Re: [Harp-L] Reality check?

["Bob Boyd" <bboyd@xxxxxxxxx>]

When I hear about bands that want to play more the first thing I think of is 
are they playing what the people want to hear. There are 2 choices. One play 
original and hope you will be lucky enough to be successful and second to 
play covers. If your in the first group it is a very tough road and I wish 
you well and lots of success but it will probably take many years and not 
much money on the way if you are even in the few that make it big. If you 
are in the second group you have to decide to either play what you want and 
not play very often as most of the time it isn't what the large group of 
people want to hear a steady diet of. Or play what most people like and play 
more often and make more money. I love playing blues but it really isn't 
what most people want a steady diet of. What I have found is people want to 
dance and sing to oldies that they remember from the past. Now this is not 
necessarily for the young people, except for fraternity parties, but for the 
most part the older people have more money and can afford to hire you for 
private events, fundraisers, anniversary's, birthday's, retirement etc. kind 
of parties. And they will pay more than bars.

I can tell you that while all in my band have real jobs the music is our 
passion and being fun on stage transmits fun to the audience. We do lots of 
oldies but what gets us most booking events is our Jimmy Buffett music. We 
play 80-90 gig a year and each year it has been growing. While we can't make 
a living doing it, we get to play and make more money than most bands that 
play for fun. If you haven't been to a Jimmy Buffett Concert you need to go 
to one as there are people of all ages there just dressing up funny and 
having fun. It's a happening. And he fills the venues he plays. Must mean a 
lot of people want to hear his music.

So in closing I would say look for a niche in the music scene. The Blues 
Brothers you mentioned is one and I'm sure there are others. We found one to 
fill in our area of the country so look what's around and not being filled 
where you live. There are still opportunities out there. This is America, 
land of opportunity.

Bob "The Captain" Boyd
Texas Tide Band
www.texastide.com
210-494-1118

> So, here we are on a harmonica list, 2000 strong, debating what we like 
> and
> what we don't. However, who is doing well in the real world pursuing 
> music -
> with or without the harmonica - beyond a hobby? Rob P is gigging steadily
> (perhaps not as steadily as before) because he was well entrenched for 
> years in
> the scene and works a lot of reunion type shows of already established 
> music
> (ie  - BS&T and maybe Blues Bros type shows).
>
> Locally, I've been gigging a lot less w/smooth jazz r/b unit as
> opportunities are drying up and/or the pay is decreasing. The few 
> dedicated  students I
> have are sticking with it, but new students are few and far between  as 
> the cost
> of lessons are not as affordable as they used to be.
>
> The landscape is changing rapidly and I'm curious as to who is doing well
> and what the new directions may be. Those blazing new trails on the 
> diatonic
> have fun with posting youtube videos (for free) and enjoy the  strokes 
> received
> by comments (for free).
>
> What do you see in your future crystal balls?