Bob,

Phil Stevens here , in LA but jet lagged as fuck from flying in from the most isolated city in the world , good old Perth, WA Australia. Spent the night discovering the Rainbow Bar on Sunset, never seen so many long haired ex rockers..spent the afternoon meeting a great gentleman Gary Borman, manager to Faith Hill and our very own Keith Urban.

I know you got to hear about the magic that John Butler and Keith produced when introduced to each other for all the right reasons.

Keith Urban got asked to guest on the John Butler Trio’s song Funky Tonight as the closing performance of the Arias in Australia 2 weeks ago.

These guys had not even met before two days out…. But they bonded, they knew their licks and they turned on the most magic moment the Awards night had seen for many a year… Just like Alicia Keys and Stevie Wonder at the VMA’s.

and through fast and positive action this performance was put to great use. The next day the video of this performance was already up on youtube, and the song had been mixed, approved by the artists and managers and labels and mastered and uploaded on to Australian itunes within 24 hours.

All the proceeds are going to Oxfam’s Close the Gap campaign to help combat Indigenous health problems in Australia. Our native custodians have a 17 year shorter life expectancy than their white counterparts.

Music continues to make a difference, and magic moments still happen up their on stage. Thank god for live music!!

Check it out; www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulZG5NERLXE

Best,

philip

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anwa:

Keith Urban jsut put out his greatest hits record to after 2 or 3 albums. True he had his tough year, but the label insisted on a release whether he was up to it or not and then the buyers end up insulted with a "greatest hits " record.

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Sascha:

Matchbox released 3 albums so far, not 2. But I have to agree with you. I’ve been a long time fan, I really LOVED these guys. LOVED. Until they tried to fuck us over with this record. What the fuck were they thinking? It’s a double album with Disc1 containing six new tracks and Disc2 containing eleven of their greatest hit songs. These guys released their last record in 2002, and they’re coming back with THIS? You keep your fans waiting for 5 years (!!!!), and then try to take advantage of their anticipation for new material like THIS? Who would buy this record anyway? We have all your hit songs. We own your albums. We’re FANS, remember? But obviously this record wasnt for the fans, because we’ve been waiting for a REAL new album! Not a bunch of shitty b-sides, sold to us with your "hit songs", so you could justify charging us the price of a real album. Way to fuck over your fanbase. What was Michael Lippman thinking? Isnt he old school? He’s been in this business for 30 years, and he doesnt know better than this? Maybe he should call up Irving and intern for him a bit.

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Speaking of high school, I’m told that Captain Jim’s Drunken Dream is about a guy that I went to high school with outside of Boston. We sang 2nd tenor in the concert choir. He was abetter singer than I was. We both went to Columbia. He moved to the Virgin Islands and chartered boats. I started Sha Na Na and ended up in the music business.

elliot cahn

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From: Jessie Scott

From Jason Eady

Xoxox, as always…..

…from the not quite dangerous X (one of the other meanings is paying homage to the border radio of the big stick X’s of yesteryear….)

js

Jessie Scott
Program Director
X Country XM 12

—–Original Message—–
From: Jason Eady
Sent: Saturday, November 10, 2007 11:32 AM
To: Scott, Jessie
Subject: Re: FW: Back To Jackson

Hi Jessie,

This was insane… I am still dealing with the fallout from this. We got over 1200 hits on myspace yesterday (we normally average around 80),

my phone has been ringing constantly, and I have so many e-mails that it’s going to take hours to get through them all (not that I’m
complaining!).

I don’t want to say this to you too much – but again – I can’t overstate how much of an impact your station has had on my career. The response that we get from people hearing us on X Country has been truly amazing. And it translates to tangible results – ticket sales, press, album sales. I wish there were a better way to say it – but THANK YOU for the support.

Jason

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The secret to Matchbox 20 Bob, all respect due to Rob Thomas of course – is Kyle Cook – he writes the music and the feel and a lot of the melodies – provides the vehicle for Rob Thomas to shine as a vocalist / lyricist and he is so tasty as a creator of sound.

They are a group that is in dire need of an Indie Mentality Injection fast before the suits fuck it all up for them

Rock
danmillen

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But that’s just it Bob. You CAN always test drive almost everything Ryan does FOR FREE by listening to it live. He is a 100% taper friendly artist. Over the last few years, many of the pro-taper jam bands have started selling soundboard quality recordings of their live shows for profit a la Clear Channel’s Instant Live and as a result now limit fans to recording and trading "audience" recordings with no soundboard access. Yet Ryan Adams not only allows audience recordings but provides an open soundboard patch that his FOH/soundman blends with a mix of room microphones for a true matrix recording. They can be found & downloaded as bittorrents here: www.ryanadamsarchive.com/forumdisplay.php?f=5 or streamed or downlaoded as an ftp file here: www.archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Ryan%20Adams%22&sort=-date

and speaking of Ryan, which I am of course, he recently sat in for a set on 2 different nights with Phil Lesh & Friends at the Nokia Theatre in NYC. Those shows can also be downloaded:

http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=510830
http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=510738

That’s his business model, his marketing plan….. He is the artist, he makes the music and the people that appreciate it find it and listen to it. Completely organic symbiotic relationship at its purest. If he needs to pay then rent, then just let Tim McGraw (or the Corrs or some chump on American Idol who thought he was covering a Tim McGrawsong) pay some royalties:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoLggN8iVRc
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvI4SHV2p_Y

or write some songs for a crappy TV show (the first 2 songs on Follow the Lights were written for a show called "October Road")

As an aside, I just noticed the 9/21/07 show from the archive (www.archive.org/details/ryanadams2007-09-21.sbd.flac16 ) has been downloaded more times than copies have been sold of Follow the Lights. Ryan Adams gets it!

Craig Davis

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Bob,

You cannot imagine the delight and surprise that happened when I opened your email to find you discovering what is going on down here in Texas. There is a movement here. A huge movement driven by the fans for artists that are nothing short of amazing. Artists that not only perform and have the vocals to hold up to touring 230+ dates per year, but artists that actually write their own music. Artists that have management hungry to get them out there, booking agents that spend countless hours on the phone booking gigs that sell out. I’m positively too giddy to write anything coherently enough to make sense. However I sure will try.

Artists like Randy Rogers Band, Jack Ingram (whose live show is mesmerizing), Brandon Rhyder (this guy is one of the most amazing songwriters out there – not to mention vocals and a show that enraptures the audience), Josh Grider, the amazing Walt Wilkins, Stoney LaRue, Wade Bowen, Jason Eady (you must find his first cd – which is amazing for a first cd "from underneath the old"), Hayes
Carll, Autumn, Roger Creager and the list goes on. These guys started with one fan, and it spread to two and twenty and 500 and they aren’t in it for money, but for spreading the music to the masses. Rarely will you find a ticket price over 20 bucks (and that is in a very rare instance – generally 10 bucks will get you in the door) and never will you find it on ticketbastard. You’ll find the artists completely open to hanging with the fans, who will stay until the wee hours of the morning, waiting to load out so that the last fan can get a picture or autograph or just shoot the shit. There are street teams of fans spreading the words. There are no inflated myspace plays as word spreads fast in this scene and no one wants to be a fake with fake plays on myspace. Nope, they are all genuine. Yes, there are that many fans here and that many people who spend their hard earned money every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night to see all of these acts when they come through their town.

The one thing that started all of these artists. Pat Green. Yup, after Robert Earl Keen and Billy Joe Shavor and all of those outlaw guys had surpassed our generation Pat resurrected it. He made us want to go to shows, to sing our lungs out, to enjoy every moment of every note with a packed house that loved it just as much as you did. It was, simply, amazing. And it opened a whole new world to up and comers that have the same amount of passion for spreading this music. Pat Green set records at Smirnoff in Dallas, Cynthia Woods Pavillion in Houston and in every other dive bar and venue in the state. It’s not a competition, but a brotherhood.

Wave on Wave is one of the best CD’s that will stand the test of time. I’d happily send you one if you wish. Hell, I’ll email it to you if you want. Yup, that’s how many I purchased with my money. Because PG opened this world that I had never experienced…..just a music lover wanting good music. Not Hype, not marketing, just hanging with your friends and having the time of your life while listening and experiencing and participating in GOOD MUSIC.

I’ll shut up, as I’m sure there are more important people that grace your inbox. However, take note. Nashville may hate it, and everyone else may hate the state that I live in, but you cannot deny that some of the most amazing music is coming out of this state and yeah it’s in the country genre, but it needs to be noticed on a national level. It’s that good!

Thanks for such entertaining and genuine blog stuff that pops into my email!

CB

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Very interesting, Bob. Make sure to visit

www.bigheadtodd.com/alltheloveyouneed

in the next few days. The first xx,000 people who sign up with a valid email and physical address will receive a FREE copy of our newest album. Why? Well of course, you know why. We’ve been running this promotion for 4 or 5 days and were very surprised at the volume. We will have to stop the signups much earlier than anticipated. And, when the tour starts in January, we’ll find out together if it is a good idea or not. But at this point, we feel it is more important to get it out there and gamble on a future ticket or T-shirt sale than waiting around and getting buried in the "traditional" channels. The Compact Disc is replacing the 11×17 flourescent flyer of the ’80s and ’90’s. And why not? For a mid-level band like ours, It was never much of a revenue stream anyway, except at the merch booth. And you won’t visit the merch booth unless YOU’RE AT THE SHOW.

Thank you. I enjoy most of your letters very much.

Jeremy Lawton
Big Head Todd and the Monsters.

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Talley Griffith:

Yeah – like many other longtime Pat Green fans, I myself remember loving his music BEFORE he sold out/got neutered. Somehow he’s trying to appeal to the cookie-cutter pop-country fans who also dig Chesney, Underwood, and Trace Adkins. What a loss.

It would be like Steve Earle touring with Spice Girls and Justin Timberlake!! Pat MUST return to his soul, and realize he has the talent to make it on his music…not his jeans, shoes, or Ford commercials like others resort to instead of music chops. Pat should team up wtih Robert Earl Keen, Gillian Welch, The Black Keys, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Shooter Jennings, or Blues Traveler. Pat with any of those acts? Now THAT would be a rockin’-ass tour!!