California Rocker’s Coverage of ‘New Basement Tapes: One Night’ Only Earns Blog a Finalist Spot
California Rocker has been nominated in the Best Individual Blog category for its coverage of The New Basement Tapes: One Night Only concert last November at The Montalban Theater in Hollywood.
Donna Balancia is the producer and creator of California Rocker.
The multimedia package on the one-off concert by the “superband” known as The New Basement Tapes, consisted of a traditional article that ran on California Rocker, with embedded video, links, and still photos from the show. The article, The New Basement Tapes: One Night Only, was posted Nov. 14, 2014, the day after the show.
A social media component played an important promotional role in the coverage, and digital images were filed during and after the event, and the story was updated several times via the web.
The New Basement Tapes is an all-star band whose diverse musicians each wrote music to accompany the lyrics of Bob Dylan that were recently discovered in the basement of the Big Pink house in upstate New York.
Rhiannon Giddens; Marcus Mumford of Mumford and Sons; Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes; Elvis Costello; and Jim James of My Morning Jacket comprise The New Basement Tapes. The show was produced by T Bone Burnett.
Also performing with The New Basement Tapes on Nov. 13 were the popular Haim sisters and film actor and musician Johnny Depp.
Among some of the notable songs produced by the Burnett-assembled group are “Kansas City,” “Card Shark,” and “When I Get My Hands On You,” from the group’s album, Lost On The River.
It is the second LA Press Club nomination for California Rocker in as many outings. In addition to California Rocker, Balancia also produces East Coast Rocker.com and is the president of News Notables of Beverly Hills, a digital editorial consultancy.
“To be nominated for digital media is an achievement for me and all journalists today,” said Balancia. “Reporters and editors have had to adapt to a challenging journalism environment. I hope to inspire more independent reporters and editors to have a voice in our ever-changing world.”
As producer of California Rocker, Balancia writes, shoots stills, shoots video, edits the site through a content management system, and promotes California Rocker stories via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Youtube, as well as other platforms.
“Journalists are a lot like musicians,” Balancia said. “We are all trying to tell our story in the manner that is the most compelling and most impactful. Don’t get overloaded with promotion hype and distribution technology. Choose to create and inform, above all else.”
