[Click HERE to see Part 1 of this little photo journey through my late-winter and spring thus far.]

So, Aleister Crowley convinced me —— I’m going with the 3-sylabble + 2-sylabble combo: Christopher Robley (at least when I publish poems). It has a certain galloping quality, don’t you think?

But why would I start going by my given name all of the sudden? To be snobby? (It IS poetry, after all. But no, no.) The real reason is — I’ve wanted people to call me Christopher for a while. But you can’t just phone the folks you’ve known for years and say “hey, I’m Christopher now.”

I couldn’t, at least.

So when I started to submit poems to literary publications for the first time last year, the time seemed right for reinvention. (Is it really reinvention if the name is on your birth certificate?)

So, about those publications…

No, I’m not in any of those. Wishful thinking! I did have poems accepted by some great journals, though: Prairie Schooner, RHINO, Pacifica Literary Review, Arsenic Lobster, and others.

Here’s the 2013 issue of RHINO, which I just received yesterday in the mail:

And here’s a tiny slanted look at my poem:

This summer, 2 of my poems will appear in one of my favorite literary journals, Prairie Schooner. Here’s a sneak-peak at that cover:

A few months back, a new literary review — The Pacifica Literary Review — launched its inaugural issue:

And a quiet little sonnet of mine made its first appearance, too:

Anyway, the writing and submissions continue, with fingers crossed. It’s exciting and freeing and scary and all that other stuff to have a 2nd artistic ambition take on a life of its own alongside my music. But what the hell. I figure I can bounce between them to avoid burn-out.

Here’s me at my writing desk, trying to ward off burn-out with acupuncture needles in my ears (thanks, Lauren):

Speaking of Lauren (my partner), she and I took a trip down to the AWP Conference in Boston in March. It was incredible — 3 days of non-stop poetry readings and panels. Plus every press, journal, and review you can think of squished into one convention center. Then add 10,000 lit-geeks. Then add snow:

(The view across Boylston from the Hynes Convention Center).

And here’s the view from our hotel room before heading out to a poetry reading/concert hosted by Wave Books and Dead Oceans:

#Selfee!

And lastly, last night, I gave a reading at Mayo Street Arts in Portland, Maine with 4 other writers. It was the launch party for The Cafe Review’s spring issue. I was nerrrrrvous, but managed to shake the rust off once I got going.

Here’s a picture of the cover of that issue of The Cafe Review (in which I reviewed Brenda Shaughnessy’s powerful new collection Our Andromeda):

So that’s been my year-so-far in poetry; poetry, where the pleasures are immense and the rewards are few.

If you enjoy my music, I hope you’ll humor me on this poetry ride. And if you’re a poetry fan, please forgive me for the whole pop music thang. I can’t help it. The devil gets in your feet and you just can’t keep from dancing.

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I wrote a review of Brenda Shaughnessy’s Our Andromeda for this latest issue of Cafe Review, so it’ll be fun to read one of her poems at the event (and a few of my own poems too).

Here’s some details:

Join The Cafe Review family and friends for a community launch party to celebrate the journal’s spring issue, which features a cover by local artist Ed King. Co-hosted with the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance, the celebration will include brief readings, live music, and a raffling-off of Ed’s fantastic cover art.

Doors at 6:30pm/ Show at 7:00pm

I’m pretty sure we’ll be doing shotgun readings: 4 or 5 poets — 5 to 8 minutes per. Plus raffles, music, and THIS stage, which looks like something out of Mr. Roger’s Land-of-Make-Believe. If you’re in Maine, maybe see you there!

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I had grand plans for a series of blog posts throughout the late Winter and Spring — one about my trip to Folk Alliance, one about mixing my album, one about some gigs, one about poetry.

But time accelerates the more you lean into it. So I put together a series of Instagram photo diaries for you instead (with captions to prove I’ve not been idle).

First off, this is what the view from my kitchen looked like for almost 4 months. (The lake has finally thawed).

Yes. Cabin Fever! So it was great to get out of town for a bit and head to sunny, warm, tropical … Toronto?

What you can’t see between all those twinkling lights is the same damn snow that’d been falling in New England. I’m not sure why the good people who throw the International Folk Alliance Conference every year decided that Canada in February was a smart move — (they could’ve picked Austin, San Diego, Key West!) —but it ended up being a great time as always.

Folk Alliance is five days of non-stop music from 9am to 4am, with hundreds of concerts, a few films, and dozens of panels every single day. Wake, repeat.

On the down-side of things, I was so worried about this …

… that I didn’t check on the condition of my guitar immediately upon de-boarding.

I finally opened up the case once I’d gotten through Custons and saw this:

A long crack along the grain on the body of my guitar. Boo!

Remember that song “United Breaks Guitars?” It’s unfortunately still true. And they still don’t give two shits about it.

Despite my best attempts, they ain’t gonna do a thing for me — so the search for a good guitar repairman in Maine begins.

(If you want to read more about the misadventures of my guitar on two United flights to Canada, read THIS).

Anyway, the thing still played — so the shows went on. All five of ‘em. (A couple of my showcases started at 2am).

Here are the postcards I printed with my showcase schedule:

Folk Alliance is a love-fest for all kinds of Americana, country, Bluegrass, blues, folk-pop, and singer-songwriter fans and artists. Thousands of people take over a hotel for a week, drink Red Bull so they can stay awake until sunrise, and burn themselves to nothing. It’s really mad.

And inspiring — as the quality of the musicianship is incredible. Many of the best acts in the States and Canada attend, and they perform without any amplification for lucky little crowds of people squeezed into upstairs hotel rooms (with the beds removed) — like this:

That’s Birds of Chicago. Check ‘em out. They’re great.

As you might imagine, it ain’t for the claustrophobic. The hallways, rooms, stairwells, and elevators are packed — unless it’s 4am on the 11th floor. Someone apparently doesn’t need their bass.

During the days I worked the booth at the trade show for CD Baby, where we had a cardboard cutout of one of my favorite songwriters (and an extremely awesome person in general) — Mary Gauthier.

Here she is: Fake plastic Mary, or Faux-Shay.

While I was there, I also spoke on a panel about music marketing and social media — because, according to this issue of Indie Mag which arrived in the mail just before I left for Folk Alliance, I know something about those topics. (For any readers of the DIY Musician Blog — “do as I say, not as I do!”)

The talk went well, and then we all got tacos.

What else happened at Folk Alliance? Oh, I fought off a cold the whole time. The hotel was so dry that some of the luthiers exhibiting their guitars decided to go home early, afraid that their instruments might crack. I hung out a bunch with Mike Meadows of Swan Percussion and Molly King from CD Baby. Ate sushi. Played music. Saw Judy Collins. Searched in vain for wi-fi. Found it. Lost it. Flew home.

Were you there? What’d you do? Who’d you see? Lemme know in the comments section below, yo!

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Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Come on out and see me play 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 times — @ Folk Alliance.

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“The Late, Great Age of Paper (Haiku #2)” – Words and Music by Chris Robley

Chris Robley- keyboards, drums, bass, guitars, vocals
Rob Stroup- percussion, drums
John Stewart- drums

———————–

A couple years before I’d heard of something called an Amazon Kindle, I had the thought (though not a very singular one, as plenty of folks had probably pondered the same thing at least since the days when computers were as big as Monster Trucks) that sometime soon, paper would become extinct.

I was thrilled and troubled. Less trees turned to pulp! Less waste and environmental impact (because it takes a lot of energy to manufacture, distribute, sell, buy, and destroy a physical book)! Limitless online selection and quick deliverability! Check, check, check.

But on the other hand, what about the tactile stuff we’ve come to associate with reading? The texture, the sound of fingers flipping pages, the smell of a book?

Oh, sweet nostalgia

All of these things have been talked to death since the eBook revolution began, but years ago they seemed worthy of some late-night consideration. I decided I’d write a song called “The Late, Great Age of Paper” — a musical elegy for the printed book.

A few days before that, I’d bought a crappy, broken, no-brand keyboard for $3.99 from the Goodwill — “broken,” because the whole thing’s intonation was out of whack —a few micro-tones north of standard 440 Hz tuning. For you non-musicians, this basically just means that all the notes on this keyboard were slightly higher than a normal keyboard or piano. But the gritty bass sound on the keyboard intrigued me enough to buy the thing. That sound was the basis for “The Late, Great Age of Paper.”

Here’s a little video of that keyboard (be sure to turn the sound on):

Rob Stroup (who was also the engineer/producer for the track) and John Stewart recorded some percussion; I put on a choirboy voice for the end section; and the sole lyric — “the great age of paper” — was sampled on the SK-1 and played back at various speeds and pitches.

The album that “Paper” appears on, Movie Theatre Haiku, was split into two sections — half the songs recorded on 16-track analog tape and half in ProTools (digital recording software). Maybe it’s not so strange that “The Late, Great Age of Paper” was recorded in 0′s and 1′s.

5/7/5 = A.B.A.

The form of the song (roughly-speaking) is A.B.A. — a palindrome: the same form I’d used for the song “My Life in Film Festivals (Haiku #1),” because that song’s lyrics got their initial start as a haiku, the popular Japanese poetic form whose American equivalent requires 3 lines: a 5-sylabble line, a 7-sylabble line, and another 5-syllable line.

So both “My Life in Film Festivals” and “The Late, Great Age of Paper” have shorter A sections (repeated twice) that sandwich longer B sections.

The B-section sandwich. Musical haiku: bam!

The post Song Story: The Late, Great Age of Paper (Haiku #2) appeared first on .

Let’s go cray-cray

Editor Reign Lee says: “Underneath the witticisms and the considerable prose, lies a lucid seeker with a poignant understanding of what music’s all about and what’s needed in the music world today. We decided to let his invaluable observations run rampant in this issue. Yes, sometimes it is better when the lunatics run the asylum.”

Step onto my funnyfarm, won’t you?

Check out the Jan/Feb 2013 issue of Indie Mag:

Indie Mag Jan/Feb 2013

By Give Me Liberty Press in Indie Mag

32 pages, published 1/30/2013

Indie Mag is a global magazine for independent musicians. Each issue is filled with interviews and features – from indie innovators to acclaimed songwriters, from producers to managers, from up-and-coming artists to label owners. It’s all about spotlighting the best independent musicians around the world and celebrating them. In our Jan/Feb 2013 issue, we talk to Cherie Currie (The Runaways), Martin Atkins (PiL, Pigface, Nine Inch Nails), John…

———————-

I also did a quick interview for Riley & Ryan’s Modern Music Marketing Blog — where they asked eleven people the same two questions about… modern music marketing. Check it out HERE.

If you’ve got any thoughts on the interviews (—blog debate, anyone?—), let me know in the comments section below.

— Chris

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I love playing these PBR-sponsored tribute nights. So far we’ve covered Elvis Costello, The Clash, David Bowie, 1984, the 1970′s, and as of last Friday (@ Mississippi Studios) — Cities: where 5 bands took folks on a musical tour of 7 cities around the world, playing songs by artists from those cities.

I didn’t see it until after the show, but the Portland Mercury wrote a very nice preview for this night. Read the whole thing HERE, or see below for the part about me:

When PBR did a ’70s show, musician Chris Robley took 1971, performing Pink Floyd’s “One of These Days,” Nilsson’s “Without You,” and Jethro Tull’s “Cross-Eyed Mary”—a diverse group of songs, to say the least. Robley nailed all of them. “He’s living in Maine right now and this is the only time he could do the show,” Slessler says. “We’re doing this show around Chris Robley’s time schedule, because I just had to have him play.”

This time Robley performs songs from Los Angeles, which could mean the punk scene of the mid- to late-’70s, including X and the Germs; there’s the hardcore scene that developed just outside of LA, with Black Flag and the Circle Jerks; there’s the Sunset Strip hair metal scene, with bands like Guns N’ Roses and Mötley Crüe. But there’s also the music of the ’60s, including bands like Love, the Byrds, and the Doors—not to mention the Beach Boys—and the Topanga and Laurel Canyon scene that followed shortly thereafter. And there’s the gangsta rap that epitomized the ’90s, or more recent Silver Lake indie rock.

For anyone who missed the show, I’ll spoil the mystery and catch you up: Beck’s “Golden Age,” Randy Newman’s “Little Criminals,” Harry Nilsson’s “Coconut,” and Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream.”

I want to cover Richard Thompson for the next tribute night, but I’ve been told that one might not sell so well.

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It was a busy trip out West — beginning with a very snowy runway.

I played keyboards and guitar for Rob Stroup & the Blame at Secret Society Ballroom — and someone in the audience did this painting of us during our set.

I sat in with Rob and Naomi Hooley at the Edgefield Winery, singing a handful of my own tunes, as well as a mashup of Neil Young’s “Wrecking Ball” with Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” that killed it!

I led a new guest lineup of my band (Arthur Parker, Anders Bergstrom, Bob Dunham, Rob Stroup, and Naomi Hooley) through a bunch of songs by Los Angeles artists for PBR’s “Cities” night at Mississippi Studios. We played Beck’s “Golden Age,” Randy Newman’s “Little Criminals,” Nilsson’s “Coconut,” and Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream.”

And I finished tracking my latest album — the one we recorded mostly live on the Oregon coast. Here are some photos I shot while putting the final touches on the songs at 8 Ball Studio.

Wurlitzer. Making tasteful cameos on 2 or 3 songs. Sweet, sweet, vintage warmth.

The console. Or as Rob says, “If you can’t be with the Neve you love, love the Ghost you’re with.”

The sweetest J45 on the planet. The animal skin bass drum is just for show, though.

Oh, choices! When crippled by options —go with the Telecaster.

8 Ball Studio, thank you. This was the most enjoyable and inspiring recording project I’ve undertaken in a very long time.

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(click image to enlarge comic)

“Friends don’t let friends listen to Supernatural.”

- ( This moment of catharsis brought to you by L.M.B. ) -

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(click on image to enlarge)

Courtesy of L.M.B.

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