The David Paul Thing

[Randy Finney]

Why am I getting involved in the whole David Paul topic thing? Because it is annoying and I have a suggestion for David and Wes Southerland, his biggest advocate on this board.

First, to be open, I am a concert promoter in Toronto and my real name is Randy Finney. I promote exclusively guitar concerts.

Both Wes and David are likely older and more worldly than me but, I am going to suggest that it is their approach to marketing that is the main contributing factor in fuelling the continuing animosity between David and some of the members on the board than any past exaggerations or over zealous comments regarding David's encounter(s) with Chet are contributing to it.

Specifically, they seem to be completely oblivious to the demographic to whom they are marketing. Please understand that I do not think there is anything wrong with strong, slick, over-the-top marketing - I practice this myself as a ticket salesman. However, there is something wrong with using the "That's-enough-about-me-and-what-I-think-of-me, what-do-you-think-of-me?" marketing approach when selling tickets to my own family.

The ChetBoard is a family where no one member is any more or less important or deserving of our attention than any other member of the family. Whether he is a good player or a bad player, whether he is famous or wants to be famous, whether he is John Knowles or John McClellan, whether he knew Chet or didn't know Chet - we are all first and foremost just a member of the family.

Members of the board who do seem to command our attention more so than others (for example, Craig Dobbins), do so because they have earned our respect through their contributions to the family - not because they have more effectively marketed themselves to us.

I'll further make my point with a personal example…

I'll be introducing Brooks Robertson to Toronto in the New Year. I will market him like this…

Core Clients (My Family) - These are people who are very knowledgable about Fingerstyle Guitar and pretty much come to all the concerts I promote. I will market to these people by simply saying "You might not have run across Brooks but, I think you will really dig what he does". That's it. I will treat these people with a great deal of respect as active listeners. They will Google Brooks and probably know more about his music than I do by the time Brooks gets here.

Soft Clients: These are occasional tickets buyers who take a much more passive approach to discovering new players. I will be more aggressive at spoon feeding them. I'll use stronger language such as, "Brooks Robertson is awesome!" "Not to be missed!" "You are going flip when you hear this guy!"

Unknown Clients: I assume these people are completely dense about anybody less famous than Gaga. I will focus almost exclusively on name dropping/association - including media quotes. These people will only come because they are convinced that Brooks is already famous and they have missed the boat.

Wes, if are reading this, the videos you are posting on David's behalf are for for Soft and Unknown Clients. I think that perhaps to some members of this board, certainly to me, they are somewhat condescending and do not acknowledge that I/we are experienced, active listeners who have, or will, research David just because we have heard his name.

Perhaps some videos of David just sitting in his kitchen in front of his computer with no tag lines and nothing to sell would endure him more to the ChetBoard Family. You can't be famous in your own family - you will always just be part of the family. It usually takes a few years for the kids who come to CAAS to learn this lesson. Heck, even the greatest Concert Promoter in the world - Palmer Moore - gets this.

Randy

[Wes Southerland]

Hi Randy,
Thanks for your post. I totally agree with your suggestions for fitting in here on the chetboard with experienced players and guitar community family. I want to point out I have not in any way influenced the video material presented in my posts. I do believe in David's talent and think it will be a shame if his material goes unnoticed. That is the only reason I post because others may like to know what's available. If I could do the same for other artists here I would. I am not biased at all. I do want everyone to know David has not influenced me at all in any chetboard post I have made. I make my own decisions on what I write. The video is done by a group unknown to me. You can see their info in the videos. I don't always agree with them on presentation, I just offer the material if its available. When all this started I was merely interested in obtaining David's last album that is now out of print. You can go back to my post about "My Heart Will Go On" and check it out. That's where my connection started. I just thought he should be included here on the board. That's the honest truth. No gimmicks, sales pitches, etc. Just a friend like I am to all of the others I have meet through the chetboard. I do wish him luck with his career going forward and will post for him when I can.
Thanks,
Wes Southerland

[Norm]

Y'know...
Things would be a whole lot easier if he were to Get His Own Website and Chatboard like all the Big Kids have, Muriel Anderson, Tommy E, Ray Cummins and such. Those folks (and others) that are out there working their guitars for a living all have their own websites. None of these folks seem to require anyone posting links and breathless hyperbole about them on sites like this because they have their own websites for that purpose.

True, occasionally someone will post a brief link and a sentence or two about themselves but when making a Hard Sell you have to accept that not everyone agrees with your opinion of your friend.

A friend of mine once said... "If you have to tell people how good you is, chances are, you ain't"

[Wes Southerland]

Practice the Golden Rule "Do onto others as you would have them do onto you".
Thanks,
Wes Southerland

[Norm]

Thank you Wes.
Didn't realize my ignorance was so obvious.
I have now been told and I appreciate it.

[srgntschultz]

I agree with Wes,i cant believe because someone dosent like someone for some stupid unknown reason that everyone else shouldnt like them either! I believe that i heard that scotty anderson was at caas one year and was never asked back. Why not,he can play anything that anyone else at caas or on this chetboard can play,and a lot of the times better. ANd the blue guitar guy does sound like chet,tone wise for sure! I have watched scotty on youtube and he is a truly amazing guitar player and deserves to be heard. ANd i dont know either one or have any contact with either. But anyone that good should be heard,and they all started because of Chet,just like everyone else on this chetboard. Personally i think that some are afraid of how good these guys really are! Grow up! Who are we goingto ban next on the chetboard?

[Tom Partridge]

Once again I say that I rarely post. I do however read each day. I strongly say that Norm is anything but ignorant. I suggest that you should reconsider that remark. I am sure Norm does not take offense over simple disagreement and I think we should keep things on that level. That is my opinion and I hope that you agree. Thanks Tom Partridge

[RandeDager]

It kind of leaves me speechless when I feel like I have a certain level of friendship with people on both sides of this issue.