Preview
BOBBY CAMERON
Saturday, April 17
Kaos Blues Bistro
You don’t hear about too many music stories in which our hero moves to Edmonton to look for his big break, but then again, songwriter Bobby Cameron is not like the other boys. For instance, the Cape Breton-born Cameron has no stars in his eyes regarding the desire to have a record contract – instead, he has a publishing deal with Carlin America. That means Cameron shops his songs, not his soul, out to the arcane machinery of the industry.
"It gets me around the idea of just being an artist who just records and gigs. With the song publishing, it’s kind of another package," Cameron says from his Ottawa home, where he spends time with his wife between frequent trips to Toronto. He also still has a house in Edmonton, where he visited recently to perform a showcase during Juno week. "When I left home, I toured all over in bands, and ended up staying in Edmonton. Most people go to Edmonton to get work in oil. I went to be a rock star, because there were lots of gigs there."
Although he saw some great performances during Juno week, he admits, "I’m not a Juno kind of guy. I really believe that you create your own buzz. You do it one gig at a time. It’s about the live show, the songs and the people. Record companies try and manufacture it, and they’re wondering why it isn’t working."
This is why you won’t find Cameron’s new CD, Emotional Drift, on any major label. Produced in Nashville by Miles Wilkinson (Emmylou Harris, Guy Clark, The Co-Dependents), Cameron’s eight-song disc shows off the reason he’s signed as a songwriter. With more hooks than the sports section at Canadian Tire, the songs are naturals to get stuck on radio playlists.
Cameron is involved with every aspect of his record and has released it independently. "To paraphrase Mike Plume, I don’t need any help (from a record company) to screw up my career. I can screw it up for myself," he says. One career move he has been fricasseed for by old friends is his involvement with Canadian Idol’s Ryan Malcolm. "My old keyboard player in Edmonton hung me out to dry on that one, but it was a great experience," he says. "For days we met as different teams and just wrote songs. I got to work with Luke MacMaster and Jenna Gawne, who’s a great lyricist." The fact that the resulting song, "October Skies," appears on Malcolm’s platinum-selling album does much to repair the insult of being fricasseed by old pals. |
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