Saturday, March 22, 2008

Inbox

Ok. I admit it. I have a google alert set for my name and the names of every band and project I am associated with. Lame? Perhaps. Self indulgent? Most definitely.

Anyway, this just appeared in my inbox and comes from the Sunday Times in London. I thought I'd share it with you since Crooked Still is part of it and a large chunk of the piece is about my good friend and sometimes neighbor, Sam Amidon.

Sam Amidon and the folk revival


Also, Sam's mother Mary Alice Amidon has a blog, which you should read!

Idumea

Last but not least, hip hop legend, Coolio, has a cooking show which is needless to say, amazing.



That's all for now. Happy Saturday night without a gig!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Release the album!

Corey DiMario said...

The new Crooked Still album is slated to come out on June 24th!

Anonymous said...

Great! Really looking forward to it.

Unknown said...

thanks for the shout-out corey! your blog rocks.

Anonymous said...

i went to sam amidon's irish fiddle workshop at DECDF! he's really nice and taught me a really awesome tune!

Bethany said...

i saw sam's show in amherst last week. very cool

Michael said...

Hi Corey,

First, thanks for being so generous with your time. I love the inside look at Crooked Still your blog allows. As an amateur musician, I also loved the video of CS rehearsing. In my band, our frankly humble technical expertise means we rarely are able to release the power that I sense in a good song - seeing you five go through the same process is fascinating and educational.

I'm curious about something, but it's in bad taste to ask things like this. But I'm going to ask anyway. Our little band gets somewhere between $200 and $300 for a 3 hour gig up here in Maine. Usually we play once every couple of weeks or so, but on St. Patrick's Day week we actually had 3 gigs in 5 days.

It made me wonder what it's like to be in a band that regularly pulls that kind of schedule. How much does a folk band that's good enough to tour and be signed to a label - how much does the average folk band make per gig? Do your voices get raw after multiple gigs? What does a band do for health insurance? What's an average day like when you don't have to perform til 7 pm or so?

I'd love to see a blog on these kinds of day-in-the-life questions in the immense amount of spare time you probably have :)

While I'm at it, I'm also completely curious to find out how CS songs take shape. How do you find them? How do you decide to arrange them? Is it improvising at first, and then you stick with something you like? Or is it pen-on-paper first?

Anyway, whether or not you can answer any of these, thanks so much for your music. I'm looking forward to June 24th (and July 20th when you're up in Maine!)

Michael