Greetings!
It’s 9am on Monday May 19 and I woke up at 6am. I felt so beat, the tiredness woke me up…kind of like a hangover, minus the alchohol. And the minute the eyes open, my Kitty thinks is party time, so here I am.
Yestredays drive was a 15 1/2 hour trek. Left at Georgetown, KY at 5 am and made it to NYC by 8:30 pm. Granted, the last hour was traffic for the Holland Tunnel.
I listened to a lot of male choirs singing Christian songs, radio preachers, and desparately sought out any music on the radio played by real instruments and recorded analog as opposed to computers and digital music. Tried to avoid news stations which celebrated 10 year anniversaries of the world’s catastrophes as best as possible! Not easy though…
Thank God for my cell phone…I truly learned the depth of the Eagles’ lyric “don’t let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy”.
I have just now caffinated my system with 1.5 grandes at my local Starbucks and took a notebook there to review my tour goals. Did I reach them? Are there new goals? What did I learn? And so on.
In short – I offer you and myself a resounding YES. Mission accomplished. This is not lip service – it is real.
What was the mission?
Mission: To manifest touring and creating solo guitar music for audiences as a reality, and build my following.
Ok, I know a lot of musicians do it, so what’s the big deal, you ask? Well, on an internal level I know I have made some excuses over the past few years, and wanted to stay safe, comfortabe and have things be convenient and “in control”.
However, with the “safe and convenient” approach I found that I’d look at my fellow musicians who were touring and “paying the road dues” with admiration and a sense of longing – and an inner voice told me that I needed to follow their example.
(There’s an expression that a man sometimes needs to travel the world to discover himself…how true!)
The funny thing is that when one has a sense of longing – one is actually rather far away from the goal. Therre’s this “off in the future” feeling, not a RIGHT NOW feeling.
Well, enough of that b.s.!!! Time for the warrrior approch of heading into the battle, rather than retrreating or avoiding or making excuses OR procrasinating.
Were the circumstances, travel, money and everything perfect? Far from it – but as I have learned from many success gurus – just get started. The “ready, fire, aim” approach is far better than the “ready, aim fire” approach. It’s ok if it’s not perfect as long as it’s moving ahead.
Of course I have toured and paid dues – but this was different kind of dues, because the European and American systems for getting gigs and touring are just different. And, the jazz dues are different from the “Americana / Rock /Blues” dues.
Here’s something money can’t buy – a fan, someone who loved the experience of hearing and seeing the gig:
=-=-=- FROM “AL”, a new Fan! =-=-=
“Thanks again for a fantastic performance the other night. You know, there are those who for really selfish reasons don’t give their all for such a small audience.
Dude, you put your heart and soul into it. It showed with each and every note you played. Thanks for giving that to us.
Looking forward to staying in touch with you and hearing much more of your music. I’ll turn as many people as will listen on to your music.
I’ve listened to the CD half a dozen times already and enjoy it more each time. It always makes it a much cooler experience when you know or have met the person playing.”
– AL
=-=-=-=-
There’s no telling how many people enjoyed the music this much, he’s just one who chose to reach out and email me. I guess this is how a following is built!
Today I’ll be getting myself together and putting out fires and cleaning up messes on the homefront. On Thursday I leave for 5 days in Germany with the Bennie Wallace band…time to get the bebop chops cookin’!
Until next time, be well and thanks for reading š
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