Festival ticket? CHECK!
Hotel Reservations? CHECK!
Plane ticket? CHECK!

That’s it. There is no doubt about it now. I am most definitely going to the Deep Blues Festival this year. I was a little worried once the house thing started happening and we started hemorrhaging cash, but it’s all done now. To say I am excited is to certainly understate things. I am probably gonna heavily feature bands that are gonna be at the festival here on ninebullets over the coming month. Speaking of the festival, it’s a month and some change away in Lake Elmo, Minnesota (20 minutes from the St. Paul airport) and it’s gonna be great. If you are within driving distance or have the ability to hop a plane, you should make a great effort to attend. Also, if you’re going, holler at me and let me know. I would love to find someone to share my hotel room/split the bill with, and I’m always in need of fellow drinkers.

One have the bands playing DBF 08, Chris Cotton & The New Hokum 3’s, have just released their new album, The Big Sea. The Big Sea and DBF are an excellent testament to what the relationship between this scene’s artists and its fans is all about. See, when Chris wasn’t able to cover the mastering and pressing costs of the album in advance, he issued a simple request:

I need 250 people to commit/and buy my new album in advance for me to be able to Mix, Master, And duplicate my new album. It is done being recorded onto analog tape and is completely unmixed. The financier’s up to this point of the album is a friend of mine, and myself, and both of us are done as far as money goes.

Sometimes the “Y” in DIY just isn’t enough, and in this case the fan base stepped up to the plate and The Big Sea got to see the light of day. A great many artists at the DBF are doing the DIY thing. There really isn’t anything original about that, but The Big Sea is the first cd I’ve ever felt like a played a role in the release of, so I decided to feature it first as well.

According to Chris’ web site he prefers to not try to pigeonhole his sound into a specific genre, but if you have to he doesn’t care what you call it as long as it ain’t blues. Fine, The Big Sea ain’t a blues record. It’s a folk record with a heavy hill country/blues lean to it…songs that sound like they’ve come from an era long since passed, preserved in sepia prints and analog tapes.

He’ll be playing Friday afternoon at the festival…perhaps we’ll see you there.

Chris Cotton - The Gambler
Chris Cotton - What Would You Do
Chris Cotton - .44 Pistol Mama

Chris Cotton’s Official Site, Chris Cotton on myspace, Buy The Big Sea