Service offerings
If you are a musician or represent one, or are involved with a music-related group, I am ready to help you. Hire me to create any music-related text you need. I will do my utmost to ensure it meets your expectations. With my experience, I can handle your project for any genre and audience.
01
Articles & essays
Longer pieces of descriptive writing that require extensive research and/or interviews to complete offer the opportunity for a deeper and more thorough exploration of a topic. As you might expect from a historian with an academic background, this is the type of writing that appeals to me the most. I have the experience to take on nearly any project, but here are a few areas of particular interest:
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Blues and Country music from between the World Wars were built from a combination of the most ancient and the most modern aspects of music culture. They often have a reputation for quaint timelessness, but their styles were changing and intermixing as rapidly as any music during this turbulent time. Those elements combined with the often extreme personalities and situations behind the music make this a seemingly endless font of fascinating stories and some of the most interesting music the world has produced.
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As a singer and conductor as well as a writer and researcher, I’ve spent a great deal of my life exploring the world of early music, and in particularly the repertoires of the 16th and 17th centuries. This is music that people love to listen to, but also tends to be one of the stodgiest and least accessible areas of musicology. One of my goals is to address this music, and performers who are doing interesting things with it today, in a way that combines high quality research and an approachable tone
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Basically everywhere you go you find amazing bands, venues, and scenes enriching the lives of countless people, and most of them are simply not getting written about. It’s a priority for me to do what I can to get the word out about music that deserves to be heard, especially music that comes from worlds that are removed from the channels of money and power that too often dictate what people get to hear about.
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It’s incredible how many people I know, including very serious music aficionados, are completely unaware that, for over half a century, a lot of the most creative, well crafted, and diverse rock music has been coming from Argentina. The success of groups like Los Lobos, The Gypsy Kings, and Buena Vista Social Club has long made it clear that English-speaking audiences are ready to accept music with lyrics in Spanish, so there’s no reason why people should have to keep missing out on this incredible musical world. It’s my intention to do something about that.
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I also enjoy a challenge, so I’ll also be more than happy to start looking into whatever fascinates you. I’m prepared to dig deep into any topic, and to work closely with you to make sure the final product is exactly right for your publication's needs.
02
Reviews
Review writing is a great way for a writer to point audiences in the direction of acts who aren’t getting as much attention as they should, or, if it comes to that, to warn audiences away from acts who they feel aren’t quite living up to their promises. Reviews can also be an opportunity to expand the experience of music by adding a layer of context and interpretation that wouldn’t normally be available to most listeners. Left to my own devices, I might tend to gravitate in certain directions, but I’m interested in writing about anything that’s music, and I’m extremely excited by the challenge of confronting and figuring out what there is to say about whatever music you’re interested in featuring in your publication. This could include:
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Reviews of local shows in smaller venues featuring underrepresented bands are what I feature on this website in my “Dispatches from Hamburg” series. These typically focus on the venues, audiences, and general experience in addition to the music and musicians, with the goal of encouraging people to get out and see more live music without being afraid to take risks.
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Recordings and concerts that deal with material from the past are often built on mountains of historical information, which may be extremely familiar to the performers or to the people assembling a re-release compilation, but completely outside the ken of most of the audience. Historically informed reviews can act like miniature musicological studies, using the music performed as an entry point to open up the world of context surrounding it for readers.
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Whether new or old, an album offers an invaluable snapshot of a moment in history. In my album reviews, in addition to discussing and assessing the music itself, I strive to open up the context of that moment in order to heighten the experience for listeners.
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I love discovering new music and new musical worlds, so if there’s any recording or concert that you would like to have reviewed in your publication, I’ll be very happy to do my homework and work with you to make sure that what I produce will be perfectly suited to your needs.
03
Liner notes
If you’re releasing an album, compiling a thematic compilation, or preparing a re-release of a wrongly forgotten classic, I would love to write liner notes for you. Liner notes can be straight-forward or cryptic, scholarly or artistic, cursory or in-depth, and because of their flexibility, they provide one of the best opportunities to sculpt the message that you want to send about yourself and your project. This could be:
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If you’re interested in a minimal approach, I can work with you to prepare a simple description of who you are and what you’re trying to get across with your album.
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People have an inherent love of narrative that probably goes back to the earliest days of humanity. This means that telling your audience a story, whether it’s the true story of how you came to make the record, a fantastical scenario to flesh out the context of a concept album, or something completely different, is one of the best ways to capture their imaginations and get them on board with your project.
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For classical recordings, compilations, and re-releases, providing listeners with a window into the world in which the music was created and the lives of the people who created it can completely revolutionize the experience of engaging with it. There’s really no limit to how deep an investigation like this can go. Some of my favorite sets of liner notes are also among the best books available on their subjects.
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Maybe you’re interested in doing something else, like creating an activity book for your listeners, an essay on a topic related to your project, or simply abstract imagery to complement your music. Whatever you’re looking for, I’ll help you make sure it’s something that will truly add to the experience of your record.
04
Program notes
Well researched and well written program notes do more than just give audience members a way to kill the, somehow always interminably long, time between arriving at their seats and the beginning of the performance, although that is certainly an important function. They’re also the best tool available to get your audience on board with you, your project, and the music you’re performing, before your performance even begins, and this results in a more satisfying experience for everyone. With a good set of program notes, I can help you to:
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Every piece of music was created in a particular time and place, and having an understanding of the function and meaning it had in that original context, as well as other functions and meanings that it may have had in other times and places since, can have a powerful impact on an audience member’s experience of your performance.
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Just like the music you perform, you have a story, but most of the people sitting in the audience waiting for the concert to begin have no idea where you’re coming from or what motivates you to be up on that stage doing what you do. Program notes provide the opportunity to break through that alienation and create a feeling of camaraderie between you and your audience that makes the whole experience more fun for everyone.
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Any performance of any piece of music involves countless choices, each of which, ideally, has been made for a reason, based on the performers’ priorities. Whether your choices are based on historical research, reaction to past performances, or just an instinctive feeling about what a piece needs, an audience that understands what you’re going for is in a much better position to get on board with your project.
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Or maybe you have completely different ideas about what you want to get across with your program notes. That’s fine too. I’ll work with you to make sure the notes you end up with are a perfect match for your vision.
05
Press releases & press kits
Whether you’re going on tour, releasing an album, promoting a festival, announcing a new season for your venue, or doing anything else that you want people to know about, a well crafted press release is the best way, not only to make sure that people here about what you’re doing, but also to take some control over the conversation surrounding your work, so that the story people hear about you is the one you want to tell about yourself.
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Going on tour is the best way for your band or ensemble to expand its audience beyond their local scene, but if no-one knows that you’re coming or who you are, this potential is limited. I’ll work with you to create a press release that delivers the message you want to send, and then I’ll help you to make sure it finds its way into the right hands, so that when you arrive in a new city, the scene there will already be waiting for you.
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Far too many great albums get released and never make it any farther than the merch table, but this is an injustice that doesn’t really need to happen. It’s very possible, even for small bands and ensembles on local record labels, to use their releases for what they’re really for, building a wider following so that, wherever you go, there will be like-minded people eager to buy tickets to your shows. The difference is how you get the word out. I’ll work with you to create a press release that captures what is most exciting about your album, and then I’ll help you to make sure it finds its way to the right people who can help you spread the word.
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Whether you’re establishing a festival, founding a new ensemble or musical organization, promoting a music-oriented book or museum exhibition, or doing anything else that people should know about, it will be more successful the more people know about it. Let me help you sculpt the message you want to deliver about your project and make sure it reaches the people who need to see it.
06
Speaking engagements
For the past sixteen years, teaching has been an enormous part of my life. That has given me the opportunity to hone my ability to talk about essentially any topic to essentially any audience. It’s also made me aware of the intoxicating pleasure of talking about a subject I’m passionate about to an interested audience. If you have an interested audience, whatever their age, background and level of expertise, and whatever music they’re interested in, I would love to come speak to them.
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All of the subject areas that I mentioned above under Articles and Essays — American roots music, early music, punk and underground rock, and Argentinian rock — are areas that I would particularly love to give a talk about, but I’m interested in all music, and just as in writing, I’m happy to take on the challenge of speaking about whatever suits your particular needs.
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I’m as comfortable speaking to a crowd of music experts as I am with a group of casual fans. Just let me know what sort of audience I should expect, and I’ll tailor the talk to make sure it’s as interesting and useful to them as it can possibly be.
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A talk about a given artist, style, scene, piece of music, etc. could focus on theoretical or technical features of the music, the cultural or political context behind it, the biographies of the people involved, the interaction of music and technology, or many other areas of interest. If you have particular needs in this regard, I’ll be happy to work with you to develop a talk that will appeal to the specific interests of your audience.
Let’s collaborate
Feel free to contact me via email or fill out our contact form to discuss the details for your upcoming event. I’m excited to work with you!
