East Coast, and a warning about my digital music!

Hey folks!  I'm currently writing from a cabin on Prince Edward Island.  I'm at "The Dunk"!  A famous place in musician circles, a place for house concerts, pie, and relaxation.  As you can probably tell, my East Coast tour is going swimmingly.  I picked the perfect tour companion in Sarah Beatty, who you must check out if you haven't yet.  What a voice!  You may recognize that voice from a couple songs on my new album, the most impressive being "Some Nerve".

Before I get into the tour a little, let me take a moment to talk about digital music, and no, this isn't a tirade about illegal downloading.  As most musicians do, I released the album digitally (as well as on CD and vinyl!), since there are so many places to send the digital files to, I decided to make my life easier and pay a company to deal with it.  They sent the files out to all the obvious places (iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, etc...) and some smaller places as well.  But unfortunately they sent the wrong music.  Yes, the info is all correct, you get 10 songs correctly labeled with the right information, cover art, etc... but the music is that of a punk rock band.  I don't know how this sort of thing could happen, it seems like they had one job, but I can't change the past. On their end, they fixed the mistake and sent out the right music, but now I have to wait for each site to change it on their end, which, if you've ever dealt with iTunes before, could take a while. 

So please, if you are interested in purchasing my new album "William" digitally, do so at my bandcamp site linked here.  Do it for 2 reasons; 1. it's the right music!  and 2. I get all the money (as apposed to say, iTunes, who take $3 from every purchase.  Oh I guess there's a 3rd reason, you can order the album on CD and vinyl at my bandcamp page.  One stop shopping! 

OK BACK TO THE TOUR!  (sorry if this seems rushed, but the road keeps beckoning... I'll try to hold it off...)

So far we've played a great shows.  Not a clunker in the bunch!  Peterborough was a beautiful start, and opener Nick Procyshyn was wonderful discovery.  I also had the opportunity to sing for my supper at the local Shawarma joint!  That was a first.  Next we found ourselves in Ottawa at Raw Sugar, and what a lovely venue.  We had a full house too.  Opener Claude Munson, was another great find, soaring impassioned vocals and some beautiful melodies.

We spent a day in Montreal, Sarah played a set at Grumpys Pub, which is now one of my favourite bars in the world.  Seriously, I think I watched 4 couples fall in love at that place. We followed our day in Montreal (with the prerequisite stops for bagels, and smoked meat sammies), with a very long 12 hour drive to PEI.  Because sometimes that's how tours are planned.... poorly. 

Today we're heading into CBC to record an interview/performance with Karen Mair on Mainstreet PEI!  That should be up between 4pm and 6pm today, and you can listen here.  Then we're off to Gahan House to play some beautiful folk music (and drink many beers from the PEI Brewing Company!)

We still have Halifax, Kentville, Pictou, Moncton, Fredericton, Edmundston and Belleville to go, so keep checking in! 

OK, I'm off to eat some lobster rolls and record my first ever CBC interview!  Talk soon!

Video for "I Blame The Loyalist Ghost"! + Tour dates!

Hey there!  A month back, I got together with director Jesse Yules to work on a music video.  I was a big fan of the work he'd done for bands like Bruce Peninsula, Kathryn Calder, Of Montreal etc, and I was so happy to finally work with him! 

Here's the fruits of our labour!  "I Blame the Loyalist Ghost" is track 4 on my new album "William", and that'll be released Tues Sept 23th!  You can pre-order online here at my bandcamp page, and iTunes.

Enjoy, and please share! 


Here are my upcoming tour dates with Sarah Beatty!

09/26 Peterborough, ON - Gallery in the Attic - with special guest Nick Procyshyn!
09/27 Ottawa, ON - Raw Sugar with special guest Claude Munson

09/28 Kemptville, ON - The Branch

10/01 Charlottetown, PEI - Gahan Pub

10/02 Halifax, NS - Company House - with special Guest Corey Isenor!
10/03 Kentville, NS - Union St. Cafe
10/05 Pictou, NS - Carvers Coffeehouse

10/06 Fredericton - House Show
10/07 Moncton, NB - Plan B

10/08 Edmundston, NB - Le Deck
10/10 Montreal, QB - Grumpy's
- with special guest Matthew Lazenby!
10/11 Belleville, ON - Capers





Album Artwork, NOW magazine, and a couple shows

Hey kids!  How would you like to get a peak at the album artwork for my upcoming album "William"?  Ok, here it is!


Very nice.  As usual, I've kept up my ongoing work relationship with the very talented and wonderful illustrator Jessica Rae Gordon.  She's really great.

In other news, I'm really excited to say I've been nominated for best songwriter in NOW magazine's Best of Toronto!!  I was shocked to see my name with the likes of Ron Sexsmith, Justin Rutledge, Bob Wiseman and Donovan Woods, but apparently it's not a mistake!  You can vote for me (or one of these great acts) here at NOW Magazine. 

Shows!  Well I have a tour coming up in September/October, but I'm not going to announce that quite yet.  In the meantime, I have a couple special shows coming up in August.  First one is at St. James Anglican Church in Gravenhurst.  It features me and my good friend Jerry Leger!  It's also going to be taped, but like, to tape! Reel to reel! That's on August 15th, and here's the event page:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1421777201433113/

Next up is on August 22nd, in Thornbury at Bruce Wine bar!  I'll be playing 2 sets here, one at 7 and another at 9.  I hear nothing but great things about this place, so I'm excited to see it for myself!

That's it for now, more info soon! 

Shawn.





5 Days left to help fund my new album!

Hey folks, here's just a quick reminder, there's 5 days left to help fund my new album!  As I've mentioned before, making an album right can cost a lot of money.  I plan on going all in on this one.  I have one of Toronto's finest indie producers, James Bunton on the job.  He's worked with countless great acts including Ohbijou, Evening Hymns, Diamond Rings, Forest City Lovers, The Wooden Sky, and many more. 

So far, I've recorded 10 songs, featuring guitar, accordion, horns, pedal steel, bass and drums.  Let me tell you, things sound wonderful.  We plan to have it mixed and mastered by the end of May, and hopefully, not long after that, I can give you a peak at what we've accomplished. 

Why not check out the site?  You can pre order this new album on CD, digital, or vinyl!  You can also look into other perks like a limited print of the album artwork signed by me and artist Jessica Rae Gordon!  Or book your very own house show, either a solo show or with a band!  Hand written lyrics! and others.

That's it for today.  Here's the link http://igg.me/at/ShawnWilliamClarke/x/6645964

Talk soon!

Recordings! + 10 days left to pre-order/donate!


First thing first, my indiegogo fundraiser campaign is down to the last 10 days!  Please check it out, you can pre-order the album on CD, digital or glorious vinyl!  You can also buy yourself a beautiful print by Jessica Rae Gordon, get a solo or band show, hand written lyrics, etc!  It can all be found here:  http://igg.me/at/ShawnWilliamClarke/x/6645964


 

In other news, we are in the thick of recording right now!  Last weekend, my producer/drummer James Bunton and I drove up to Gravenhurst.  We arrived late at Curries Music, and began our sessions!  First day was spent with acoustic guitars.  The shop had so many to choose from, I ended up using 6 of them(5 from the picture above)!  Including this great 1969 guild N20, once owned by Ontario blues legend Mendelson Joe!




On day 2, bass player David Gluck arrived.  He also found himself with a few instruments at his disposal.  In the end he used 3 electric basses and 1 upright.  Sounded great! 



On day 3, Sara Ciantar arrived.  We worked on a song as a trio, then focused on Sara's accordion and organ playing.  There were 2 Hammond Organs in the studio, so we tried our best to utilize them!



We had a great time in Gravenhurst, and now we've started the overdubs in Toronto.  Friday was spent on my vocals.  I've been taking a few lessons, so things were sounding pretty alright.  I also took the opportunity to put down a little more guitar, this time using a Kay parlour guitar from the mid 60's.  A really nice touch!




Today we have Stephen Dyte in to lay down some horns.  Followed by a guest on Pedal Steel and some vocalists! Keep checking in for updates.

New Album! Details, and how you can help!

This weekend I head into the studio to record my sophomore release, the follow up to 2010's "Like Birds Too Tired to Fly".  I'm pretty excited!  I have acclaimed producer James Bunton (of Ohbijou and Evening Hymns fame) behind the mixing board, and some great musicians coming in to do their thing!  I think this is really going to be something special.

As you may know, albums can cost a lot of money to make, if you want to make it right.  You really get what you pay for.   This record is going to cost roughly 9 grand when all is said and done.  To help this along, I've started an indiegogo fundraiser campaign to help raise about $6,000.  This is basically a pre-order (with a few other exciting perks).  If you'd like to get your hands on the album (digital, CD and VINYL!), or just see some of the other perks I have, please check out this link (and share!)

http://igg.me/at/ShawnWilliamClarke/x/6645964

And if you're curious about some of the music you'll be hearing on this album, check out this video I did with Sara Ciantar!





Not too bad if ya ask me.  Wish me luck in the studio! We have all these instruments to deal with.



Bonnie Prince Billy Cover

About a month ago, the Calgary based music blog Slowcoustic asked me to record a Will Oldham cover for a project they were putting together.  I'm a huge fan of the Bonnie Prince Billy albums, so I naturally said yes.

After some deliberation I settled on this track from "Ease Down the Road".  Special thanks to Alli Sunshine for singing harmonies and Kristian Pederson who recorded/mixed and played Wurlitzer!

Feel free to download and/share!