On the Cusp of Greatness

No, not really, but it's fun to say.

I've been saying for the past week or so that sometimes, when you put a piece of steel in the forge, it comes out stronger, but other times, the forge reveals the flaws in the steel. That's one way of looking at what happened to Blue Funk last weekend, because the band broke up. It is not worth going into all the details, but looking back over the longer picture, this may have been coming for a while. As I posted previously, we have had trouble getting our groove back as a band. There may have been other factors that were causing that difficulty, and these may have led to the breakup.

Another way to look at it, because you can never have too many metaphors, is two people are dating, and one asks the other to marry, and the other says, "no." Once it's clear that the direction of relationship for the two people is different, is there really any point in carrying on?

The other side of this is the shame of it all. We had gotten a couple of gigs, had been talking about doing a recording so we would have material to try to get more gigs, we had Angelina take photos for us, and were discussing merchandise to have to sell at gigs as well. I guess in that regard it was good that this happened now instead of after investing in all that, but it makes me realize how close we were to taking the next step.

The situation is a bit odd for me in many regards. I've been kicking around "Blue Funk" since around 1994 or so, if not earlier. Besides the time with Mikey and Joe, this is the furthest the band has ever gotten and the longest it has been "a thing." We started with Tony and Rebecca in late 2005 and Jeff joined in January of 2006. We've been going ever since. To not have that as part of our lives will be odd. Whenever Lori and I visit an open house or home tour, my first thought is always, "is there a room we could use for the band if this was ours?" If it weren't for the experiences I've had in this band, I would not be taking on the whole professional musician thing. The growth I've experienced as a person and player over the past few years because of the band is immeasurable. But now I will have to learn to move on without it.

What's next for me? I've hinted at it above, but I think I'll save it for a separate blog post. You don't want this one to be even longer, do you?

Posted 2009 03 13 at 11:49 AM

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