Guitarist Mark Cloutier smiles about his part on the CD "New English Blues" by British veteran J.C. Carroll.
He thinks it's cool that his work is getting radio play on the BBC.
Reviews in the United Kingdom have been hot. "In the tradition of the Who's 'Tommy' and Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon,' this magnificent album explores the melancholy and outrage that is at the heart of the English psyche," wrote a reviewer in the newspaper London Music.
And to think that the Central New York bluesman did it all without leaving the simple home studio - which cost $200 - he set up in his home in East Syracuse.
The only way Cloutier and Carroll have ever met is online.
"We developed a mutual friendship through musicians' Web sites," Cloutier says.
They've traded music back and forth with MP3 files, a computer format that allows music to be sent online.
As soon as Carroll heard Cloutier's distinctive guitar sound, he wanted to include him on his album.
"The Internet is rammed full of guys in their bedrooms uploading their shredding on guitar," Carroll writes, appropriately enough, in an e-mail from London. "Although Mark mainly plays the blues, he has something about his sound that is unique, and you can tell it is him straight away."
Carroll used Cloutier's guitar work on three of the dozen songs on the CD.
That put Cloutier, 42, and a full-time handyman in the WSYR-TV offices for 10 years, in interesting company.
Last year, Carroll released "Strangers and Fiction." His musicians included an Internet marketer from Russia, a railroad worker from France, a roofer from Holland, a graphic artist from England, a paramedic from Detroit and a surveyor from Florida.
"I had never spoken to or even been in the same room as the people," Carroll writes.
Could it happen to you? The Internet is full of musicians of all talent levels discovering satisfaction by sharing words and notes around the world.
Here's how Cloutier fashioned his success story.
Finding music sites online
Three years ago, Cloutier knew he wanted to expand the scope of the CD "Bar Room Blues," released with his then-band Dirty Pool on the local label Nadeau Music.
So he sat at his home computer and
began searching music sites.
"I wanted to upload MP3s," Cloutier says, "so more people could hear them."
Cloutier started at www. garageband.com. He enjoyed interacting with others through the online community, reading comments posted about his band's music and adding his thoughts about other folks' music.
Musicians there pointed Cloutier to other sites, including a site called mixposure, which is no longer online.
That's where he started corresponding with British guitarist Nigel Potter, who commented on Cloutier's work with Dirty Pool.
"There was something about how he played the blues that set him apart for me from the countless other blues guitarists I'd heard," Potter writes in an e-mail. "It was something you cannot teach ... it's either there or it's not. The mysterious X factor, if you will.
"One day I said to him that he has the same spirit in his playing as Jimi Hendrix," Potter writes. "Those who know me would tell you that is not something I would say lightly."
Carroll already was one of Potter's online musical friends.
Potter introduced them. By e-mail, of course. Carroll told Cloutier he should check out www.soundclick.com.
The right equipment
Visiting that site convinced Cloutier that he needed to take the next step.
"I had a guitar and a Vox amp," Cloutier says. "I said, 'How do I get this guitar into that computer?' "
Technicians at WSYR pointed him toward a Lexicon Lamba USB interface studio, which came with Qbase software, which would allow him to record his guitar work and post it online.
It cost about $200, Cloutier says, and was easy to hook up and operate.
Worldwide connections
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Now Cloutier was ready to collaborate with musicians anywhere.
Carroll sends an MP3 from England.
Cloutier loads it onto his software, puts on his headphones and records a guitar part on Qbase as he listens.
"I'll do two or three takes, with different twists," Cloutier says.
He'll send those to Carroll, who can mix them whole or add parts of each to the overall song.
Cloutier loves collaborating online.
"It's exciting," he says. "You get to use other people's skills and ability to create what you might not be able to do by yourself. I'm playing so many different styles.
"For 15 years I was a blues guy. It's so nice to be in demand for other styles," he says. "I'm having a blast interacting with people around the world."
What's next?
Cloutier says he doesn't expect to make any money from playing on Carroll's CD.
He says he's in it for the exposure, and figures Internet recognition will increase the popularity and productivity of his current Central New York outfit, The Double Barrel Blues Band.
Cloutier thinks a touring combination of Double Barrel and Gunslinger, Potter's English band, would be a natural in the United States and in the United Kingdom.
"Anything's possible," Cloutier says.
Carroll, for his part, already is writing songs for "New English Blues, Volume II."
"I will, of course, use Mark," he says.
Mark Bialczak can be reached at mbialczak@syracuse.com or 470-2175. His blog "Listen Up" is at blog.syracuse.com/listenup.
There’s an old saying in the music biz; “Must be present to win”. Back in the day, it meant that to make any type of headway, you had to move to L.A., New York or Nashville.
Is that still true?
One of the big promises of the digital world is; “You can do anything from anywhere”. Does that apply to the music game though? There are a ton of places, on the web, where you can upload your music and let your presence be known. It isn’t a new idea and, I really haven’t seen much evidence that this way of doing things has been effective.
But, you know, things change. I saw this in a press release this morning.
NEW ENGLISH BLUES… How did a Handyman from Upstate New York and a Heating Engineer from Maryland End Up on a Classic English Rock Album…
SYRACUSE, N.Y., April 7, 2008 /PRNewswire/ — Through the magic of the
Internet, that’s how. Mark Cloutier, a very talented Semi professional
Guitarist From Upstate New York, and Rob Grant, a Heating engineer from
Maryland, logged onto the SoundClick Musicians board last year they did not
know they would end up playing on a classic English concept album…
This is how it happened, JC Carroll, a London (England) based composer
musician and songwriter, was looking for people to play on his New Rock
Opera when he heard Mark’s guitar playing. “I was blown away as soon as I
heard him I wanted him on the album, even though I already had two really
brilliant guitarists. I wanted to bring Mark’s unique feel for guitar into
the mix.” Rob Grant, who coincidently had also worked with Cloutier, had a
piece of unfinished music that he thought might appeal to JC. That piece of
music went on to become “Caveman TV” one of the most outstanding tracks on the album.
SOURCE Stoppress PR
So, this guitar player, Mark Cloutier, put some of his stuff up on SoundClick, and a guy making a record, JC Caroll, found him.
Must be present to win.
Caroll is a known entity, he was a member of The Members and has done solo work and film/T.V. stuff. Cloutier, he’s a good guitar player, I listened to some of his stuff. It’s cool to see that a guy like this can get recognized. Good going, Mark.
You can hear a stream of the J.C. Caroll record “New English Blues”, that features Cloutier and Rob Grant’s song “Caveman TV” , here, for a limited time.
And if you have some music to upload, you might want to check out SoundClick.
