Domesticated Set List (Part 1)

Thursday June 2nd 2011

I am having the time of my life folks. The Tour dates this weekend are like a pleasure ride waiting at an amusement park. Yahoo!

SoooooI thought I would describe how the songs in the set emerged for us and where they come from.

Firstly a word about the set order and song choices.

I rely heavily on brother/ collaborator Daniel Barnes to find the right balance and not go over board on the ballads which I would sing all night long if given the chance LOL.

We have very similar taste in music, and Dan has the overview about how to build sets that will satisfy an audience much better than I.

…And so our tour set Part 1

(with variations depending on the show and venue and audience of course)...

Wild as the Wind

Been playing with this cover song for years, trying it our while performing solo shows in Los Angeles. I first head this song in the David Bowie version. Bowie's European Cabaret roots emerge from underneath his Rocker image more than just occasionally..both of which I relate to of course.. and his version is a prime example of his deep crooner style. The Nina Simone version is also well known, the original Johnny Mathis version from the film of the same name quiet vapid by comparison to my ears. I find the simple but poetic lyric carries me deep into the wilds of abandon every time I perform the song…making it a perfect way to set the tone and start our sets!

My Teenage Heart

This song from our latest disc "Domesticated" has a Bowie connection as well. While writing that summer in the boat house I was feeling the adolescent messiness of my past romantic behavior and found a way to say I'm sorry to all the past lovers in this tune. Our bridge, which Daniel created, is very much an ode to the classic Spinners sound but the groove idea I was using while writing it was very close to Bowie's "Panic In Detroit" which I've always loved. Although the recorded version which both Daniel and producer Gavin Bradley helped me develop sounds nothing like that recording it's always fascinating to remember the source.

(Now I Know Why They Call It) Falling

I remember well what a simple singable melody does to a crowd from my days with The Nylons. My past solo work has usually been more focused on lyrics and passion and pain…But that same summer in the boat house there was something new happening in my writing. A fresh approach to melody and harmony that held a new sense of joy and happiness and possibility. Writing an open hearted love song is in fact one of the hardest challenges a writer every has. Lets just say there was a bit of inspiration floating in the air that summer that this song tapped into. We used the old Buddy Holly record "Everyday" in our arrangement approach to keep everything simple and straight forward….

Shop Around

When looking for cover tunes the Motown songbook often seems overmined for it's gems…. but this tune, which Smokey Robinson wrote with Berry Gordy and made an early 60's hit with The Miracles, still feels fresh. The sexy and clever lyric always feels playful and a little naughty to me, which isn't a bad thing when you are performing for an audience right? The band (Daniel Barnes and Jon Maharaj) have been turning out a slinky funky groove on this one that feels like we could ride on it all night long. SO much fun to deliver!

More songs later. Off to Waterloo for my first date their as a solo act.

(We're taking this country one town at a time folks ha ha)

Domesticated Tour Blog: Day 5 Song Selection

Day Five: Friday May 6th

Wow so much going on it's hard to stop and breath and write.

Approving website changes, putting together technical info for the Rivoli and other dates, coordinating between PR lady Sue McCallum and venues, making sure the Facebook events page is built before we announce tour dates etc. It's a kooky kind of fun but it's also jam packed and all time specific.

I have found myself in a kind of a round the clock frenzy. (Actually haven't been able to make the gym much grrrrr). But because of the experts on the team (like ROO! Big Shout Out to Dale Speaking "Online Marketing Dood"!) we are now entering the world of online promotion with a lot of new ideas and a powerful locomotive engine driven by creativity and playfulness!

My online team at Dale Speaking and home skillet web mistress Lulu have been working around the clock to prepare the Micah Barnes world for The "Domesticated" Tour. It's been a huge job and I'm frankly really looking forward to how people respond to the new look and feel of all the sites. Twitter, Myspace, You Tube, Facebook and the home website… all updated to reflect the new disc and 8 city tour. Talk to me people are we looking ready for action? LOL

This week I also had the opportunity to see a whole batch of live acts at a big fundraiser for the Stephan Lewis Foundation, reminding me of just what this whole machinery is all FOR. Bringing the music to the people! Performers like old pals Holly Cole and Lorraine Segato and Ka'nan performed in support of the foundations work around Aids in Africa.. along with Rufus Wainwright, Alicia Keys and Angelique Kudjo. Inspirational indeed. I actually got to meet the legendary Harry Belafonte who co-hosted! Wow. Still a handsome devil too. Hows he doing that?

The biggest inspiration for me that evening came from Angelique who tore the stage up as only she can. Do not miss this powerhouse if you have a chance to feel her voodoo live. Rufus and Alicia, although both brilliant incredible songwriters proved to me that they are both best experienced as recording artists.

So..What is it that makes a performer truly great? Been doing some thinking about this.

A willingness to be fearless and completely honest with their audience seems essential. A confidence that they truly have a gift to give and a desire to move people at a core level is important too….

Will I achieve this on the "Domesticated" tour? Hmmmmm. I keep visualizing the venues filed with people, my heart open to give… as the lyrics and melodies and grooves wash over the crowd……

Rehearsals with Daniel went great this week as we locked down the arrangement details on the new material we're presenting during this tour before starting sessions with bassist Jon Maharaj who joins us next week.

The shows are built to present the songs from the new disc "Domesticated" along with some old chestnuts from the world of Jazz and Blues and Soul. I wanted people to get a sense of the entire musical world I live in during this show… and also have a chance to perform some special songs I've wanted to sing for a long time.

Hence, although I am shy to give away the titles, we have material by Smokey Robinson, Nina Simone, Marvin Gaye, Cole Porter, Peggy Lee, Laura Nyro, The Drifters, The Supremes, Lee Dorsey, Allan Toussaint, The Originals, etc on deck….as well as a few Nylons chestnuts of course!

There will indeed, be something for everyone. We're jokingly calling it the "Keep The People Happy" tour.

Ok this is the million dollar question. If there was one song you'd like to hear us perform on this tour what would it be?

"Domesticated Tour Blog: Day One

Day One. May 2nd. 2011

I've decided to take you guys on this journey with me as we prepare for the spring tour dates, both so you can have a peek at the process behind the scenes, and also so we can feel a little closer to the folks we are doing this all for…YOU, our peeps!

This past weekend I was still recovering from a week in NYC and literally couldn't get off the couch. Glued to my Michael Connelly crime novel (they are like crack aren't they?) and just managing to do what litle socializing I had already booked.

I actually was awoken in the middle of the night by a combination of Obama's announcement about Bin Laden on the radio and the panic in my head thinking through everything we have to accomplish this month before we kick things off. A little meditation calmed me down and let me sleep the rest of the night. -phew-

The day today started with a little chat with my romantic partnering NYC who is on Broadway (The Tony's are being announced tomorrow, so exciting!), before

rehearsal with my collaborator and bandleader brother, drummer and vocalist Daniel Barnes. Daniel and I warmed our voices up (he has become an excellent BG singer which is a LOT harder than it looks I might add) and we reviewed existing arrangements on the "Domesticated" CD before jumping into a new tune which we are preparing especially for this tour. Danielis always joking that all I bring to the table are ballads but for once I found a rousing rocking tune that will satisfy some of you Nylons fans as well as those people who love a good old fashioned soul rave up. Bet you can't guess which tune it is people! huh? huh?

Then I came home from Liberty Village where Dan's studio is to my own Queen Street apt and brainstormed an idea with Sue McCallum our publicist over the phone. Sue and I agree, she is actually well within my "audience demographic" so when we are talking through potential pitches to media etc I know she has a good handle on whether an approach will work or not. The key thing is she gets the music, which is a good thing, cause we have to fill seats for 8 shows! Tickets for London's show at The London Music Club went on sale today yahoo!

Then after some more e mail business pertaining to tomorrow mornings meeting with my online team Roo and April over at Dale Speaking I headed off to my local Y to follow through on my commitment to make my body as strong and as in shape as possible.

Performing is a physical act and the more in fit I am the more energy I feel I have left for the performance, (not to mention the traveling and the hauling gear and the missed sleep etc.) Thats one thing I learned early in the business. A good show is dependent on good rest, a peaceful unstressed out approach and being in the best physical shape possible. Thank goodness I paid attention while I was being trained this past year because now is the time when it all pays off.

Ones mental attitude changes when you are working out as well. I feel like I have the energy to do anything…which is a good place to be facing the mountain in front of us!

Naked Singing

Yeah. I have a lot of masks I wear as a singer. Born of insecurity. About my voice, about myself. About whether people will love me. Just human being stuff really but for performers that can be trouble. If I build a performance from my need for you to be impressed then I'm not really singing from the truth of the material am I? I might impress you but ultimately what am I really communicating about the song?

Producer Gavin Bradley helped me identify a habit I had of over singing to try and communicate the intensity of feeling in the material…like a stage actor who is a ham and goes over the top. He pulled me back to being more like a screen actor who feels the emotions in a scene and allows the viewer to go on the journey with him. Thats how we approached the vocals on "Domesticated"..and it was a real adventure of trust and faith for us.

Gavin asked me to trust him enough on one complete vocal to prove to me that this more vulnerable approach would suck the listener into my world in a more compelling way. We chose "I'm Coming Home" which was a real challenge because I had been singing that song for years before Daniel suggested we brush it off and work up an arrangement for this disc.

The experiment worked for me (you be the judge) and launched us into the rest of vocals which we recorded at Gavin's home studio "Afternoon Tea" where we could take our time to develop the approach that would work best.

I like long takes as much as possible..and although at the beginning Gavin had to work me hard to keep me naked and "open" in my performance we got to a shorthand by the end of the disc. By the end of summer 2010 we were flying along stacking those back up vocals sweltering in the August heat and surrounded by a Futon for sound baffling.At one point it was actually close to "naked" singing with me stripped down to my underwear having been caught in a rain storm while biking over. LOL

Finding The Producer

Daniel and I started to think through who could guide this music through it's final recording stages summer of '09 while most of these songs were just being written. We had building and focusing the sound for a while and knew it would take a special touch to get things just right and so were interviewing producers that seemed like a potential match. I had been introduced to Gavin Bradley and his music through a few friends in the business and was songwriting with a batch of folks including him.. but something just clicked with Gavin and we ended up becoming good friends during the process.

We had been writing in his Afternoon Tea studio in the College and Young street area of downtown Toronto, slipping out for Thai food and to talk about music and love and life and Gavin seemed to have an intelligence about this music and who I am as an artist that really impressed me.

He had an understanding of both my R&B/Soul and Rock N Roll influences and how those elements would eventually feed the Orchestral Pop-Cabaret of "Domesticated".

One day during a session I just turned to him and told him I thought we should be asking him to produce the disc. Crazily he said yes! and we spent the better part of year sweating it out in the trenches to bring you the final product. Because this disc included recording organic instruments live off the floor Gavin had the bright idea to bring in engineer John Nazario to record the instruments just right and eventually to mix this puppy. Although that kind of process was new for Gavin a more meticulous and magical producer could not have been found for this disc. I'll be talking a bit about the whole recording process in the next blog entry.

Hi Folks! I want to talk a bit about the songs on "Domesticated" and how they came about. It took a long time and a lot of writing time to create the material recorded for this disc. We actually went after the beast three times!!

A few years ago my brother Daniel and I started collaborating and building the adult pop "sound" of the disc which included intimate lyrics with softer drums and piano based arrangements and Daniel singing back up vocals. A few tunes survive in the live show from that first period including our "take" on the David Bowie/Nina Simone classic "Wild As The Wind" and Goffin/King "Brill Building" chestnut "Up On The Roof".

On the first round we had feedback from our resident song person Catharine Saxberg, (who was the sort of de facto executive producer of the disc), that our first material was smart but meandering and not yet focused enough for a strong disc. So, excited to have such top level input we went back to the drawing board and wrote and demo'd up another batch of songs that tried to address the issues of length and form. None of them were actually from the heart but they were all very short and well fashioned. LOL. The demo's in Daniel's Liberty Village Studio during that second period gave us a run at arranging the vocals and instruments and so we found out a lot more about how to support this sound musically.

A third period of focused writing proved the charm. I went after the songs with all the knowledge and smarts we had accumulated over the period of development and gave myself over to talking about what was really happening in my life. Thats always how my best material has come about in the past. I seem to have to relearn the same lesson every recording project though.

I headed north to write sketches in the early mornings in the boathouse of the family cottage during the summer of 09.

The many moods of the lake kept me open and peaceful and I found the harmonies and melodies showing me the way to a batch of happier songs that described the deeper truths of my experience in a much punchier and more direct communication. I wrote early before anybody got up at the cottage and felt those hours as a kind of holy communion with the muse that was feeding me daily inspiration and joy in the foam of these songs.

Moving to a new location seemed important to get another perspective but Toronto proves too busy for me with my coaching business and friends etc. I asked my pal Bill in Montreal to recommend a spot and his pal Patti was finished off the Bed and Art apt above her art gallery. Perfect artist hideaway for writing.

By the time I was polishing off the lyrics there I could feel the simple power of these melodies working all together in a song cycle. Coming home to record simple piano and voice demo's at the Rogue Studio's in Toronto with JP (which has become part of my working process) I slid the finished tunes to my team of Daniel and Cathie with no expectations.

When Cathie said "you nailed it" we knew it was time to start the process of arranging and recording them. -phew- A three round process was finally finished!

"Domesticated" is finally delivered!

Sunday Oct 17th

Wow folks. Just handed over the final mastered version of "Domesticated" on Friday and am still unwinding from meeting all the deadlines.. (our Toronto release show is just 2 weeks away and we wanted the disc to be ready!)

The decisions about artwork happened just before Canadian Thanksgiving and thanks to Michael Wrycraft's speed and creative smarts we solved a whole lot of problems real quick. We only shot the cover photo during mix sessions the week before. Final copy on press materials happening at the same time as final mixes and mastering sessions. Yikes! I'll be unwinding until next year.

This disc "Domesticated" is the best recorded work I've ever done (and that includes the 2 discs with The Nylons that I am very proud of!) The songs reflect a new kind of happiness in my soul.. but also the rough journey it took to get here. I'll be telling the story of this disc in following blogs

but today just want to take a moment to breath and reflect on the incredible experience. Drawing a team around these songs has been a deeply fulfilling journey, one of the best of my professional life to date and I really look forward to your feedback as we bring this music out to you starting with the Hugh's Room show.

This music doesn't exist without you after all..if a man sings at the top of his lungs in the forest where no one hears him..is there really music?