FEBRUARY, ETCETERA
SIGNATURE SOUNDS ANNIVERSARY SHOW MARCH 4 - At the dawn of the century, when I was just a pup, I made my record Five Stories with Billy Conway and a cast of thousands. When it was done, I used the precarious magic of a credit card to print up 2000 CDs, which seemed at the time like a staggering, unsellable number. To save on shipping, I drove to the plant to pick them up in my ‘88 Subaru (that car had a disconcerting smell due to the ten gallons of fresh cow’s milk that had tipped over in the back a few years prior, but that’s a whole other story). When I got back to my Somerville apartment, my four housemates and I loaded the boxes in and arranged them in a dangerous teetering stack in our stairwell. For some reason we assigned each box a name, and wrote it on the side in Sharpie. This stack was known as “The Warehouse” and was (along with the 24-hr Kinko’s in Harvard Square where my friends and I printed up our snail-mail tour postcards at 2AM after gigs) more or less the extent of my professional infrastructure. As I started working through that first batch of records my housemates would say things like “oh great you sold Francesca” and “we’re getting down to the end of Melvin.”
Then, through a series of serendipitous twists and helpful advocates, I was introduced to Jim Olsen, who ran the scrappy up-and-comer indie label Signature Sounds. This was during a time of reshuffling in the music world, with a groundswell of energy around rejecting the old-school exploitative artist/label structures. Signature was certainly no corporate overlord, but along with most of my tribe I had a healthy blanket skepticism about labels and I’m not sure I went into my first conversation with Jim intending, or even hoping, for anything to come of it. As it turns out though, you can’t talk to Jim for more than five minutes without realizing that he’s A.) one of the good guys, and B.) operating from a sincere, wide-ranging, incorruptible love for music and musicians. Sig was also one of the first indie labels to start structuring artist-friendly, profit-sharing deals as a matter of practice. I’ll always be grateful that Jim invited me, Five Stories, and my poor business sense into the Signature fold, launching a 15-year stretch of releasing music together which has been a cornerstone and a real gift in my life. I’ve struck out on my own for the last couple records, but Sig and I are family forever.
The label turns 25 this year, which is a small miracle in itself, given how many small labels perished during that span of time as the industry got turned on its head by filesharing and then streaming. It’s a true testament to their grit and vision and willingness to change that they’re still here, 175 or so records later. To celebrate the anniversary, they’re putting on a series of shows at the Parlor Room with Sig artists past and present. On March 4th, I’ll do an unimaginably exotic thing, i.e. load a guitar or two and some gear into my car, drive (and I can’t emphasize this enough) away from my house, set up my gear on a stage with a microphone on it, have a little interview/chat with Jim, and play some songs for you. I’ll still be playing in an empty room; but it won’t be my empty room, and that’s a crucial distinction. Tune in here, and join me in finding out if I still know how to play standing up.
NEW EP - When we recorded Long Day in the Milky Way, we tracked 15 songs, mixed them all, and then cut the final album down to an even dozen. It was an agonizing process, because I loved the all the songs, and I promised the three we left off that they’d make it out eventually. For a midwinter offering, we’ve bundled them into a tiny EP called LIGHT BREAKS THROUGH. It’ll make its way onto all the streaming platforms eventually but for now it’s exclusively on Bandcamp, a company that has consistently shown up for artists throughout the pandemic. You can preorder the digital EP on my Bandcamp page right now and immediately receive the title track. “Light Breaks Through” is about the moment when you first notice a dark time starting to brighten. It’s a big friendly golden retriever of a song, and if it gives you a momentary feeling of optimism or even a little dance around your kitchen, it will feel that it’s done its job.
Thanks and hang in there everyone, *kd
UPCOMING SHOWS
4 MARCH - Signature Sounds 25th Anniversary Show online via the Parlor Room, 8PM ET watch
