Songs: Illinois - Craig Bonnell's Diverse Music Blog

Craig Bonnell isn't your average blogger by any means, in my opinion anyway. If you take a look around Songs:Illinois, you'll understand what I mean. It isn't just another alternative/indie blog or another place that hypes ear-grating mp3s for download.

An excerpt from his 11/14/06 post reads, "So Rachel Ries and Anais Mitchell played recently in my living room as part of an intermittent Songs:Illinois house concert series..." Just how many bloggers can honestly say they've had emerging talent perform a concert in their living room? Probably not a very long list can claim that experience.

The effort he puts into this project, not to mention the SweedsPlease blog he also maintains, is obvious from the informative content, impressive and unique music content, and straightforward approach to the music he loves. Craig recently took the time to answer a few questions about the site and his passion for music.

(Trish) Tell us as much or as little about yourself as you'd care to share, please.

(Craig) I used to work in the music industry at a number of different labels, management and booking companies. I'm now out of that official music job capacity so I do the blog to keep me involved in the music biz.

(Trish) How long have you been blogging and what inspired you to begin initially? Love of music, desire to share new talent, etc?

(Craig) I've been blogging for over two years. Like many bloggers before I started I was a blog reader. While I liked much of the new music I encountered on the blogs that existed at the time I though there was a big hole in coverage. I felt that folk, acoustic, alt-country and American bands/artists were very much under represented. At the time I was in love with the band The Damnwells and despite the fact that they had an amazing new record out, were as indie as anyone else and were actually quite accessible they were nowhere to be found on the blogs (or on radio for that matter). So I started a blog with my first post on Songs:Illinois about The Damnwells. Soon after I started a second blog about Swedish inide po for many of the same reasons.

Now my philosophy on both blogs is to write about bands that aren't buss bands and that have not been covered before on other blogs. This makes it much more difficult as I have to find music that I love enough to write about but music that also hasn't been featured anywhere else.

(Trish) How much time per day do you put into your site? From what I've seen, it looks to be an extensive project and very well put together.

(Craig) Too much! Probably 2-4 hours a day.

(Trish) Is your site/blog at a level, both in terms of technical and design aspectsand personal goals and preferences, that you are happy with or are you constantly looking for a new perspective?

(Craig) I'm happy with my philosophy and happy with the quality of music I'm covering but unhappy with the design. I have next to no computer skills so a major redesign is unlikely. However I may be soon getting my own domain names and trying to spiff up the site. Some blogs have special features, interviews, contests and exclusive content. I'm not that interested in
adding such features though.

(Trish) Has there ever been a group or individual musician you've reviewed or covered who wasn't thrilled with your opinion?

(Craig) I'm mostly pretty positive although I have called artists weird, wacko or just plain strange but no one has really complained yet. However there have been times when either the artist or label has asked me to take the music down. This is rare because usually I either have permission or the music is from the band/label/per company's web page. In this recent example the label had me take it down even though the songs were available on the band's website. I guess the label had the band subsequently take the songs down too.

(Trish) Conversely, has there ever been a group or individual musician who has gotten more exposure/had more success because of your site?

(Craig) One site can not make a huge difference in a band's career. However if I write about a band and then 6 or seven other mp3 blogs do follow-ups because of my exposure then the band can get a lot of attention pretty quickly. That happened to the Swedish band Hello Saferide when I first wrote about them over a year ago on Swedesplease. They have since been picked up by sites like Said The Gramaphone, Pitchfork and have had their music in feature films and on HBO series.

(Trish) Tough one here, but if you were to play favorites, who, in your opinion,are the fresh talents to keep an eye on in the future?

(Craig) My favorites include Hello Saferide, Ramona Cordova, Ox, Denison Witmer, Rachel Ries and Anais Mitchell.

(Trish) Lastly, is there any advice you would give to someone interested in starting a music blog?

(Craig) My advice would be to write about something you are interested in. Unless that means indie rock because frankly there are already too many indie rock blogs. But if it's polka, free jazz, death metal, music from Brazil, etc then there is a market for that since no one else is covering these genre's.

Whatever your musical preference, I would encourage you to broaden your horizons and sample some new sounds on Songs:Illinois. You might find a fresh artist just out with a demo or an already established group that has been overlooked by the masses. Music really is a universal language and somewhere out there is a song waiting to speak to you.