Paul the music lover’s blog

I was out on a Thursday evening for music because Friday just happened to be a day off. The weather was sunny and warm and the Grand Lodge hosted the Beth Willis Band (the one that rocks) for an out-on-the-lawn affair. This is a very tight band and Beth has a remarkable voice. They did mostly covers (not my favorite thing) but kept it interesting by changing decades frequently. I heard music from Dusty Springfield to David Essex to Tom Petty to U2. There were a couple of original songs in there and I thought they were both quite good. I’ll get in touch and see if she’d like some airplay.

Beth Willis Band

I have seen the names Pilar French and Joshua Slamp in print a lot, but never actually seen them until they landed at the Grand Lodge on Saturday, June 20. Slamp is an amazing instrumentalist who is wildly versatile. I really enjoyed watching and listening to him work. French is a true showman with vocal styles that remind you of Dolly Parton and Janis Joplin. You can’t say that about too many people! The two are learning each others material and sometimes perform arrangements while you wait, making for an entertaining show as well.

Pilar French And Joshua Slamp

It was music outdoors at The Grand Lodge as the McMenamins tour of Northwest music concluded Friday night, June 12. On the stage, two of my favorites at the same time, Stephanie Schneiderman and Breanna Paletta.

Before those times it was easy to discover new music on the Internet, I would go to the library and check out 20 CDs at a time without knowing a thing about them. Out of that 20, one or two would be something I liked. One of those CDs was Stephanie Schneiderman’s “Touchdown”. It was “Shadow” from that album that really got my attention. A few years later, I started my podcast and sought her permission to play the song. Not long after, she played a Noon show at Pioneer Square and I was able to meet her and get a few more CDs. Today, I’ve got “Shadow”, “Remember You” and “Unbelievably Unbroken” on my playlist representing the commercial, melancholy and sassy sides of her music.

I don’t rightfully remember, but I’m guessing I met Breanna Paletta at a Beaverton Borders show a few years ago. I think I remember her telling the story about how her daddy was a blues musician in his day and it took him a while to warm up to her singer/songwriter style. Breanna was the front woman for Rye Hollow and one of their songs was featured on KINK-FM. She is currently engaged to Justin Bennett, whom I also play on Indie Music Sampler, and I’m looking forward to hearing what the two of them cook up musically.

When Breanna was in high school, Stephanie was her mentor. It was very special to see them on stage together. If I sound like a fan boy, I’m guilty as charged.

From where I sat

Breanna's warm-up show

The full band

I haven’t been doing the best job at documenting the show I’ve been to. Whether you’re interested or not (and why *would* you be?) I should document for myself.

Paula Sinclair played The Grand Lodge Friday for three hours, and just like before, the time flew by. It was an especially early show. When the weather is nice, they start at 6PM and play outdoors. The weather was so nice, that Grand Lodge was hosting an outdoor wedding instead, so Paula played the Garage Door. A special treat for this show was Paula found herself a percussionist, and a *good* one.  I noticed Kenny Sawyer there but I wasn’t really aware of his contribution until I really paid attention. Then I realized his contribution was tremendous, without being flashy. He is all about the song. What a great team they make.

In January 2009, I decided to start an Internet radio station, complimenting my 2-1/2 year old independent music podcast. I have learned a lot in the last 6 months. This article is for those who might want to do the same. I have discovered it is not terribly expensive, and is a good way to expose people to new music. It could also be a way to listen to your music library on the go.

If all you want to do is upload a bunch of music and let it play, then all you need is Make A Voice at http://www.makeavoice.com/shoutcast/ – just choose the number of listeners you want and the bit rate. The disk space for your music library is unlimited and the monthly cost (starting at $3 per month) will be static. No surprises. Nothing to install, not much to learn. Their technical support is excellent.

Here is a summary of my requirements:

1. Inexpensive, no chance of financial “surprises”
2. Runs from a low-end PC (in my case a 300mhz Celeron)
3. Runs on the Linux OS (I don’t *do* Windows)
4. Play a randomized playlist, dropping in announcements every X number of songs
5. Play scheduled special programming

MakeAVoice’s AutoDJ did not meet my needs. Other services with more robust AutoDJ systems are too spendy. Since I’m a geek, I set out to create my own AutoDJ. Since I want to generate the programming from home, I needed to install business-class Internet service. Much to my surprise, it is available via Verizon FIOS for $45/mo (not much more than I was spending on “home” service). That is for 10MB download, 2MB upload, with a 2-year contract. With a 96KB stream, you can have up to 20 listners. If you want more listeners than that, then add a MakeAVoice account and let it relay your programming.

The heart of the system is two executables available free from Shoutcast. sc_trans reads a playlist, plays the music, encodes it at the configured sample and bit rates, and hands off to sc_serv. sc_serv puts you “on the air” and registers your station with Shoutcast so people can search for you. sc_serv can be told to limit the number of listeners.

sc_trans is not very flexible. It reads a list of mp3 files (a playlist) and plays it. The only options are sequential or random. It is possible, however, to ask it to load a new playlilst at any time. It will finish what it is playing, then move to the new playllist. This feature made it possible for me to write simple BASH scripts to control my station.

At midnight (triggered by cron), a script makes a list of all the MP3 files in the “music” directory, then randomizes that list. It makes a list of all the MP3 files in the “bumpers” directory and randomizes that list (these are the drop-in announcements and promos). Then it creates a schedule for the whole day in a text file by inserting X number of songs, a bumper, X number of songs, a bumper, etc. It then tells sc_trans to load the new schedule (playlist). On a normal day, that’s it.

On Sundays, in addition to the above, I insert special programs. Triggered by cron, a script is launched that creates a new schedule. At the top it, puts the list of MP3 files for the special program. The script finds the position in the current schedule, and copies from that point down to the new schedule. sc_trans is told to load the new schedule (playlist).

Once a week, I generate a playlist report. It shows a list of all the titles in the library and the number of times each title was played. I use this report mainly to confirm the library is getting a somewhat even rotation.

As the station broadcasts, you can watch the log files generated by sc_serv and sc_trans. The sc_serv log shows listener connections while the sc_trans log shows the events related to programming, including the filenames played. Much of this information is also available on a web interface. It is pretty cool to watch. My system has been secretly running on my computer for about a month now and has been very stable.

Let’s review the expenses:

1. Hardware: Any modern PC. Mine is a 300mhz Celeron, capable of generating one stream. A higher power machine could generate more than one stream. My scripts are designed for that in fact.
2. Software: All free, including the Operating System (Linux)
3. Internet account: Business-class. If you have FIOS, it starts at $45/mo.
4. Licensing: If you are going to play major-label music, then you will need to pay royalties. Since the purpose of my station is to showcase independent music (I have permission to play it all) licensing is not something I need to worry about. This is not an area I can help you with.

The system I just described is scheduled to go live on June 18 (the day I have FIOS installed). At the time of this writing, Indie Music Sampler radio is generated by JBStream at http://jbservers.net which is an excellent service. It has a very capable AutoDJ but the bandwidth charges aren’t fixed. You pay for bandwidth as you need it. If you suddenly get a bunch of listeners, you could find yourself forced to pay up or pull the plug.

If you want to know more, or have a look at my scripts, let me know. I have always loved radio so running this station kind-of takes me back to those days. I love my hobby.

It was an evening of traditional folk, country and blues Friday, May 8 at The Grand Lodge in Forest Grove. Matt Meighan, who grew up in Chicago and spent some time in Colorado, brought his guitar and an impressive list of songs from the American folk and blues traditions. Meighan’s bio says his musical heros include Woody Guthrie, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Mississippi John Hurt, Townes Van Zandt, Lucinda Williams and Utah Phillips. His original songs range from the personal to the political and from humorous to serious.

Joining Matt was Sherry Pendarvis and her marvelous stand-up bass. The fiddle she brought was a bit more traditional than the one shown in the article. It was interesting to me that the audio jack on the bass was attached to the strings between the bridge and the base. I’ve never seen that before.

Matt Meighan and Sherry Pendarvis at Grand Lodge

A very faithful listener to my podcast pointed out that three of the episodes were not included in the feed. When I looked at the feed, it said there were enclosures but they were not enabled. I looked at the blog post for each one and sure enough, there was no check mark next to RSS. That’s been fixed so some very old programs showed up in your feed this morning. Enjoy!

Paul

Jon Koonce (http://jonkoonce.com/) is a regular at Rock Creek Tavern but I’ve never seen him there. On Friday, April 24, I saw him do a solo show at Grand Lodge. He is described as a Northwest Original. He was the founder of Johnny and the Distractions and fronts his most recent incarnation — One More Mile. What I enjoyed about this solo show was the simplicity. He didn’t use the house system, opting instead for his small guitar amp and acoustic guitar. And why not, it was easy to set up and sounded great. It was an evening of folk, blues and country, mostly original and always obscure. It was a great way to unwind on a Friday evening.

Tom Varley (http://www.tomvarley.com) is a self-proclaimed beach bum who grew up in Coos Bay and now makes California his home. It’s not that he’s all that crazy about California, but the water is warmer and the sun shines a bit more than it does around here.

I saw Tom four years ago (or so) at Music Millennium on 23rd in Portland (which is sadly no longer there, though the sign is still up). The first thing I figured out about Tom is he likely has a good time no matter where he is. His enthusiasm for life and music are contagious. He did a song back then I instantly fell in love with called “Place In The Sun”. It was good to hear it again.

For the last couple of weeks, Tom has been touring with Phillip Boone (http://www.myspace.com/philipboone) who has a fascinating bio. They put on a wonderful show Saturday night at the Grand Lodge in Forest Grove.

Tom Varley

Phillip Boone

It was a treat, as always, to be entertained Friday night by Paul Barkett at the Beaverton Borders. Paul has written a couple of things that he performs, but mostly he does covers. What makes his shows enjoyable for me is the music is from *my* era as I believe we are about the same age. He must have had a dozen CDs up on the table and all but one was sold after the two hour show. He really did have us eating out of his hand. If paul has a website, I sure can’t find it! I did find him on Facebook, though.

Paul Barkett at the Beaverton Borders