While the entire music industry is scrambling to come up with creative ways to keep business afloat and continue creating, My Black Ram has come up with a unique method of releasing their self-titled debut album. With a total lack of venues, the band has instead taken to serenading supporters at their doorsteps around the Fredericton area as they’ve gone about delivering purchased CDs, vinyl and T-shirts.
“With the COVID pandemic, by necessity live music had stopped being a thing. We were affected, with shows and festival dates canceled, which was disheartening to say the least,” says the band’s frontman Peter Hicks.
Like many bands coping with social-distancing, Hicks quickly took to the internet with a series of live-streamed shows to ease the symptoms of withdrawal but found the fix quickly lost its zip.
“While we’d done a couple of composite videos to help connect with fans, nothing beats that face-to-face interaction, so we started thinking of ways we could perform for people from a safe distance. That’s how the driveway tour idea was hatched. If people can’t come to us, we’d go to them,” says Hicks.
“It’s really been a win-win because we get our music out there, we interact, and people get a personalized experience. Some have gathered their bubble on their porch or on their deck, and it turns into a mini-concert.”
For those who live in the Fredericton and Oromocto area and would like to have their own personal My Black Ram concert right in their yard, the band is going back on “tour” on the evening of Wednesday, July 22nd.
Orders can be placed by messaging the band via its Facebook page. And for those who already own the album, the band has offered to perform a drive-by style two-song set for the cost of $10.