Entry: March 14th 2009
  We've been cookin' along now for about a year now. Playing whenever & where ever we get a chance for the pure joy of it. We haven't asked for much along the way. We've been thankful for the opportunities to play our stuff for folks. We're not your average twenty-something band with the cute little hipster lead singer & a group fashion statement to make with bunches of other twenty-something friends who are in "live for the weekend-party" mode to wrangle into coming to our shows so we figured opportunities to play out would be tough enough to come by... (We also are not your average band of  fourty-something Veterans of  various "Twenty-something hipster bands" from the late 80's) - : )
 Surprisingly though, we have been gigging and we have been pulling fairly decent turn-outs given our greenhorn status and afore mentioned challenges. Weekday evening gigs are of course the easiest to come by and often allow for more playing time which is what we love. But they're the hardest to get people over thirty to go out to. Saturday gigs are easier to get people out to but we get to play for an average of 40 minutes which for us is only 6 songs ; )
 In all honesty and fairness, we want and hope for the places we play to make money and show an increase in business from our participation in their establishment's scheduled evening entertainment. We willingly help them to promote the evening's event & their establishment through every avenue we have available. We willingly provide our own P.A. equipment to play an event and often are called on to supply some or all of it. We show up prepared, cordial and cooperative. We play our asses off  for as long as they will let us play. And in the end there seems to be a vibe that we have somehow not arrived as of yet even though we played for free.
 We're not trying to arrive. We're trying to share our hearts with others in an effort to maybe by some freak accident... touch someone else's heart in some positive manner. We're not looking to be stars in order to shine. We are looking to shine some light and share something good with people. So far when we play for free which sadly is most of the time. We actually are paying to play. We pay to haul our gear there & back. We often pay to eat and drink there. But we play because we love to and hope to effect others positvely.
 Now there's the  pre-sale ticket quota/ guaranteed fan base thing happening which we are trying to navigate. Again, we are not Twenty-somethings so guarantees and days of the week for the gig are highly connected which again present extra challenges for us.
 On the bright side we have a good history of positive feedback from Twenty-somethings at our shows. For some, there's an almost surprised look on their faces sometimes when they say "You guys rocked man" or something to that effect. Lol...it's like they expected us to lull them to sleep : ) (I've been sort of secretly giddy about the amount of Twenty-something positive feedback we have gotten so far. It's been genuine and regular...don't want to curse it or something) We also get good feedback from those in our peer group which is also greatly appreciated but less surprising because they grew up with the same musical food for their brains that we had. They are pre-disposed to feeling where we're coming from.

 It's a shame that we in this day have little to no respect & honor for artists.

  It's like the story of  "The Little Red Hen" ... Everyone wants what comes out of the oven but they show no interest in honoring all the hard work that goes into what was placed in the oven in the first place. Today...not only would The Little Red Hen have to make and bake her cake alone...she would have to be able to guarantee that her friends would show up at someone elses place of business to buy the cake she made and spend more money embibing in said business's wares while they ate it. And be happy that they came as her payment for the hard work. Ha...I should re-write some classic folk stories in modern context! : )
  Anyway..we shall endeavor to persevere and walk the trail of tears as long as we can bare it in the name of playing some good old rock & roll music and in an effort to do something to effect someone else in a positive way.
 Love to all and see you on the trail!!
 
3/21/09 addendum:
 My Wife asked me why all kinds of cover bands have constant "paying" gigs. And why Original Artists  have to struggle to get paid anything. My 10 yr old son said.."It's like at the Printer's" The original painter of a beautiful painting gets paid rarely and often not much for his work. The printer who copies that work after it has been determined to have mass value can make money repeatedly simply by copying someone elses hard work and creativity.