I’ve started playing around with video creation, and the way in for me seems to be the lyric video. It’s a common format these days, and you can go to fiverr or elsewhere and find a lotsa lotsa excellent and inexpensive lyric video producers, which I have perused and pondered. But it occurred to me that just filming my own hand writing or highlighting or otherwise penning my own lyrics along with the music would be more personal and fun. So I made a coupla these, and I dig the results. Tracks 1 and 2 from my CONTENT album now have lyric vids on the YouTubes! Here are links:
Indeed the next one will be track 3 from said CONTENT album, 1983, with another twist on this same approach, possibly as early as today. Fun fun fun!
What else?
I’m scheduled for an “in-store” appearance at Down Home Music in El Cerrito on August 12, probably right around 2PM, details to follow. It’ll be me, my acoustic guitar, a few of my songs and likely a story or two about them, and by garsh, the good Down Home folks will have BOTH my CD albums available for sale.
I have (again) sworn off of making any more physical product. So the stock we have of STREET PARTY and CONTENT, and the marvelous Russ Ellis CD SONGS FROM THE GARDEN is it, that’ll be the entire physical output of Berkeley Cat Records. Reasons? 1. Expensive! 2. Plastics, plastic, plastics!
I do love the occasional request I get for vinyl, and yes, vinyl records are back in fashion and they do sell, but lo, they are MORE expensive! The cute lil’ CONTENT CD is a marvel of econo-DIY. I burn them one by one on my desk (with help from the cats of course) and pen the text with a sharpie. The jacket is a simple cardboard sleeve with Shannon Wheeler’s classic newsboy hollerin’ on the cover.
STREET PARTY and SONGS FROM THE GARDEN are more elaborate affairs, both lovely packages which were produced and manufactured in the more traditional way.
I’m proud of all these “records” and I’m glad to have made them, but indeed, what I enjoy MORE is creating songs, recordings, and now, getting me toes wet in the vast waters of video-makin’. I am, as the song wryly observes, a “content creator.”
The NEXT album from BCR, I think, will be a compilation, with a song or two from each of our fantabulous artistes, and it will likely be called a Berkeley Cat Records Caterwaul. Because what on earth else would we call it? That will be online only - not on vinyl, CD, cassette, 8-Track Camero-rockin’ tape or Edison Cylinder. It will, however, have some delicious backlit cover art for our little glow-brains.
Wishing you all a wonderful Caturweekend,
Eric Roy Dinwiddie
BCR Cat-Herder in Chief