What Is Next

As I mentioned in my last post, I already have had some ideas about what to do next, now that Blue Funk is no more. So here they are, in a particular order.

• Find more gigs with other bands. I’ve already done gigs with Collective Hallucination, and could find gigs with other bands if I made an effort to do so.
• Blues jams and open mics. Lori and I, as well as possibly Rebecca, could go more frequently to blues jams such as the Thursday jams at Dan Electro’s and the Houston Blues Society one at The Big Easy.
• Work on songwriting. This includes finishing up songs that I have started, as well as learning how to use the tools I have to make demos and printed music for these songs.
• Woodshed. My playing chops are nowhere near where I’d like them to be, and I think they need to be better to do the first item above. See my post from 3 March. I also think they should be better in order to do the next item.
• Last but not least, Joe Stone goes solo. I heard an ad the other day for a performance by a singer/songwriter, and it talked about the great band he was going to have. While I don’t have the chops, repertoire, nor pedigree that someone like this has, I thought about all the options this would give me. I could use any musicians I wanted and could do the gig. I think my songs would be better promoted as a solo act “songwriter Joe Stone” than as part of a band. There are some cons, like having to do all the work myself as far as promoting and merch, and I don’t have any money to pay the musicians until/unless the gigs pay so that might limit who I can get at first. But after talking to some other musicians about this, the idea of just hiring musicians is really appealing.

Another aspect I’m already liking is managing one artist. For the past few months, I’ve been having to do things like update calendars for Joe Stone and Blue Funk, sometimes the same event for both. Now, it’s just me. Even if I play with other bands, I would just be updating my friends, family, and fans about those shows, leaving the band to do their own promotion. So I would just update the Joe Stone events like I have done with listing the CH gigs. I’m not saying anything bad about the work I did for Blue Funk, just that the dual entities were difficult to manage in parallel.

Notice that none of my options talked about joining another band. I just don’t see doing that, for several reasons. One, I know myself too well, and know that I need the creative outlet and the control of the artistic direction. Two, once you’re in a band, you’re obligated to them. There’s nothing wrong with that, but if I started playing with several bands, and there was a conflict, I’d have to be obligated to the one I was a member of. Three, I just don’t want to deal with those dynamics and potentially drama. One of the things I enjoy about my time with CH is I just do my part, play the songs. Not that I don’t care, but I don’t have to deal with things that may happen around me. I can focus on the music as well as showing up on time and not worry about the rest.

First on my list, woodshedding!

Next, in part 3… nah, I’m done for now. 😉

Posted 2009 03 13 at 4:49 PM

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