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RE: Paul McDonald
Bit of a chicken or the egg, but without a band playing all her songs with a certain tilt no headline group can know what they are hiring to enhance and lenghten their fan's feeling of having seen a show.
Rock/Country/Urban concerts are not "recietals" or music festivals ... a touring headliner has a "show".. the headliner is there to warm up the crowd and make the show feel a bit longer and not feel short changed at the end (from all I've read)
If we'd seen her with a band like midnight, I can see her opening a lot of rock type shows.
Got a wailing guitar and its rock/blues .. pumps you up. I would think that would appeal to more bands looking for an opening act.
If she'd been playing with a band very similar to what we saw in indonesia
Wasted Tears above (skip to the 6 minute mark)
I could see that sort of sound being right opening for pop shows (Justin Bieber? lol).
That band which didn't seem too professional still had a few good musicians.. peformer playing "drum" on a Washboard (lol I'm sure it has a better name) had a pretty impressive touch. They made (edit) Wasted teas much more fun and upbeat. I'd admit that I push skip sometimes when wasted tears comes on. There are very good parts but parts that just get heavy and grating for me. I know there is more to be had in that song. In Jakarat above it just felt light and happy. -- I don't really mean "better" as in all it could be in a more interesting way but certainly more "pop". Opening bands need to lift the energy.. and this style works for pop.
With a darn good jazz keyboard player she had... opening for a jazz sort of touring artist would fit fine.. but are there any? The following was incredible !
I did love it.. but that's not the issue in terms of finding "employment" in the opening band category.
Without any changes in that category... If Haley had a chance to rehears together with the guys she's had with her.. and had a drummer (I really think a drummer would have helped free them to wander in cooler ways ...
.. maybe her book of Listen Up songs could have worked well for the urban end of pop(niki minaj ; ) of Course "oh my" with its rap .. but also this one:
I bet Keith could have worked it out that way if Haley had been able to practice adn play regularly with a band of her choosing. I'm bet it was r finacial reasons kept that from happening(no one to pay the bills). With a band that worked together and pushed for the degree of urban sound we had on the album .. and a bit more for a live version as live usually takes the studio another step.. liver... that might have got got a crowd of 20 year olds pumped ups (or teens). Having "creds" as an urban artist would have had some barriers without a different sort of styling (dress, lack of some edge like tattoos, piercings or wigs or ?).
As much as I don't want to sound like Randy...I've come to see that he might have been right: not having a clear niche does make it harder commercially Certainly I believe that a song will catch fire one day along the line and fans will come back and be more conducive to pick out others they like..
... but getting hired as opener is filling a Job. The job is to make the headliner's show longer , with a crowd in their seats and rocking , dancing, grooving or whatever fits the style out, by the time the headliner takes stage.
Better and Cake and a blues rock band seems a better odds chance of getting a call to open than getting a call from a pop group.. I think it would be a stretch with a full urban group even if some of her songs could work well.. and she doesn't or hasn't really put a country twist on any of hers.. and that large segement of touring bands is out.
Remember.. the question is what band's show (show.. like a play or a circus etc) leaves the headliners fans feeling like they've had a fuller experience.. not >> "Haley is so good she deserves a chance" . The only way exception to the second is if Haley had been touring smaller venues and packing them in regularly and that she was being hired because she'd proven she'd sell more tickets.
She might be stuck in a bad position of course.. can't hire musicians to play regularly if you're not selling out rooms either. Maybe she could join a starving rock band who needed a singer , if they could work out a "yours, mine and ours" deal with songs so they could go on in their name and she in hers .... didn't ferguie play with slash etc that way on a tour ?
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Oh .. by the way. That isn't doom and gloom for me.
I still think her break isn't going to be from getting fans in concerts or radio but having people learn her songs from movies etc... that would allow her to stay more true to the parts of her ear that made Listen up! than trying to take that collection of songs on tour with one band.
Perhaps that will change with Better and Cake though.. they might have a clearer niche... a bit more clear at least. Adele made a different niche her ablum did feel more familar to rock fans I believe. Cake and Better are closer in that way.
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