I'm sure we all have our list of things we said wouldn't do and yet find ourselves doing them anyway. I said I would never be in a cover band and well I'm not in a band I find myself in a position where I feel compelled to play covers. It's not all bad I guess, as it means I have a place to play music live, outside the comforts of my own home, but it also means I have to become an entertainer.
I'm not sure that it's something that I really want to be, a dancing monkey, but I want to play music and playing live is the only way I'm going to home this ‘hobby’ into a craft. I'm actively pursuing it and busy practicing and learning new covers to play. I'm not a naturally outgoing person, I'm much more of an introvert then it might appear and it's been a while since I've been on stage, and even longer since I've been the frontman of the show. The last band I was in I played a drummer, note I don't say I was a drummer I only played the role of the drummer, as well as the lead singer. It was a comfort to be able to hide behind the kit and leave the spotlight to the guitarist of the group. I would have happily given up the singing role and let him do that as well, he was a good singer but shy of his voice and unable to remember lyrics beyond something simple and repetitive. Playing drums and singing meant both those areas suffered. I was never the greatest at either but as it was only the two of us to begin with as long as we kept in time with each other we sounded tight, once we added a bassist he liked to point out that I wasn't very good at keeping a steady rhythm. The trouble was we'd start out to fast for me to sing and then once I realized I'd slow it down for the verse and speed up again out of the chorus. I still have struggles with playing guitar at the right speed to sing to, but now it's only me. Everything is far more noticeable when it's just one person on stage, at least for the one person on stage. I'm working on it.
I got lots to work on while trying to become and entertainer. How to fit the solos in with no rhythm, how to translate songs meant for a whole band into a guitar and voice format, how to interact with a crowd when we don't speak the same language. The challenges are real. I'm realizing how much more so as I write it down. It's okay though, I'm up for the challenge, as Barney would say “Challenge accepted!” It's pretty low pressure, I'm getting paid in Mezcal and can pepper my setlist with as many originals as I want. So far it's been a pretty small crowd so I don't really feel too compelled to play songs everybody knows, cause those aren't the songs I know. Mostly aside from originals I stick to Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Grateful Dead, Springsteen, Petty, Cash you know classic singer/song writers from the 60's and 70's. I suppose a certain demographic will know them but maybe not here in Mexico. What are you gonna do? I can't change my taste and I can't bring myself to play songs I don't like passably to please myself so I imagine that an audience will notice my distaste. I tried learning Banana Pancakes by Jack Johnson this morning and I couldn't do it. I have a love hate relationship with him. His music is just so simple as to the mundane yet it's pretty catchy and popular. It makes me sad to hear it and think of how bad it is and how popular it made him. I'm just jealous I guess, envious even. I feel that twinge whenever I hear musicians better than me, and that is a long list.
I have always fancied myself a songwriter and hoped someone else would discover my songs and make them popular. I could live with that as long as I could live off the royalties, I don't need to be famous. I just want to be able to make some money off this expensive ‘hobby’ of mine so I can retire my wife and we can afford to travel the world. There's still places I'd like to see and places I'd like to return to with money enough to enjoy them more thoroughly . But as with so many things in this life, if you want it done, rightly or wrongly or just your own way, you gotta do it yourself, so the show will go on. It's no different than writing this blog or posting on social media, recording, playing all the instruments, mixing, mastering, designing album covers, building a website. There's a lot that goes into this, it's a fulltime job that doesn't pay anything, yet. I know one day soon it will reward me for all the work I've put in. I'll be able to enjoy the benefits for years to come, it's a long term investment and thankfully I'm in a position to allow it to mature.
So if you happen to be in San Jose del Cabo come on down to Tequila Town on Thursday night and try some Tequila and enjoy some live music while you're at it. Drop in and say hello and you can tell everybody you knew me before I became famous.