ottawa citizen
On this day four years ago I was officially chosen by the Ottawa Citizen to become the Hoedown Blogger as part of their Festival Goer blog. Little did I know that day how far the blog would come in just four years.
The first year was spent exclusively covering the Capital Hoedown Country Music festival for the Citizen. The Citizen wanted a blogger who would attend the event and write about it from a reader’s perspective rather than a journalist’s perspective, simple enough. I decided I wanted to do more so I asked the Citizen if I could actually start writing a bit earlier and write a few feature previews on some of the acts that would be attending the event. My first official post as the Hoedown Blogger didn’t come until August but today marks the day that the blog officially came to be!
Hoedown Blogger
After the Capital Hoedown came to an end in 2012 I was given the opportunity to cover RBC Royal Bank Bluesfest with the blog and with that the blog became the Bluesfest Blogger. The blog’s readership and fanbase continued to grow reaching a new audience thanks to the diverse selection of music staged by Ottawa Bluesfest every summer. With that Bluesfest Blogger was born.
Bluesfest Blogger
In the winter of 2012-2013 something magical happened. The blog seemed to have taken on a life of it’s own and suddenly I found myself entertaining invitations to events that I had never thought to approach for media access, come to think about it I had never had to approach anyone for media access because until that point the staff at the Citizen had always taken care of it. In late December of 2012 another surprise came, this time from Samsung Canada. I was offered a Samsung Galaxy Camera on the condition that I use it to cover Winterlude and any other events I attended that year. This camera became an important keystone in the blog’s foundation as I now was able to share quality photos (rather than the less quality Blackberry and iPhone photos I had been using before) as part of my event coverage.
Sound Check Blog
Then came the call from Boots and Hearts, the first event I would ever cover outside of the Ottawa region. With the addition of Boots and Hearts, Winterlude and a handful of other events including Ottawa Bluesfest I decided to officially rename the blog the Sound Check Blog. It’s simple and it can be all encompassing and I can promote the blog as a whole rather than an individual blog for each event.
The 2013 festival season was going to be my busiest to date, with Winterlude, Tall Ships 1812 Tour – First Port of Call in my hometown of Brockville, Ottawa Bluesfest and Boots and Hearts all on the list of events that I was planning on attending with the blog. On June 17, 2013 a phone call from Calgary would turn an already busy summer onto it’s head. Sound Check was headed to the Calgary Stampede for it’s final weekend courtesy of WestJet. How cool is that all in my first 3 years as a semi professional blogger? 2013 lived up to it’s potential and left me with many memorable moments that I was able to share with my readers but as the year drew to a close I was faced with a tough decision: to remain under the banner of the Ottawa Citizen or to go independent.
A Tough Decision…
Sound Check was growing, much faster than I would have ever expected, and I felt that it was growing out of the Ottawa Citizen’s target market. The staff at the Ottawa Citizen were always amazing and my eventual decision to take Sound Check and launch it as an independent blog was not because of anything that the Citizen did wrong. They were always super supportive of the blog and gave me all the tools I needed to be successful. I made the decision because I knew that under the Ottawa Citizen’s banner it would always remain a reader blog. To me, Sound Check had become so much more than that. I had discovered my passion and truly felt that Sound Check was my future, that could never happen if it remained under the Citizen.
Becoming independent and leaving the nest that the Ottawa Citizen’s blogroll had given me was terrifying. After 3 years of writing for the Citizen I had amassed almost 90,000 readers. To put it in perspective the Citizen had about 40 bloggers, give or take. Many had been writing for the paper for much longer than I. My 90,000 readers put me in 11th spot (as of writing this post) in all-time readership out of all the bloggers they had, thats pretty impressive. I’m thrilled to announce today that less than one year after officially launching SoundCheckBlog.ca we have reached 30,000 readers. What makes this number even more impressive is the fact that 100% of this is from the festival off-season. Sure we had the lineup releases for major festivals in North America including Ottawa Bluesfest, Ottawa Jazz Festival and more but the real traffic comes during festival season when we are posting several updates a day.
Brea Lawrenson Boots and Hearts Showcase
After Boots and Hearts wrapped up last year we made a very bold prediction / promise to a musician friend of ours, Brea Lawrenson, that she would be on a stage at the event in 2014. Less than one week after the event wrapped up last August we had a Facebook page up simply called “Brea to Boots and Hearts 2014“. Shortly after the first wave of acts were announced for Boots and Hearts we ran a poll on our site asking which female artists our readers would like to see at Boots and Hearts this summer. The list included every female country singer we knew and a few we had to turn to Google for help with. Brea Lawrenson quickly jumped to the top, and stayed at the top, of that poll where she remains to this day (it’s still open). On May 6, 2014 it was officially announced that Brea had been selected as part of the Top 8 to perform in the Boots and Hearts Emerging Artist competition and would be performing at the event on August 2 and possible on August 3 in front of Hunter Hayes if she’s lucky enough to win. Our prediction had come true.
Over the past year Sound Check has grown the most. We’ve gotten to know the music behind the festivals that we love to tell you about. We’ve interviewed Tim Hicks, Sam Hunt, Jordan McIntosh, all of the Top 8 Emerging Artists for Boots and Hearts, we’re currently halfway through our interviews with the Top 10 for this summer’s She’s the One Emerging Female Artist competition at Ottawa Bluesfest and we just completed another big interview with one of the headliners for next weekend’s Calabogie Country Music Festival.
The future…
This summer we were invited to so many fantastic events across Canada, once again. Maritime Countryfest in Fredericton was kind enough to invite us to attend but the time and distance were too great this year but they celebrate their 10th anniversary next spring and we will move mountains to be there! With thanks to Brea we will also be attending the Calabogie Country Music Festival. We’ve been invited back to Boots and Hearts in Bowmanville and new this year we’ve also been invited to attend the 25th Annual Havelock Country Jamboree. Of course we can’t forget the amazing folks at the Ottawa Dragon Boat festival who not only invited me to come out and cover their event but gave my entire family VIP access to the event for the entire weekend.
Eating Crow Records…
We save the biggest news for last. About a year ago I decided I wanted to expand Sound Check to make it more than a blog, my goal was to make it a business that would help build and support musical acts in their journey to get signed by a major label. Sound Check blog became Sound Check Entertainment. Just last month we teamed up with Brea Lawrenson to help building her brand to get her ready for her next step and earlier this week Sound Check has officially teamed up with Eating Crow Records to help introduce the world to what we believe will be the next big thing in Country Music…Blackwell. We’ll be telling you more about this power-trio out of the Ottawa region in the next week leading up to the big release of their debut single in early July. Blackwell is a country music powerhouse; a group of gifted singer/songwriters and musicians comprised of Carey Blackwell, brother Dan Blackwell and Braiden Turner.
Some important thank yous!
There are so many individuals and companies that have invested time and effort into getting us to where we are today. First and foremost Sound Check would not exist if it wasn’t for the Ottawa Citizen and their brilliant idea of the Festival Goer blog, I am forever in their debt for giving an unproven writer the opportunity to write for such a reputable publication it was always an honor and a privilege to be associated with them. GallantMEDIA keeps us looking good, Shawn and his team took our vision and turned it into what you see today. They handle all of our graphics and are always quick to jump when we call. Then there’s Samsung Canada. The Galaxy Camera has helped us capture some of the most incredible moments so that we can share them with our readers.
And last but not least we need to thank YOU, the reader. When I see the numbers going up each week I know that I’m not just talking to myself on here. Thank you for being part of the journey over the last 4 years, we sincerely hope you’ll stick around for the next 4…why not invite some friends to join you too. It’s going to be one heck of a ride!