Rob's blog

A few spring thoughts

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 20:56:08 GMT

It’s playoff time in Montreal. There are few places that get more jacked up for this time of year. I really enjoy the intensity of this hockey. Even the marginal fan (although there seem to be few of those in this town) gets pulled in to the spirit. As a lifetime fan of the Buffalo Sabres, I can watch the Montreal angst from a distance, but I have to admit, I always root for them (except against the Sabres).

But in more relevant news, Rob MacDonald and I are about to release a live album. It’s something we’ve talked about for years but never had the right opportunity to make it happen. That finally came around this January at a small venue in the Eastern Townships about an hour and a half outside of Montreal. We had back to back nights, but the recording didn’t work the first night so we took the second. As the release date approaches (April 26 at a Petit Campus launch in Montreal), I realize how live albums take you a little further outside your comfort zone than any studio album could. You just don’t have the control you normally do.
This sense is a bit enhanced with this record because the entire recording is taken from that one night. We could have put together a sort of “greatest performances live” from different venues through the years (if you’ve visited the Outtakes section on my web site, you know I have lots of material!) but Rob and I both think this is more true to what happens when we perform. It’s not perfect but this night had that intangible, vibe, and that’s worth a lot in my books.

If anyone is looking for a great read, try The Imperfectionists. It was a New York Times Book of the Year and it’s about as funny and heartbreaking as a book has ever been for me. The author, Tom Rachman, is British but was raised in Vancouver.

To close, I hope the spring treats you all well. It was hailing today in Montreal. A good friend from my childhood is considering moving back to Montreal from Paris. Part of the issue for him and his wife is the weather. Apart form one day, this week has been cold and wet and, well, full of hail. Not the best weather to sell this town. But it will heat up and things will open up and bloom once again. They always do.

Peace,
Rob

September

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 20:10:00 GMT

Greetings!
I’m sitting watching US Open tennis on TV on a cool September 5 afternoon. The end of an intense week of unseasonably hot weather, and in an upper duplex with no air conditioning, it was one of those times when we just had to embrace the environment.
My nearly two-year-old son said “money” for the first time today. Truly. This morning. Soon he will put that question mark at the end with his hand out. But not yet.

I think writing one hit song could be a good trick for finances… But one of the cool hit songs from back in the 30s or maybe even the 1960s. Something like Sunny. That’s my backhanded tribute to Bobby Hebb, who died last month. He wrote that tune for his brother who was murdered in Nashville and for Pres. Kennedy who was killed a few days earlier. He was the first black performer on the Grand Ole Opry! I’m not sure what a hit song is today really… or how I could even tackle one. Maybe in the country genre. But that writing is really ON IT, and by that I mean smart and clever and not a word out of place for that particular style, and you know that old line about you have to be convinced to be convincing. Not sure I could sell what’s being sold out there in pop country land. Maybe.

I did write a country tune for a friend of my sister and her husband’s last winter. They wanted to give him a song for Christmas so I wrote a tune called Just Act Normal. The subject of the song, i.e., the receiver of the gift, is a man who likes to have fun…and a guy I guess who could think quite a bit off the grid sometimes in terms of his “crazy ways.” And on tour last year in the Netherlands, I had been presented with the perfect title for a song about such a person. They have an expression there “Just act normal, that’s crazy enough,” which makes a lot of sense if you’ve contemplated the weird world we live in and how we live in it.

The summer was a lot of fun for me and I hope those around me.
Played a bunch of festivals both here in Quebec (Apple Hollow, Sherblues, Montreal Folk Fest) and outside (City Roots, Champlain Valley) and had a great tour in the Maritimes. A highlight show was definitely the one at Victoria Playhouse in PEI. I had played that space at a fundraiser in 1990 with my then musical partner Sandi MacKinnon and loved the room then. This time was no different. It’s about 120 seats, wood, and inclined forward toward a great stage (that is used for theatre most of the time). It’s been in use as a musical venue since 1912 and just has a great feel… and a bunch of old friends and some relatives showed up that night so that tips it over the top. We were staying just down the coast at a family cottage about 40 feet from the water. A great couple of days. What else to say?

I’m working hard on songs for the new album. I really am. It’s coming sooner rather than later. Some decisions to make.
Summer reading included The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. Recommended but some disturbing scenes and honestly, after 900 pages of being pulled along with force, the ending kind of left me just sort of whelmed. But it was perfect vacation reading for a week in Vermont. I followed it up with Tim O’Brien’s Going after Cacciato, pretty much acknowledged as the best fictional novel about the Vietnam War. I loved it, if not quite as much as O’Brien’s other, and in my opinion, even more devastatingly beautiful The Things They Carried. Those I recommend with no hesitation!

Keep well everyone and I promise to write again sooner.
Rob

Happy to see the warmer weather arrive

Thu, 06 May 2010 20:05:00 GMT

By now, it is a standard blog opening for me to apologize that I haven’t written more blogs. If I go too far into this, the blog implodes, so to avoid that I will just say that I have several stock excuses that are available upon demand. Feel free to contact me.

I’ve been incredibly happy to see the warmer weather arrive. There is an apple tree just behind our second-floor place in Montreal. It was in full bloom last week, to the point that when you stepped out onto the back balcony you were virtually in the tree and consumed with the scent of apple blossoms. Having my son Cormac outside is another benefit of this warmth…it’s his first spring as a walker…so I’m enjoying seeing things a bit from his perspective…taking in the parks, looking at the birds and bugs and all the trappings of animals reemerging. It’s inspiring, this rebirth idea. One of the most basic metaphors we have, and such a good one. It reinforces the idea that death is not a thing to be feared but rather a necessary part of the cycle.

I got to thinking of this fear yesterday. I was driving up to a mall in Montreal to buy sneakers so I could go and play tennis. (I love tennis. Great workout, fun, and it only takes an hour to play, so it works out well if you have kids.). I was listening to an old cassette recording of my daughter and I during a vacation about 10 years ago… (why am I listening to cassette’s… because I don’t have a CD player in my car because I bought the only 2003 Elantra that has only Cassette—it’s like living in a time warp).

Anyway, suddenly on this tape comes a late 1990s As It Happens (CBC show, I’m sure you all know. It’s a “For the Record” piece with R. Whidden Ganong, former president of Ganong Chocolates telling a story. He says he bought a cemetery stone for his wife Eleanor and him in the 1980s. It was the last piece of black marble mined in New Brunswick. They both had their names and birthdates put on it. The engraver also put a 19… leaving the second numbers blank to be filled in at the year of death.

Ganong was speaking on his 90th birthday in 1997, and joking that he had to hurry and die in the next three years so that he could use the stone. The audience roared but I found myself truly moved by this. The lighthearted acknowledgement of impending death seems to me to be such a generous thing, although maybe it is just a kind of grace you achieve as you get older.

Summer will be busy—lots of shows coming up and several festivals, mostly in Quebec but also in Ontario and the US. In the next week I will also be recording some video footage just for web site and youtube use. I’ll try and blog to let you know about it.

Now I headed out to play tennis again with another Montreal musician, Denis Ducharme.

Thanks for reading…. Go Habs.
Rob

March madness, Jenny Whitely, As My Heart Will Allow

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 19:55:50 GMT

March Madness has begun. Roots music and basketball, do they mix? Please discuss.

Yes they do for me.

So the past while has been intense and busy but not with gigs. I’ve been working at some freelance writing for a few different projects. There are few feelings better for me than finishing a writing job late at night and feeling like the hours of musing, thinking and trying different approaches to get the information to work as you want it to were all worth it. It’s like writing a song. I can spend weeks on one song, sort of obsessed, until I find the right feel, the right mix of direct and obscure words that go together to convey the feeling that the song was intended to portray.

Just had that with a song called As My Heart Will Allow. Been at it for a long time. I was playing the song live (with quite different lyrics from night to night) on tour in November. It always seemed to work for the audience but never quite for me. I have a good dose of self-doubt in me, which I think actually helps you write good songs. But that self-doubt also prevents me from completely believing an audience’s positive response. I mean, when was the last time you heard a roots audience boo a song? Newport 66 when Dylan went electric. Maybe that far back.

So all this to say, last night I finished a long and arduous writing gig and turned my attention to relaxation, meaning listening to multiple versions of As My Heart Will Allow that I had been recording over the past few weeks in my little home studio.

And you know, I found the one. The ‘one’! I was so happy I poured myself another little glass from the bottle of Keerpunt Bitter that they kindly give me at my yearly appearance at Roots on the Road in Spijkerboer, The Netherlands, and settled in for some quiet time. Well, actually, more listening.

I am on Twitter now. I’m trying not to make it constantly about me and my music career. It’s hard not to just become some kind of promo machine for yourself. I hate that it’s necessary but it kind of is to some extent. But I am tweeting about lots of stuff. If you want to follow, the name is roblutes

Finally, I’m very excited about a Montreal show on March 27... sharing the bill with the great Jenny Whitely. Heard her music for years but never seen her live. We are at Divan Orange, great little venue for about 100 folks.

That’s what I’ve got. Time to relax again. But not listening. Nope. Time to go watch some NCAA March Madness. I’m in a pool this year, and I plan to win.

Hope all are keeping well!

Rob

Recent reviews and Cuban thoughts

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:04:03 GMT

Hey everyone. Under the category of shameless self-promotion, I am posting some reviews down below. The first is in Penguin Eggs, Canada's premiere roots mag. I am being interviewed this week by the magazine for a feature interview in their next issue. I appreciate their coverage.

There are also a couple live reviews there. I did two openers for a Massachusetts femal artist called Eilen Jewell. She and her band do a kind of alt-country thing... and they do it really well. Great groove and she just sings in a real natural way... you should check her out.

In other news, we went to Cuba for a week (taking the 1 year old) right after New Years. After a few days getting used to the food (and figuring out what to avoid at the buffet) it was all very nice. Temperatures around 28 C everyday and insanely starry nights. There was a band travelling table to table on a couple of the nights... and just WOW. The rhythm of the Cuban salsa played two feet from my ears and eyes was moving to say the least.

It was odd to be so close to what was going on in Haiti... and it was impossible not to be glued to CNN for at least part of each day. What can anyone say about what happened there... just beyond imagination. World leaders are meeting in Montreal today to discuss the plan for aid and reconstruction. Let's hope they get it right.

Peace,
Rob

Reviews:

PENGUIN EGGS REVIEW, TRUTH & FICTION

The Montreal-based, maritime-born, Rob Lutes was a writer and editor before becoming a singer/songwriter/guitar player, and that experience with the writing craft shows up in his formidable songwriting skills.

He won the 2001 Kerrville, Texas, new songwriting competition and the 2004 Philadelphia Songwriters Project Road Song contest and has released three previous CDs: Gravity (2000), Middle Ground (2002) and Ride the Shadows (2006) before this latest effort. If this CD is any indication of the quality of his previous work, this critic will be digging back to buy those earlier ones. This is a damn fine CD, beautifully recorded by Rob MacDonald and Rob Heaney, with substantial songs, terrific guitar playing by Lutes and MacDonald, and backing vocals by Annabelle Chvostek (formerly of the Wailin’ Jennys).

Apart from his own songs, he does a mean version of Warren Zevon’s Mutineer. The fact that he pulls it off is a greater tribute to his skill than anything I could write. A really fine CD.

– By Barry Hammond

LIVE REVIEW, THE MAZE, NOTTINGHAM

Tonight's support was provided by Canadian blues singer and guitarist Rob Lutes, whose set was like a naked flame all set and ready to torch the place. His assured finger-picking blues style set a mood for the evening and judging by the amount of CDs he managed to shift during the interval, the crowd certainly seemed to approve wholeheartedly. Starting with The Only Soul from his current album TRUTH & FICTION, Lutes played a hyperactive set featuring Billy Mayhew's 1930s classic It's a Sin to Tell a Lie and part of Robert Johnson's They're Red Hot, played as an introduction to Lutes own I Knew a Girl, which was inspired by Johnson's peculiar ragtime tune.

– Allan Wilkinson, The Northern Sky, Nottingham

LIVE REVIEW, THE BASEMENT, BRIGHTON, OCT. 7, 2009

This was an extraordinary gig, with one of the best atmospheres I can remember! Not only were all of the performers at the top of their game but so was the decent sized crowd!

First on stage was Canadian Rob Lutes, who accompanied his own edgy vocals with his unusual in style but superb in quality acoustic guitar playing. He plays & sings with real passion & fire, almost appearing to lose himself at times in his music. He has made four excellent albums, all selling well in his native Canada & the U.S, so hopefully with a succesful tour here he will add to his fan base. He played a good selection of songs from his albums, a favourite being the intense I will stand by you & the just as good Ride the shadows, from the album of the same name. There was also a terrific cover of the late Warren Zevon's Mutineer. His set was over all too soon, although I, along with many other country roots/blues fans, hope we'll be seeing him again before too long.

Holiday Wishes!

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:40:00 GMT

I am sitting in my familiar perch in the office near the window in my Montreal apartment, listening to Tom Waits on CBC Q. I wanted to send out a short and hopefully a little bit sweet Christmas blog. I don't have the sweetness planned. As this is one of those days when you are not supposed to work, I am treating this more conversationally. I truly don't want to be one of those people who is anchored to his computer. Or to my guitar although I would certainly choose the latter.

This has been a busy year in a lot of ways. My son Cormac, who is right this instant about to empty and tear up a drawer full of highly sensitive documents, is now 15 months. He was unable to move or communicate when the year began. Now he can take some steps and say a bunch of things, most recently, "What's this?" It's a very useful question no matter what it refers to. You can take it to whatever level you want.

Musically it's been busy and inspiring. Since the launch of Truth & Fiction a year ago, I've toured far and wide and met an incredible number of people who share my love of songs. What I take forward into 2010 is a abiding love of performing and writing and some perfect, shimmering memories, from skating on the perfectly frozen Lac La Ronge in Saskatchewan to playing through the evening on a stunning stretch of beach in Westerly, RI to following a badger down several kms of road in the south of England because I did not have room to pass him.

I am busy working on song for an upcoming release. I hope to get to your town in 2010!

To all those reading, from fans to friends to presenters, DJs and business associates, I'd like to send a wish for peace for this Christmas season and happiness and prosperity in 2010. Stay in touch!!

Rob

I'm off to London today

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:06:57 GMT

Hello to all of you who are following the blog. I won't begin this one with an "I'm sorry it's been so long" because that would just be repetitive from the last and the one before last I think.

I've been busy. After a little tour in the northeast US including a gig at the legendary Club Passim in Cambridge, Mass, I'm in the UK on tour right now, staying at my agent's home in Devon for a few days as I do shows around the south coast of England. The landscape here is just stunning...gently rolling hills, hedgerows and overhanging trees that make the ultra-narrow roads seem like tubes we're sliding along...even in daylight, the thickness of the cover in some places makes it seem like half darkness.

After an opening slot for Eilen (pronounced eelen) Jewel in Brighton (the British town I would vote most like Montreal... gritty, late-night, bohemian stuff going on all over), I've played at the Marine Cafe in Lyme Regis (site of the filming of The French Lieutenant's Woman and near the longtime home of its author John Fowles), at the thousand-year old Otterton Mill and at really great joints in Dartmouth and Launceston. Last night's show in Lauceston was a sold-out cafe... upstairs, promoted by a huge Grateful Dead and Youngbloods fan Colin Hill. I was treated incredibly well and it was a highlight show for sure... crowds here are much like the Nethlands... reverent, respectful and, in my case, incredibly appreciative in terms of CD sales and encores and the like.

This is my first tour in the UK... and I have to say that I do feel spoiled. To be able to drive a rented Mercedez (that's right ladies and gentlemen!) throught this kind of landscape and receive this kind of response is a real joy.

I'm off to London today..excited because Monique and Cormac (my girlfriend and one-year old) are arriving tomorrow morning at Heathrow. I will drop them in London and head up to Nottingham for another show with Eilen before coming back for two shows in London Tuesday and Wedneday.

All the dates are on my site and if you know folks in London, please send them along. (God, I swear I'm already writing a bit like a Brit!)
Good fall to you all... I will try and get another of these off in the next couple of weeks.

Peace,
Rob

Heading to Maine

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 01:16:59 GMT

Hi to everyone who has this on the screen! Thanks for following the sporadic Rob Lutes blog. First off, I am headed to Maine for week of vacation. Can’t wait. Before I go, my next show is late August in Trois Rivieres Blues Festival. Anyone in Montreal, please come check out the September 5 show with David Lutes (from Austin, TX) at Centre St-Ambroise! E-mail me to reserve tickets. All the dates on the Tour page here.

Anyway, it’s probably more than a month since the last entry, and a busy month it’s been. Did a six-day stint at the Montreal Jazz Fest with Rob MacDonald in July, which was a lot of fun despite the cool temperatures and rain. Lots of new folks digging the songs, and some old friends out as well. There’s a link to some video from the festival on the main page of my site. The two days at the Tremblant Blues Fest were very cool…again, literally. After the acoustic summit up there, on July 13, it actually snowed! True. Wet snow in July. But the acoustic summit with Chris Smither, Steve Strongman, Dawn Tyler Watson and Paul Deslauriers, Shane Murphy and I was awesome. I had Rob MacDonald as usual and bassist Morgan Moore. Morgan played on Truth & Fiction and is just a monster player with great feel. Second time we’ve played in real time and definitely not the last.

I am just back from another Maritime expedition to play the Pugwash Harbourfest. Very pretty town in Nova Scotia. A few thousand folks out on a sunny Saturday. The stage was right on the ocean so it was a treat. And the big event of the day was an arm-wrestling competition… many weight classes and fierce competition. A vestige of the old country fairs and fun to watch with a beer in your hand.

Speaking of sports (well kind of a sport) the most moving thing I’ve seen in the past month was a speech during the ESPY Awards. First let me tell you all that for whatever reason – probably because I grew up in a sports-mad family of 6 kids – I am a sports nut. I love to play and watch.

Anyway, the ESPYs are annual awards given to athletes, broadcasters… anyone in the world of sports, and sponsored by the sports network ESPN. They give an annual award called the Jimmy V Award…Jimmy V was Jim Valvano, a charismatic and devoted basketball coach who died of cancer at a fairly young age.

It’s given to someone who displays dedication and perseverance and this year’s winner, Don Meyer, was deserving to say the least. No point in me saying more. Check this out if you have a few minutes. I love the advice that he was given by legendary UCLA coach John Wooden: “Don’t whine. Don’t complain. And don’t make excuses.” Old school… hard core…pick your phrase. But it feels like advice that we seldom hear today.
Here’s a link to the story and his speech. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTGSCalTjpU

Take care of yourselves and enjoy your August!
Rob

From PEI

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:13:21 GMT

Hey everyone: I just read that 95% of blogs lie dormant after a very short time... so I want to buck the trend and keep this one rolling.

I am sitting in an old cottage in PEI, right near the water on the Northumberland Strait side of the island. In the distance I can see the "Fixed Link". I was living here in 1990 and 91 when the debate was really raging about whether a bridge should be built. I was against... a starry-eyed 21-year-old idealist. Now I realize it was probably a good idea. We played Saturday and Wednesday on the island and are heading to Fall River, NS for a show tonight. With the link, it's a predictable trip. And I've met many Islanders who feel this way. And if I want to take a ferry, there is still the Wood Island-Caribou one or the five-hour ride to the Magdalene Islands from Souris, PEI.

This tour has been fun so far... always great folks in the east, and for me, lots of faces from the past. The show in Rothesay was full of old friends and some of my parents' old friends I hadn't seen in many years. The most fun was that the Connells... Ernie and Lorna, came out to the show at Salty Towers in St Andrews. Their son David and I were like best friends from the time we were 7 to 12 or so. We played hockey on the same teams and liked the same NHL Team... the Buffalo Sabres. We also loved to play road hockey, foot hockey, table hockey... any kind of hockey! Anyway, there were six kids in my family, so my parents never drove to out of town games or tournaments...and we had a lot of those. So I always went with the Connells. They were extremely involved in the team and sort of treated me like their own on these trips. I still remember coming back to Rothesday from the Provincial Pee Wee "B" Championships in Edmunston, NB. We had lost the tournament and left immediately after our last game, but all of the sudden, the car behind us was flashing its lights and honking. It was another player from the team with his family. They had the MVP Trophy with them... and it was for me! I was a decent player, but it was a huge surprise and it's still the only award of that kind I ever won. I really didn't know how to react and I remember feeling a little shy about the idea of being named the best at anything.

But time changes that. If I won it today, I would celebrate my ass off. But youth is wasted on the young as they say.

Back to PEI. We've had four days of perfect sun here. I wish I could stay for a month. This cottage is like a time-capsule from the 1960s... the orange carpet and drapes, the wood paneling, the round leather footstools and old wooden lamps. My girlfriend Monique's grandmother has maintained it like this and kept all of the old appliances in perfect working order. She's 95 and grew up on a farm, so waste is not something she understands. Today, she is doing her driving test...she still has her license and drives a 1990 Tempo (runs like a charm!) but you have to retest once a year after the age of 90. She'll pass. Kind of gives us all hope of a long ride on this road we're on.

Drive safe and happy.
Rob

A busy time

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:49:41 GMT

Okay, so blogging requires me to turn my attention to the page once in a while. I’ll start doing that more regularly! In my defence, it’s been a busy time. After weekend shows on the 23, 24, 25 of May in Saskatchewan, I flew back to Montreal for one night before driving down to NYC and Philly, and then drove back to Montreal for a show on Friday. That show, a live hour in studio with Dan Behrman on the national French network of the CBC is available here.

You get to hear live tunes with Rob MacDonald and I, Dan’s incredibly smooth French, and my not so smooth French! I had not much of a voice that night, but sometimes that can work. Luckily this was one of those nights.

The Saskatchewan swing was much fun and summed up my career in a certain way. After playing a show for the lovely folks at GrassRoots Regina I was taken halfway to Saskatoon (a tiny town called Davidson marks the halfway point) and picked up by the former president of the Saskatoon Blues Society. Sort of a folk world to blues world thing. But in fairness to GrassRoots Regina, the name roots was selected to include more than just folk.

I really dug hanging out with the people from both groups. And that’s the greatest thing about this business. To meet so many people who are into music in a serious way! It inspires me.

The trip to Philly was for a Triple-A Radio Conference at the legendary WXPN at the University of Pennsylvania. Saw Cracker and Serena Ryder showcase, schmoozed a bit and generally took in the vibe.

Truth & Fiction is being promoted in that format and reaction so far has been good.

The road from Montreal to New York is the I-87, and it is regularly voted among the most beautiful drives in the U.S. Right through the Adirondacks, trees and mountains as far as the eye can see. I’m in the last month of a lease with a fairly average Dodge, but I must give it credit: the thing moves on the highway!

I am now going to sign off. My son Cormac has gone for his nap. I am at the computer and ready to work on a couple songs…one I hope Dawn Tyler Watson will put on her next CD.

I wish you all a good June and I hope to see any Maritimers on the upcoming tour!

Rob

As I sit with my 6-month-old son Cormac...

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 02:20:00 GMT

I sit with my 6-month-old son Cormac on my lap. I want to get this blog written so we can get the site live today, so let’s see how long he can bear it. Before this goes into any crazy philosophy or pseudo-scientific reflections on the world, I wan to send out my short but heartfelt thanks to Catherine Willemot and Carl Comeau, the designer and the producer of this new site. Also, I’d be blind if I didn’t thank photographer James St-Laurent (www.jamesstlaurent.com), who took all the design photos. And I also have to thank the Canada Council for a contribution as well. First ever Canada Council Grant for me, so that in itself was a thrill. And I mean that. The CC has been a tough nut to crack for me. I remember the first time I applied for a Canada Council grant. I wanted to get some money so that I could devote more time to songwriting. My idea, and it was honestly not the least bit cynical on my part, was to research and write songs about Canada. Money from Canada Council. Seemed like a cool idea. And probably the most unoriginal, naïve one in Canadian music history. I called someone at the Council as I was finishing it up before submitting to check on something and was promptly told that “flag-waving” wouldn’t increase my chances. It didn’t. I got a no. But back to Web sites. I worked on lot of Web site planning and writing in my work at the National Film Board of Canada and it’s one of those things that look a lot easier than it is. It takes a lot of thought and work to get the material for the Web streamlined and clear enough so that the site says what it has to in a short time. I think Carl and Catherine have done a great job on this one. Your feedback is always welcome—send me your thoughts on what you’d like to see, or what you like about the new site! (on this blog or by email) While I’m on the subject of roblutes.com, I want to mention some others who’ve helped me over the years. The first site I had was done for me by Jim McRae and John Dowling at Griffintown Media (www.griffintown.com). They had (and McRae still has) this great little communications company and they offered to do a site for me. Back in 1999 I think it was. I thought it was pretentious of a musician such as myself to even have a site. But in a flash of foresite I said “Sure.” And that first site rocked. They redid the design once or twice. When they got too busy with paying work, I hired a guy named Sasa Skoko. He lived in Quebec City. Probably not an ideal situation, but he was a great designer and I figured, hey, it’s the internet age, we don’t need to live in the same town. He did a really cool, sparse design, which I loved. And I loved working with Sasa until I couldn’t reach him for a couple months. My updates weren’t being done so I called his place (we usually just connected online) and found out he had moved to Serbia. Then Carl and Catherine came on board and this is the third iteration of the new roblutes.com So I hope you like it. I’ll put up some thoughts as often as I can. But right now I’ve got to run. Cormac has just fallen asleep on my arm as I’ve typed this. And it’s making me tired. I may just have to lie down. Thanks for reading. Rob