Hi Bill,

I can’t believe you wrote that or was it another April Fool’s joke? I thought you were really refreshed in your new environment and looking forward to knocking them dead showing the folks down there what us Northerners can do.

Truth be told, I’ve been contemplating posting the same thing these last few weeks. I burned out about 4 years ago, and ever since then I've had all kinds of excuses for not getting back to work. I watched my NH accounts go from 75+ to the three I have left. I think the AD’s saw I was burning out too. And, BTW, my own Achilles Heel was not Leroy Brown but New York, NY.....hate that song with a passion.....I’d feed it poison mushrooms if I could find an opening to ingest them!

I’m not sure what happened to me? The same here. After 50 years of playing full time, I just don’t want to play anymore. If I’m correct, it’s the direction music and entertainment took almost overnight. There’s no more appreciation for what you do, no professional respect that we used to eat up like lapdogs. Then there's Generation X-er’s in the audience on their smart phones, and....fill in the rest of the blanks. Aside from the paycheck there’s just no more pot of gold at the end of the rainbow like there was in the old days.

I do have the option to go into musical comedy as I have a good sense of humor and good stage presence. Or maybe learn that PA3x and take it out and do lectures on today’s music technology. But, again, it comes down to dealing with people. Most, up here, are rude, indifferent to you or your music, self-absorbed and focused on one thing only.....making money That’s the one glitch in the whole process.....people!

Newbies on the block don’t remember what it was like for us experienced musicians who came up through the ranks, so they have nothing to compare it with, so.....what’s out there now is the status quo for them. I think for people like us, back then we knew we were affecting people’s lives in a positive way and we walked away feeling good about ourselves and our contributions in making the world a better place. No more of that. Now it’s just a “bland”.....do the job and wait for your check in the mail a month later. The glory days are no more.

Didn’t mean to sound so negative, but you hit a nerve in me that I, myself, have been wrestling with for a while now. I mean, I still just love LISTENING to music, but playing it is something else. And I’m tired of the constant practicing when I'm not even working!

I think it’s something like, back the, when we sat at the piano, it was fun working out arrangements to please people or just learn new songs that we knew would jump start an audience, etc. Now the audiences (but I mean around my neck of the woods) are like bit players in the “Night of the Living Dead” series.

Unfortunately, since this is all I've done all my life, I'm going to have to find a way to get back into some kind of a groove. After all, bills DO have to be paid and while I'm financially OK now, "financially OK" doesn't go on forever.

So after all my ravings here, it comes down to.....I know exactly what you mean (unless it‘s your own post-April Fool‘s joke). Never thought I'd get to this point, but here I am too.

Now, if I can't figure a new direction for myself, I hear there's a "wise oracle" off Delancey Street in Chinatown that will answer any three questions for $1. My first question would be......."why do you charge so much?"

I think Gary is running the same “special” but at half the rate on Tuesday and Thursday evenings!

But, let me say something someone once said to me that I never forgot. It was: “would you rather be driving a taxicab in NYC on the night shift?” My own saying is: “the very worst of this job is still better than the BEST of any other job in the world.” Well, I suppose it’s not better than being a professional gigolo, but close to it!

Any others getting weary of playing?

Mark