Musical Career Regrets?

Subject: RE: Musical Career Regrets?
From: GUEST,Hamshank
Date: 03 Apr 02 - 02:25 PM

I guess my regret is that I never pursued a music career in the first place. I've always had musical talent, but never had the right people behind me to encourage me. I'm too much of an old fart, now, and my chances are long gone. I envy and admire anyone who has made a success of themselves in the music industry. If not for music and the people who make it, I'd have gone crazy a long time ago.

Let the music play.

Subject: RE: Musical Career Regrets?
From: Steve-o
Date: 03 Apr 02 - 02:18 PM

Great question, Deckman, and some wonderful answers. I had a brief fling as a semi-pro between the ages of 27 and 35, and it was tough but wonderful. I was lucky enough to hook up with a great folkie from the '60s east coast circuit, and he taught me virtually everything about performing and pleasing an audience...and all, I might add, without making me sing any of the awful "pop junk" that bar singers often get stuck doing (we sang popular stuff sometimes, just not the awful ones). I remember it all with great fondness, but I think I might be talking more like Rick F. if I had made it the full-time job. However, back to your question...one cannot help but wonder what might have been...

Subject: RE: Musical Career Regrets?
From: Bobert
Date: 03 Apr 02 - 02:12 PM

Amos, et al: Yeah, be glad to send you a tape, and any other catfolk. But as any catter who has gotten one can better explain, I'm slow because I make each one individually with personal intros to songs and no two are alike. I have over 70 songs recorded to choose from and I like to match each tape to preferences. I'm not trad so if that is what you like, and nothing else, you probably won't like my style. So if you will send me a PM, ol Bobert will get a tape to you. Please include your address and maybe a list of your three of four favorite artists...............Bobert.

Subject: RE: Musical Career Regrets?
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 03 Apr 02 - 01:55 PM

I have studied at music college and played the violin professionally from the age of 15 in many top orchestra's. The high light of my career was playing for shows in London and travelling around Europe. Sadly to say I know longer do this. I was diagnosed with what was thought to be tendonitis only to find out 3 years later that I had a trapped ulner nerve which I has left me with permanent nerve damage to my right arm. My only regret is that I didnt have a second opinion and get it treated straight away. I still love to play but this time it is for the shear enjoyment for myself, which I believe is the way it should be. If you as a musician can not enjoy the music you make then you will not express the enornmous range of emotions to the listener that music can bring.

My darling housemate has just said she still gets stage fright/nervousness befor a performance. A good teacher of mine told me "the day you stop getting nervous is the day to give up." All musicians get nervous befor performing. I still do, but the buzz I get while performing is........well you all know!!!!!!

cat x

Subject: RE: Musical Career Regrets?
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 03 Apr 02 - 01:43 PM

Jerry...you could write a book..I've already written mine...and parts of it are positively SCARY!

In a heartbeat, I'd eliminate the close to twenty years I spent doing Hotels, bars, Conventions, lounges and Supermarket openings. I made it work because of technical skills, but emotionally I was so out of my depth it was rediculous. Got to be hostile, sarcastic and very 'anti-mainstream'.(all with a big smile)

Wish I'd started teaching music when I was twenty, and only played for folks who KNEW and LIKED folk music. Oh well, the last 15 years have been great, so better late than never.

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: Musical Career Regrets?
From: Mooh
Date: 03 Apr 02 - 01:42 PM

I just wish I had started teaching guitar lessons a few years sooner. I might have avoided a very stressful day job and subsequent burnout had I taken on serious students sooner. I regret quitting one or two bands I suppose, but there's always another to fill the void. I do wish I had more faith in myself at a younger age...but alas, sigh...it's the age I was, I became confident later.

Bob, have you done anything to reverse your history? Just wondering.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: Musical Career Regrets?
From:
Date: 03 Apr 02 - 01:03 PM

Well, I'm not prone to regretting much (what a waste of time and energy better spent on other things...) but I *do* wish I'd spent less of my childhood being "bored with nothing to do" and more of it playing guitar, singing, and doing other musical things. If I could do it all over again, I'd definitely play more music as a kid--no matter what the music teacher/other kids told me!

V

Subject: RE: Musical Career Regrets?
From: Amos
Date: 03 Apr 02 - 01:00 PM

Well, Bonert, send us a tape then!! :>)

For my part, I had a short flirtation with the gateway to fame and fortune back in the Sixties, but frankly, I wasn't enough of an acid-head to go one way, and not good enough as a musician to go the other. So I wandered into other paths and have always just loved the hell out of singing and playing for those wanting to hear it, which is quite enough for me.

A

Subject: RE: Musical Career Regrets?
From: Bobert
Date: 03 Apr 02 - 11:15 AM

As Jerry has pointed out, "career" is a term open to interpretation. My gig career ended in 1976 when I quit doing coffee house performances and my rock career ended in 1970 when I found myself in all night "Steak and Egg' joints at 2:00 in thew morning after an evening of noise, hassels, drunks and the like. Since then I only play at parties and for friends.

Since 1976, I have continued to write songs and record in my makeshift studio and share my tapes with friends. If this can be considered a "career" then my only regret is having waited so long to learn to play Delta style acoustic blues which I have only been playing now for two years. But even this regret comes with a silver lining in that at a point where a lot of folks are locked into a style, I have found an exciting new area of music to appreciate and learn. And the timing is good as my voice is older now, and a little rougher, and so it's better suited to singing the blues.

Other than that, no regrets.

Subject: RE: Musical Career Regrets?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 03 Apr 02 - 10:36 AM

Hi, Bob:

It will be interesting to see how people respond to this thread. I think the word "career" is a six letter word meaning "road." Many years ago, a larger record company expressed interest in releasing my Handful of Songs album. The first thing they wanted to see after listening to the tape was my schedule of upcoming performances. They were very clear about it. They'd be interested in releasing the album if I could produce a heavy schedule of bookings. I understand why. Most albums are sold at concerts. Or, because someone heard you perform and later decided to order albums. Considering the nearly non-existent distribution of folk albums in music stores across the country, a label has to rely on a heavy performance schedule to invest the money in releasing and/or promoting an album. I was told that they thought that I could have a successful, mid-level (not a folk-star) career if I was willing to dedicate my life to performing on the road. I wasn't. I had a job I loved, and loved my home life. Some of my friends who chose a career in folk music really enjoyed being on the road. My rare "tour" (In folk music, a tour is more than one booking in the same week...) made it clear to me that I didn't want to be sleeping on someone's pull out couch with their mangy old dog, or facing endless nights in cheap motels, drinking myself to sleep and waking up in the morning "with my tongue like a clapper and my head like a gong."

Being on the road can be fun when you're in your twenties or thirties... maybe even you forties. But, it's a young man's/woman's life. It wasn't one that suited me. My old friend Jerry Rau wrote a wonderful song, Minnesota Minstrel. It's one of many he's written about life on the road. As Jerry says, being on the road "kinda suits his style." He could never have enjoyed my way of life, any more than I could have enjoyed his.

One thing for sure, I don't have any regrets that I could have been a nationally known, successful musician. I write for my own pleasure, and there just aren't enough people who share my tastes to make me more than a local hero. Barely enough for that.

Now, regrets about things I've done in my life, not involving music? I could write a book...

Jerry

Subject: RE: Musical Career Regrets?
From: Sorcha
Date: 03 Apr 02 - 12:20 AM

I've always known that I didn't want to do it professionally (even if I was good enough). Play a gig, 9-midnight or worse, crawl on a bus, take a pill to go to sleep, go 600 miles, check into the hotel, sleep a few more hours. Take a pill to wake up, do sound check, play the same gig all over again, get on the bus.......no, not for me.

Subject: RE: Musical Career Regrets?
From: John P
Date: 02 Apr 02 - 11:59 PM

I took a good shot at making my living playing music when the gigs got so numerous that I didn't have time to go to work anymore. I soon discovered that I don't like living on the road. When I'm on tour, two or three weeks is about all that I enjoy. After that I'm really ready to go home. Also, I don't care if I never play in another tavern. I now play one or two gigs a month and have a job I love that keeps me involved with folk music all the time. I've made four pretty good albums, I have a lot of music in my life, and I don't have to worry about taking crappy gigs in order to put food on the table. It seems like a good balance.

John Peekstok

Subject: RE: Musical Career Regrets?
From: DonMeixner
Date: 02 Apr 02 - 11:36 PM

I wish I'd started younger, stayed at it when I got married, and recorded sooner. But then I'd probably never have built boats, the only job I ever loved.

But as far as regrets go, I wish I'd kept my hand out of the saw, Thats the only one.

Don

Subject: Musical Career Regrets?
From: Deckman
Date: 02 Apr 02 - 11:30 PM

Occasionally I regret not pursuing my music career longer. I have played guitar and pursued the wiley folk song since I was 12. I learned the art well in my teen age years and had a brief fling at 'fame' in my early twenties. I gave it up, professionally, when I married and settled down at 23. I've continued to love the art, and I continue to perform occasionally, but just occasionally. Am I the only one that wonders ... what might have been? Any regrets? Any comments. CHEERS, Bob(deckman)Nelson