I started my career playing in cover bands in the late 70's, then moved to a new city where I got involved in a progressive rock band as their main lyricist, lead singer and vocal arranger. Life tossed a few things at me and I ended up in California where I worked for the state for a few years and retired early, so I opened my own business and, at the same time, started looking for ways to put my chops back together.
That was a couple of years ago and, since then, I've played with an originals band that gigs about once or twice a month, usually with little pay, I've played with a blues guitarist who hired me for a handful of gigs for good money but needed to get back to a more lucrative situation because his blues gigs were harder and harder to come by, and I've played with a couple of other originals bands that bring me in now and then, but book infrequent shows. One of those side projects seems to have real legs, but the other has dried up due to a band member's illness.
I work really hard in my first originals band; we often do a show that requires two sets, and we recently booked a show (or so I thought) that required three, so we've been working toward polishing up a third set of covers for this venue that we were to play in two weeks. Today I got word that this show is cancelled, and I started thinking about how much work I've been doing to play originals and covers with other players who are basically hobbyists for not much pay. It's way more time than I want to spend anymore. I've realized that I just want a reasonable set list, an opportunity to play it enough that I'm good with it, and some reasonable pay for my efforts.
So, to that end, I've put some ads up looking for a slot in a working cover band. It goes full-circle, apparently. I'm back where I started.
My ideal situation, I realize, is to phase out my petsitting work in favor of music. It's a dream, I know. But I also know that there are decent, working bands out there. What's been limiting me so far are the people I've been surrounding myself with.
Time to make some different choices.
That was a couple of years ago and, since then, I've played with an originals band that gigs about once or twice a month, usually with little pay, I've played with a blues guitarist who hired me for a handful of gigs for good money but needed to get back to a more lucrative situation because his blues gigs were harder and harder to come by, and I've played with a couple of other originals bands that bring me in now and then, but book infrequent shows. One of those side projects seems to have real legs, but the other has dried up due to a band member's illness.
I work really hard in my first originals band; we often do a show that requires two sets, and we recently booked a show (or so I thought) that required three, so we've been working toward polishing up a third set of covers for this venue that we were to play in two weeks. Today I got word that this show is cancelled, and I started thinking about how much work I've been doing to play originals and covers with other players who are basically hobbyists for not much pay. It's way more time than I want to spend anymore. I've realized that I just want a reasonable set list, an opportunity to play it enough that I'm good with it, and some reasonable pay for my efforts.
So, to that end, I've put some ads up looking for a slot in a working cover band. It goes full-circle, apparently. I'm back where I started.
My ideal situation, I realize, is to phase out my petsitting work in favor of music. It's a dream, I know. But I also know that there are decent, working bands out there. What's been limiting me so far are the people I've been surrounding myself with.
Time to make some different choices.
