Ellis Paul Discussion

Hey y'all--
all who frequent this wonderful discussion board know it's success lies with the ever conscientious and thoughtful care of KarenZ. She has over the years been to close to 200 of my shows, and helped me numerous times selling cd's, and talking my work up to strangers.

Her efforts on this discussion board makes it one of the most compelling musician discussion boards on the internet. We get nearly three thousand unique visits a day, and it continues to grow, not only as a place to discuss my music, but to discuss other artists, writers, films, books, and issues of the day.

Check out the number of hits on discussions regarding topics as broad as a show of mine in Maine, an Antje Duvekot, an Essentials discussion.

It's insane!

Anyway. Part of the struggle for an independent musician trying to be a international artist, touring everywhere, and trying to maintain an income that can support a family, is the lack of marketing and promotion. Most clubs do very little in the way of pulling in a crowd. We rely on the word of mouth efforts
of the people who love our music, this site's tour schedules, and an occasional media blurb in a paper or on the radio. People fanning out on the web, leaving thoughtful comments at other discussion boards, reviewing shows, adding banners, adding songs to myspace have made an incredible difference and I would like to thank all of you who are involved with spreading my music among friends, family and connections.

Karen's work on my wikipedia site has resulted in a 2-3 million people spread word feature on the main page of Wikipedia. it's the greatest mass exposure of my music outside of television and movies. And she did it all
through perserverance! And cunning, and recognizing the payoff of thoughtful exposure like this. It makes a huge difference in keeping my tires rolling from show to show.

I would like to thank her and raise a glass of emoticon bubbly

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on her behalf. Cheers!

Thanks Darlin'. I think I may be very popular with the wikipedia crowd in the next few months!
Ellis

Ellis,

It was 10 years ago today that I stumbled into my first Ellis Paul show....and you wrote Spread the word on the copy of "Stories" that I bought that night.....so YOU are to blame for this insanity!

....and growing up Roman Catholic I was taught to OBEY.....

Thank you kind sir.

KarenZ

I guess I have to 'fess up that I was there that night (in Seattle, WA) as well; ostensibly to hear Carrie Newcomer, whom I knew and had seen a couple of times by then. Little did I know...

Bill

Karen, what a way to celebrate 10 years of spreading the word!!! I'm sticking around to see how you celebrate the next decade.

xoxo,
Becky

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead

WOW Karen ten years ago TODAY...it was just meant to be. Thanks to you ..and thanks to Ellis for thanking you.


(PS Becky I love your quote, I used that alot with the PTO group at school)

Becky,

I agree with Patti that the Margaret Mead quote is wonderful. Patti's quote that she posted in the "she was" Song of the Week thread made me laugh out loud:

"now matter how good she looks, someone, somewhere is sick of her shit"

I'm thinking I may start a thread where we can post our favorite quotes. Have we done that before? Me thinks not....

KarenZ

I only have a moment and can't find the original post but I just reread Ellis' thank you to Karen and thought that was nice..



Happy 2nd Wiki Anniversary ( or almost!)!!

Patti,

There's no way May 22 can go unnoticed in my memory bank. Yes, it was 2 years ago today that Ellis Paul was on the main page of Wikipedia and 12 years ago today that I stumbled into my first Ellis Paul show....in Seattle of all places. What a ride it's been!

But you know.....after all these years.....I was listening to one of my bootleg live CDs yesterday from an April 2008 show at Schubas - (believe it or not, I don't listen to Ellis Paul every day- I've been stuck on Susan Werner for several weeks now) - actually not really a bootleg since Ellis knew Schubas was recording the show and would sell CDs when the show was over (Dean and Elaine were kind enough to buy me a copy). Anyway, I digress.....I was listening to the live Schubas show yesterday... and honestly and truly... I STILL got goosebumps when I listened to "Maria's Beautiful Mess" and was brought to tears several times during other songs. And then I thought WHY? WHY does this man's music touch me so? And you know what? I don't know why! And that's the beauty of it. I am simply still ever so grateful that his music found me. The whole thing is much bigger than I will ever realize.

Thanks Patty. You caught me at an emotional moment.

Fond regards and with much gratitude to you all,
KarenZ