Mikeo

I have seen countless touring band come through the area. One of the more popular clubs in the area is  Pearl Street in Northampton Mass. The Iron Horse Entertainment Group runs several other clubs too. In my 30 plus year of going out to Pearl Street, I saw one band in all those years have a banner. The band was Blackberry Smoke.  and I though to myself as I looked at the stage, with some very nice back-line amps and and gear, these guy might not be a household name, but it sure looks like they have some money behind them. Charlie and the boys from Blackberry Smoke pt on a killer show to a packed house.

I have a couple of acquaintances that are in local cover bands. They play around a lot and have for decades. They also have a banners. I'm not sure how much it really matter, as the folks that come out to see them, know the band well. If you doing an opening slot for a big act, there's a good chance you not as well known. I can't tell you how many times I actually didn't know the name of the opening act, until I stopped by there merch table. As an opening band you won't get that much time to set up or tear down, so you need to be fast, and ask in advance if you can hang a banner. Being polite never hurts.

All I can say, it for 100-200 bucks, it looks better and can cover up a world of sin or a dirty wall at a bar that hasn't been washed or painted in 25 years, giving your stage a cleaner appearance.

Don't forget the bungee cords and other hanging options, because if you have a banner, you're gonna want to hang it with pride.

I usually go to several area festivals here in New England every year.

One thing about New England is you can never count on the weather to cooperate. A lovely sunny morning and afternoon, I have seen turn into a downpour before the sunset, just in time for the headliners you had planned to see later in the day or evening.

For my festival travel needs and inside the venue, I grab a small backpack to get me through the day. Sunscreen, toiletries and a small flashlight. Why the flashlight you might ask when there's a nice light on your smartphone?  Those porta-potties are poorly light at best, and I heard about someone that dropped their smartphone into one. I love those baby wipes and a bunch of paper towels. I have also found handy a couple of Microfiber Towelettes, which you can get in the auto cleaning section of most department stores. A “Cool IT†Chamois are really handy too. They come in a plastic tube, so wet it up before you enter and put it back in the tube. They take quite a bit of water to get going and some festivals will easy access to free water, and some do not. You don't want to have to rely on a $2.00 bottle of drinking water to an activate one. A chamois is not only great for cooling down the back of your sun-beaten neck, but you can clean up a bit throughout the day with one.

If you have worn shorts to the show, and an extra pair of pants may and comfort when the sun goes down and the temperature drops 20-30 degrees. I also like those polar fleece zips ups, as they are lightweight and will also keep up warm after sunset. They will easily stuff into your backpack.

Since you will want to stay hydrated throughout the day, take a couple of bottle of water and stick in the freezer the night before. The ice water will slowly melt over the day and you have a cool drink when you need it.  If you need to purchase water at the venue, you might not be buying cold water, as it goes fast. Refillable beverage containers are handy and a bit more environmentally friendly than bottled water too. Stick anything the will seat and condense inside a plastic zippy bag. Extra zippy bags will come in handy for a CD when you hit the merch tables.

I remember the tickets I bought in March for an August Festival. Whoever thought a nice day August would turn from possible showers to a torrential downpour? In my car I keep a raincoat handy, I have also had to wear a pair of Muckers to keep my feet dry. Those lovely grassy fields can turn into a mud pit in a few hours time. Also, in my car, I have an umbrella and a camping travel chair. 

Camping chairs come with a travel bag that makes carrying it around a breeze. You might want to sit down for a bit during the day.  The newer camping chairs are super light and have 2 cup holders. You'll appreciate those cupholders sometime during the day.

Since the late 70's I have kept a pair of earplugs in my pocket. I have been up front near the stage, and you can quickly find yourself standing in front of some massive speaker columns, and not always by choice.  

Leave your wallet lockets in your car, and plan the amount of cash you want to take into the event. I keep my driver's license in my front pocket that proves I was once 21 years of age. Keep that license with your credit card/ATM/debit card, just in case.

Make sure you have a hat. I have a few different festivals hats, that will keep the sun off your nogging or the rain off your head,

Some venues will let you leave and re-enter after going back to your car, but you need to double check.

I always plan out who I'm going to see and make sure I hit some of the smaller stages. These folks are the hitmakers of tomorrow. This year I have two local festivals I will attend in my hometown.

That's just my two cents to make yourself comfy during a festival.

I know April 15th is passed now, but I was playing in a band a long time ago.  We played a bunch of shows where we received some very nice play. The venues cut us checks and I got scared. I spoke with a CPA and set up a Doing Business As checking account. All the money was then channeled through the DBA account. We had had recording expenses, postal expenses and plenty of other expenses. I had a sound company I worked with. Wrote of some gear too. Don't forget about travel, lodging, and gas. I bet you can write off a few meals too.In the end, we didn't make much money, but the Schedule C Form can be your friend.

That is pretty impressive.

Great idea to have a bunch of shops together that specialize. Nice gear too.

Dendy, Music funding at schools is bad. My buddy and I met an older women that had a ton of cash she was looking to donate to a local school. Since my friend works there we though we might start a music program for kids that weren't in the band.I tried to shop at a local music shop, but they were like pulling teeth to get a decent price on a small PA ( JBL and some Shure Betas ya can't break em if you tried), a couple of electric guitar ( Grestch Electromatics with a Bigsby and black top pups) and a fender strat)and and acoustics and all the bells and whistles that would put together a nice little combo. I think she  gave us 30 grand. I suggested a couple of amps like the Fender HRD series. Pearl imports drum set, decent hardware, but nothing super nice. I think we even grabbed a Modeling amp too. I told him grand some new heads for the drums and I will put them on and tune up  ( I'm not a bad roadie and drum tech either). Toss what hot for the day in synthesizers and there was some big talk about and electric piano.

2 months later I ask him how it's going,? I was gonna go over and show the kids a few 3 and 4 chord cowboy chord songs. He said they came for a few weeks, and then it stared to slow down and he wasn't getting make kids.

The thing is with all the other stuff that kids need to do to get ahead this day, music is the last thing that comes to mind many times. The whole thing was kind of an elective any way, but still. 

The whole school system whole broken, I can make more at Walmart on the assistant mangers program and work less hours than I can being a school teacher around here. I asked my buddy how much a  first year teacher makes and he told me about 35k. Minus taxes, insurance, health insurance  and and few bucks in a 401k  , union dues, you'll  be looking for a second part time job really soon if you ain't living with your parents. My pizza delivery guy makes more.

We can talk more about this later, but its sad. The women said if we needed more money, she had it. I don't think he ever had to call her back.  I don't really blame it on video games, but I blame it on the culture of today. Yesterdays Beatles, Led Zeppelin , Rolling  are today's . Candy Crush downloads  or what ever the hot video games are of the day.

Is there a way out of this, yes there is. 

Public schools need to stop think there's a one size fits all program out there, and start specializing  at early age.  Grab kids at an early age,  and specialize in the arts, engineering/ sciences and trades They spent 25 million revamping the local school, saying was no good. Took out the swimming pool too. I  Ioved that pool. Too booty they took out all the shop, said it wasn't in the curriculum. My brother is a programmer for General Dynamic, but he learned to work with wood and loved it at an early age. At my dads house still is a 3 leg small milk stool I used to sit down at to take lessons  at and spent 4 hours a day with my guitar on, when I got a bit older.The local luthier got started there, building a  small guitar kit 40 years ago.

Been a bit busy this summer myself, but I'm doing ok.

I heard Seals and Crofts Summer Breeze on Sirius XM a few days ago. I'm not sure which channel, but it was one of the classic rock stations.

Mongo Jerry's In the Summer Time and Billie Holiday's Summertime are good ones. I also heard Don Henley's Boys of Summer which IMO is a masterpiece, good song about memories of summer past.

Enjoy, some nice weather and easy living. 

As a closet bluegrass fan, I have been a fan of Chris Stapleton for years, going back to when I first heard him in the Steeldrivers. Chris kind of disappeared for a bit and then appeared again a few years again with his solo  CD debut Traveler. That CD played in my car for weeks and  weeks, on my daily commute to work. I couldn't get enough of the album Traveler. Chris's other two CD's  From A Room Vol 1 and 2 are really great too. The Dave Cobb production is right up my alley, and I am familiar with Dave's production style through Jason Isbell.  and others. Although Timberlake did use Dave Cobb for his production, the song  is a good one and the best I have ever heard from  pop R&B icon Justin Timberlake.

Inspiration for the NSYNC/ Timberlake fans, and a little inspiration for the Chris Stapleton fans. There's nothing not to like about that video. 

In the famous words of Duke Ellington. If it sounds good, it is good.  

When helping a younger or ever older person get started, I believe this is where Mom and Pop Shops shine. As mentioned, a beginner will want to not only purchase the guitar that is correct , but will want help with accessories and lessons. There's a lot of lessons on line, but I still believe there is a relationship to be built with a local teachers. Simple maintenance questions like, how do I change a broken string for the first time. 

I don't know how much it costs, or how much inventory a shop needs to get started as a Fender or Epiphone deal, but it might might be beyond what a small shop that struggles to keep its head above water on a monthly basis can afford.  You're not going to sell a lot of  guitars in a town of 10,000 folks. Long term, I was the kid that started off with a couple of lower priced guitars; turned around and bought a small fleet of nicer Fender, and Gibson guitars over the years.  My first Gibson's came from a guy in town that sold music gear out of his 2 car garage.  I still have that Gibson SG Standard.

The local small shop in town I tried to buy dAddario mandolin strings from, and he said, he could order them, and match the online price that I normally pay. I don't know who the distributor is he uses, but it took 2 weeks for the string to come in.  So much for I'll have them in a few days. 

Back not that long ago, I was at a smaller theater concert in Northampton Massachusetts. I always have a habit of checking out the merchandising table at shows Many bands rely  on the cd's, and T shirts they sell at shows, just to keep afloat.  At times, I bet it can be the difference between sleeping in a rent Ford Econoline van, or a warm bed at a Motel 6.  Many of the bands I have seen,  sometimes I have never heard of the warm up act, but many are very good. While at one show  recently, I saw the band not only selling there latest cd and clothing line at the table, but the also had a cassette  version on there most recent release. I wish I could remember who the band was. I guess, the format has not totally died out.

Back in the early 80's I was fortunate to own a Tascam 246 desktop recorder. This was my introduction to home recording. Down the road some ten years later, I purchased a Tascam 488MKII.  I still have both of these units up in my attic. 

Recently, for some crazy reason, I purchased  some new old stock 60 minute High Bias type II tape, that works well in either unit.  I would be up for the challenge of recording on 8 tracks again. There's quite the bleed over on tracks if you run the inputs to hot, so it's nicer to get a track done right on a first, second or third take.

I believe Maxell, TDK and others that made blank cassette tapes back a few decades ago, have stopped doing so. I want to let folks know, the National Audio Company in Springfield MO, still works with cassette tapes.  As funny and archaic as cassette tapes may seem, it's not a totally dead format. 

I bought my Les Paul Standard  34 years ago ( 1982 Les Paul Gold top) . They didn't have that many Les Paul guitars to choose from back then, but they had the standard, the custom, the deluxe and a  few variations of "The Paul".  My Standard also has a maple neck like a  Custom, but the normal inlays of a Standard.  I'm not sure how heavy it is, but it manageable through a evening. Everyone should have at least one Les Paul in there arsenal of tones.  Gibson offers a lot of options these days, which is great, but it can be confusing at times.  Thank you slim tapper neck, for making the Les Paul more playable for me.

A buddy and I would load up our carswith what we hand for hand drums, and travel to the Youth Center inthe town he lives in. We both have a djembe, cajon, tambourines andshaker stuff. . I got involve, as he was on the board of directors atthe Youth Center. We did care if you were 2 or 102, all were welcome,and all were encouraged to try every hand drum we brought. We got dozens kids to come with there parents, and the would have a smallfire going. It was quite a nice setting and a chance for folks toform a drum circle. I was really surprised how intimidated some folkswere about giving any musical instruments a try. The parents were theworst. The younger kids loved it.

Over time, my buddy ran into a olderwomen that was looking to donate money to a music program. This wasnot the standard band, concert band, or marching band program thatsome schools still have, but they wanted to create somethingdifferent. What they did is, created a program with this verygenerous donation, that would get students involved in after schoolprograms Junior High and High School age students that would like tolearn, guitar, bass, drums, piano, or may possibly want to givesinging a try. I was asked to pick out a few guitars the would bevery playable. With the money they bought a telecaster, a Gretsch,and a lower mid grade Martin, a Fender bass, plus a few guitar amps,and a complete JBL sound system PA. A fancy Roland digital piano wasincluded, and the list goes on. I would have killed, as a teen tohave access to gear like this. My buddy was willing to give guitarlessons for free, and several other musicians in the area would bewhiling to do the same. This would hopefully be for students thatwere not involved in standard sports programs, of other after schoolactivities. I went there a ½ a dozen times and found no studentsthere, to a handful at best. I'm not sure what happen to the programor the instruments. The sad part was it was heavily marketed too andmy buddy is a big Facebook social media guy. The women said if moremoney was needed, just to let her know, and she would write anotherfat check.

On Tuesday nights over the past year, Iam involved in a science maker space. It is for any one that wouldlike to build anything from light up jewelry or more complex robots.We have a full machine shop, tons of computers an 3D printer, microcomputers, RGB programmable LED strips and disks and the tools to doalmost anything one would want. Over the past year I can count on myhand, how many students have dropped in. There is no charge formaterials or any electronics , we just want students to show up.There's three instructors there too, and between all us, we have alot of knowledge to do almost anything. For the students that havecome by, the creativity is pretty low. The woman that runs it has avery nice personality and is very motherly, with 40 years teachingexperience and a PHD in physics, plus a MS in Chemistry. Another guyis a machine shop instructor with 40 years of teaching behind him.

I'm not sure what kids are doing atnight, musically or otherwise. I guess they have there own thingsgoing on. Maybe its social net working, playing video games, watchingTV, I don't know.

Drum circles can be fun, you just needfolks that are interested in giving it a try. I'll keep working atboth functions if asked again. I'm committed myself to the makerspace least another 6 months. To paraphrase Lou Rawls, music is thegreatest communication we have. Even if people don't understand thelanguage, they still know good music when they hear it. It'stherapy for the soul.

Amen to some cooler weather.   I like to sit out in my back yard and do some picking on the guitar or mandolin. It's time to finish up some songs and get them recorded, but that can wait till later fall or winter.

Last week I had the air conditioner on, but the temperature and humidity is now gone for good. 

It's a good time of year, and my wife's favorite time of year. 

Enjoy, play music, get away from TV, or the net. Hang out with some friends and play some music.

Just a reminder that the new 68 Reissue Twin, Deluxe and Princeton are not the same amps as what the Beatles played out of on the rooftop of Abbey Road Studio, or in the studio. They are a modern interpretation of those amps. Reverb and tremolo now has been added to both channels on the Twin Reverb and Deluxe Reverb. The speakers are now Celestion® G12V-70. All the 68 RI feature tone stacking and break up a little earlier too.

3 Fender Twins were used for the rooftop concert, One I heard was a spare.

http://www.beatleshp.com/wallpaper08.jpg

http://beatlephotoblog.com/photos/2011/07/188.jpg

I believe  Wynton and Branford Marsalis, both spend time in those NO marching bands that do funerals. Marching around the street for 8 hours at a clip, didn't hurt either one of em.

I have been playing just about everyday for over 40 years. Yeah sometimes things click and I getting in with the right bunch of fellows. Most of the time I play, write music and just enjoy an relax. It's my way of sometimes communicating and saying what I want to say.  I find writing songs therapeutic  at times.  Even if it's only me,  my wife and my cats that are my only audience I am a pretty happy camper. God willing, it's some I hope to enjoy the rest of my life.

I couldn't tell you the last TV show I really watched, but I'll tell you the last song I played. Billy Joe Shaver's  I'm Just an Old Chuck Old Coal, if you really want to know.

Choose music, choose life,  and the next time you have a storm and the power goes out  break out the acoustic instruments and gather around.

We keep a few hand drums around the house too.  Djembes and cajons  are pretty moderately priced and can add a nice back beat to those campfire songs.

I too have used the Fishman Spectra DI in my live sound for the past 5 years ( or when every it came out) .  For a live show it's amazing , but I will set the blend knob to taste somewhere usually between 8 o'clock ad 2 o'clock.

For recording I thought it would be amazing, maybe to set the blend know high, but I like a couple of mics better.

For a live acoustic and simplicity you cant go wrong with the Spectra DI.  The anti feedback works, the compressor is hand when pushing an acoustic with a harder rocking backing  band.

I also have an older Fishman Loudbox Performer I use for an acoustic amp, and a few other acoustic amps.

Nice article , all in all, for those that want to plug in there acoustic and record.

Let's not forget about a generation  of folks that exchanged music through computers for free. People have always copies records on to tapes for there friends , but it has gotten to the point where the listener now expects free music and will not spend a dime on the actual music.

Many bands and musical artists spend years and years refining there sound, only the releases an album in which they are expected to basically give away.  There are times  I beat when these  band probably  think they are more in the T-Shirt and merch biz than music biz. I guess that's a good part of it too, but it really should be about the music.

On that note, bands have been screwed over royally for ever by the major labels. One can control there own destiny  of what is released and sold right from the comfort of there basement. It's noice to have the backing of a major label, but you pay for it. 

The hard part is you need to wear so many different hats as an indie band, it though just concentrating on making great music.  

HC was broke down last nigh and I wanted to post this.

Chris Stapleton is a monster and the real deal. If you listen carefully, you can hear his Kentucky roots shine. Although he onlymade one album with the Steel Drivers, I really lovethat simpler sound, not that his latest album isn't fantastic. EvenAdele has covered a Chris Stapleton song. Folks should go back and listen tostuff like "If It Hadn't Been For Love". Now that's aperfectly crafted murder ballad. The cool things allthis bands folks saw last night will be on tour and at festivals.Personally given the choice between the nose bleed section at a good concert orseats at the World Series behind home plate, I'll take mychances with a nose bleed every time.  

I'm not even sure MTV even plays music videos these days. I

remember the days when they did though. Somewhere back in the late 80's there

was a writers strike, and this strike would unleash 25 years of  the reality shows format that the networks has

slammed down the throats of TV viewers. I don't know how many reality TV shows

are on now, Honey Boo and the Paranormal, but there's a lot. It's to the point

where I rarely watch TV. Not that I was a big TV watcher anyway.

The MTV music award now has nothing to do with music, as

much as it has to do with the bizarre and celebrity recognition.  The ruder, the less humble a celebrity is

these days the more attention they draw to themselves. Good or bad attention it

doesn't matter, because if they are talking about you, tweeting about you,

somehow you are still relevant.

There's plenty of other ways to hear great music, as

mentioned.  The thing is if you did

around a bit on Youtube, you will quickly find the music biz has never been

better. Maybe not so much the business side, but that artistic side, proves there

a ton of talent out there and something for just about any taste in music.

Unfortunately the divorce rate in the US is higher than 43%, and might be as high as 50% for first time marriages. You'd think it would get better for second marriages, but that's not the case. They say  60-67% of second marriages will end in divorce. I guess once you divorce once, it 's easier the second time.  You'd think the 3rd time would be the charm, but that not the case either. The divorce rate for 3rd marriages is 70-73%.  With these stats, you wonder why folks do it at all.

Yes you maybe tired after 4 sets at the VFW on Friday and having worked all week, but it's mostly a chosen second job and something you wanted to do. The extra cash is always nice too.

I got married late in life and I have no children, so this may be easy for me to say. You might feel like a rock star on stages and have folks come up to you afterwards praising your musical abilities and the job you did that night. However,  when it all ends don't for get your a husband, a dad, boyfriend/girlfriend.  Don't forget what's important in life and the people who have stuck by you, even when you have been kind of a jerk at times and your attitude sucked when you walked through the door. These are probably the ones that should get the standing ovation, for allow you to shine. There's no body is gonna give you a standing ovation for taking out the trash, or fixing a leaky faucet.   

So deflate that ego and be the best you can be, not only as musician, but as a person.

# 15 bring a case or all you accessories like tunes, capo's, slide, and ebow, or what ever else you might need.

#16 bring your own beer, don't expect that to be in the budget.

I have been using the Fishman Spectra DI since it came out. Although there's no fx on the pedal except for a compressor, it allows you to choice guitars and mics that you would not normally take on the road, or maybe not even be able to afford. The anti feedback it works great. and knocks out the acoustic guitar issues when one pushes the guitar to a higher volume.

I normal use a smaller body Martin at gigs, I do have a couple of Jumbo Gibson acoustics that I really like.  How ever the Martin is a nice size to hold. With the Spectra DI, I can have my great Gibson tones and play the smaller body acoustic.

The options for acoustic players, choices of picks ups,  acoustic amps, and fx have really taken off in the past decade, and that's a good thing.

Good info there Chris. I would just like to forewarn folks that play covers in bars, the establishment should be a member of ASCAP, BMI or SESAC, if they are not the establishment could be looking for trouble down the road. There fees are not that high and music might be the reason folks hang out anyway. Do it right.I try to pen out tunes of a weekly basis, I tend to step back a bit and look at a tune as a listener would here the tune, it might take me 20 minute to write a song, or what is the start of a song, and then 3 hours, 3 days, or even 3 month to finalize it. What I tell folks is where ever you start write it down, because as quickly though enter you head they will leave and be long forgotten. I actually us a computer these days to move phrases and words around, but there's nothing wrong with and old fashion composition note book. Never tear out the pages, or delete anything, as you might be able to use it down the road.  Sometimes folks get lucky penning out a song, but most of the time it's work, It can be very therapeutic at times as well as frustrating.  I have yet to try to pitch a song or even try. I might work on that down the road.

Thanks for listening. ~Mike

Just some notes on the Schaller Strap locks.

I  like them a lot and first started using them back in the early 80's on my Les  Paul. The screws in the Schallers are smaller than what Gibson uses on there guitar strap buttons. After taking of the strap buttins, the original strap holes should be filled and glued with a small dowel. The shorter Schaller screws will fit just lovely though a new hole that you will tap through the center of the dowel. It's something one could do at home, but if you feel uncomfortatble doing this take to a luthier and have it done.

Now when mounting the U shaped bracket to the strap, many will face it down. I have found if you face the U bracket up there is less stress on the system and less chance of it coming undone in the middle of playing, which is always a very big surprise to say the least. It's a very good system, but not flawless, especially on a heavier guitar like a Les Paul.