After He Took From You Everything He Could Steal

You may or may not have noticed that it has been some time since my last entry in this blog; a blog that has been quite painful to write in places. Fear not, dear reader. This entry addresses my activities after my lengthy battle with alcohol abuse (namely vodka) and realising that had I carried on I would have been dead within 6 months.

On returning to my parents house in Stanley on Tasmanias far North-West coast purely for safety reasons, things slowly began to change for the better....very slowly. No more unexplained bruises from bumping into doors at my former abode, no more broken noses and the accompanying blood stains on the carpet, no more seizures and no more week-long blackouts.

After a week or so back in Stanley two great things returned. I began phoning my children every night without suffering a full-blown anxiety attack. I also gave the prospect of recording again very serious consideration. So serious was my consideration of this was that I set up my studio again. I recorded my first three songs in many years in one day. I chose "Rocky Mountain Way," by Joe Walsh, "Lawyers Guns and Money," by Warren Zevon and "Everything Is Broken," by Bob Dylan. I chose these songs as they were songs that I had performed in the band some years back. I was still suffering from marked tremors, however, because I had performed them so much in the past I was almost doing them on 'auto-pilot.'

Shortly after this I sifted through the material that I had written over a 24 year period. I opted to begin recording those most familiar to me. I submitted a few to noisehead and ReverbNation and was absolutely astounded that anyone would listen to it, let alone enjoy it.

From here I made the common mistake of submitting to every site that I could find. The harsh reality, over a period  of 12 months, saw me withdraw from several sites as I simply couldn't keep up. Inevitably it was suggested to me from several quarters to officially release my music for sale. My first port of call was iTunes. I consider this a mistake and will not be re-subscribing with them. I also distribute via Amazon.com as they provide the musician with greater visibility.

Mid-2009I began releasing material via Nimbit. Since then, however, I have been distributing via Bandcamp who provide real-time stats, have several widget sizes for almost any place on the internet and artists make 100% of royalties. Discount coupon codes can also be provided to fans. At time of writing I am in the midst of moving all of my commercial releases from my website www.scotsbob.com for the cheapest prices, easiest download and highest sound quality on the internet.

Quite amazing what one can do when sober, eh?....but it can't be done without support.

The discount code for the Bandcamp player below is:  lusty