I'm out of my long-time country covers band.
Yep, 10 years, hundreds of gigs, I even offered BL a room at my house when he & his 2nd wife split up a few years ago. Wednesday I found a dismissal email in my inbox, which he'd sent Tuesday night. Thank goodness I've just gotten a day job after 3 1/2 years of scraping by.
We'd just played Fri & Sat, he could have done it face to face, but he chose the chickenspit way out. Really, dude? 10 years, and you send me an email? And you want to "remain friends"? :scowl:
I'll admit I wasn't pleased with his musical taste. He favors oldies way too much. In fact, we'd made a deal last summer that I would sing my two most recent new songs first, then do all the old stuff he wanted for the rest of the night. I was going to be content with that. He proceeded to ignore the deal almost immediately, but I didn't make an issue of it because I like the other folks in the band and I needed the money.
I did book the occasional gig with another band, just so I could do something creative once in a while. But he wants 100% loyalty on the dates, and also 100% creative control, such as it is in a covers band. I guess the 2-song deal was too much loss of control for him. Sorry, but if I don't get any input, I tend to lose interest.
I considered many angry responses, composed many scathing emails and lectures full of righteous indignation and totally justified vitriol, listing his failings as a bandleader, a friend and a man, thought about packaging up all my band t-shirts and sending them back to him as a statement, but then I thought "what good would any of that do? Is he going to see the light? Become a different guy? Start keeping his word? No."
So in the end I took my cue from Mr. Spock, and sent a one-word response:
"Acknowledged."
Yep, 10 years, hundreds of gigs, I even offered BL a room at my house when he & his 2nd wife split up a few years ago. Wednesday I found a dismissal email in my inbox, which he'd sent Tuesday night. Thank goodness I've just gotten a day job after 3 1/2 years of scraping by.
We'd just played Fri & Sat, he could have done it face to face, but he chose the chickenspit way out. Really, dude? 10 years, and you send me an email? And you want to "remain friends"? :scowl:
I'll admit I wasn't pleased with his musical taste. He favors oldies way too much. In fact, we'd made a deal last summer that I would sing my two most recent new songs first, then do all the old stuff he wanted for the rest of the night. I was going to be content with that. He proceeded to ignore the deal almost immediately, but I didn't make an issue of it because I like the other folks in the band and I needed the money.
I did book the occasional gig with another band, just so I could do something creative once in a while. But he wants 100% loyalty on the dates, and also 100% creative control, such as it is in a covers band. I guess the 2-song deal was too much loss of control for him. Sorry, but if I don't get any input, I tend to lose interest.
I considered many angry responses, composed many scathing emails and lectures full of righteous indignation and totally justified vitriol, listing his failings as a bandleader, a friend and a man, thought about packaging up all my band t-shirts and sending them back to him as a statement, but then I thought "what good would any of that do? Is he going to see the light? Become a different guy? Start keeping his word? No."
So in the end I took my cue from Mr. Spock, and sent a one-word response:
"Acknowledged."
