Musical Adventures, Quirky Videos, and Music Craft with Bill Allman of Famous Artists

Greg Dixon talks with Bill Allman about many of their musical adventures, with insights into both what makes music fun and what it takes to be a top musical performer and creator.

Bill Allman is the founder of Famous Artists and has helped many West Coast artists with productions and inductions into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.

Greg met Bill when playing with a band called The Old Kids on the Block with Bob Braganza and Mike McCray.

The Saints Christmas Carollers branched off to become The Strange Bedfellows (to do something beyond Christmas).

The costumes were brightly coloured bedclothes — the KKK meet the Smurphs!

Greg was the Teal Smurf.

The emphasis was on entertainment and fun.

The band got better and transmorgrified into Blazing Saddles, which has endured and grown over twenty-five years.

Greg and Bill produced two quirky music videos.

The first one was written by Mike McCray and produced by the very talented Chris Boden.

Geoff Eddington, famous for being the lead singer of The Seeds of Time, sang the Blind Rhymin' Cornbread part. There was a whole fictional backstory to the song.

Someone recently did a YouTube review, thinking the band was real.

The next music video with My Baby's Going To Jail For Christmas, based on a phrase used in a courtroom. Bill's lawyer friend said it should be a song. And soon it was!

Bill wrote most of the lyrics, and the talented Chris Boden again arranged and produced the song.

Greg Dixon created the video and appeared as Cellmate Steve.

Fun stuff!

Bill Allman arranged to present a musical at a local theatre before the show was created. He collaborated with Alan Marriott and Kevin O'Brien to get the show ready on time.

Bill estimates that writng and arranging process took about 140 hours over many weeks.

Greg and Bill then discuss how the Beatles learned their craft by playing some of the best pop and rock songs of the day, and how they applied those experiences to master and further revolutionize music. 

They discuss how the best musicians make others sound great, using examples from The Rolling Stones and The Eagles.

They also talk about musicians like Rob Ford, who played guitar while others did not, leading them to work with Lindsay Buckingham and other top-tier musicians.

Interest plus attention to craft is what made the great players and music creators.

Greg Dixon, Your Fun Music Enabler

Playing Music For Fun

https://playingmusicforfun.com/

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