I am not an artist.
I am a musician. And I am most at home playing songs in a bar for my friends.
I’ll admit, it can be confusing. The music industry trades in fame and access and influence. Seeing artists that I love, like Chris Stapleton, or Counting Crows, or Goo Goo Dolls playing the same venues as we are is an absolute mindfuck.
But, when I step onto those stages, it’s not because we were invited by anyone in the music industry, or paid up front to be there. It’s because of our community.
When we book these shows, our team is essentially making a bet that we can cover costs with low ticket prices
Basically, the community that supports us is a unicorn. Our bar sales set records, but everyone is super happy to be there and there’s hardly anything but love in the crowd. (We are one of the only bands whose crowd got a 100% approval rating from the staff at Leader Bank)
Internally, we’ve always viewed these big venue shows as marketing events. (The house nut, or cost to run a show, at these venues is often shocking.)
I’ve had a lot of time to think these past 11 months. And after 17 years of doing this, I’ve arrived at two truths about myself as a musician.
1) My shows are about the community of people who come to sing along, regardless of the venue; and, 2) It’s all about the songs, whether we wrote them or they’re covers.
From here on out, if a marketing initiative doesn’t directly support those two truths, we’re cutting it.
And that starts with Instagram.
Instagram has done a lot for us, but it has changed drastically. It’s no longer helping me move people to shows or listen to the music. It feels closer to reality TV to me these days and the time I spend trying to figure it out and manage it is really getting in the way of writing, learning, and creating.
Going forward, I’m going to expand the content on our website and build out a new monthly email and text alert system. I’m looking forward to being able to share my thoughts more deeply, for anyone interested in reading them, mostly through essays like this one.
I’m ready to start building again. It will be different.
I owe a ton to those who helped build this, both on stage and in the audience. But — as a Santa-bearded 46-year-old — it’s time for me to lean into the parts of being a musician that I love and leave the rest behind (or so the song goes).
I’m gonna play some monthly full band shows across the country with some hired-gun band members. Right now, that lineup will be Fred Ellsworth, Mic Pesaturo, Andrew Pesaturo, and Brian Mullen.
If it brings you joy, and you’ve got the time, I’d love to see you there, whether it’s at Bell in Hand or the House of Blues.
So, here’s to new beginnings and writing a million songs and building this the only way I know how: one song at a time, in front of my friends.