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17 Jan 2008, 6:10 pm / Sitting, Waiting, Wishing
Hey folks, how is winter treating you? It's colder than a snub from a venue owner here in the Big O. I am posing the question in the title because it really is a question we music people....booking agents, musicians, managers, venue proprietors...must ask ourselves. Are you contributing to making something happen where you are or are you limiting the participation of people outside your click? Are you opeing doors or shutting them in the perfectly qualified faces of people that want no more than a chance. One way of telling is, if you are open to anything new. Not like a new way of doing anything, just new people. To create a scene, for lack of a better word, there needs to be a ground swell of talent either in running a joint or people that are talented, opening the ears and eyes of people to experience something that seems to come out of nowhere....a light in the darkness. Here in town there are people that book gigs that have control over the venue and who plays there. The venue owners have been paying that one person to book the music. They leave it up to them to find out if these performers are good enough to play there and really don't question that person's motives or expertise. That person has clicks of people and will not allow others to play anywhere, basically shutting the door on anyone they do not personally know to get a job there. This can literally close any opportunity for anyone that is not in that click and can't travel around the area banging on other doors. I'm sure a few have just quit because it is so hard. This person is placing themselves in a great spot to find and promote talent and create a place that people who want to play and be known around town could come to this person and know the access this person has to venues and exposure. It could be a launching platform for the performer and the booking agent.......no such luck. Door slamming.....BAM! Now as performers, are we willing to let someone know about a great act we have seen? Will we give the name of the music contact at any venues if we believe these people aren't just leaches but need a boost to get in the door? Are you afraid someone will "take our jobs" if we part with any wisdom about gigging anywhere. Look, I know a lot of people do alot of work to find the gigs that we do get and we put in a lot of time calling and calling and getting led down the rosey path and in so doing are never guaranteed anything. But have you ever met a true professional in the biz?? They give you names, hand out CD's like "honey dew vine water". They speak highly of your attempts at making your dreams come true and bolster your resolve until you feel there is nothing that can stop you. I met so many of them in Cinncinati in 2005 at The Midpoint Music Festival. People from England, New York, Indiana, Ohio, North Carolina, even Nashville. We were talking up gigs and trading CD's. It was a euphoria that comes with a bunch of nuts that love the same thing banding together......then I came home. It broke my heart to see such a closed place. My home, cold and uninviting. This may not be true where you are. Fantastic!! I hope you live where there is a real community of creative power and it grows and grows. A communal spirit that has an open door policy. You are so lucky. There are organizations like Just Plain Folks and webistes like....oh I don't know...SONICJIVE. We as music people must ask ourselves if we are helping to create a phenomenon or throwing a bucket of water on the campfire. It is more than me and you. We know that when we perform or host an event and we see the euphoria that exists in people as they go off after it's over. Something physical has happened to these people that just happened to be there. Just think about it. There is something potenially powerful here. In closing, yeah I am one of the snubbed, locally in a few areas and no I haven't shown up drunk and naked for a gig.....well none I can remember....though there was that one time....nah...I had my pants on....I digress. I am bothered by these things because I have been to a mountain top and it was beautiful and it can be beautiful anywhere.....if we just realize how fun it can be. After all you worked your ass off to get this far and to you, a bow and a spotlight cuz many more have quit along the way. But wouldn't it be great to help someone, give a hand, be that person they thank from the podium? Why be alone in potential oasis....take a chance on someone. You would be here if someone hadn't done it for you. Now would ya? All the best to you and yours Stephen Monroe You keep pluggin away. Mike has creayed a place for us all to go and meet other nutcases and write things like this. I hope you can afford to give a little. You'll get a lot more back. It's a fact of nature.
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