Another nail in the coffin!

I sometimes wonder how it all ended up like this. If someone asked me to GUESS, back in the early days, where music would be heading towards in the future, even with a Black Belt in “imagination,” I couldn’t have guessed a scenario like this!

Imagine....traffic so bad you have to leave the day before for a job that’s only 20 miles away, and instead of backup music equipment you need backup GPS's to navigate "backup" secondary roads........artificial musicians draining whatever dollars are out there now.....technology kidnapping your mind so that you can’t think “music,“ only gadgets and gizmos.....pop music that can only be played or sung by a machine (or a group of machines) and no longer by sharply-dressed live vocal groups....keyboards that, in order to purchase, you have to take out a second mortgage....paperwork, paperwork, paperwork that causes you to keep your mind in suspended animation in order to preserve it.....no more respect for, or even noticing, the music profession unless you’re onstage and have a “wardrobe malfunction...screaming vocalists on TV talent shows who choose to mutilate music rather than caress it...vocalists who I would pass up and keep the monkey if I were an organ grinder!

I remember for years my thought processes were something like "the worse things get out there, the more people will need music to counteract it." Boy, did I get that wrong. Music, culture and the Arts were the first things to be remove from the table!

But, the positive side of the whole thing (and there’s only ONE positive side that I can see) is that it all forces you to become a better musician, so you can grab your share of whatever riches are left behind by the elite for the working poor.

I mean, look at Donny. He works somewhere between 20-30 gigs on every Holiday and probably another 20-30 on the day before and the day after!

But seriously, there’s still money out there, it’s just getting harder and harder to connect with it!

Meantime I'm still seeking the elixir that will cure "burnout!" Until then, it's.... drink

Mark