My CDs aren't sitting on the shelves of any radio stations that don't play them, because I don't bother sending CDs to stations that aren't going to play them. There was a time when artists like me had no choice but to rely on radio stations and record stores because the music biz controlled the means of distribution, sales, and promotion, and there was no way to reach audiences otherwise. The idea was to get a friendly local station to play your stuff, then get them to report to tip sheets that they were playing your stuff so that stations in other areas would consider playing your stuff, then going to all the record stores in areas where your stuff was being played and informing them about which stations were playing your stuff so that they would stock your stuff on the shelves, then reporting back to the radio stations about how well your stuff was selling in the stores so they would keep playing your stuff or put it in heavier rotation, and so on.

Although there were the occasional exceptions--Hanky Panky by Tommy James & the Shondells comes to mind--this was virtually impossible for an independent artist to do successfully without the help of a record company. It was the equivalent to Kafka's character K. trying to make his way into the Castle, but that didn't stop many of us from trying to curry favor with the fleas on the dog of the gardener who maintained the shrubbery outside the 13th courtyard.

Fortunately, those days are long past. Because we have the internet and digital distribution today, niche artists like me can find their audiences without having to rely on the kindness of strangers. I sent a message out to my mailing list yesterday, and since then I've received encouragement from people in the U.K., Belgium, Des Moines, Houston, New York City, West Virginia, North Carolina, California, Philly, and Maryland as well as Pittsburgh.

So tell me again why I need KISS-FM?

For more in this vein, see Courtney Love's rant on the music business, a great read.

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Progress on new CD and web site additions

Friends,

Things are coming together nicely on our new CD, which doesn't yet have a title (though we're leaning toward "East End Avenue," which is also the title of one of the hottest songs). It's hard for me to believe that it's been 6 1/2 years since my last studio CD, but it's true. We're recording at the Mojo Boneyard in McKeesport, PA (which has been in the news lately), site of a burgeoning soul revival in the Pittsburgh area that we are proud to participate in.

The material on the CD is all new and all original with the exception of one cover song from our current repertoire. For the past year and half or so, I've been writing songs with Jon Tiven and his wife Sally; a great Pittsburgh songwriter named Mike Sweeney is also contributing songs; and so is our new full-time keyboard player Jimmy Britton. We're aiming for release sometime this spring, and we'll be announcing CD release parties on our web site soon.

At the same time, we're going to be making lots of changes to our web site that will allow you to participate more fully in the Billy Price Band experience. This new blog is one of the changes, and we hope that you will be part of it by posting your comments on our blog. We also invite you to sign our new guestbook and read what other Billy Price Band fans have written.

Finally, we've decided to start a photo gallery on the web site, and we'd like to ask for your help. If you have a digital photo from a Billy Price Band gig, or a photo of you or someone you know with me or with some of the other guys in the Billy Price Band, or just a photo of you and your friends having fun at one of our gigs, send it to us in email at info@billyprice.com, and we'll post our favorites in the new gallery.

That's all for now. Check this space often, and join the party!

Soulfully yours,
Billy Price

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