modern life
i’ve pretty much surrendered myself to the drug that pulls me here and there— opting not to resist the excitement that comes with discovery— wherever it is. this month brought me back to the big apple- the first trip i’ve made here since the brink of the pandemic in march of 2020. i can’t tell if new york has changed or if i just see the bigger picture after so many years. i enjoy the energy it inspires, and the way it makes me up my game just being here. this was a volunteer trip to reconnect with some folks i met in 2019 who are playing in the big new space of the modern music industry— a very different buisness than the one i started in so many years ago. i come to them as a time traveller who somehow survived the digital transformation which started in the 1990’s, while still living in my 1960’s shell — a bit of an artifact, i’m sure, but one who remembers the reason we all got started in this game to begin with, which sure wasn’t about the money. the cramped offices on 55th street are now replaced with pencil towers with catered kitchens, not that i mind this, i just mourn for those who never “got to” sweat it out the “hard way”. it all started because i am a musician, and i got to know— and survive— in a business that i love.
i’ve played many places along the way, here in new york, in la, in england, the midwest and of course all over new england and the eastern easboard. we “got to” play crappy bars on cold wednesday nights in february; something most musicians don’t “get to” do anymore. these gigs gave us a command of our craft that now emanates from our personas- we put in the 10,000 hard, cold hours, which is what i’ve heard it takes to make you an expert. imagine! we are experts. some of us went on to play large venues throughout the world, while others play little bars like vincent’s. no matter. you’re either an expert or you’re not. $100 or $1,000,000, it’s the same craft.
the music brought me here to the big apple again, just as it did the last time, as it does pretty much wherever i go. it’s definitely a “true north” kind of thing.
i’ll time travel back to boston later today and get ready to return to vincent’s worcester on saturday the 9th with the van gogh brothers for another installment of our $1,000,000 residency. one million dollars? yes! you couldn’t get me to stop doing this residency for $1,000,000. it’s that important to me, and i hope it’s important to you. we rely on that.
next week we are back in the studio with Dave Minehan at the helm once more to hammer away on album #17— we are getting towards the finish line now, and as usual, we have outdone ourselves. it’s a different flavor of the same drug, and i love it.
looking ahead, we finish up our school year schedule at vincent’s in april and may, and will return to the Barn at magical moon farm on june 22, with a private gig in july and a return to vincent’s in september. we will finish the album over the summer as well. and the train kept a rollin’.
ok, i think i’m gonna hoof it down to penn station now for the trip north. lots of love to all.
jc