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.