Organizing My Music Stuff - Publicly?

Today, I'm not feeling great. My ears and throat are swollen (probably from allergies) and I have a show tonight in Walnut Creek. Being that I will never miss a show unless I'm hospitalized- I'm going to do my best to play from 7-11pm (yeah, that's 4 hours!) Anyway, if this comes off as less than my usual effort, it's probably because I have less than my usual effort to give.

It is with some degree of sadness that I announced that after May 14 I no longer have my regular Thursday gig at Pyramid in Sacramento. They still like me, but they're trying to switch it up a bit. In some ways, I agree with them. It is difficult to get friends/people I know to come out every Thursday because they know "there's always next week." At least now when I get a show, people will be more inclined to come out and support. Side note: Thank you to everyone who did come out last night!

Also, I really need to refocus myself. Why do I play music? Well, because it is fun to write songs and play them. Am I really doing that these days? Not really. I can play upwards of 250 cover songs (at least) and probably half of them are stale to me. I really need to focus on making people care about my original songs rather than letting folks request songs that I have no desire to listen to, let alone play.

In a related note, I have got to finally finish this new record. I talk about it all the time. I have a version of all 13 tracks organized that is listenable, but not finished. I think it will be good once I get it done, and I'd like to work on marketing it to radio and really trying to sell it. I may also need to focus on putting together a band rather than doing so many shows solo. Don't get me wrong, not splitting show money is great, but at a certain point it gets boring without a band (and you thought I might throw in a sex/masturbation comparison- ok, well there it is.) As much as it is hard to meet people who are on the same page musically, and then trusting them with playing the songs I've written, it is necessary for me to do this in order to get things back on track.

So I'm going to attempt to play tonight in the closest thing I have to a hometown, and I have a feeling there will be a decent amount of people showing (thank you, it's much appreciated). I'll mix in lots of originals and lots of covers. And while I am a little bummed to have lost my regular gig here in Sacramento, I know that ultimately, change is good. Getting out of my lulled comfort zone will probably help me become a better musician and motivate me to improve my music career.

Lastly, thank you to everyone who has been reading my blog. It keeps motivates me to write every week day, and I've been enjoying it a lot. I'm going to keep this thing going as long as people keep reading. Sorry for this sappy ending to an overly melancholy blog, but as I said in the beginning, I'm not feeling 100% today, so I'll be back on Monday with the vigor of 100 healthy camels. I'm not even sure what that means! I think I'm going crazy! Have a great weekend...