Since my last posting I have been busy filling in as a bass player with Tamin' Thunder. This particular stint lasted about a month and a half. During this time their guitarist Lorne Hind approached me about doing a special showcase for original acts. I thought this would be a great idea and told him to run with it. The result will be a gig on June 20th at the Velvet Underground. Along with myself, three other groups will be there. Tamin' Thunder: The group I just mentioned showcasing the songs from their debut CD "Good As Gold". Lorne Hind 360: Instrumental rock in the style of Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and others. Instanika: This is a project I have been working on for years. This will be Carlo's first gig. Myself and my band will be backing him up. Songs from the "Moonrain" CD will be played live for the first time. So that is where I am focusing my attention on for the next little while. Hope to see you there. Add Comment Still trying to do this blog thing, but sometimes I wonder why do I bother. Anyhow here's what I have been up to: As you can see from the home page, new recordings featuring myself are on the market with the band Instanika. The group is really just a guy named Carlo Rubino. I just happen to be there helping him put it all together musically. We are currently writing some new songs for another release. No set date as of yet. Also writing new material for myself and getting the recordings done with Scott Milligan. Got 4 in the can which are all instrumentals. Maybe I will release an all instrumental album. Also we are writing and helping each other out with other material. Who knows what will come of it. For gigs I have been playing bass for Tamin' Thunder. A good group who every now and then need some help and I am only too happy to supply whatever is needed. Also co-writing a song with their guitarist Lorne Hind. That's it. That's all. I guess this blog will become a monthly thing. Until next time. It has been a while since I last posted. Hopefully I will get better at keeping up. As my title suggests I am going to speak about my "friend" from Croatia. For those who don't know who Ivica is please check my previous post. In a nutshell Ivica is someone who seeks out artists who just release a new CD and asks for a free copy. He or she claims that in return for a CD he or she will promote the artist in Croatia. Ivica sends out a form letter via email and changes a few things to fit the artist he or she is trying to contact. When I was first contacted by Ivica I did a google search and contacted those who received the same email. Then I made my opinion: why should I send a CD for nothing considering how much time, effort and money I put into the project. If someone really wants to support an artist, buying a CD would be the best thing one can do. As far as the promotion thing Ivica is offering, he or she should go ahead and prove how much he or she can do. From there I posted on this blog my feelings on the whole matter. Other artists have since contacted me giving their opinions on the matter and thanking me for the warnings of sending their CDs to Ivica. This week alone I received emails from three seperate bands glad to find my posting. They also mentioned that Ivica is getting really "pushy" when trying to get CDs. I guess Ivica is not getting as many CDs as in the past. I guess my postings are keeping many from sending CDs. Also I receive a new correspondance for Ivica basically thanking me for making him or her famous. A bit arrogant on Ivica's part. I will not respond directly. As one last piece of advice. Before sending out your music to someone seriously think about who is on the other end. If you can fully trust that someone and give away your music for free then go ahead. If your have doubts, then don't. A little over a week ago I did a gig in Loretto with a pick-up band. It was the first night where the weather was not cooperative. The snow that fell was probably a factor in having us play to an empty building. I did however learned two things. The first was trust your gut. Let me explain. During soundcheck I found my amp was not working properly. The speaker was producing a choking sound. This got me into a troubleshooting frame of mind. Started with changing cables - didn't work. Next tried by-passing my effects board and go direct to the amp - didn't work. Looked to see if the tubes were not loose - they weren't. The only thing that I can think of at that point was that I needed a seperate power source. I was sharing my outlet with a bunch of other things. I proceeded to ask the soundman for another power source. He said that it could not be the problem and did not even try. So I had to play direcctly into the mains which in one word - sucked. When I got home I tried the amp out and guess what - it was fine. Took it to the studio a few days later and it still worked. I knew it was the power source. I should have fought harder and trust my instincts. What was the second thing: bring a spare amp. Maybe another amp could have saved the evening for me. Yes, it is another trip up and down the stairs. More stuff to cram into my car, but I should think like the boy scout and always be prepared. A little while ago I received an email from someone from Croatia looking for free CDs. I posted this letter on my blog searching for answers and have since gotten others asking me what to do since they too got the same email. Here is the email in question: Dear Mr. Joe Poirier, My name is Ivica Visnjic and I am a really big rock, blues, roots and Americana music lover from Croatia, 62 years old. Just now I am told you have a new album entitled "SUNSHINE” and I am glad. I have a big interest in this CD, but unfortunately (and really), I am not in a financial position to buy it at present. Mr. Poirier, maybe you can send me an free copy of the CD? I would be very grateful for it and excuse me for being impudent. I will promote the CD among my friends here in Croatia. Thank you in advance for your understanding and help. Looking forward to hearing from you!!! Best regards from Croatia, Ivica Visnjic P.S. Also, I´d be really very grateful for an autographed picture of yourself (large dimension if possible). Now did I send a CD to this person? No, and here's why: Why should I give away my CD to anyone. A lot of time and money was spent on this project. I make my living as a musician, if I start giving it away to everyone who asks I might as well just pack it in and get a new vocation. Do you ask a mechanic to fix your car for free in return for promotion. Try it, I can only guess what the answer would be. The person claims to be able to help out with promotion. I say go out and prove to me that you really want to help my career and do something. If that someone really wants to help, buy a CD. It's not that hard to do. You can pay with Paypal, and it is not that much. Anyhow that's what I think about this whole thing and this will be the last time I blog about it. You have a comment or question, no problem. I'll try to keep the conversation going. Finally back at the computer to put up a new blog. On my title page I changed the weekly updates on this blog to monthly. I just don't have the time to do this every week. Hopefully this will work out and I can find the time to keep up. For this post I will give you an idea of what I did for the summer. I spent the first part of July getting things prepared for my parents visit. It was their first time visiting us since we moved to Toronto. We had a lot of fun just hanging out and doing some typical tourist things. The two weeks just flew by. Next was the Brothers In Arms gig I did. A great cause and fun was had by all. It gave me a chance to catch up with my friends in Tamin' Thunder who also did a set. The following week found me doing a private party with a group who's lead singer I haven't played with in about 13 years. The gig was alright and I may be doing another with them in November. The end of August found us in Quebec City to visit the inlaws. Always great to see them and a great city to visit also. That's about it in a nutshell. Until next month. Today is a very hot and humid day in the city. I have been doing lots of things around the house in preperation of the arrival of my parents next week. The weather, though, is making a bit unbearable so I decided to hide out in my basement and catch up on my website duties. So I am starting with this blog entry to let you know what I have been up to. The end of June found me and my girlfriend Karine in Rochester, NY for their annual Jazz festival. The reason for going was for two headlining artists. The first night we were there was for Jimmie Vaughan with special guest Lou Ann Barton. For Karine and I was a dream show we have been waiting to see for years. Jimmie was in fine form delivering his take of Blues meets Rock 'n' Roll. Lou Ann's song selection was like if Karine and I wrote it out for her as she played every song we wanted to hear. The next night was Gov't Mule who gave a spirited 90 minute plus set before they had to board a plane to Europe. As far as Rochester itself, it is a great city. Being our second trip, we know we'll go back again and again.  The following week found me headlining the Friday portion of the Barrie Rib Fest. It was great to get to play in Barrie again with my own group. It has been many years since I performed in this city which I at one time called home. It is where I got the opportunity to cut my teeth as a bandleader and singer.  For this gig, Lord Bubba got to meet Steve Henry. Steve was the bass player on my first CD (Help Me Stand) and a great musician in his own right. This time Steve got to play drums with me for the first time. In my opinion this was one the best gigs I had in a long time. The three of us clicked very well considering it was the first time the three of us played together. The people of Barrie was also very receptive and enjoyed what we were doing. Organizers also dugged what we did and promised to bring us back to Barrie soon. Anyhow that's a little slice of what I have been up to. Going to try and keep cool, hope you will too. Until next time. Back on January 11th of this year I posted a blog about an email from someone in Croatia looking for a free CD. For those who may not be familiar with this email here it is again: Dear Mr. Joe Poirier, My name is Ivica Visnjic and I am a really big rock, blues, roots and Americana music lover from Croatia, 62 years old. Just now I am told you have a new album entitled "SUNSHINE” and I am glad. I have a big interest in this CD, but unfortunately (and really), I am not in a financial position to buy it at present. Mr. Poirier, maybe you can send me an free copy of the CD? I would be very grateful for it and excuse me for being impudent. I will promote the CD among my friends here in Croatia. Thank you in advance for your understanding and help. Looking forward to hearing from you!!! Best regards from Croatia, Ivica Visnjic P.S. Also, I´d be really very grateful for an autographed picture of yourself (large dimension if possible). Since then I have received a few emails from other artists who themselves have gotten a similar email from the same sender. Each one wondering what to do. Again I did not send a CD and I do not plan on sending one either, and with good reason. Recently I received an email from someone who did send a CD to this person. I will not reveal who I got this from, but here is the content of that email: I just saw your post about this supposed fan of music asking for a free CD. We, too, have received an email just like this from this person a couple of times. The first time we fell for it and sent one. However, we have since found websites (with foreign text) where you can download our music. The site also has pictures of the front, back and inside of the CD which could have only been obtained by having a physical copy in your hand. To be honest with you, we haven't sold that many for them to be all over the world like that, so I am highly suspicious of this person. We will not be sending him our second album. Let me clarify that I don't know for a fact that this guy is getting free CDs and then turning around and selling downloads, but I'm not taking that chance. I, too, want to say that I do not know if this guy is legit or a thief, but what I will say is that I would be very careful about sending my music to someone for free. As an artist, I know that a lot of time and effort along with money went into my recordings. I am not trying to become rich, but I am trying to make a living at it. It has been a while since my last post. I apologize for taking so long to do so. I have been busy doing lots of things, and even right now I am just taking a minute or so to type this post then go back to other things. One of the things that has been keeping me busy is doing house repairs. For those who own a house, you know there is always something to do. It is something that I hate to do because I am not that great at it. I get the job done but it takes me 2 to 3 times longer then what a pro or someone who enjoys doing that kind of stuff takes to do the same job. I have been doing some gigs but with other bands which included a duo with Darryl King, Organized Choas, Tamin' Thunder and Labyrinth who I will be doing a couple of more dates with this weekend. In a nutshell that is what I have been up to. Anyone feels like droping a line please do so. I always have time to answer emails. The last week of March kept me quite busy. Here’s what I was up to. Monday, the 26th was the last gig of my month of Mondays at On Cue Billiards. These gigs were fun to do, just me and my guitar. I would like to thank Hryhorij and the staff for giving me a chance to play at their venue. I also used the opportunity to take video footage of the gigs. Once I get around to editing it, I will be setting up a video page on this website. Tuesday, the 27th I was at a rehearsal with another group. I usually don’t do rehearsals for one off cover gigs (non-original material). What I do is my homework at home and make sure I know the material then do the gig. Most of the time when I go to a rehearsal I am disappointed at the results. What happens? Someone in the group doesn’t know the songs. That person thinks that rehearsals are there for learning the songs. This is unacceptable and unprofessional. At the moment I do not know if this gig will happen. I spent the next couple of days getting ready for a few gigs with my own group. I had the opportunity to use a couple of different drummers that I haven’t seen in a long time! Friday the 30th I was up in Markham at The Duchess. I was here the previous month when someone got ill and couldn’t do the gig. For this show I had Mike Pulkinghorn, a distant cousin, on drums. It was probably years since Bubba and I saw Mike. It was great to see and play with him again. Even though it was a slow night at the bar, we still had fun. Saturday the 31st it was back at the Salty Dog in the Beaches. Phil Michaels was sitting behind the kit. I met Phil when I first moved to Toronto in 2002. Later I played bass with him in a group called the Bottle Devils. Again the night was slow, but we played great. I was commend Phil on his playing and his knowledge of my material. As I mentioned earlier, do your homework if you are doing a gig. Monday, April 2nd, I was out with another drummer. Duncan McBain, who has played recently on my shows, was celebrating his birthday. He was also doing a gig at Trane Studios on Bathurst and Bloor. Nice club that probably not too many people know about. Well worth checking out. One the radio front, John from Compleet FM, has just informed me of his previous play list for his past show and has played a couple of tracks from my Good Times CD. Again, thanks for the support! On my previous blog I mentioned that I was going to be featured in issue 51 of the UK Rock magazine Fireworks. Just want to let you know I made a mistake and it will be issue 52 instead. I believe the release date will be sometime in June. I will keep you posted. |
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