Getting Noticed
By Duncan Fremlin
When asked, “what do you do for a living?”, I usually say, “I sell houses (RE/MAX) and songs (Whiskey Jack). It’s an honest reply but a more precise answer is “I prospect for customers (fans) by drawing attention to myself”.
The same can be said of plumbers, lawyers, dog-walkers, politicians and handymen. To succeed, we all need an audience.
When I figured that out, it was a eureka moment and my focus became laser like. In 2025, for small operations like Whiskey Jack, there is no national website/newspaper available that can increase my audience overnight.
Going-viral and being recognized on a large scale is all well and good but that’s as likely to happen as winning a lottery. I’m left with the turtle approach, a little bit here, a little bit there.
That’s how I look at industry reviews. I like and encourage them. Receiving a write-up in this publication, Canadian Music Spotlight, will certainly boost my profile but to bring fans to the shows, I’ll need more of them from a variety of sources, and I’ll need them often.
Any publicity is good, even a bad review. My favourite dates back to the early 1980’s. Wilder Penfield III, an influential Toronto Sun music columnist had raved about our first album, Uptown so when our second album, One More Time was completed, I promptly delivered a copy in person. The following Sunday, I was gobsmacked when I opened the paper and read his glib, sarcastic and dismissive critique ..… “whoopee, aren’t we having a good time” was his phrase. We used that quote in our press kit for years.
A decade later, we were in Fredericton on tour with Stompin’ Tom. As the crowd was being seated, I was standing at the sound board watching the fights that sometimes accompanied his shows. A young reporter from the Daily Gleaner came up to me and asked “can I go back stage and interview Tom?”. I replied “Tom doesn’t talk to reporters”. She left in a huff and the next day we opened the paper to read that our guitar player was "singularly lacking in talent”. Why she picked on him we’ll never know (the description described me more than him) but it amused the rest of us for decades. The review was accompanied by a photo of him so I wrote and thanked the reporter.
Slow and steady wins the race.
Duncan Fremlin is a banjo player, singer, realtor, producer and curmudgeon and performs with Whiskey Jack.
Website: whiskeyjackmusic.com