What visiting a place will do to a song lyric
I played my first gig in NYC this year, and it changed my life.
No, one gig in NYC didn’t become “my big break”; what it did was change my entire feelings of so many of my favorite song lyrics, songs about NYC.
A direct address like Jim Croce’s “New York’s Not My Home” or a simple street reference in the Lumineer’s “Hey Ho,” I can finally see it.
And feel it.
Visiting a place is a powerful experience. Nothing can take the place of it. A picture, a movie, a live stream…There is nothing like
We live in a new world where online learning, Stageit concerts, Internet video conferencing are exciting ways to experience something new. But no binary code is going fully replace the feeling of standing in the center of Times Square and feeling the pulse of the city, or having coffee in Greenich Village in the same cafe Allen Ginsburg would have sat.
Bob Lefsetz recently wrote about Youtube this year, saying that the road was where a new act used to grow; but now it’s on Youtube. Go on on the road and risk playing for only 10 people? Nonsense. Post a video instead…
I don’t disagree with his theory about the importance of video streaming, but there is one point that’s being lost: How powerful of an experience it is to be one of those ten people to see something live from a fresh new artist. It’s way different in hitting all of your senses than 10,000 watching a video. Playing a music or hearing music live is not a replaceable experience, from the small folk club to the large venue.
The Internet is being praised, and I will continue to praise it. But don’t forget, the computer screen doesn’t replace the ground or sky.
Playing my first show in NYC with Leah Taylor!
The Portrait of a Young Artist Scared of Pearl Jam
At the age of 13, after a few months of playing guitar, I asked my dad to buy me a Pearl Jam. tablature book (music for guitar). Specifically, for the Ten record.
At this moment of my guitar studies, I only knew how to play a few chords. There was no way I was going to be able to play Pearl Jam guitar solos, let alone the main riffs. It’s like being in fourth grade and reading Charlotte’s Web and then jumping to James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
But there is no stopping a teenager who’s mind is made up, so my dad bought me the Pearl Jam book, and I rushed home to attempt it!
In my bedroom, I listened to the Pearl Jam CD and tried to follow along in the music book. Instant failure. It didn’t make any sense to me…so I gave up, and sadly went back to practicing my guitar teacher’s Mel Bay Book 1 homework.
Here’s the thing that shocks me: I never attempted to play those Pearl Jam songs again. It was like my first failure at guitar scared me away from Pearl Jam for good, no matter how much better of a guitar player I became.
Last year, I stumbled upon that old Pearl Jam music book hiding in a box. I chuckled, and opened up to “Even Flow.”
I was able to sight read it.
The instant failure at 13 became an instant success at 31.
Fear is a strange thing, isn’t it. How many illogical fears do we carry from childhood into adulthood?
Whenever I hear a Pearl Jam song, I remind myself not to let initial failures scare myself away from attempting again.
The most important person you need on your side in the music biz
Musicians interact with many people to make music business happen successfully: booking agents, sound engineers, venue owners, media contacts, other bands’ mates…The list goes on and on, but I’m going to let you in on a secret. The most important person of all is sitting right behind the bar.
The most important thing you can do as a musician is tip your venue’s bartender. And tip them well. (Even if your drinks are comp’d. Especially if your drinks are comp’d!)
The bartender is one of the main faces of the bar. The bartender is the one that interacts with customers, fields complaints, works four jobs at one time, shares compliments with the owners; the bartender often has to be in charge of the venue’s stereo, take reservations, do the work schedule, count the inventory, tell the band to turn the volume down (which they hate doing, but have to), usually while working long hours.
So tip that person. With cash. Know his or her name. No matter what. Do it because you know how hard the job is. I guarantee it’s harder than yours.
And if music isn’t your field, I guarantee there is another unthanked gatekeeper who deserves credit at your office.
At my school where I taught, the entire staff knew the place couldn’t run without the amazing people in the front office. Mrs. Shepherd saved me so many times my first year teaching, she deserved flowers everyday.
Remember, the most important person at the venue is the bartender. Not the band.
Unfortunately, Mike Vial will be traveling solo for the rest of the tour after September 8th.
Also, because of a fire at the venue, September 21’s gig at Checkers-n-Trophies in Kent, OH has been moved to Muggswigz in Canton, OH.
Mike Vial Fall Tour Dates:
9/4 – The Curragh, Holland, MI
9/5 – Old Dog Tavern, Kalamazoo, MI (with Carrie McFerrin)
9/6 – Flint Local 432, Flint, MI (with Maria Rose & the Swiss Kicks & Cory Glover)
9/7 – Mash (Blue Tractor) Ann Arbor, MI
9/8 – Union Coffee House & Cafe, Buchanan, MI
9/10 – live interview/performance on Fearless Radio (1 PM), Chicago, IL
9/11 – Uncommon Ground, Chicago, IL (with Owen Stevenson)
9/12 – Froth House, Madison, WI (with Richard Wilberg)
9/13 – Acoustic Cafe, Winona, MI
9/14 – World of Beer, Ann Arbor, MI (with Grahman Lapp on bass)
9/17 – Live performance on Impact 89 FM’s Progressive Torch & Twang with host Eric Walters, East Lansing, MI
9/18 – Taffy’s, Eaton, OH
9/19 – Barking Spider Tavern, Cleveland, OH
TBA – Radio interview on Black Squirrel Radio, Kent, OH
9/20 – Midtown Scholar, Harrisburg, PA
9/21 – Muggswigz in Canton, OH with Allen Cruz
9/22 – National Underground, Nashville, TN
9/25 – Acoustic Coffeehouse, Johnson City, TN
9/26 – Copper (@ Walnut Hills), East Lansing, MI
9/27 – Live on LCC Radio’s Coffee Break (9:30 AM), Lansing, MI
9/27 – Live on LCC Radio’s Grand River Radio Diner concert (Noon), Lansing, MI
9/27 – Mash (Blue Tractor), Ann Arbor, MI
9/28 – Anita’s Riverfront Grill, Marine City, MI
10/3 – House concert, Corunna/Sarnia, ON, Canada
Times and addresses are listed at www.mikevial.com
I often joke about how I feel like a traveling minstrel who lives in his car, driving 40,000 miles a year for gigs.
The most difficult aspect of traveling is being away from Natalie. She joins me on the road a few times a year, but usually that’s not possible. We plan ahead and schedule our time together between our work schedules. We prioritize it.
When I told my friend Peyton Tochterman how traveling was difficult for me, he could relate, and said, “When Ellis Paul and I toured, we probably did 80-90K on the road that year.”
Close to 100,000 miles on the road? Yep, a musician can say the road is his home; but it’s hard to be away from your true home.
And here’s where the story of the Hollands stops you in your tracks and makes you dream of a new way to live.
The Hollands took on the challenge of life and work interfering with dreams. They literally live on the road, as a traveling, family band in a converted 1984 MCI-9 bus!
The bus serves as their home, with a working kitchen, bedrooms, and living space. It’s an incredible story to read, how a family decided the regular life of 9-5 jobs in a 2600 sq. ft home was stifling their desires to share music and treat life as an adventure.
The process of downsizing and transitioning their lives started in 2011. Now they are fully in the adventure, homeschooling their kids, touring the country year round, bringing their home where ever they go, and sharing their celtic, multi-instrumental music as a family.
The pessimists and skeptics might say, “There are too many challenges to living that way,” but I argue there are the same number of challenges to living a “normal” way too. It’s just different challenges.
What the Hollands inspire us to do is embrace these challenges fully, to find answers and solutions that fit our lives rather than feel trapped by our fears.
PS: The Hollands are playing tonight, Thursday, August 1, 2013 at the Avenue Cafe in Lansing, MI! 8 PM show.
Read more about the Holland’s life on the road here at Mama J’s blog.
Listen to their music at thehollands.org.
