Relax And Read More

 

I had a great day in New Orleans yesterday.  After a cup of coffee, I drove my friend Charles of The Bomb Factory in New Orleans to pick up a project for a new client.  The project was a 1990 BMW e30 M.  An old song, or a scent can take one back to specific times in their life and so can a car.  Just the simple sound of hearing the door opening and closing reminded me of my college years, going to New Orleans for the small New Wave/Goth club scenes.  We'd listen to The Smiths, The Sundays, Cure, Depeche, you name it on the drive over Lake Ponchartrain.  My brother never wanted to make the drive home so I usually drove home. No one was on the interstate at 2 in the morning, so I fly home and that little engine made some serious music.  It stuck with me for a long time and the reason I'm a big BMW fan til this day.  I got something a little more modern, an 07 but still has some traces of the e30.  

I won't bore you with car talk but maybe I can talk about balance.  Though my music career is not exactly what I thought it would be, I'm starting to feel like I'm in a good place because I have balance in my life.  I'm playing golf again, into cars again, I own a house and I'm not getting bullied around by music managers and label people.  I made huge sacrifices for years in the hopes of things leveling off and my finances to get better to do the things I love.  People often ask me where am I, get out there but I've just been balancing things out and making this path work for me.  I think it's important.  

Yesterday, I took a nap on a hammock which is rare for me and at the end of the day while loading up the car, I went over to see my friend Steve Gleason.  I hadn't seen him in a while and it was good to reconnect.  He played the song I wrote for him "Medicine Man" the whole time I was there.  It kind of made me feel like I'm doing things right.  This kind of connection is what I'm after.  In these times, I'd rather be useful than famous for making noise.  

Embracing The Obstacles To Find Your Way

Lately, a lot of my fellow musician friends that I have worked with over the years have reached out when they are playing in New Orleans and I have been saying yes to their offers to come hang out.  From The Saenger Theatre to Tipitina's and many of my favorite New Orleans venues I'd love to play, I went to hang out and reconnect.  When I'm back stage and I hear the rumblings of the crowd, it takes me back to my beginning.  

In New York, right after we finished So Long I began to learn how to play live and before I played a handful of shows there was a huge crowd and a label and all the things that come with it.  I handled it though and expected myself to handle it no matter who was in the audience.  

I remember playing at The Hammerstein Ballroom in New York.  My parents had flown in to see me.  I met them outside and showed them to their private seats in the Opera balcony.  When I went back stage, I climbed way up over the ballroom and looked down below.  I was wondering what they were thinking.  I was very glad to be giving them this moment as they had always worked so hard to give us opportunities to grow and prosper.  

The picture above is from our last back yard show here in Lafayette.  We do between 2-4 of these in the spring and in the fall.  The weather here gets really humid and makes it difficult to produce these events, but these nights are really special and we have really found a loving audience here.  

This past week I finally got back into my recording studio and looked into the material we recorded in Woodstock two years ago.  I have resisted making my own records lately as the attention spans have changed over the past 5 years.  I still love the format of a full album concept and still prefer to work in that capacity.  I don't want to be a content creator with a slow drip of singles.  At this point, song writing is easy and is a steady drip because I have chosen the path of integrity and didn't sell out.  I love playing small, private shows but would love to work with a booking agent to build my career in small theatre's like The Saenger or even get back to The Bowery Ballroom.  There I said....I put it in the universe.