I started playing guitar as a young teenager. I've been singing for over 30 years. I began singing in church choirs at age 7 and have performed solo or with groups for about 20 years now.

I used to gig with bands and as part of a duo. We worked, the duo especially, about 6 times a month or so. We also ran an open-mic that we were paid to host. The money wasn't great, but it was over 10 years ago and the economy and our particular region of the country were much better off back then.

It's not like I haven't gigged before; it's just that there's nowhere near me where I could even GET a paying gig. It's all top-40 rock bands and classic-rock-cover bands around me.

As I have mentioned in other threads, I have physical problems that make finding work very difficult. If Medicaid (US-govt-sponsored charity so-called 'health-care') doesn't approve surgery for my cataract, I will lose my driver's license the next time I have to renew.

I've been out of work for 19 months now. I left a good-paying job in a nice town to move back to my hometown area. I moved with the promise of a job waiting for me. That job fell through, and the repeated promises of that particular company that they would find me another position never came through, either. I eventually found work, but left due to the aforementioned physical problems and other issues at that job.

All this time, I've been trying and trying to find gigs. There are plenty of open-mic nights, and I am always well-received at those, but they are at venues that do not book 'folk'-type performers. That, of course, means that I am not getting offers for gigs no matter how well I go over in those rooms.

There are places in my state and in my region that DO feature my sort of music or 'style', if you will, but getting to them involves travel, which involves fuel costs, which involve money, which thing I do not have.

Now that financial pressures and the threat of losing utilities (again) are looming large, I have had to put the remainder of my music gear up for sale.

I'm taking this all to mean that this singing/playing/performing thing just isn't a viable option for me. I'm not sure whether that's true "for now", or more permanently.

Anyway, my question to you all is this: If you, or someone you know, came to a decision to stop performing, whether temporarily or more long-term, how and why did you make that choice? Were there definite 'signs', so to speak, that whatever you were doing just wasn't cutting it?

This might just be me feeling really sorry for myself because I am in a terrible bind in life right now.

The only performing option I have left that makes any logistical and/or financial sense right now is playing on the street for change or playing outside churches when Mass lets out.

At least if I'm playing something, it won't look or feel TOO much like begging.