Well, since you asked . . .this is going to be long, and sort of personal, but what the heck, we're family, and if you're not interested click the back button. I won't be offended.
As some of you know, I've been having a real battle supporting my family doing music recently. I feel most of the problem is brought on by the huge number of karaoke "artists" in this area.
For years, I just picked and choosed from the jobs offered to me. There were one, two, three, four-piece (and larger) groups working all over, for decent money.
In the past two years, many of the places using live music have quit, or drastically cut back. Instead they let the customers get drunk and entertain themselves by singing to each other.
Now, many of the larger groups have cut their prices. It's easy to hire a pretty good band here for $100-200 on a weekend night. I'm not talking about the bad pickers, these are decent-sounding groups.
Back to me--all of a sudden my phone stops ringing and the offers fall off. After years of not having to worry about bookings now I have to start hustling again. So I go to talk to some of my old jobs and find out that, sure they would love to have me back, but now they are getting "a whole band" for less than my price. (As we know, the "whole band" may or may not be better, but that's beside the point). So they want me to cut my price. Do I do that, or go back home and watch T.V.? Or do some intense self-examination as to what I can do to get the income back up. Here there are several options, such as "get a day-job", become a "k" host, go on the road to a better area.
None of these options work for me. I did try the day-job thing for a few months, but by Golly, I'm an entertainer--not a regular person anymore.
As some of you around the world know, I started picking brains--mostly Donny in NJ, (who incidentally has a family and a wife and possibly a few girlfriends and supports them all very well), Uncle Dave, Scott Yee, and others. I found that the most consistant and rewarding work is being done in nursing homes, retirement centers, health-care facilities, etc. So I started calling all around the area. All the nursing homes were overjoyed to have me. "When can you come, just name the date". They said. The word got out and I had 14 of them on my caller I.D. in about a week. BUT, the most they would offer was in the area of $25.00. That's right $25.00, and they don't even want to pay that much.
But, I was getting pretty desperate, so I agreed to do a few of them on a one-time basis. I figured that when they saw that I was a cut above the free stuff they were used to getting I could ask more money. That actually worked to a degree. Some of them will now pay $75-100, but not very often.
Then I started networking with some of my local contacts. The Shreveport area is loaded with musicians with connections to Nashville, the Opry, the now-defunct Louisiana Hayride (which I DID appear on in it's dying days--that's probably what finished it off). I finally got hooked up with a guy who had a workable solution.
His name is Dean Mathis, and you may remember him for his group, The Newbeats. They had a worldwide number one hit called "Bread and Butter", plus other top 10 hits. He produced records (remember those) in Nashville for many top artists for years.
Dean has been organizing and along with some of the other "old-timers", such as David Houston before his death, performing shows for the nursing homes around the state. As it turned out he was in need of a "band" and partner. I was flattered that he asked me to participate in this project.
There is a special way in which the shows are funded, and I can't disclose the details, but it is quite lucrative and doesn't cost the nursing homes anything.
I've been totally snowed under with this work because it includes booking the various towns and cities, arranging the financing, doing promotion for the events and actually performing, averaging two shows a day several days a week. My income is almost instantly far better than it has been in several years.
But by far the best part of this project is that the people we play to crave the attention and the entertainment. We involve them in the shows as much as possible and to see their reactions is truly rewarding.
What a deal, making money doing what you love to do for people who love you for doing it.
I'm still booking the bigger jobs on the weekend when they come up, but most of the time I'm home to be with the family by mid-afternoon. Thanks Donny, Dave, Scott and others for pointing me in this direction.
I guess the point of all this is that the business IS changing, and we have to be ready to change with it or adapt to it. The same boom in technology that allows us to be Arranger entertainers is now making it almost too easy for anybody with a computer and a half-decent voice to give us competition. We must figure out how to survive and prosper in the face of bad economy, stricter DUI laws, advancing age (in my case), and the infamous K******.
I THINK I've found a solution that fits my particular case and qualifications. All I know is I gotta keep on making music.
DonM
P.S. I've developed a new website just for this venture. It's not quite ready for the public yet, but check it out anyway. Constructive criticism welcomed!
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http://donnymason.tripod.com/hayridesunshineshow/ [This message has been edited by DonM (edited 09-07-2001).]
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