"first name cary, last name brothers" toronto. 05.08.07
photo: Dave Hill
damn, these people are nice. like "look you in the eye and actually give a fuck" nice. you can sense the kindness coming when you roll up around buffalo. kestrin, my cellist, actually had a tear in her eye when we crossed the canadian border. and, no, not in an overly emotional, high maintenance way. she always wanted to come to the great white north, and it was all of the things she hoped it would be. for me, there's a certain sense of relief getting away from the political crap in the united states. a nice little escape from the clutches of george w, if only for a day.
i didn't get to travel a lot when i was a kid, so part of the joy of what i'm doing is going town to town and country to country and seeing the differences and similarities - it forces me to look at myself and figure out what my beliefs are. i seem to be able to adapt to a lot of different environments. now that i've figured out how not to "adapt" by drinking a bottle of jack daniels every night, i'm more aware and really enjoy the experience (and remember it). i'm all for a couple cocktails, but control isn't such a bad thing, especially when you have to sing at a radio show at 9am the next day.
everything is changing. up til now, i've been running a label out of my house and doing it all independently, paying for tours with an occasional song on a tv show or movie, then spending that money on tour costs and making cds and then having to start all over again broke. i think i took my time because, after the unexpected success of the "garden state" soundtrack (i wrote and performed the tune "blue eyes") , i knew that i would get pigeonholed as "the guy with the ballad from the soundtrack," and i was right. i felt like i had to work twice as hard as any other musician to prove that it wasn't luck or a fluke. having a song on what is one of the more influential collections of music in the last ten years is a blessing and a curse. people know that one song, but unfortunately that one song isn't really representative of most of my stuff. it was a piece of music that i wrote back in the 90's and lyrically locked down as a song for an ex-girlfriend a few years ago. i'm proud of it, but it's not really my favorite. as with any kind of success, it was my calling card whether i liked it or not. i turned down deal offers after the soundtrack came out because they wanted me to make a record of all "blue eyes." i knew staying indie was the wiser move, and it allowed me to get here, where i want to be. i'm not really good with authority anyway.
oh, and people think i'm "the cary brothers" because epic records was kind enough to put that name in the digital file on the soundtrack. p.s. i'm just one dude.
so i did a deal. a record deal. not a sign-my-life-away thing - it's still independent and i have creative control, but nobody gave me house-buying money up front. if this succeeds, i will do very well because that label i created from home gets half of it all. if it fails, i go back to writing songs at home every night like i have since i was 13. that's where i'm most comfortable, and that's where it all starts. no one can take that from me. kids ask me advice all the time. there really isn't any - either you do it or you don't. if you don't have to pick up an instrument or a napkin in a bar and write a song every few days, don't try this career because it ain't worth the blood-sucking vultures and being away from people you care about. i have no choice, and i love it, but now there are things i have to do everyday that have nothing to do with what i love doing. people ask me why i look so sad in photos; well, it's cuz i hate being the subject of a photo. i'm not one of those people that has some dark hole that has to be filled in their soul which craves attention (like a majority of the people i know in los angeles). i got past the dark stuff when i was younger, and i feel like i have stories to tell from the other side. i just want the music to come first. it's much more important than me.
oh, right. damn. this is supposed to be a tour blog, huh? the shows are great, blah, blah, blah. unfortunately, the joy of the shows isn't what's on my mind right now, so this is all you get. there's more to come. i promise. i have a lot of stuff floating around in my head that will fall out of my brain into this computer and get posted on the internet for all to see in the next couple weeks. nice to meet you, by the way. until next time...
be good,
-CB
"watching it happen from the bottom up." 05.09.07
you ever heard of brandi carlile? if not, you should. you will. i was only vaguely familiar with her music and had heard good things when i came out on this tour, and now i'm a fan for life. she's the real deal. she's going to be doing this when she's an old lady and it'll be just as good, with even more wisdom and power as she gets older. there is nothing "hip" about what she's doing - it's timeless, and it's great to see so many different types of people at the shows. watching brandi go through the crunch of a major label release and single and time in the spotlight - this is her "moment" - is quite educational. she handles the stress and busy schedule like a pro, and gets it all out every night on stage. i saw a similar thing happen to the guys in the fray when i toured with them last year and they went from selling a hundred thousand records to a couple million. there are a lot of incredibly talented people i know who will never have such a chance at massive success, but it's cool when it happens to good people. the thing about that kind of success is that it will end - the only certain thing after having a hit is that eventually you
won't have a hit someday - but i know brandi will tour to packed houses for the rest of her life because of good music and not just some manufactured buzz from a marketing department. i was downstairs having a cigarette and thought her show was ending because she was playing the pre-encore single "the story." then i realized that it was coming from the radio downstairs in the restaurant kitchen. guess it's a hit single now.
my cellist kestrin and i are in this for the fun of it. the thing about being the opener for someone who's having a "moment" is that you really mean nothing. almost all of these shows sold out before i got on the bill, so there are rarely more than 20 people who came for me (only thanks to ebay and scalpers). a lot of brandi fans would prefer that i just wasn't there so they could just see brandi and go home. it's fun because it's a challenge. listen, i don't expect 100% of the room to be in the palm of my hand by the time my set is over, but if i got the attention of 75% (that back bar crowd rarely shuts up except for special nights), then i did my job, got some new fans, and will sell a couple more cds tonight. it's about the journey for me. it's about the work - getting up there night after night despite obstacles and killing it, whether i had a good night's sleep or just rolled into sound check from an 8 hour drive. not unlike good ol' rock, i just wanna go the distance. until then, i have gotten to play in front of thousands of people and meet musicians that will be friends for the rest of my life. i had never met brandi before this tour, but the first night she walked off the bus, gave me a hug, and then we sat and talked for two hours. her band is equally as cool, and she and the boys actually just asked me to come open for them at hometown pacific northwest shows that they didn't originally have an opener for, so i must be doin something right. hmmm... now that i think of it...
some rules for opening acts (as they come to me):
#1 - remind people who you are onstage. it's tough enough that everyone thinks i'm two brothers. audiences generally don't pay attention to anything but the music. and booze. i used to think it was lame to drop your name at the end of the set until i got tons of emails from people who didn't hear my name and did a week's time on the internet trying to find my songs to buy.
#2 - don't worry about competing with the headliner, especially if you are a duo and they have a band. do your thing. if you get competitive, you're an asshole. unless of course they are assholes, in which case you should try to blow them the fuck off the stage.
#3 - don't be afraid to make friends with the headliner. they were in your spot once, too. they get it. don't be all shy and shit. be fearless. this gets you good vibes and sometimes free beer and an occasional ham sandwich from their deli tray and table spread which is infinitely larger than your "bottled water and two drink tickets" (unless you've played there a few times, and the house gives you a bottle of jack because they are cool and work at "world cafe live" in philly. thanks, kev). but understand the boundaries for their pre-show rituals and whatnot.
#4 - even if you are killing it and you know it and the fans aren't there for you, don't give up and get defeated like some douchebag. someone in that crowd went out of their way to see you, jack, and you got 'em by the balls til you unplug that guitar. and... it is inevitable that at every show there will be a loud dude in the front who you want to kick in the face the whole show. do not kick him in the face because it is equally inevitable that he will show up at the merch table and buy your cd and want you to sign it after the show. makes no sense but it's true.
#5 - get paid by check whenever possible. if you get paid in cash and you are in a cool city, that cash will not be in your pocket in the morning. it will have disappeared into the 10 irish car bombs you bought at the bar next door for the headliners' crew who probably all made more money than you did. but it will still be worth it, cuz those guys rule.
#6 - when you do play big shows and headline, be cool to the little guy opening for you. it's the right thing to do and, hell, you might be opening for him someday :)
i'm at schuba's in chicago this friday, saturday, and sunday (may 11-13). the shows are sold out but if you can get tickets, come say hi.
be good,
-CB
"ben fong awesomeness" louisville. 05.20.07
so today i got perhaps the coolest message ever on my answering machine... "hello, cary. this is ben fong torres." ok, so anyone who knows about the history of "rolling stone" magazine or has seen the movie "almost famous" knows why this is a big moment
(www.benfongtorres.com). this guy interviewed everybody back in the day - dylan, the stones, mccartney, the dead - everybody, so it was just cool to hear him say my name much less want to interview me (for a site called "spotdj.com"). on top of that, he was a really good guy and said nice things about my record. after my interview, i told him i wanted to interview HIM about music back in the day, and he made the mistake of telling me to call him whenever i was "drunk or bored." ben, that's me calling now :)
i'm in louisville, by the way. i'm off the brandi carlile tour for a couple weeks while i go do some stuff for my record release. i meet back up with brandi to play her hometown shows in seattle and portland. i had a day off yesterday at the family home in nashville,
and i'm here today specifically for a "non-comm" radio convention thing. i'm pretty sure that means non-commercial, which means that these are more community based stations where the djs have more control of what to play on the record versus just spinning "the
single." i'm still learning my way around the radio world, so bear with me if i'm totally off on that one. kexp in seattle, reg's coffehouse and the wxpn folks are good non-comms to check out.
i started the day by playing an in-store at ear x-stacy (which is oddly enough the very first place i ever played an in-store on tour with aqualung two years ago), and some people actually showed up. you never know at those things. i've played enough empty parking
lots in my life to know not to expect much from a daytime show, but the kids rolled out and even sang along on some songs, which was nice. best part was seeing a big kid in a hoodie over to my left and realizing it was my buddy brett dennen, moppy red hair and all. now i won't say whether or not he had sampled some real kentucky bourbon before he came by to my in-store, but if he did, it might have been hilarious. brett's one of the finer human beings out there as well as being the guy who made me re-think the validity of "jammy" music. there's something about the purity of his intention when he plays that could win over the biggest of cynics... and he's touring around the country doing just that. dude's gonna be huge. he played tonight across the street from the hotel and killed it as always.
when i was having a smoke in the lobby after dennen played, i overheard some people loudly talking about my friend ingrid michaelson. when i say "friend" i mean email/myspace buddy who came to my show in nyc with my (and her) real friend william fitzsimmons (who is also a great songwriter). i just emailed with ingird yesterday and found out she wasn't going to make it to louisville before i left tomorrow. what i have now found out from these randoms in the lobby is that ingrid just got the closing song on "grey's anatomy" tonight as well as a performance on "good morning america" and a story about her in the wall streeet journal tomorrow. rains and pours and whatnot. so happy that someone who really is independent is getting an opportunity like that. i know as well as anyone that some good tv/film exposure can change things pretty fast. what's even weirder is that she went from someone that i was trying to tell people about a month ago to someone that music industry gossipers are talking about at a radio convention today. i hope that gossip sells her a lot of records this summer.
why was i really here anyway? oh, yeah. the main event for me was a show in a hotel room at the brown in louisville (much swankier than my usual holiday inn express stays though i still love me some holiday inn express) where my label set up a room with a full bar and had me play a few songs for a bunch of the radio programmers and djs. it was an easy enough thing to do, and i met some great people from all over the place. we wrecked that room and that makeshift bar til about 5am, and then i had to make it to the airport with my cellist kestrin by 8:30. ouch. thank garmin for that navigational
system that pointed my way to the budget rental return. my head still hurts as i sit in the airport writing this. i'll be back in los angeles tonight, and evidently i get a few days off before i shoot the video, which isn't quite all put together yet - whatever, i'll worry about that when i wake up. my bed is calling. bye for now.
be good,
-CB
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CARY BROTHERS' WHO YOU ARE is released May 29, 2007 on Bluhammock Records.
http://www.carybrothers.com
http://www.myspace.com.carybrothers
http://www.bluhammock.com
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