OK occupations for folksingers.

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: Genie
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 11:02 PM

joker, toker, cee-gar smoker?

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: Willie-O
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 10:24 PM

Lumberjacks and sailors are too far from town most of the time to be able to make the gig.

Farmers are too much like folksingers--they need another job just to keep farming. (I heard a farmer-folksinger refer to himself as a "two-time loser".)

I am a delivery guy (bread not pizza) and it is a pretty good counterpart to my musical activities, though not perfect since I work too late on Fridays to gig.

Consider the parameters. You need a day job, not one that puts you on night shifts or weekends, and you need to be able to arrange blocks of time off now and then, EXACTLY WHEN YOU NEED THEM.

Call centre agent and big-box store flunkie didn't really work for me.

A lot of musicians work in carpentry and other building trades. That's got a lot of advantages if you can hack it. (hah).
Usually straight days, rarely weekends unless you want them. Carpentry is one trade you can learn on the job like I did (although some training would help.)   Socially useful and sort of romantic.   
And once you become skilled, work is easy to come by--there's a chronic shortage of skilled tradespeople. If you are a free-lancer by nature, you can plan your own schedule. You could work part-time in the summer, then the busy season is the fall which isn't necessarily the busy season for music. I still do some carpentry but I'm trying to kick the habit--you get physically worn out after awhile (starts around the time you know what you're doing unfortunately).


W-O

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: Bill D
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 10:22 PM

Ha!...I was a BEAN COUNTER! Really...I counted beans...(no, not one by one)..by the case, mostly, but sometimes by the bag. At a Pork & Bean cannery. I was inventory clerk.

So, there's one!

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: Deckman
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 10:16 PM

I was a "turkey plucker" once! No ... I mean it! ... I REALLY WAS A TURKEY PLUCKER ONCE!! (really) And yes, everyone said that I REALLY was a pleasant plucker). Oh well, I don't suppose this really adds much to the discussion! Bob

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: GUEST,Edward G Cagney
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 10:07 PM

convict

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 09:48 PM

Something to do with sheep . . . .

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: GUEST,Kavinder
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 09:23 PM

Telemarketers

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: Effsee
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 09:07 PM

Highwayman or Pirate!

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: frogprince
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 08:33 PM

Rock-splitter on a chain gang is an obvious possibility.

or,

"I'm a lumberjack, and I'm okay..."

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: greg stephens
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 07:55 PM

Bobert seemed to me the quintessential folksinger when I met him, but it was never clear to me what he ever did when we weren't actually sat picking guitars.

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: jimmyt
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 06:43 PM

I suppose dentist is out of the question so I will stick with my first thought and I want anyone to one-up this, CURRYSHIP DELIVERER
I rest my case.

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: Bill D
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 06:39 PM

Jack-of-all-trades, Master of none.

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: GUEST,thurg
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 06:27 PM

leech-gatherer

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 06:20 PM

Mole catcher (from Morayshire). I thought of that before reading Roughyed's post, honest!

BTW, if my English teacher had been too timid to make an ass of himself and actually SING in front of a form of sniggering 12-year-olds (I was SO embarrassed on his behalf! He wasn't in the least ...), I'd never have entered the world of British folk. So, teacher seems okay to me.

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 06:12 PM

Bascam Lamar Lunsford was a lawyer. I thought that the Museum field was a wonderful atmosphere for a folk singer because of the shared interest in past cultures.

Worked for me.

Jerry

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: Roughyed
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 05:10 PM

Rat catcher, preferably from Lancashire.

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: Folkiedave
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 05:10 PM

Changing lightbulbs

Reminds me of the joke - how many EFDSS members does it take to change a light bulb?

CHANGE??????????????

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: JamesHenry
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 05:05 PM

Schoolteachers and social workers accumulate so much pent up stress that they have to give vent somewhere. Folk clubs and a captive audience provide the ideal outlet where they can get it all out of their systems and escape reality for a while. Some lose touch with reality altogether and turn professional. Escapism features largely here, usually with the misguided notion that they actually have something to say. So, whatever is an ok occupation for folksingers I would say, "Don't give up the day job."

This sounds cynical, doesn't it?

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 04:19 PM

Not intending to cause thread creep, but I gotta ask: What's "a quantity surveyor"?

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: Tim theTwangler
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 04:12 PM

How about if it didnt matter"What you do" for a living(oops sorry thats the same as a career,for the rest of you)
Maybe it would be nice to be more accepting of the music people play and sing than whether their education and bank ballance meets with your aproval.
LOL

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 04:06 PM

Thomas Hardy was an architect first....

LTS

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: Mingulay
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 04:03 PM

Does being an ex cobbler count??

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 03:40 PM

She's a humdinger. Folksinger.

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 03:39 PM

on the side of what...?

I always wanted to be a hippy, but I didn't have the figure for it.

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: GUEST,thurg
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 03:27 PM

The folksinger Carl Sandburg wrote books and poems on the side ...

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: vielleuse
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 01:16 PM

I don't think there is a Hampstead Council, Jim, I think it comes under Camden.

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: Gorgeous Gary
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 12:22 PM

Pizza delivery?

Based, of course, on the old joke "How do you get a musician off your porch? Pay him for the pizza!"

8-)

-- Gary

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 12:13 PM

Changing lightbulbs
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 12:05 PM

Les Barker was an accountant too, but he doesn't sing....

Keith Marsden was a bank manager...

Robbie Burns was an Exciseman, wasn't he?

Are there any folk-singing tailors and cobblers who could redress the balance and put the stocking and shoe on the other foot?

Kitty

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: Effsee
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 11:52 AM

Eric Bogle was an Accountant.

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 11:42 AM

Assistant lamp post quantification co-ordinator for Hampstead Council.

Or whippet handler.

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: GUEST,Clint Wayne
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 11:37 AM

A Cowboy

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: Big Mick
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 11:28 AM

Union Organizer and Community Organizer, Dad, Son, Brother, Rake, Layabout, and poker player

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: Folkiedave
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 11:21 AM

Pilot for London Underground Airways

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: Michael in Swansea
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 10:51 AM

British Telecomm exchange planner

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: vielleuse
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 10:34 AM

If you're female the choices aren't very numerous really: pretty fair maid, single mother, nagging wife or prostitute. You can drag up and join the forces, but only in pursuit of a bloke.

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 10:28 AM

Folk singer?

:D (tG)

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: greg stephens
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 10:25 AM

The fiddler Thomas Hardy wrote books and poems on the side, which is a bit poncy.

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 10:21 AM

Itinerant knife-sharpener.

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 10:14 AM

Christy Moore was a bank clerk.

eric

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: Scooby Doo
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 10:00 AM

LTS,
I never get things right.
Scooby

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 09:54 AM

NO Scooby, that would be a folk drummer.

LTS

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: Scooby Doo
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 09:47 AM

Perhaps a virgin.

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: Scooby Doo
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 09:46 AM

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: greg stephens
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 08:49 AM

Quantity surveyor is an interesting suggestion. There is a very celebrated band in Cork called Twotime Polka, and I think their lead singer Tomas Dunne is or was a quantity surveyor on the new terminal at Cork airport.
   Given Leadbelly's huge success. I wonder if multiple murderer might be a reasonable career choice?

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: Maryrrf
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 08:45 AM

Apprentice

Rambler

Gambler

Steel drivin' man

rake and a rovin' blade

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: number 6
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 08:30 AM

web forum moderators.

sIx

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: GUEST,Cap'n One-eyed-snake
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 08:21 AM

A Pirate

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 08:09 AM

Pie hardener for British Rail.
Test Pilot for Draught Guiness.
Shantyman.
Crimp.
Runner.
Whore.

eric

Subject: RE: OK occupations for folksingers.
From: Ross
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 08:03 AM

Quantity Surveyor?