Music commentary #1

Full-time career in music is the topic. Somehow, I imagined that doing it part-time would be leaving too much on the table, allowing oneself less opportunity to succeed. I thought that way about it as a teenager and think that way to this day. Yes, I did not want to look back on years of dabbling in music, or being a hobbyist, and regret anything. My ambition was to immerse myself in music as a career, to make it a full-time job. I was fortunate enough to start performing in a live band, and getting paid for it, just as I was turning 15 years of age. I had family members in that band. I was in school, they were older and had regular jobs (outside of music). Hungrily, I spent time learning songs (including ones THEY sang or played onstage), as well as building up skills on my instrument(s). I can still hear their “excuses” in why they had not learned a chord progression in a song, or a certain part for material we WOULD PLAY each week. I was told that one day I would have a job and family and, thus, not have the time to spend on musical betterment. I believed them. And, so, the road to staying away from a regular job AND a family began. I spent lots of time writing songs, unique in my family of music folks, hiring out as a guitarist (touring USA, Canada, and beyond), recording demos of my bands, improving my skill set, setting up rehearsals, hanging out with other full-time musicians and artists. I hired on for a weekly “happy-hour” piano gig, in order to expand and strengthen my piano playing. I booked engagements to play, using assorted band personnel, to make enough money to live. I kept my overhead low, stayed out of debt. I needed to be available when the phone rang for a session, live gig, etc. I rarely “womanized”, especially staying clear of serious relationships. I knew a wife and kids would force my hand toward a job OUTSIDE OF MUSIC. No, I could never be the one turning up at a show or session, even rehearsal, having not done my homework. I would not be the one letting anyone down because I did not know the “lick”. As a result, I found myself to NEVER slide backwards in skills, musically speaking. I have always moved forward at a steady clip from early teens until now. I will turn 57 in a couple of weeks. I can honestly say that I am a better vocalist at 56-57 than I have ever been. I am a better musician than ever. I am a better performer, a better frontman. My songwriting is at its best. I do realize that one day there will start to be a gradual fall off of skills, due to age and/or failure to put it in the full-time mode. I should mention that I did get married at nearly 29, but, my wife was in the music business as an artist/songwriter. My domestic chapter included touring and recording with her full-time for many years. I did, to some extent, take on supplementary income from non-music jobs (sub-teaching, helping a plumber, running a firework stand, driving a delivery route). Those things, though, were always part-time things around my REAL profession (being an artist and musician). Yes, I have seen the fruits of the labor, so to speak. I have watched countless “weekend warrior” musicians, amateurs, hobbyists lag behind me in skill set-all because I put in countless more hours/days/weeks/years/decades than they, in studying and applying music. The Covid -19 era put a death to my music career in March of 2020, age 55. Tour dates, and any chance of booking them, came to a close. A complete close. I had to take a guitar and go to the woods days out of each week to sing loud, stage-like volume. I wrote new songs and put them on a newly established YouTube channel. I wrote most of an autobiography and read chapters from it on the channel. I posted some guitar tutorials, as well. In my unemployment of 15-16 months I hoped this to be an outlet for my creativity and to keep up my chops. I, also, hoped that the thousands of people I had performed for in 20-plus countries (and 49 US states) would make donations via that outlet. Some did, most did not. It became apparent, eventually, that I was on a slippery slope. I could not make a living in music anymore. Some 8 months ago I was offered a job running a warehouse, something I had spent my life NOT training to do. I knew I had to grab this offering and did. Now, I do not plead for promoters to give me a date, do not try to get radio play, or get hired as a sideman musician by a more successful artist. I have ONE place to work, week to week. I do not drive 5 hours each day to arrive at the site. This is my first time to EVER HAVE A FULL-TIME JOB OUTSIDE OF MUSIC. I know the skills will start to diminish over time, and that leaves a sinking feeling in my gut. I have never known that. Weeks after the acceptance of the job I was offered an opportunity to play once a week onstage at a pizzeria/brewery 17 minutes from home. The stage is big and I can do the performance away from direct contact with audience (a Covid concern). I agreed to do three hours, of which I do with no break. I have complete control over the material, and refuse to do my own songs for the most part. It is too painful to try and do my true concert performance in this setting. But, having a large repertoire, bigger than anyone I HAVE EVER KNOWN, I revert to my olden days of cover songs. It is mostly classic rock and R&B. I try to get local folks to attend. I know my ship is sinking. I know it will not be forever. I just want them to hear me at my best, not a watered-down version, and not the teenage Mark. The same local folks who never came to hear me still do not. The same family to neglect my career in music still do. However, there are some who come there and take it all in. It warms my heart to see them there. I go for broke three solid hours for them. But, once this opportunity goes away, and it is only warehouse around me (no regular performance)-the skill set will erode. I know that I have no ambition to be a lesser version of myself, at that point. Middle-Tennesseans are invited to this once-a-week gig. There is more to this that will be divulged in my next commentary. 

 

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