I think I had posted a story similar to Gary's a few weeks back, when a member (whom I know pretty well) of a CC I work at came over and asked about the kb ... actually, he asked if there were CDs or tapes in the 'machine' ...
I took the time to 'educate' him as well .. he was quite impressed with both the board and what I could do with it ...
t.

Gary, often, club owners aren't much better. I was playing bass in a band backing an Eddie Arnold kind of singer in the late 60's. The club had just been bought by a great big old coal mine owner.

We were rehearsing one day, and he came up to me and he said, "Kid, I been paying you $175.00 a week to play that guitar, and I ain't heard you play one damn song yet". I stopped playing and he said, "Huh. That kid adds the boom boom".

One of the long-time jobs I had was at a company which had two locations; one run by the mom and the newer one run by the son. The mom loved me; the kid hated me. He preferred three chord acoustic players. This is a high-end restaurant, cost-wise. The biggest sellers are fried chicken and meat loaf. The brilliant thing is, these guys have talked rednecks with money to think they're really happening when they pay $24.95 for a couple of pieces of fried chicken (good cheicken, but DAMN!).

Their competitors hired me because I didn't play Jimmy Buffet music, which, they say, was totally inappropriate for their establishment.

Club owners. Some are no smarter than the general public.

R.

Can't argue with that Russ--I'm come across similar club owners and they still have me shaking my head.

Gary

Gary, great post!! Tony, we'll have the most educated audience in Rhody if we do that Not a bad idea at all.

[This message has been edited by Stephenm52 (edited 02-12-2009).]

Most ain't no smarter'n a rock...

Why you wanna insult the general public that bad?

Great post Gary.
I had the same here.
So, since last December I decided to increase my music classes and to work in my own compositions, preparing a new CD and reduce drastically the gigs.
No gigs, no travels,no audience, no troubles.
Just a delicious sociability with my young students.
May be a light style of life for a tired musician.
Chico

Chico,

Great to see you posting again. I too will be curtailing my performance activities during the next two years. I plan to cut back to 100 jobs a year in 2010, take the month of January off and spend a lot more time sailing--maybe on a bigger boat.

Cheers,

Gary

Whats the difference, except that you cannot repeat a chorus from a CD or Tape when the playback is 6 instruments and you are playing ONE? I think they are pretty smart to understand you are not playing all the parts and that no one could possibly play all those instruments, and that there is a button that can be pushed to get a particular song. I don;t know. I think those who understand that do not need to be educated. they are not easily fooled.

+1....It doesn't matter. They hear drums and see no drummer.....who's fooling whom?

I think the irony of this is when I was fresh out of the U.S. Navy (1960), sitting on a stool in a smoke-filled bar room, playing a 6-string Gibson and singing through a 100-watt guitar amp, people were just as dumb. They would come up to me while I was singing and playing and begin talking to me just as if I wasn't doing a thing other than sitting there. Even back then they would still ask stupid questions such as "Do you have something from Elvis?" as if there was some magical music and singing coming from the amp. Nothing has REALLY changed in all those years--nothing! And, I have a good friend that plays a grand piano while his wife sings. Guess what? His audience members do the same damned thing to him as well. This, again, reinforces my father's old sayings.

Case Closed,

Gary