Portland Music Foundation

Membership with the Portland Music Foundation brings with it not only educational programs & services, but many perks, including local business discounts and free admission to all PMF events. Most importantly, it connects you to the music community of the greater Portland area, and shows your support for local music. Membership costs only $20 annually, and proceeds of all membership dues are used to fund all PMF activities and events.

FALL EDUCATIONAL SERIES BEGINS OCT. 8 WITH"BEST DECISIONS", CONTINUES NOV. 5>>>>> The Portland Music Foundation in collaboration with the Maine Center for Creativity begins its fall programming Oct. 8 with a free session open to the public, with four veteran music industry members, held Oct. 8, and continuing with a members-only educational event Nov. 5. Both will be held at 6:30 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.), at One Longfellow Square, in Portland. The PMF educational series is presented thanks to that grant from the Maine Arts Commission.

>>>>>For the free Oct. 8 open session, the public is invited to a discussion called, “The Best Decision I've Made,” which will feature veteran music industry members recalling some of the best decisions they made as they built their careers. It follows the “Mistakes Were Made” session that began the last round of PMF educational programming. The hope is that some of these lessons learned can inspire the current crop of aspiring industry members to kick their careers into a higher gear. The panelists are as follows and will be available for a Q&A session following the on-stage discussion.

Lance Vardis – Producer and owner of CSP Mobile, a mobile recording studio used for capturing live events. Vardis has worked with all kinds of big-time musicians, from Robert Randolph and the Family Band to Slayer to the Black Crowes, recording live events for record and film.

Gene McDaniels - Grammy-winning songwriter and performer - Maybe best known for writing "Feel Like Making Love" for Roberta Flack, McDaniels had his first Top 10 hit in 1961 as a performer and released 11 albums through 1971. He then turned to songwriting, producing, and studio work, teaming with the likes of Burt Bacharach, Nancy Wilson, and even lending a sample to the Beastie Boys' seminal "Sabotage."

Taylor Mesple – Owner of the Maple Room, a performance venue in Lewiston; songwriter and president, Maine Songwriters Association. Mesple is an accomplished studio musician and producer, with credits beside names like James Taylor, Bruce Hornsby, the Indigo Girls, and Keb Mo. He’s played on more than 120 albums and has four to his own name.

Chris Brown – VP Marketing, Bull Moose Music. Brown has been crucial to Bull Moose’s long-time support of local album sales, advocating for local albums’ place beside nationally recognized acts and with Brett Wickard developing Uncle Stinky, the software that helps locals actually get paid.

Darren Elder – Musician, the Wrecking, national recording artists; owner, the Halo, recording studio. Elder’s band, the Wrecking, just released their national debut, A New Abolition, on the Chosen/Universal label. As owner of the Halo, he and Jon Wyman are responsible for the production and creation of dozens of local albums.

>>>>> The Nov. 5 event will feature two in-depth educational sessions on the following topics (membership sign-up will be available on site—$20 gets a year’s membership):

Radio Promotion 101 will be hosted by Herb Ivy, station manager for WCYY and WBLM, and will feature local musicians who have lately put together radio promotion campaigns to expose themselves both to the college and commercial radio circuit.

Web Promotion 101 will be run by Patrick May, PMF president and northeast agent for Skyline Music booking agency, will feature the ABC's of creating a web presence and strategies to take advantage of the plethora of social networking sites and music blogs.

All in-depth sessions will be followed by a Q&A session, and all panelists will be available after the event for further discussion.

If you have ideas for educational sessions, please visit the PMF forum, where you can vote on suggested topics or suggest your own.

The caffeine was much-appreciated: After a couple of hours, everyone moved over to Empire Dine & Dance to hear Hiss & Chambers, Gypsy Tailwind, the Rocket, and Moshe for an after-party that ran late into the night.

Thanks to everyone who signed up for membership, and please forward any thoughts on new sponsors we can add to our list of benefits.

In his place, the PMF board of directors elected Patrick May, the group’s treasurer since incorporation. May, who works booking over 40 aritst into venue across the northeast for Skyline Music, said he is looking to cement the great beginning Ayan oversaw, as well as build out the PMF’s infrastructure, strengthening the web resources and bettering the group’s membership services.

Sam Pfeifle retained his position as PMF secretary, and Lisa van Oosterum, CEO of management company and record label Omnirox, joined the board of directors and was elected PMF treasurer.

MSA PRESENTS PIERCE PETTIS SONGWRITING WORKSHOP OCT. 11>>> The PMF would like to point your attention to a great event being put on by our friends at the Maine Songwriters Association. Pierce Pettis will hold a two-and-a-half-hour long songwriters’ workshop at Acadia Recording Company, in Portland’s Bayside neighborhood, on Oct. 11, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The cost is only $12 (but $7 for MSA members – and we’re telling you here, you can just sign up for free membership ahead of time). Seating is first-come, first served, so be sure to arrive early.

Long-established as one of the most insightful and masterful songwriters on today's contemporary folk circuit, Pierce Pettis continues to hone and sharpen his craft on his newest release, Great Big World on Compass Records. He has appeared nine times on American Public Radio’s Mountain Stage, and has been featured on National Public Radio’s E-town, Morning Edition and World Cafe. Pettis has won the prestigious New Folk competition for songwriting at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas. He has received numerous other songwriting awards including a 1999 Country Music Award from ASCAP for “You Move Me” - co-written with Gordon Kennedy and recorded by Garth Brooks on Sevens.

Pierce Pettis will perform at The Maple Room in Lewiston on Oct. 10 the evening before the workshop, and at the Kennebunk Coffeehouse on the night of the workshop..

The annual North East Regional Folk Alliance kicks off this year at The Hudson Valley Resort, in Kerhonksen, NY, from Nov. 13 through 16. This is one of several regional conferences that lead up to the National Folk Alliance Conference in Memphis, TN, February 18 through 22, 2009.

Some folk musicians and songwriters who have been to NERFA swear by it; they say it is a great opportunity to network, to get their music in front of regional folk music promoters and venue operators, and to jam with fellow musicians and songwriters and learn some new tricks.

Others feel that it is merely a big party; lots of fun, lots of great music, but with very little value in terms of promoting their careers.

The first thing to consider is the cost – it ain’t cheap, especially considering the budget of most folk musicians. You must be a member of the National Folk Alliance to attend ($70 per year for individuals). Conference registration costs between $85 and $150, depending on how early you register. Most attendees stay at the hotel (it’s hard to be part of the action otherwise); hotel rooms run from $140 to $350 for the entire weekend (meals included!), depending on the size of the room and how many people you are willing to sleep with. If you want to perform in a “guerilla” showcase in someone’s hotel room, you might have to pay between $10 and $40 for the privilege – yes, it is a “pay to play” situation. Lastly, there’s the transportation costs between Maine and the Catskill region of New York: a six or seven hour trip by car. Even with ride sharing, that can cost you a lot these days.

A very un-scientific analysis of the program book from the 2007 NERFA conference yields the following counts: concert promoters (60), radio DJs (15), record label reps (10), music journalism types (3), artist management or agency people (19), and representatives of folk music societies (12). That’s 119 potentially valuable contacts out of 455 registrants – not a bad ratio (about 26 percent).

Your success in converting that opportunity into gigs and publicity will depend on your strategy for working the conference, and your strategy will depend on how well known you currently are in the folk community. The formal showcase slots and the “tri-centric” showcase slots should be the objective of those artists who have attained a high-level of notoriety. Those in the middle tier may book private showcases in the hotel’s conference rooms. Artists still trying to make a name for themselves pursue appearances in “guerilla” showcases in the larger hotel rooms, but truthfully, almost everyone seeks these informal, intimate performance settings.

The key is to go in with a strategy that will maximize the “lift” you get from the conference. The NERFA volunteer staff provides a list of attendees a week or so prior to the conference. Cull through that list and identify the venue booking people, the radio DJs, and the promotional folks that are best suited for someone at your level, and make a plan to seek them out at the conference. Invite them personally to the showcases in which you will be performing, and follow up afterwards to make a lasting, personal connection.

NERFA may not be for everyone – those artists who have attained a consistent level of regional bookings may find that it doesn’t help them sufficiently to justify the cost. Those artists who are not yet ready for regional touring should not attend with that goal in mind – although it might be worth going in order to make contacts and “prime the pump” for when they are ready. If you don’t have a CD or promotional material ready, you will have a hard time getting any attention.

Conversely, there is a lot to be said for going to NERFA just because its a lot of fun!

Artists who are clear about where they stand in the arc of their career, who are clear about their objectives, and who prepare a strategy for meeting those objectives, can make a trip to NERFA a profitable experience. This is a concept that applies to other music conferences in other genres as well. It can’t be said too many times – you get out what you put in.