Blues Element

STUDIO BLUES ELEMENT:

BABY'S GOT THE BLUES (2005)

Jamie & Iain were joined by Rod Phillips R.I.P. (B3 organ), Michael Fonfara (piano & B3 organ), Dave 'Slopie' Powell (piano), Bryan Huntley (bass), Alec Fraser (bass), Michael Keith (guitar), and Kenmi Chank (guitar) for "Baby's Got The Blues", produced by Alec Fraser.

ARE YOU READY (2008)

Jamie & Iain were joined by Jason Wilson (piano, B3 organ, Rhodes), Justin Snikkar (bass), Kenmi Chank (guitar), Garfield Stoddart (guitar), and Rebecca Campbell (back up vocals) for "Are You Ready", produced by Jamie & Iain.

CD NUMBER 3 (2011/12)

Jamie & Iain will be joined by....? STAY TUNED!

Topmost in our hearts and minds at this time is getting back into the recording studio.

We've recently heard about a new trend among independent musicians and other artists called *CROWD FUNDING*.

Crowd Funding allows a band access to extra funds in advance, in order to get the recording project started, rather than scrambling to pay off all the costs afterwards once the cds start to sell. Wikipedia's definition also refers to "Seed money, sometimes known as seed funding, friends and family funding or angel funding". What it all boils down to in this case is that as a fan/friend/family member, you have the opportunity to purchase your copy of the new cd in advance online through a secure method (PayPal), and have it shipped to you as soon as we get them from the manufacturer. Plus, we will include your *name(s) in the cd liner notes as a little thank-you.

We hope to start recording asap/before the end of the year (2011), so if you are interested in getting involved please visit our website and the secure link there.

Thanks!

INFLUENCES and so forth

"Use the talents you possess, for the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except the best." ~Henry Van Dyke~

What do people really mean when they ask who your influences are?

"Without music life would be a mistake." ~Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche~

The people that inspire us do not necessarily inspire us to sound LIKE them...

Dinah Washington, Ruth Brown, James Brown, Louis Jordan... they are just a few of the folks that Blues Element covers if a cover song suits the moment.

Ruth Brown is the main reason why Jamie started singing and writing jazz & blues.

A surprising number of people have told us that our original tunes remind them of Steely Dan. (see our blog on that subject)

Iain and Jamie both LOVE Prince. Iain wants to produce and arrange like Quincy Jones. Jamie has been to almost as many punk gigs as Iain has played Soca gigs.

Iain's top 5 are:
Duke Ellington,
Miles Davis,
The Police,
Bob Marley, and
James Brown.

Jamie's top 5 are:
David Bowie,
Iggy Pop,
Nick Cave,
Ruth Brown, and
Nina Simone. Although she is considering changing this to a "Top 6" so she can add Martha Wainwright.

Some of the other artists that one or both of us likes or at least liked at some point on the path to here and now, in no particular order, all mixed up together so you get a sense of what it's like to stand in front of the cd racks and try to decide what to listen to at any given moment: Thelonious Monk, Grace Jones, Billie Holiday, Julian Fauth, Dubmatix, Nirvana, Frank Sinatra, Frank Nevada, PJ Harvey, AmoebA QuichE, Paul Simon, The Jam, Bauhaus, Kate Bush, Buddy Guy, Johnny Cash, The Velvet Underground, Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, Patti Smith, Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, Jeff Buckley, Radiohead, Sonny & Brownie, Sonny & Cher, Hafdis Huld, Ronny Size, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Nick Drake, The Cramps, Robbie Robertson, Saturnalia (of the 1/2 dozen or so bands we know of with that name, we mean the one that was from Toronto), Ray Charles, Dead Can Dance, Karen Dalton, Siouxsie and The Banshees, The Pretenders, The Funk Brothers, B.B. King, Seal, King Tubby, Antimatter, Ann Magnuson, Angelique Kidjo, Dinah Washington, Daphne's Purple Closet, The Supremes, Tabarruk, Otis Redding, Curtis Mayfield, Lee Scratch Perry, Tina Turner, The Stranglers, Groovy Religion, Neil Diamond, T. Rex, She Keeps Bees, DropDeadBeats, (of the 3 bands we know of with that name, we again mean the one that was from Toronto) and all the other musicians and bands that we have added as friends - there are too many to list here!

So, does that answer the question? What was the question?

"He who sings scares away his woes." ~Cervantes~

"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." ~Hunter S. Thompson~

"Music rots when it gets too far from the dance. Poetry atrophies when it gets too far from music." ~Ezra Pound~