Saturday 18 July 2009

Update...

Hi all (however many there are of you). It has been a very long time since I posted anything on this blog. The last posting was for the Pierre Shryrer concert, Feb 1. That concert was FANTASTIC as can be expected from such a masterful musician as Pierre Shryer (and Andy Hillhouse, whose guitar playing and vocal abilities are literally, likewise, award winning). While everybody got paid, unfortunately, the concert lost money due to very poor turnout, despite some very direct marketing to the fiddle community, along with the usual amount of effort. Perhaps a combination of Superbowl (who knew folkies liked football so much), a long bus strike, and maybe a lack of ticket outlets (last time, the Folklore Centre by far outsold every other vendor), and maybe Sunday nights are just bad for concerts, even folk concerts. The losses incurred on my side have severely damped my enthusiasm to host more traditional music concerts. I was never in it for the money, but I wasn't in it to lose my shirt, either. I would help somebody bring in groups, but not financially, hereafter.
With respect to the main IMO webpage, I am using Google Analytics to give me more detailed information with regards to the user statistics of the site (don't worry, all anonymous, not that it would matter). There seems to be enough of a baseline usage to continue the site, and for those of you who give me feedback, thanks very much! I very recently switched from the PC world to the Mac world, and I have to migrate my webpage editor to Mac. Just a little learning curve, and it will probably delay some updates. Suffice it to say, there's a lot going on in the music community during the summer months.
Please send me an email if you read this blog. I am not sure yet how to set up a counter on this blog. And remember, I would ENCOURAGE people to send me their announcements for this blog, or cd reviews, or concert reviews, or big gig news, etc. I never wanted to be the sole author of this blog when I created it. It's your blog!
Cheers, enjoy the rest of your summer (if it ever stops raining)!
Craig