The WannaBeatles Bookstore

For a working band these days, a merch table is as essential as a microphone.

It's either humbling or exciting, depending on one's point of view, to discover that making music is not the only thing that connects performers to fans, and makes the entire operation financially feasible. 

OUR MERCH TABLE

We were excited when we first made our WannaBeatles tee shirts, and began selling them at our gigs. And we still feel like proud papas seeing our various CDs stacked up for sale alongside the tee shirts. The addition of bumper stickers and guitar picks gives the display a bit of variety, and a chance for customers to buy something inexpensive. 

We're happy that we can hang out with fans after our shows, get pictures taken with them and sign copies of the CDs. The merch table is not only a place where items are bought and sold, it's where relationships are formed and enriched.

Dennis refers to it as our "WannaBoutique." 

And now our little store beside the stage has expanded into another small but significant layer of marketing. We're now offering copies of a hardback book - "Come Together: The Business Wisdom of The Beatles" by Richard Courtney and George Cassidy.

MEET RICHARD 

Local Beatles fans are familiar with Richard Courtney. He's one of the most knowledgeable and rabid Beatles fans in Nashville, having sponsored several Fab Four Festivals here, which is how we met him. We played the Fab Four Festival in 2009. He even got us to back up Joey Molland of Badfinger.

If you visit the lobby of the SunTrust bank at the Music Row Roundabout, you'll see a museum-like display of Beatles memorabilia, from clothing to instruments, much of which was donated by Richard.

Richard is also a successful real estate agent, who writes a weekly column for Nashville Ledger. He's written books before - one experimental novel called "I Never Saw a Beatle," and a real estate book called "Buyers Are Liars & Sellers Are Too."

"Come Together: The Business Wisdom of the Beatles" is unique. Rather than rehash widely known facts about the most famous band in the world, the authors explore how the Beatles' career can viewed - and applied - as a source of fundamental principles of success. 

So how did the book wind up at our merch table? 

It started in September, when we were playing the Tennessee State Fair, and we needed a sponsor. We asked Richard, and were delighted when he agreed. We took a sign with his name and put it up over the stage when we played the fair. 

     David and his drums under the Richard Courtney banner

Richard surprised us by offering to continue sponsoring us on a monthly basis. That led to fresh ideas about how to promote him and his business. Offering his books for sale at our gigs seemed like an obvious win-win for him, us and our fans.

BIRTH OF A WANNA-JINGLE

Dennis, wanting to find a fresh way to promote Richard, and always quick with funny musical ideas, came up with a customized parody of "Nowhere Man." 

It goes like this:

He's a real estate man

And a WannaBeatles fan

He sells homes like no one can

To everyone

That really hit the spot. We rehearsed the harmony and added it to our show last Saturday night at Puckett's in Columbia. We also offered Richard's book for sale at our slightly enlarged merch table. 

The retail price of the book is $25. We offer it with a WannaBeatles discount at $20. Richard is donating his profits to the local Habitat for Humanity.

Discovering that Richard was contributing to a charity brought extra community-building spirit to us and our merch table. You have to read the fine print.

                         The new addition to the merch table:

                    

                     And the poster that explains it:

As readers of this blog have learned, we've partnered with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Middle Tennessee. They have used our song "If We Simply Love" as a theme song, and made a video with that version of the song accompanying photos of their mentoring relationships. 

They had just made DVDs available to us, to give away with our CD, so people could learn about (and get inspired by) the work of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Middle Tennessee while getting two versions of our song.

And those DVDs were offered for the first time the same night that we also offered Richard's book.

And so, in the process of adding a bookstore to our merch table, we've added opportunities to serve the community in other ways. 

It makes a WannaBeatle feel good.

-Bloggin' Bryan 29 November 2013

Because They Were Fab

February 9, 1964 is the date that The Beatles first appeared on the Ed Sullivan television show, which triggered their massive assault upon American pop culture. Beatlemania was already rampant in England the previous year, but after that date, it took on global proportions. So it's important, in pop music history, but especially to Beatles fans.

February 9, 1964 is also the title of a song that appears on The WannaBeatles first CD.

Here's a link to listen:
https://soundcloud.com/bryan-cumming/feb-9-1964

The WannaBeatles are based in Nashville, which is a songwriting town, so we can't resist mentioning a song of ours that relates to any available topic.

As many Beatles fans know, the 50th anniversary of February 9, 1964 is less than three months away. WannaBeatle Dennis, in true Brian Epstein fashion, has been cooking up ideas for the group to appear on a television show to coordinate with that anniversary.

Part of that campaign is to present us as a group with a special song about the occasion.

Dennis has devised a special song that covers the topic very skillfully.

It's called "Because They Were Fab." 

We've been working on it for several weeks. But we finally came up with a song we all agree works for this purpose, and we finally got it mixed yesterday. And here's the result: 

https://soundcloud.com/thewannabeatles/because-they-were-fab?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=email

It might be interesting to know some of the process that goes into creating a song like this. Then again, it might be boring. 

Here are three main things that might be interesting: 

1) The song is a rewritten version of another song of ours - not only that, but it's the fourth version. (You may either read the history below or skip directly to interesting point #2.)

The original version, "Before They Were Fab," appears on our most recent CD, "We're Still Rockin'." (so you can hear it by clicking track #3 at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/thewannabeatles.)

The second version, "We Wanna Meet Paul," became a fun video, which is on our youtube channel. (it's the same music with different lyrics at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddiHnVcdoLQ&feature=share&list=FLI1zZDbo_AjWCR8LWrbA0Mg)

The third version, also called "Because They Were Fab," appears on our Grammy-nominated spoken word album, "Fab Fan Memories." (click http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/fabfanmemories and select track #9)

2) We inserted song titles into the lyrics. The thirds verse has "No one's denied A Ticket to Ride." We couldn't resist. It sounded fun.

3) During the mixing process, we changed the music to fit the lyrics. The thirds verse has a line "When I stop and think of yesterday." Gary Dales, our studio whiz mixing engineer, came up with a way to rearrange the drums and other instruments so that the word "stop" is reinforced by all the instruments coming to a stop for that brief split second. We thought it sounded cool, so that became the new way the song sounds.

More than that, you probably don't wanna know. 

So, here's hoping you see us on television in a few months. 

Bloggin' Bryan 19November13

Photos From Franklin Wine Fest

The WannaBeatles played the Franklin Wine Festival on October 11, a partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Middle Tennessee. 

It was not only an extraordinary event (nearly two thousand people, sampling wines and food from a variety of local restaurants, several stages of entertainment, all of it raising funds for a worthy organization) but also an unusual opportunity for us to work together with BBBSMT to present our song "If We Simply Love" as their theme song.

That's all covered in a previous blog (Oct. 28), but the photos were not available then. 

So now we can show you how beautiful the Factory was that night.

 We can show you some of the wine that was offered.

And we can show you some of the other musicians we know who were also performing there that night. 

Here's Woody Bomar, whose track record includes running a major Music Row publishing company and playing bass for local Beatles band Fab. His more recent project is a band devoted to the history and culture of Route 66 called Road Crew.

Here's jazz trumpeter, also director of the Nashville Jazz Orchestra, Jim Williamson, playing with local group Storm Kings. 

Partially hidden in the photo, playing keyboards, is Dylan Jones, one of our favorite young musicians, a veteran of Jam Camp (where WannaBeatles David and Bryan both work as instructors). Dylan has  been through a year at Berklee College of Music, and currently attends MTSU.

And here's Gary Pailer, who is known to us for having auditioned for The WannaBeatles during that period between Jim Hayden and Nathan Burbank. (Sorry I don't know the name of the fiddle player.)

Wish we also had photos of Diane and Frank Marino, the jazz group who are friends of ours, and their fine group members Chris Browne and Cole Burgess. 

And here are some shots of us, on the stage in Jamison Hall, with the large video screen behind us, which is where the new video for "If We Simply Love" was projected during our live performance of the song.

                                                                  Dennis and David

                                             Nathan Rocks! Under the big sign.

Dennis, Bryan and Nathan during the second set - when we took off our coats to play in vests.

                                                Bryan and Nathan sharing the mic.

And finally, one shot of us with Todd Wilson, the man at BBBSMT who made it happen.

Thanks to Todd for posting all these photos. And to Carl Diebold, the videographer, for taking most of them. 

We had a great time, and hope to see you there next year.

Bloggin' Bryan 13 November 2013

Our Edgehill Coffee Spot

A previous blog (September 30) told about working with Mike Cortese to film a small part in a video that he was producing. 

Mike is a professor at Belmont, a creative PR entrepreneur, and a talented comic. He and his partner Ryan Bitzer have produced a series of videos for Edgehill Cafe, using creative humor to attract viewers. 

Their third script included a reference to a Beatles group, as customers who order "Four Abbe Roads." 

He just sent us the video that we appeared in, and it's hilarious. We're very proud to be part of it.

Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIiWubc7fmk

Here's what the coffee order looks like:

and here's us saying "hello, we're the wannabeatles."

It will probably help you feel good if you watch the previous two videos too, where Chip Douche introduces himself and his method. Here are those links:

http://youtu.be/UzfznSMxh3w

http://youtu.be/YzA-vLsSMJs

Thanks to Mike from the WannaBeatles! And may Edgehill prosper as a result of our involvement. (Not sure how, but our intentions are good. We like their coffee.)

Bloggin' Bryan 5nov13

Amy Allen's Someday Is Today

Earlier in the summer, we were invited by our friend Chuck Whiting to appear in a video. Chuck is a talented singer, songwriter and pianist, but like so many others in Nashville, he's found other work that helps him earn a living. He works as a publicist with us, and is also working with a singer from Arkansas named Amy Allen. 

Amy is a relatively new country artist. It's probably more accurate to call her pop-country-Americana, since her style covers a wider spectrum of influences. Her song, - which is the title of her album, and also serves to symbolize the story of her interesting career - is called "Someday is Today." 

Chuck and Amy were planning a video for the song, and thought of us to appear as her backup band in the video.

We did it! And here's the link to the video:  http://youtu.be/wa1Ac-_UQC8

You'll hear a fine singer singing a fine song she wrote, and you'll see the WannaBeatles (in our civilian garb) playing the roles of her back up band. 

We didn't actually play on the song; our job was make it look realistic. 

David, Dennis (on bass) and Nathan all did a fine job.

I was the guitar player, so my challenge was trying to look like I knew what I was doing while matching every note that the other guy played.  I can tell you that by the time the guitar solo comes along, there were about a hundred notes I missed - so I'm glad that during that section the videographer decided to shift over to scenes of Amy getting her make up applied.

But Amy is quite a singer, and we're glad to be associated with her. 

We just heard that her song has reached #28 on the STS Main Country charts, and #20 on the Country Indie Chart. She also got a good reviews from Got Country Magazine. 

Here's that review: Review at Got Country Magazine: http://www.gotcountryonline.com/2013/10/29/album-review-amy-allen-someday-is-today/

Congratulations Amy! and Chuck too!

We're proud to be associated with you!

-Bloggin' Bryan 30oct13

Franklin Wine Festival

On October 11, at The Factory in Franklin, we played the annual Franklin Wine Festival, to benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters of Middle Tennessee. It's their major fundraiser of the year, presented by Cool Springs Wines & Spirits and sponsored by Nissan.

We had been invited to perform at the Franklin Wine Fest back in June by Todd Wilson, a new member of the Big Brothers Big Sisters events and development staff.

Soon after that, we approached him about using our song "If We Simply Love" as a theme song. Todd presented the idea to his leadership team and soon discovered there was complete consensus to adopt "If We Simply Love" as the official song of the agency.

REWRITING THE SONG

We spent several weeks working on a new version of the song, rewriting some of the lyrics to make the song more specifically about the mission of BBBSMT. 

WannaBeatle David was the main force behind the original song, and he was on board for finding new lyrics that would work in the new context. As one example, he was inspired to change the line "give peace a chance" to "give kids a chance."

We also thought of translating the song into Spanish, in order to reach the Hispanic community that BBBSMT also serves. That version of the song has been written, as described in previous blogs, and a new vocal has been recorded, but it hasn't been mixed or released yet. More on that later.

WORKING ON THE VIDEO

Using our song as the audio bed and four dozen photos of area matches (their term for the relationship of a big brother or sister with a "little") and other graphic and text elements, Todd created a music video which can be viewed on the agency's YouTube channel.  You can view the video by clicking on this link: www.tinyurl.com/ifwesimplylove

In addition, Todd made a DVD of the video, and duplicated a hundred copies of it, to give away in a "swag bag" to special sponsors and volunteers before the event.

Here's a shot of the cover of that DVD: 

David was quoted on the back cover, and spoke eloquently for our involvement and what it means.

Part of our performance at the Franklin Wine Festival was to include playing our new version of "If We Simply Love" along with the video. We were scheduled to play two sets, and we decided to put the new song into both sets. 

It was an amazing event. There were several bands on three different stages. We were the only band on the large stage in Jamison Hall, and an excellent sound company had prepared it for us, along with a large video screen behind the stage. 

As we were setting up, we saw other friends of ours from other bands - jazz duo Frank and Diane Marino, along with Cole Burgess playing sax with them and drummer Chris Browne. We saw our young friend Dylan Jones there, who was playing keyboards with Storm Kings. We saw Gary Pailer, who has the interesting distinction of having auditioned for The WannaBeatles - right before we discovered Nathan was the guy for us. 

Part of attending the event was being able to walk around the Factory and taste free samples of wines and specialty foods from a variety of restaurants. 

One particular offering I enjoyed was a mix of various fresh vegetables - chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, etc. with a crunchy ingredient, which turned out to be ground potato chips - served on a polished wooden slat. I'd never eaten off a wooden slat before, so I admired the creativity on display there, by a restaurant called 1808 Grille.

Our shows went over fine, and our new theme song went along well with the video, and many items were auctioned off to help raise money for the kids. 

Here's a shot from the stage with us and two of the ladies who helped with the auction - Deja Knight and Vicki Yates, both of whom work for NewsChannel 5.

 Todd told us later that 1700 people had attended, and the organization had raised $170,000. We were thrilled to be part of such a big event.

                    Todd with The WannaBeatles

Here's the news release they produced about our partnership with them on the song:

Thanks to Todd and Sarah at BBBSMT for making it happen. 

-Bloggin' Bryan  28 October 2013

Vuelta a la Escuela

The title of this blog means "back to school" in Spanish. That's because a recent blog pertaining to our translation of a song into Spanish yielded some feedback from Spanish speaking readers that was very educational.

We're learning more about differences between languages.

To start with, there are at least four ways to say "back to school" in Spanish. 

"Back" can be "vuelta," "retorno," "regresso" or "volviendo." With two of those, we can see the similarity to English words "return" and "regress." 

"Back" is one of those simple monosyllabic Anglo-Saxon words that can mean many things, which is part of what gives the English language its power. Finding the equivalent expression in Spanish involves a discussion about nuances of meaning. 

The previous blog on our Spanish translation mentioned that WannaBeatle David's dad, Reinaldo, is a professional translator. During the time David and I worked on "Si Puedes Amar," it became apparent that Senor Toledo enjoys the role of a teacher. David called him several times during the session to check on certain phrases.

When I spoke with him on the phone, he started quoting from the instruction manual he had written on proper pronunciation of Spanish. He made it very clear that Spanish vowels are very consistent: A is always pronounced "ah," E is always pronounced "ay," etc. 

This information impressed me that Spanish is more logical than English, at least in that department. 

On the other hand, Spanish has all those accents, which of course are completely missing from English.

When I typed a version of "Si Puedes Amar," I had ignored the accents, (mostly due to lack of keyboard options,) but that was a big mistake.

Here's what Señor Toledo says: 

Sí, meaning 'yes' must be always accented on the i.  Thus it becomes an adverb of affirmation.  But si, meaning 'if' is written without the accent mark and it is a conjunction.  So, they are two different animals, not the same.  

Also, ‘más’ is an adverb of quantity, meaning ‘more.’   But ‘mas’ is a conjuction, meaning ‘but.’  So, there you have it.

THE ACCENT MARK IS A MUST IN SPANISH, NOT AN OPTION.  Many, many Spanish speakers make the mistake of leaving it out.  For instance: 'mi' is a possessive pronoun: but 'mí' is a pronominal which generally follows a preposition.  Thus, we say 'mi corazón' (my heart), 'mi casa,' (my house), but 'para mí,' 'en mí,' ‘de mí,’ and so on.

Here are his comments on the verb we changed in the bridge, which led to a new rhyme scheme.

As to 'están' or 'estén,' the proper language should be 'estén', for it is in the subjunctive mood, which in Spanish indicates doubt or uncertainty.  But 'están' is not incorrect in popular language.

Here's the corrected text of the song:

Si Puedes Amar

Tengo adentro una canción,

Que guardo en mi corazón,

Con verdad y libertad

Soñaré lo que será.

La niñez no se debe negar

O el nuevo día temer enfrentar.

Si tú das más, en vez de tomar,

Verás al mundo que vas a crear.

(Coro)  Si puedes amar,

Si decidimos amar,

¿Cómo será para ti, y para mí?

Cuando al comenzar

A vivir y amar

Nada faltará jamás,

Si puedes amar.

Yo sé, no soy primero en esta canción,

Pero a este fin quiero ayudar de corazón.

¿Y quién soy yo para ignorar

Lo que se debe ver, 

Si tan cerca estamos de lo que hemos de ser?

(Puente) Por los que hoy llorando están,

  Y el amparo no les dan,

  ¡La vía es el amor!

Once again, gracias to David and his dad for giving us a quality translation. Our apologies for the typographical errors that created problems in the Spanish version. 

We will be happy to report on the progress of "Si Puedes Amar" and all other efforts to reach out to audiences beyond those who understand English. 

Bloggin' Bryan

14October2013