Members Damon Holland Posted August 27, 2007 Members Share Posted August 27, 2007 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070827/ap_en_mu/katrina_musicians quote: "Musicians shouldn't have to take gigs in Top 40 cover bands to make ends meet" Don't they know it's like this all over? Duh! DH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BlueStrat Posted August 27, 2007 Members Share Posted August 27, 2007 quote: "Musicians shouldn't have to take gigs in Top 40 cover bands to make ends meet" Yup. I should be able to write, record and perform what I want and people should pay me lots of money for it. Money should grow on trees, every woman should be a supermodel, and rivers should flow with chocoalate mik, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jbutler1982 Posted August 27, 2007 Members Share Posted August 27, 2007 "we have no alternative at this point" Give me a break. I live here. There are jobs *everywhere*. Wendy's pays $10/hr. here. Contractors are hiring unskilled labor all over to rebuild houses. Its insane how much work there is here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wades_keys Posted August 27, 2007 Members Share Posted August 27, 2007 "we have no alternative at this point" Give me a break. I live here. There are jobs *everywhere*. Wendy's pays $10/hr. here. Contractors are hiring unskilled labor all over to rebuild houses. Its insane how much work there is here. But, but - those are HARD jobs Wow - earning the money you're paid - what a concept Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Chunkytele Posted August 28, 2007 Members Share Posted August 28, 2007 New Orleans, Austin, Vegas, NY, Chicago and once Memphis were rare places where quality gigging musician could earn fulltime $$$, despite supply and demand challenges. Economically prior to Katrina , the only worthwhile jobs in Nawins were musicians and lawyers. If you weren't priviged to a Parrish education music was you plan A and B. Artist have never adjusted to evoving market conditions. It is still a bad situition in N.O. I have some cose friends there so my heart goes out to them. I personally dont think it ever going to be the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BlueStrat Posted August 28, 2007 Members Share Posted August 28, 2007 I personally dont think it ever going to be the same. I hope not. They would be insane to try to make it the way it was. What I don't get is why the same folks who are worrying that Manhattan is going to be underwater soon due to global warming are the same folks urging people to go back to New Orleans and rebuild. Won't N.O. be under water long before Manhattan is? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jbutler1982 Posted August 29, 2007 Members Share Posted August 29, 2007 "the only worthwhile jobs in Nawins were musicians and lawyers." Thats obviously from someone who has never lived here. As an offshoot to a law practice, I employ people in several other professions - an IT guy, two paralegals... and the three hospitals in the metro area would probably disagree that there arn't many oppotunities for nurses and doctors here (like my wife), and Tulane/Xavier/Loyola/UNO/Delgado/LSU Grad school's roughly 45,000 college students packed in a 3 mile radius don't offer opportunities to teach or start businesses that cater to college students... People seem to have this magical vision that pre-K New Orleans was a wonderful place full of food and music and architecture. It wasn't. Its pretty much exactly the same now as it was then, with a bit fewer people. I've never heard a resident say its "never gonna be the same", only ill-informed outsiders who watch way too much CNN... When residents say "its never gonna be the same", we're talking about the 1890s, not the 1990s (EDIT: Obviously not for social issues, but for food, music, architecture, economy (Before Atlanta and Houston took over the Southern Oil economy), etc...). Its exactly the same now more or less as it was pre-K. You can either take the good with the bad, and its fantastic place to live, or you can't, and its awful. There really isn't anyone I know who thinks of New Orleans as "OK". Its either wonderful or awful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Opus Antics Posted August 29, 2007 Members Share Posted August 29, 2007 As an offshoot to a law practice, Ok, I hear what you're saying, but don't you gotta laugh at yourself a bit there (good-naturedly, of course) that in refuting the lawyers comment, you mention that you yourself are a lawyer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jbutler1982 Posted August 29, 2007 Members Share Posted August 29, 2007 True enough! Still, though, I think its a common myth that being a musician was viable down here before the storm... in a city of 482,000, there are probably less than 1,000 people who made a living as musicians before the storm that cannot now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members picker13 Posted August 29, 2007 Members Share Posted August 29, 2007 It's a little hard for me to feel sorry for those guys. I am sympathetic, but hey, things are tough in most places. You had it good for a while and now things have changed. You need to adapt. You do have a handicap in that your state government is the most corrupt in the nation, always has been. Be thankful you are still able to play and people are still able to enjoy it. Perhaps after some time the tourism volume will pick back up, and the venues will be a bit more generous with their income, but now, they just like you are probably living week to week. If you force them to hire you, pretty soon there will be no live music venues for local musicians. Our local scene took a hit as well from the "other storm" (Rita). But instead of standing around asking for handouts and pointing fingers, we came back and worked hard together to get our communities up and running again. We're still not 100% but we've done well with little complaining and less than a fair share of federal help. We were extremely competitive, but friendly here as far as the musician's "market" goes, and still are. And with the influx of some of NO's musicians, welcomed with open arms, we are even a bit more competitive now. That's just the way it goes. You take the gigs you want and let the newbies feed on the scraps. No one is guaranteed a living. You are either in it as a labor of love, or you work like a dog and barely eek by as a full time musician. Sorry for the rant, but everytime I hear about "poor ol' New Orleans" I just want to puke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rvschulz Posted August 29, 2007 Members Share Posted August 29, 2007 It's a little hard for me to feel sorry for those guys. I am sympathetic, but hey, things are tough in most places. You had it good for a while and now things have changed. You need to adapt. You do have a handicap in that your state government is the most corrupt in the nation, always has been. Be thankful you are still able to play and people are still able to enjoy it. Perhaps after some time the tourism volume will pick back up, and the venues will be a bit more generous with their income, but now, they just like you are probably living week to week. If you force them to hire you, pretty soon there will be no live music venues for local musicians. Our local scene took a hit as well from the "other storm" (Rita). But instead of standing around asking for handouts and pointing fingers, we came back and worked hard together to get our communities up and running again. We're still not 100% but we've done well with little complaining and less than a fair share of federal help. We were extremely competitive, but friendly here as far as the musician's "market" goes, and still are. And with the influx of some of NO's musicians, welcomed with open arms, we are even a bit more competitive now. That's just the way it goes. You take the gigs you want and let the newbies feed on the scraps. No one is guaranteed a living. You are either in it as a labor of love, or you work like a dog and barely eek by as a full time musician. Sorry for the rant, but everytime I hear about "poor ol' New Orleans" I just want to puke. well, as a VERY gainfully employed native Orleanian ... i think you have a couple of differing viewpoints to be considered. The underlying economic deathknell for a lot of musicians here is the lack of affordable housing ... the rental market has disappeared. Many of the musicians (as the 1st line of employment, not weekend warriors) lived in ancient ramshackle "shotgun" housing built in the 20's or later, for a nickel, and paid very cheap rent. With housing rebuilding costs at $120-150 a square foot, no one is rebuilding, insurance payout or not - you can't get $1000 a month rent when they don't earn that much. The NO economy has dwindled considerably since the mid-70s to early 90s with the influx of foreign oil, lack of other industries, and telecommunications increas in the USA. We used to need to have onshore subsidiaries stacked full of accountants and engineers, now that is electronically transmitted via satellite and robotically controlled. Manual labor jobs are heavier than ever - last year the fast food places closed at 6pm due to a lack of workers - at $10-12 an hour. You can make 15-20 as a construction helper, 20-30 if you know how to operate equipment like drive a truck, run a chainsaw, front-end loader, etc. The population that sees live music has not left that mcuh comparatively to the low income people who are a drain on the resources with welfare, ssa, food stamps and the like. But we are busy and don;t have time to see that much - rebuilding and moving and such. A redistribution of people has occurred to the slightly northerly and westerly areas, Baton Rouge, Hammond and Lafayette have grown considerably. If you want to work as a musician, i think you can. but like the rest of the area, you have to work twice as hard. and being a full-time musician and working 25 hours a week 5 nights a week does not exist anymore ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members summit111 Posted August 30, 2007 Members Share Posted August 30, 2007 My Brothers, Even Harry Connick, Jr.,Wynton Marcellus, and many of the Neville Family had to move their acts out of New Orleans to make a living. The Big Easy has always been known as a town with great musicians, but they couldn't earn a good living there. I personally know several musicians who do it full time, but they have to travel out of town to earn a living. Tab Benoit, Tony Hall, and Waylon Thibodaux are great, but the local economy just can't support them. We earn a decent fee gigging, but it ain't even close enough to make a living at it! The majority of the musicians I know have to have other jobs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.