Article Title: The Bob Marley Roots Rock Reggae Festival

Article Title: A Detroit friend in the music business

Excerpt: Rob Miller of Chicago's Bloodshot Records, who doesn't wear a suit, would prefer not to be lumped in with the vultures, thanks. And he won't be: Miller, whose label now is home to several top Motor City bands, is a Detroit native whose heart -- and ears -- are in all the right places.

Excerpt: Affable and laid-back, Miller is the quintessential indie guy: infatuated with the music, committed to his bands, absorbed in his albums. A self-described record dork, he's amused by the very notion of talking about himself. And like most red-blooded music fans, he's got a philosophy. For Miller, it might be boiled down to the adage from songwriter Harlan Howard describing country music as "three chords and the truth."

Excerpt: "If this idea is in people's minds -- 'Why should I pay for this?' -- I don't know how it's going to be sustainable for a band to exist," he says. "We're not talking about selling enough CDs for someone to pay off their chalet in France, we're talking about being able to put gas in the van to get to the next show. For us, if you take away one sale, that's definitely felt."

Excerpt: "You do this because you love it, and if you're able to make a living at it, then you're just super-lucky," Miller says. "I know if I didn't have the label, I'd still be involved in music somehow. It's not something you get to decide."

Article Title: Indie Music Takes on the Majors

Excerpt: Tommy Boy Records' Tom Silverman has said that independent record labels are responsible for 30 percent of music sales and 80 percent of all releases worldwide. If indie music were a major label, it would be the biggest in the world -- and in a way, that's what's about to happen.

Excerpt: Here's a theory: The biggest trend in music in the past 10 years has been decentralization. Technological advances have made it possible to form a label if you're just one person with a computer -- all it takes is finding a few new bands, which seem to be everywhere, then convincing them to let you handle their business needs (which increasingly means acting in a managerial role while outsourcing promotion and distribution).

Excerpt: But licensing is only part of the game. A2IM, a U.S. sister organization to Merlin, has already centralized U.S. indie labels into a lobbying force in Washington. One of its first acts was to send a letter to the FCC, asking them to look at the payola scandal uncovered by Eliot Spitzer in New York State. Labels were paying independent promoters to get songs on the radio; the independent promoters then paid the radio stations to play the labels' songs. Effectively, this was classic payola, albeit with independent promoters as middlemen.

Excerpt: Said Gordon, "We're more liberal (than the majors) in embracing new tech, and enjoy better relationships with our customers than the majors do. The majors create stars on huge platforms -- they're almost not real, they're almost like comic book characters. With indies, these are folks that live around town, and they don't want to steal from their friends. That's a level of protection that no DRM can achieve."

Article Title: Bob Egan - The Glorious Decline

Excerpt: Bob Egan The Glorious Decline Fontana | Universal For the past decade, pedal steel virtuoso Bob Egan has lent his talents to the likes of Wilco, Blue Rodeo and Freakwater. For his third solo outing The Glorigous Decline, Egan teams up with another artist more used to the shadow than the spotlight: Weakerthans drummer Jason Tait. And a fine match it is. Tait holds down the fort with his usual tastefully understated touch — and tosses in vibes, harmonium and saw to sweeten the pot — while Egan deftly layers on the guitar, mandolin, steel and other strings. Together, they spin nine elegantly unvarnished, atmospheric slow-burners whose shimmery melodies and twangy licks are offset by gruff, woodburned vocals that cross Knopfler and Cohen. Call it a Glorious Duet. SUN RATING 3.5 STARS OUT OF 5

Article Title: EntertainmentChanged by Blue Rodeo

Excerpt: At 50, Bob Egan - the steel guitarist with Canada's Blue Rodeo - feels like a teenager again. He's taking chances with his music and his solo career. "I feel like I'm 16 all over again," quips Egan from his hotel room in Kelowna, where he was performing last week. "When it comes to my writing I'm not dictated by popular music; rather as an independent artist I can be more experimental and do whatever I want. "If I want I can put an opera singer on my record." Egan's new songs are a bit of a departure from his other work. That's partly because he has been studying Latin and classical music lately, and he says it's showing up in his newer music. "With classical it's a completely different genre, it's much more about the (musical) journey rather than lyrics going with the sound," he says. "It's a theme rather than a format." Egan has also immersed himself in the Brazilian beats and rhythms, dubbing it a "life's beat, a beat of pure joy." Egan calls it "expressive freedom." But while things are good now, they weren't always. Egan says he hit a rough patch prior to joining Blue Rodeo in 1999. "I was broke and struggling, I couldn't make enough to live on but then I agreed to open for Jim Cuddy's (vocalist/guitarist for Blue Rodeo) solo band," recalls Egan. "Their steel player was leaving the band and Jim offered me the job with Blue Rodeo. "That changed my life," says the central Illinois-born musician. Egan grew up in a family of six sisters in a "house no bigger than a shack" in small mining town America. He remembers begging his Irish Catholic parents to let him have a paper route so he could purchase some congas. "I was seven years old and crying because I wanted a paper route so bad," says Egan. His growing love and affinity for music came from his father. His father was an ironworker who kept a myriad of musical instruments in his basement - marimbas, a steel guitar, xylophone and "a huge collection of Latin music." After high school, he started touring and recording with a few rock/country bands back in the '70s and '80s before hitting it big with Wilco, an American contemporary rock band, predominantly known for its country music roots. "They are like the American version of Blue Rodeo," adds Egan. Before parting ways with Wilco in 1998, he recorded on their Grammy-nominated record Mermaid Avenue. That same year saw Egan release his self-titled debut CD and performing in small clubs across the States, Canada and Norway. "I prefer to perform in non-traditional venues such as art galleries, art wineries, coffee shops, libraries and in homes," says Egan, who is largely known as a pedal steel guitarist. "I have a better connection between myself and my fans." How did he feel about moving to Ontario, where Blue Rodeo is based? "I feel like I found my people," he says of Canadians. "I'm never going back to the States, except to tour." Today, the talented singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist is having the time of his life. Anyone who knows Blue Rodeo's music - considered one of Canada's most successful and well known contemporary country rock bands (with seven Juno awards and seven SOCAN awards under their belt) - recognizes Egan's distinctive steel guitar style. However, expect the unexpected, he says. "I'm really a troubadour at heart," quips Egan. "My life philosophy is be responsible but lighten up." Musical Expressions presents Blue Rodeo's Bob Egan performing songs from his solo CD The Glorious Decline this Saturday, Nov. 4 at the Richmond Cultural Centre, 7700 Minoru Gate. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. and the concert is at 8 p.m. Tickets are $8/$9 and are available at the cultural centre or by phoning 604-231-6457.