Folk Alliance

We leave on Tuesday for Folk Alliance...the alliance of Folk. A big time conference in Memphis where everybody goes to schmooze and jam. We hope to meet a lot of venues and charm them. We made postcards. We are so ready.

Rules of Engagement: The Merch Table

All right, so my oldest and dearest job title with what all I do nowadays is Merch Girl. I started this little escapade about a year and a half ago, and while I've stacked on more responsibility, this one remains an important part of the tour day. Be present. When it's appropriate, like at a louder venue where people aren't just sitting and listening quietly, I stay at the merch table the whole time because people will come by immediately after particular songs and ask if they can buy that song. It's good to give people immediate gratification and it probably seals the deal a lot faster than forcing them to remember what song they wanted out of the 20 they heard. They're all my favorite but try this one. People ask me my favorite all the time, and since all of the albums on the table are like unique little snowflakes full of goodness and wonder, I can't pick. But I always do for the sake of giving the buyer some direction. They don't really care what MY favorite is, they just want some decision-making help. Know thy merch. It's not hard for me, because I love Susan's records. I came into the job already studied up on each album. It's been a big help when people will come up and say, "I like the tree song, where is it?" or "the one that goes something like, 'doo doo duh nuh dooooo,' I want that one." People get a kick out of an exuberant salesperson. I've had to sell merch for other artists that I've just met sometimes if it's a shared gig, and it's a LOT harder to even begin when I'm not familiar with their material. Some nights, it pays the rent. Ideally, if I'm doing my other job as the booker well, this is not the case, but...some nights the merch sales are what make the difference between the artist walking away with zero profit after paying the band and buying the gas to get to the gig versus walking out with an ok payday. I try to make this a rare occurrence, but that's how the gig cookie crumbles sometimes. (So if you're ever on the fence about buying a CD at a show and the charming Merch Girl doesn't convince you, think about this paragraph). Be part of the show. I find it always helps when people know me as "The Merch Girl." When I'm a character in this traveling road show that people come to see, it can be an extra bit of uniqueness to the concert-goer and potential merch buyer. Be a good example. When I'm at the merch table, which is sometimes in the back and sometimes front and center in the room, I try to be a good spectator. It helps that I love listening anyway, but I'm always aware that I need to show the respect to the performer that I expect the audience to give the performer. Sometimes it can't be helped (see point number one, when someone wants to buy something in the middle of the show), but overall I'm sharing in the experience the crowd is having, and that makes things work smoothly. And I have been known to give death-stares to really loud and/or rude people who are getting in the way of people's listening. There we go; some more notes from the road. I'm fortunate that my excitement and support for what I sell is 100% genuine. Your mileage may vary, but these things seem to work for us. I did get promoted to Super Merch Girl after all.

Rules of Engagement: Booking

I've spent exactly one year now in some sort of official booking capacity for Susan. We do it the homegrown way by doing it together, combining her years of touring and networking with my OCD emailing skills. It is a good mix, and I have learned a LOT. Firstly, I learned that I enjoy it. I like the hunt, the follow ups, the satisfaction of inking something in on the calendar. It's like jumping your opponent twice and getting kinged in a game of checkers; that type of satisfying. I've learned it's not easy. Sometimes I wish my brain worked like they do in the movies, when all of the sudden the special effects team takes us on a trip through some genius mind that has all kinds of neurons connecting to different areas at once and we see how a brilliant thought forms. Some days I feel that powerful, when I can coincide maps and calendars and money and mileage. Some days I need to check everything 4 times to make sure it all makes sense, and correct as I go. I've learned how to steep in a town's music culture in a very short time from very far away. I think it really takes two years or so when you live in a place to really get the ins and outs of a community where you live. Unfortunately, touring musicians don't have that luxury, and a lot of the time, I'm educating myself on a region's culture from my desk in Wimberley. Where's the best place to play for our type of music? What's the best night? Can we do an off night in that town? When are the tourists there? Who else is in town that night? You learn short cuts and ways around things, so that sometimes it feels like I've been somewhere before even when I roll into town for the first time. I've learned that booking requires backbone. This is my boss's JOB, at which she does exceptionally well. I would argue she has honed her craft into the top 1% of people in her field (meet me in the parking lot if you'd like to argue, but I don't think you do). Sure it's all about music and art and joy, but it's also about being compensated well for a unique craft. So I walk into a negotiation knowing this, and it helps. Booking also requires give and take. Venue owners are in business, too. We're all here to make a living, and there's a delicate balance to the relationship between the artist and the owner. We have met so many good people who want live music in their establishments, and on the good days everyone walks out happy. This is why it's important to support live music...it's small business, culture, musicians, and your community all wrapped up into a little ecosystem. We do our best and I love working with venues that do their best. Lastly I've learned, being a songwriter myself, that this stuff has nothing to do with working on your music. But someone has to do it if you're the type who wants to get your music out there. The business brain and the time it takes to back and forth and plan and schedule is actually a huge detriment to working on one's art. I haven't really mastered the separation between the two yet, but it is possible. For now, my constant email checking will continue. And now, I have some shows to book. 2010 is 12 months long!

A bit o' recap for June

June might be processing a little better. When I first got back to town there was much to be done to catch up with things. Red Leaf is in full swing with camp and Susan is headed toward Canada while I am gearing up to finish out her year's schedule already. Dan said today I have lost some of the deer in the headlights look I had before we left on the tour and acquired a little more swagger and confidence, which is nice. I would agree. Before we left on the June tour, which was the first full tour 2000 miles away from a home base I had ever booked, I was FREAKED OUT. Maybe I hid it well to the outside world (maybe I didn't), but you take the thought of 3 people's livelihoods and put it all in your hands based on interacting with venue owners and ticket prices and promotion in places far from home, and it could either work well, be a disaster, or fall somewhere in between. I think it worked well overall...we planned well, budgeted, kept track of things, and kept on point. We did have one lucrative gig pull out a week before we were to be in that town, but Susan (who has obviously been through this more than once) handled it with grace, while I just yelled at the email on the screen in the passenger seat expecting that to fix it. Calm is important. And no one died, and we got some extra downtime in Denver so it worked out. Being the person who books and deals with venue owners and also being the tour manager who walks in the door is unique and seems to be working really well. It allows me to make connections with venues we like on a personal level and not just be a bunch of emails disconnected somewhere in cyberspace. I don't know how common it is to have the booking agent be the tour manager, but people seem surprised and pleased by it so far, myself included. My point...and I do have one...is there are plane tickets booked for New York and a week blocked out for Nashville in the fall and I am excited. Travel and music pretty much top my list and this year has been full of both. Fortunate! And I will still probably scream at a few more emails.

Algebra? Really?

Here's a word problem for ya: A singer/songwriter is offered a gig with a choice of payment options. They are: - take a $450 guarantee versus 80% of the door less $150 for sound at an $8 ticket price - take 90% of the door less $150 for sound with no guarantee - take a flat $650 guarantee with no versus percentage If the singer/songwriter expects to pull in a crowd of 112 people, which deal is the best? We did an Excel spreadsheet with formulas today to figure out something like this. The numbers were completely different, but the formulas are the same. It made my head hurt. We think we picked the right deal.

How Tweet of You

I don't want to brag about my penchant for getting free things because I blog, but I mean...I have a track record. This time, however, Twitter -- which is all the news these days but I'd like to point out that I've been tweeting for quite some time -- has been the cause of my mailbox joy this week. More and more companies are getting Twitter accounts, I have noticed, and it's neat to be able to reach them and say "HEY HEY HEY I LOVE YOU!" without filling out a customer service form or something. Because who has time for that? I always have time for a tweet. Luckily, El Pinto salsa has a Twitter page. I love them because they are real New Mexican chile and salsa (and if you need a refresher on what "chile" is versus "chili" please read this because it's my magnum opus). El Pinto also happens to be available in Austin and Wimberley, enabling many pots of green chile stew and many breakfast burritos to be made. It's almost like being home. This is only one jar because the other one is being refrigerated because I popped that sucker open already. Anyway...I was tweeting away at El Pinto and they asked me what my favorite was...and I replied that their "Wild and Fiery Chipotle" is my current love. So they sent me 2 jars. In the mail. Heck yeah! So thanks, El Pinto...and thank you social media. You bring us together and make my taste buds happy.

Plotting Panels

I'm back among the living. This morning my throat does not feel like it's trying to take a vacation and walk out of my neck, so we're doing ok. It's grey and cold and rainy here, just when I wore a t-shirt multiple days in a row. I'm cool with that. I am going to have a crew pass (badge? wristband? I dunno how that works) to SXSW next week. WOOHOO! The lovely and talented Elizabeth Wills, who I have been semi-stalking because I love hearing her sing, is hooking me up. She's got a SXSW Showcase, so I'm going to be a monkey in all my glory and help her out for that gig. And the rest of the week...I'm gonna try and hit up panels about promotion, gigging, blogging, digital music distribution, and yes...MERCH. This is a conference with a panel about merch. The love. Here is some Elizabeth Wills for your Wednesday...her voice is pretty much like if you hiked up a mountain in Switzerland and then found some bubbly spring that no one has ever discovered and there was a wildflower field next to it, and maybe some puppies romping around. It's pure like that.

Lessons Learning

It's been quite the few days over here on planet Jana. The long weekend consisted of a planned "camping" trip and an unplanned gig. Those of you who know me well know that's pretty backwards for moi. I use "quotes" around "camping" because I slept in a house all weekend, but we sat around campfires a lot and played guitar and my buddy Amy made about 4 killer meals all in one dutch oven over coals. That is skill, people. Also Susan the Boss beat me at Guitar Hero, which is...I suppose...how it should be*. Due to some mix-ups in booking transitioning, Susan found out she had a gig on Valentine's Day in San Antonio...the day before the gig. (Please note right here that if any blame is to be levied here it is not on anyone mentioned in this blog mmmmkay?). This is not optimal because it does not allow one to properly do things like...tell people you're playing a gig. Luckily all 20 or so campers piled into vans and we all drove to Casbeer's in San Antonio, whereupon it was bestowed upon me the title of Opening Act. I was super psyched because Casbeer's at the Church is a fantastic venue and listening room with a great reputation. My comrades commented that "Game Face Jana" appeared for awhile before the gig; I really forced myself to mentally prep for this space. The good news was there were plenty of friendly faces in the crowd...ones I had met before and ones I had yet to meet. I had a great time playing. Susan's set was excellent, and she brought up some of our talented fellow campers to play as well. We kind of bring the big guns when we rough it, so "campfire jam" means something entirely different when a bunch of pro musicians are hanging around. Tiffany Shea rocked us, Andy Pate cracked us up, and Elizabeth Wills about raised the roof with her gorgeousness. Marian worked the hardest of us all that night, because she played fiddle with all of us. So much fun! So all in all...the unexpected turned into a very good thing and I had quite the educational Valentine's Day...about the love/hate thing we all have for the music business. The good thing to keep in mind is that most people who do it - from the artists to the venues to the listeners - do it because they love it. That's what it takes to keep all of us crazy musicians off the streets, yo. * I totally just let her win.

Give Jana Away!

Also see Music To Take Away...

Neither epidemic nor riot...

This week is flying by. The music school life is hoppin' and while Susan is off gigging in Atlanta and writing in Nashville, I have a lot of business stuff to attend to back here...like designing posters, for instance. And making sure they get to the right venues. And making contracts for upcoming gigs. My favorite line from an old contract we pulled out is, "if the Artist is unable to perform as required by this contract because of acts of God, strikes, illness, riots, epidemics, or accidents, they shall not be in breach...". It's nice to know we have an out if there's an ebola outbreak or perhaps a riot over who gets the last hoodie. In other news I welcomed a new iPhone into my life and I'm not quite sure what existed before it. Truly a useful tool, truly a good investment, truly going to make me a good booking agent in training, among other things. I think my business card would say: "Jana Pochop: In Training" for the next 60 years, if I had a really honest one printed up. Except I'm an expert at mailing posters.

Vote for porterdavis and suSANG!

Ok kids. There's this thing called the Austin Chronicle Music Poll. It actually really does help the bands who get voted on in this thing...it gets their names out there and the more people know names, the better. You can vote no matter where you live. (Hi, out-of-state blog readers!) Dan's band porterdavis is set to release a great new album this year and they deserve to be at the top of the heap in this thing. All of you who have seen or heard porterdavis know they're great. Dan also did a thrilling job producing my EP "The Early Year" and we're hard at work on the next one. Support the Producer, yo! You all know Susan Gibson, and she put out her newest record "New Dog, Old Tricks" this year so it's eligible for album of the year. She's tops in any category you want to fit her into. Suggested Ballot: AUSTIN BAND OF THE YEAR: porterdavis AUSTIN MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR: Mike Meadows - porterdavis AUSTIN SONG OF THE YEAR: Perfect World - Susan Gibson AUSTIN ALBUM OF THE YEAR: New Dog, Old Tricks - Susan Gibson BLUES: porterdavis ROOTS ROCK: porterdavis FOLK: Susan Gibson FEMALE VOCALS: Susan Gibson MALE VOCALS: Daniel Barrett ELECTRIC GUITAR: Daniel Barrett ACOUSTIC GUITAR: Lloyd Maines DRUMS/PERCUSSION: Mike Meadows MISCELLANEOUS INSTRUMENT: Simon Wallace - harmonica SONGWRITER: Susan Gibson Go Vote! It makes a difference!

Because Terri Hendrix Rocks Like That

I got my Terri Hendrix CDs in the mail today...because I pre-ordered them because, well...WHY NOT!? The big news from Terri was that the pre-orders themselves paid for the recording and printing of these CDs and will pay for her NEXT record, too. That is amazing. In these times of record labels dropping artists and folding and freaking out because people are stealing music by burning a CD for their friends...Terri is the one still standing and still putting out awesome music...independent since 1996. Who's got the right idea?

Positively European

My new tool for the road is a "Euro Lap Desk" (that was what the package said anyway). It's a big piece of wood with padding on the bottom, so I can laptop in the van in style. I've also successfully used it as a writing desk and today I used it to eat a salad with no mishaps or spillage whatsoever. Truly, the Euro Lap Desk is a thing of beauty. What makes it "Euro"...we can't figure out. Maybe lap desks are big over there. Hello, mobile office. We're on our way to the White Elephant Saloon in Fort Worth...

It's Done. And other random updates.

Well...we have a mastered version of The Early Year that is going to be the one that everyone gets in their mailboxes, email boxes, on their computer speakers, and on their turntables. Ok, no turntables. We're not doing a vinyl release...yet, hehheh. I am proud of it. With a capital P! And there's the cover...woot! What is holding me up right now is that I am a little slow to comprehend the embedding of ISRC codes on the tracks, still...so I did not realize I needed to register with the RIAA before this could occur. So I am registering, and then we'll get the codes, which get embedded in the master, which gets shipped to Oasis for duplication. I hope this goes fast. Today is busywork day so I can get my PO box set up (as much as taking orders from my home address via the internet is appealing, haha) and file our paperwork for Bourn Records. And send a fax to the RIAA. Who has a fax machine these days? Oh, that's right...business people. (And Kinko's! Woot!) I am still all happy from last weekend at Threadgill's. Jamming on stage with Terri and Lloyd and Glenn was pretty much a highlight of my...forever. It's neat to think about the things I've been fortunate enough to do in my two years of living here. A lot of the above paperwork and business stuff is thanks to Terri and Lloyd and their never-ending sharing of smarts and experience. From the Life's A Song workshop last October to Terri letting me harass her and pick her brain all the time throughout this past year...it's good to have people who have your back. Dan and Suz and Terri and Lloyd are all really insanely integral parts of me as an artist and of this record...I hope it does them all proud. Thanks for the chance, kids.

Productive Trip

Back in Austin with my college buds Jamie and Mike. The 12 hour drive was punctuated by convenience store stops and a couple of detours in Lubbock and Abilene. Jamie had the joy of driving through the construction, but she navigated well! While in Albuquerque enjoying the family, business partner Josh and I also managed to squeeze in some quality productivity time. We signed the DBA for our Bourn Records label, so The Early Year will have a home. Keeps things tracked and accounted for easier. Why Bourn Records? The definition of "bourn", in an old timey (ok, archaic) translation, is "a destination or goal." We also liked that when you pronounce it, it sounds like the usual "born." So it covers the beginning and the goal of things and we like that. Cool. I also got my songwriting publishing paperwork in order through ASCAP, so now all my songs are published under Patient Grasshopper Music. Again, another term that Josh and I repeat to each other a lot. The last couple years have been full of meeting full of, "Wow, I wish we could fast forward to..." and the other one saying, "Patience, Grasshopper!" Lately stuff is moving at a good clip so we don't say it as much. I thought it would be a good reminder at all times, though...even songs come at a slow pace. That's cool. So...a record label and some publishing. Not bad for a week in Nuevo Mexico!

Learning from the Master

Postcards to hand out so people know The Early Year is on its way! Greetings from the mountains in New Mexico. I'm holed up outside of Albuquerque for a family reunion and there are good times all around, including games of speed Scrabble, green chile stew, hiking, and blue skies to the moon and back. Excellent! Thank goodness wifi extends to the outskirts of civilization, because we've been going back and forth with the very cool dude who is mastering The Early Year in Berlin, Germany. The wonders of the internet allow us to upload files and he sends them back, and nary an ocean crossed by either of us. Amazing. The past two days between fits of Scrabble and harassing my nieces and nephews, I've been cramming in a bunch of info about the mastering process. Apparently you embed ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) info into the master...which enables royalties to be tracked and tells your computer/iTunes/whatever info about what track is what. Makes sense. Lots of numbers and letters. Off to harass some more family members, haha...

Friday Randomization of Text

Greetings from my mechanic's waiting room, where they are cool enough to have wifi. No problems, just new belts for the car before I go to New Mexico in a week or so. No breaking down in the middle of somewhere! I think I'm dehydrated as I feel my face shriveling up while I type. That's interesting. To me, anyway. We're busy getting mastering of the EP all set up and ready to do, the artwork is coming along nicely, and I need to get some paperwork in line today. Filling out forms is ok if it's for something fun, I have decided. I am currently enthralled with Sugarland's new CD, "Love on the Inside." As I have mentioned before, they are one of my guilty Nashville pleasures, and they did a great job with this new record (please do not judge by the first single...it's summer fun but the rest goes a lot deeper). Jennifer Nettles' voice is fantastic. It's also neat that they released a version with bonus material FIRST, and will release the "normal" album in a few weeks. Usually artists release a record and then a year later you can buy the "Bonus Track" version which just makes the diehard fans buy things twice. This is the way forward, methinks. Don't mess with your fans.

Oh Corporate America.

Three Stories. Before I proceed, I will state that I totally love small businesses, hope to officially start one this year, and frequent them as much as possible. One of the many things Albuquerque and Austin have in common is embracing the small business owner and having a populace that is conscious about where they buy their goods. That being said, I have had 3 really awesome experiences with Corporate America lately, and had to share how one can learn from these peeps, too. Case 1: Starbucks. Ok, I'm a bit of a fangirl. I consume a lot of my Austin caffiene at the indie shops, where great people hang out and work, but when I want a cup to go with a predictable taste, I head for the Bucks. Plus, my sister lives in Seattle and I have visited both their headquarters and the first Starbucks store ever (on the Pier, check it out), so I feel an affinity. Plus their people are generally pleasant to talk to and get health benefits, so I respect that. Anyway, apparently a while back some of us registered Starbucks card holders (I know, nerd alert) had a day or so where our points were not available. This did not affect me in any way because I didn't try to use my card at that time. Lo and behold one day I get a package from Starbucks, and in it is an apology note for the card issue and a POUND OF ESPRESSO ROAST. Huzzah! That's how to treat a customer...one who didn't even know anything had gone wrong. Lesson: Go the extra mile without question and without exception. Case 2: Southwest Airlines. I usually fly Southwest because they're usually the cheapest and fly to cities I frequent. Their in-flight jokes are a welcome break from the generic safety lecture (I swear one flight attendant said, "If you are flying with more than one child and must choose which one to put an oxygen mask on first, please for the good of us all, choose the child with the most potential." Mwaha). So I was a little delayed getting out of Seattle this week because they had to fix a problem on the aircraft. Didn't bug me at all. In fact, I posted on Twitter: "made it back to austin with only one delay getting out of seattle. plane doodad fixing. good for them fixing the plane. i love southwest." It did not occur to me that I was Twitter friends with Southwest. It also did not occur to me that they would ever track Tweets about them. But they do, and Southwest wrote back: "We LUV you too. And glad to hear we have our doodads in order. Sorry for the inconvenience." Shucks. Lesson: the personal touch goes a long way to making a lifelong fan. Case 3...Oasis Disc Manufacturing. To be continued tomorrow because It's 3 AM. Right.

Another Weekend...

Another day of busking! The Rites of Spring Festival in Lockhart was fun...I played a set on the main stage and then headed over to my Artist Market buds and played for another couple of hours where they were set up. There was free kettle corn involved so I was pretty much stoked. Today was spent helping to prepare for the Red Leaf School of Music First Anniversary Show -- which, by the way, is NEXT Saturday, April 5th at 5 PM. Go go go. One whole year is great news for a new business! I also spent some time gathering paperwork to copyright a new batch of songs and such. So many forms. So many things to file. I need to get a DBA for a publishing company, too. Psyched. A little task but meaningful to me! I'll let you know what I'm naming my publishing company when I file it, because that means I can't change my mind haha. Tonight it's off to record the last bit for the EP. We wanted to be done with tracking by April 1, and it looks like our deadline is met. Good.

Milk and Cereal

This morning I realized I am almost out of Cheerios, after I had just bought a couple of cartons of soy milk (which is really soy juice but whatever). So within the next day or so it's off to the store (again) to get more cereal. Inevitably, because I don't care to gauge how many cups of cereal line up with the amount of milk I have...I will have to go to the store and buy more milk because I have extra cereal on hand. This got me to thinking about those two industries and their co-dependence. I don't know for sure, but you'd think that the cereal industry would invest mightily in the milk industry and vice versa. Different products entirely, but most people these days don't consume one without the other. The health of the milk industry is forever intertwined with the health of the cereal makers, and since we don't buy them in equitable amounts, the endless cycle of "out of milk need cereal / out of cereal need milk" continues. What is the milk to the music business' cereal? What do musicians invest in to ensure a forever? Or maybe music is one of those rare cereals that just tastes good on its own. Thoughts?

Thoughts on Branding a Business

Branding a business is a hard task to undertake. You don't just take an afternoon to hammer out a name, logo, and mission statement. I mean, I suppose you could and I'm sure it's happened, but Josh and I have been passing around thoughts and ideas concerning our new project for a couple of weeks now. Well, Josh sends me things and then I think about them and make suggestions, haha. I like my life. Anyway...we'll arrive at our whole package soon, I think. Makes me think about how musicians are a little luckier in the business-creation end of things. If you look at every album as a mini-business you are creating, there is a lot of space to change with each project. Instead of having to brand the album, you're almost expected to show up with something new every time. If McDonald's changed their sign or logo every week, customers would get confused. If a musician used the same album cover for every record, people would be confused. That's interesting to me. Granted, a musician DOES spend a certain amount of time cultivating an image that is consistent so the art doesn't have to be...but being a bit unpredictable is allowed in these circumstances. Maybe that's why we're being very careful about finding a business name, logo, and attitude for our project that sits well for a very long time. So there's freedom in the art and not the business behind it.

Digging the Career

There's a little article on MSN Careers about the fastest growing job sectors these days...Josh sent me the link and I was curious, because I am used to the list consisting of "medical care professional" and "civil engineer" and stuff because, well...we always need those. I like not sneezing and I like driving on bridges. I likes the bridges. So I was surprised to see things on this list like: agents and business managers music directors and composers film and video editors public relations managers and ...anthropologists which is kind of neat because the Sol Bourn Institute (we're working on our business plan now and it's a record label but So Much More) is all of that. Granted, we'll be an in-house kinda thing and not selling our PR skillz to major companies or anything, but it's nice to know where the trend is going. And yes, anthropology. As the article says, they, "study the origin, cultural development and behavior of humans, while archaeologists recover artifacts to gather information about humans." Sounds like a songwriter to me!

New Year, New Us.

The site looks a little different, except it's exactly the same. Allow for tweakage of the new design in the next week...and yes! Black and white is the new...black and white! Take note of the new Friends page...rather happy how that came out. Happy New Year, kids!

Morning Of: The JP Project 2007

Funny side note: I met up with J yesterday to catch up and plan for tonight and he plops down a Timbuk2 bag next to mine, one of his I had not seen before. They are twins! We must think alike. Anyway... We're up early and J and I will be erranding today to set up JP Project Number 2, with Susan as our very special guest. We're pretty psyched, because in our book...there is no cooler special guest than Susan Gibson. Here's the email we've been sending to RSVP'ers, all about this annual shindig: "What is this "project"? Last year my business partner Josh and I decided to throw a house concert for all the good peeps in Albuquerque because living in Austin really cramps my New Mexican social life. Plus, you all were essential in the forming of my singer/songwriter life - from coming to gigs to buying the records...some of you even came to guitar concerts when I was in high school. Whoa. Josh and I realized we have a huge network of supportive people and we want to thank you all. This is Year Two and we're very excited to make this an annual event, so that wherever we might be you all know that when November comes around we'll be rolling into town with a special guest. (We have good taste -- you'll always love our guests. :)" J's schedule this morning says "Year # 2 of 50" -- that's a lot of planning to do! Better get on this one. :)

The Importance of Mentors

j.Po's fingers of (on) fire. “Mentor: Someone whose hindsight can become your foresight.” - unattributed I can't speak enough of the great group of people in my life whom I call mentors. There's a separation between people who are simply inspiring to be around, those who are teachers, and those who are actually mentors...mentoring is all about the Verb, and it's a conscious choice on their part. Mentors usually focus on one area in your life, so it's different than just being raised "right" or your upbringing. You can have a mentor when you're 22 or 92, as far as I'm concerned. According to Wikipedia, famous Mentor/Mentee relationships include: * Socrates and Plato * Plato and Aristotle * Aristotle and Alexander the Great * Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot That's not bad company, really. I can honestly say I've never approached someone and said, "Hello. Be my mentor." It's more of a stumbling, the way I do things. You have to make sure you're going in the same direction and all that, because it's a big undertaking...usually that doesn't happen until you're working with your mentor-to-be in some other capacity. Maybe they start out as a teacher or a boss, but I've never met anyone with "Mentor" on their business card. :) It's a weird balance, too. There has to be a spark, I think. Then you have to be in a comfortable enough zone with this mentor (i.e. know them pretty well) so they can be brutally honest with you, and when they tell you positive things, you have to be able to believe them. I hate haaaaaate brutal honesty when it involves being told you have to change something or work on something (who doesn't?)...but if your mentor is coming from the right place it's essential to listen. My Life Guru and caretaker of general life quiddities happens to be my ex-boss, Karen. She fired me, sorta. She chose to give me no option of re-employment after I graduated from college so I'd go...I dunno, see things. And move to Austin. She was entirely correct. Once she also told me if I did not finish a research paper with an open-ended due date by "next Thursday," I wouldn't have to bother coming back to work until I did. I liked going to work. I finished the paper. I still check in just about every time I skate through Albuquerque. I've got an appointment for a chat over oatmeal in a couple weeks, in fact. Very excited. I guess my point is...if there's something you want to work on in life, and I don't care if it's music or writing or cooking or fixing your car yourself (not a bad idea, hm)...going at it alone is a rough time, and it doesn't have to be that way. Seek out opportunities, keep your eyes open, and stumble a little bit. Those wise and perceptive mentor-types will be looking out for you when you need it.

We Need Our Troubadours

I wasn’t there, but Bob Dylan by all reports blew into Austin, put on 2 amazing shows in 2 nights, having taken the ACL Festival goers to church all over again on Sunday night at Zilker Park. Someone also mentioned that Dylan probably gets $50,000 to play a gig like ACL. Whether that’s true or not, he gets something with that many digits in it, I am sure. I got to thinking...”Man. You get to be a musician of Dylan’s reputation, and you don’t even need to leave your house more than 5 times a year to gig.” Then I thought about the implications of that. Do I wish for that? I can’t even imagine having to make the choice, but look at Dylan. He tours all the time. I saw him back in 2006 in Albuquerque. It was, well...HIM. In the flesh, the poet laureate of folk music. Singing maybe 16 of his songs, when he could have sung 45 and still left us going, “But he didn’t sing...” And he messed around with them musically, some of them. This was no 1960’s folk revival -- there were dueling solos and organ licks. It was great, though. "Like A Rolling Stone" stirred something inside us, and "Blowin’ in the Wind" gave me goosebumps. I think it probably gives Dylan goosebumps, too, maybe...because he still tours. He doesn’t have to. He doesn’t have to rehearse endless hours, roll up and down the highway in a bus, and hang out in green rooms, but he does. This isn’t a business you get into to reach some magical monetary happiness point where you can “retire” and “stay home.” If you are a troubadour, if you are about music for the masses and lyrics for the soul...then by god you had better be taking it TO THEM. You’re not just working your way up the ladder of bar gigs and playing outside in 95 degree Texas heat because you want to hang it up when you’re 50. Some professions are like that, and that’s great. That’s a good end to a good life, too. But this one costs too much, in a good way, to want to put in your 25 and cash out. And we still need Dylan. We need our poet laureate to be out among us in America, seeing how it is and then telling how it REALLY is. The American songbook is the best sort of historical and cultural preservation we have, as well as the best call to change and improvement we can embrace. That’s no 9 to 5 job. In the dime stores and bus stations, People talk of situations, Read books, repeat quotations, Draw conclusions on the wall. Some speak of the future, My love she speaks softly, She knows there's no success like failure And that failure's no success at all. - Love Minus Zero/No Limit (Bob Dylan, 1965)

The Year Begins to End

That's it. That's all I have. Well, not all of it. But in the effort of not spoiling any possible surprises...this little graphic here is all I can post in terms of what my inspiration is for the blog redesign. This little bugger might not even exist by the time I'm done, but it's green and I like it. J and I decided that part of our "End O' the Year" wrapping up (our year ends in November because we figure cranking it out like mad people for 11 months calls for one off) will involve a fresh look here at jpo.com. Yes, we are already thinking about the end of the year, just like you are probably freaking out at the Halloween stuff in the stores already. I know I am. That's actually one of our built-in mantras for Sol Bourn (our record label and overall company name)...mental rests are essential for what we do. `It's not to say I won't gig in December. I mean, if Queen Elizabeth wants me to play a folkified version of Ave Maria at the palace Christmas party, who am I to say no? (Just call me, E. We'll work it out). But I digress... J and I started something last November that will officially become a Tradition this November...because we're doing it again! Do anything twice and it's an instant tradition, I say. On November 11, 2006 the Annual JP Project debuted at a house concert in Albuquerque with special guest Matt Jones, a mightily talented Burquean. It was an evening to give thanks to all the people who trekked to so many coffeehouse shows, who threw dollars and change in the tip jar, bought the CDs, who were supportive of this endeavor whether they met me when I was 12 or 22 (or perhaps raised me...my parents were there, too!). I had been living in Austin for 6 months, so it was a good time to return to the roost and say hello. This year the 2nd Annual JP Project is greenlighted. The details are coming, ABQ peoples...no worries. The Special Guest is rarin' and set to go, and this time it's a Texan. The hors d'oeuvres...well, we haven't made them yet because it's still 2 months away and that would be gross. I'm ready. Now if I could just get my little green graphic to sprout wondrous blog inspiration, we'd be set!

The Labor List :: Things Are Speeding Up

The homework just keeps piling up, in a good way! Here's what's on my To Do List for the next couple of months: - start recording the new album...woot! - write new songs for that new album. One hopes. - brush up on lead guitar for gigs backing up Amanda Pearcy (one being at Waterloo Icehouse this coming Saturday night...see the calendar for specs). - get ready for another set of gigs in New Mexico! Hearts and flowers all over. - Shows in San Antonio and Houston...watch it, Texas. I'm gunnin' for ya. - Prepping for the Life's A Song Workshop. - All those usual gigs still happening. - I'm trying to re-design the website. This could take 3 days or 3 years. Haha. I'm aiming for maybe a month. Ample time for inspiration and execution. So ideally, I will be laboring on labor day...but in a laid back, end of summer kind of day. Everyone drink a beer in my honor. Or a root beer. Even better.

The Mysterious J

Filming our first video at UNM... I guess I should actually let you all in on the "J" that I reference so much in this blog. He's the quiet, behind-the-scenes sort, and his goal in our venture is to never be recognized by face, only by accomplishment. J and I met as interns at PBS when we were in college. The first day we worked together, J gave me a ride home because I was oh-so-carless. I knew right then he was the right sort to be working with. It didn't take long...I would say about 3-4 months into our internship, before we had big plans for road tripping and making documentaries and touring the country. I think some people thought we were a bit naive about making our living creating art. However, a couple years later and a few thousand miles traveled across New Mexico and to Austin and back a few times...our business partnership is on track and growing at a rate we can't even fathom. We are tackling the issue of living in separate states, but the glory of the internet makes it all possible. We've got an online office, we can video conference if we want, and we realize the connections we are forming in both New Mexico and Texas are essential to our company's future. J is now working for PBS and pioneering New Media there, and is the Web 2.0 Guru in my book. In an interview, Mary Chapin Carpenter once described her friend/producer/guitarist John Jennings as her "most necessary friend." I immediately thought of J when I heard that. I know that music is a hard business, and I know being an entrepreneur is tough as well...and I can't imagine anyone I'd rather tackle the whole shebang with than J. Keep an eye out for the Mysterious J when you see us on the road...but no guarantees you'll be able to spot him!

Lefsetz's Reality is Right

Tell 'em, Bob. Bob Lefsetz has it down. He's a veteran of music biz analysis, and in fact "The Lefsetz Letter" has been publishing for the past two decades. That's a lot of one-hit wonders. I've been following his music business blog for a while (which was formerly print, because as on it as he is, Bob was not blogging in 1987), and most recently have been thrilled by his exuberance for country music. He's got a multitude of posts about Keith Urban and Nashville songs which capture my sentiments about love for the Nashvillian style. I always go for a good song about driving and roads (and Wide Open Spaces, of course). Susan Gibson sings the "real" Wide Open Spaces. Anyway! Bob's post earlier this week about "The New Reality" really hit home to J and I as we are in the daily trenches of navigating not only the music-life but the Web 2.0-life as well...and figuring out the best way to join the two. He's right when he says all the trackback links in the world won't give us economic stability. We know we have to have our "stuff" together in terms of...well, I have to be a musician. We can't build a business around an artistic pursuit that we're not very good at. That's my own daily battle. Something I fight with intention, folk music grad school, to-do lists, and old fashioned inspiration. J has the same deal, too. He works in pioneering New Media forms (blogs, web content, networking, community) at a very old media kind of television station. (BETA, anyone? BETA does rock). He's getting skills that are the nuts and bolts of any type of visual media form, but he's learning how to apply them in 2007 terms. And 2015 terms. And 2050 terms. It's swell. He blogs about his life in the trenches over on New Media in the Land of Mañana. In the meantime what are we to rely on? Music is getting cheaper, and free...and that's fine. No one like me wants to (or would be asked to) sign a major label deal. (I'm not one for a complete personality remake and a quick trip to rehab. Ooo, snap). Short answer: we rely on YOU. If you're reading this blog, J and I have a dream of a livelihood that involves you. We're a community. Maybe you know us personally. Maybe you like a song or two or lots (thanks!). Maybe you are totally on board with our plan to tour the country in a bio-diesel bus. Whatever level we connect on, J and I appreciate that immensely. We need you along for the ride. We can promise you, our Rider-Alongers, these things: - an honest pursuit of music and writing...I'm just going to be me, and J is just J. - an appreciation of you as a member of our community. - cool t-shirt designs, because EVERYONE needs a cool shirt. - our response will be to give back. We want to be teachers and good stewards of our gifts. - a lot of not sleeping, a lot of driving, a lot of eye-straining, a lot of finger-bleeding...good times! Hard work is ok by us. - probably some other stuff, too, like Caribbean vacations and diamond encrusted belt buckles...but we'll stop there for now. Like Bob says, "The hardest part is getting noticed." Thanks for noticing. Really. Technorati Tags: lefsetz, music, musicbusiness, community, web2.0, nashville

What if libraries were never born?

Sniffle. I fondly remember the days when I'd go trekking up the hill in the blazing heat of Albuquerque, past open fields of prairie dog holes and a Circle K...to visit the public library. Well, sometimes mom would drive me, too. And it was only a few blocks. I digress. Over on the Freakonomics blog, there's an interesting post about what would happen today if libraries had never existed and we tried to create one as a brand new previously unheard of endeavor. What? Give away books for FREE? Let people use, savor, and internalize their content without paying for it? Multiple times? Yeah, they're right. It would never fly. The big publishing houses and the big box booksellers and oh...I dunno, Clear Channel would probably all freak out and lobby lobby lobby and demand that every book be paid for before any valuable information could be leached from its pages...all in the best interests of the authors, of course. (::cough cough:: and their own pockets ::cough cough::) While we have libraries, and I've been expanding my brain on the good words of poets and novelists and essayists and historians for years, this debate is wild and a'ragin' (like that? That's a fake word with TWO apostrophes in it. Probably picked it up from a book in the library) over in the land of Music+Commerce. Should music be free? Books can be read for free. Why can't we listen to a CD for free? Why is the RIAA so concerned with nickle and diming every last cent out of every album sale? Why have they wasted so much time, effort, and customer loyalty on lame encryption that actually gives people's computers a security defect? I'll give you a hint: it's not because they're concerned the songwriter on track 9 won't get paid for the CD sale. Am I SAYING CDs should be free? Not at all. That would be like shooting my foot while it's in my mouth...or something. I hope to make some dough from my art on discs. (Or perhaps my art in files...downloaded by you in your PJs. Whatever works.) That's part of being a musician. Some of us don't like to admit it, but we pay rent and eat Ramen, too. But but but -- much like Freakonomics argues that libraries do several things to help the book industry -- like foster lifelong readers who buy books, introducing people to new authors, letting people just try things out...this can be said of music. too. Maybe I won't buy a random CD off a shelf just because the cover is pretty...but what if my friend emailed me a track and I liked it? I would buy the rest, or go looking for more by that artist. Or even just buy that track, which is $0.99 more spent on that band than would have been if I had never been exposed...for free. Maybe iTunes making it to easy to hack up an album into bits is bad...I am a big believer in the album as a whole entity. Then again, if a crowd of 1000 hears me play a song, and 400 people go home and download that track for a buck, that's awesome. Those 400 people probably wouldn't all have laid down $15 for a full CD, but with the download model I've got my song in 400 new heads. Am I losing money? Am I gaining exposure? Which is better? A wise person once told me, "You can die from exposure, not from too much cash." This is true, I guess. There's no definitive opinion to end this blog post tonight, folks. I'm just thinking out loud.

Impact of a No Impact Life

Colin Beaven is No Impact Man...he's trying out a year of living in New York City without making any negative impact on the environment. That means, according to his site, "no trash, no carbon emissions, no toxins in the water, no elevators, no subway, no products in packaging, no plastics, no air conditioning, no TV, no toilets…" Yeah, I know. It's impressive. He's not going cold turkey on consumption, but he's been whittling away at things one at a time. His apartment no longer has electricity. He stomps his laundry in the bathtub. He has a box of worms that compost things. Colin's got a wife, a 2 year old daughter, and a dog. They're all no impacting, too. While I am definitely looking to simplify my life, get rid of possessions I don't need and not acquire new ones...and while I think being vegan is a really good way of being healthy, respecting the planet, and decreasing your footprint left on the planet (which I am still trying to be hardcore about but I'm not lately and I just need to DO IT already because I've already been basically a vegetarian since the 90 Day experiment except for when I'm weak but we're GETTING THERE OK?, haha)...I could not do what Colin is doing. Well, I guess I could, but I'm not going to. However, Colin posted something that rang true to J and I. We are trying to build a company that covers a multitude of goals: - work for ourselves - create art and put it out into the world - further the careers of other artists we believe in - travel and see the world -- and enjoy and appreciate everything in it - be happy to wake up every day Plus others, but I need to save some for other blogging material, haha. So anyway, sometimes I feel like we sound pretty pie-in-the-sky-optimistically-naive to people. Music and business and happiness and positive impact...well la de dah, right? Guess what, folks? Someone's gotta do it. J and I will. And we'll miss out on some things for it. Like someone paying our benefits for us, and sleep, and going home at 5 PM every night and not working weekends...but we're cool with that because we love this. And we're glad that by reading this blog post, you're along for the ride. Grab a bag of pretzels and settle in. What measures happiness? Colin posted this in his blog not long ago and it rang true to us...so don't worry about our pies and our skies, because I think we'll be just fine. :) "As for the personal or individual level, members of the new branch of the psychological profession who call themselves "positive psychologists" say that we are on a "hedonic treadmill." We earn more to spend more and then have to earn more to spend more and then…We get a quick burst of pleasure from our purchases but no long term increase in happiness. Meanwhile, many are stressed by working all the hours to do jobs they don't believe in with people they don't care for. Increases in the baselines of our happiness, it turns out, don't come from money once you've achieved an income equivalent of something like $40,000. What the positive psychologists say happiness does come from, on the other hand, is strong interpersonal relationships, doing what you are naturally good at, living a life that is in accord with your values, and achieving meaning by connecting to something larger than yourself." - No Impact Man

A Backstage Pass to Democracy

Rock Star gets off stage after pouring heart and soul out to a collection of thousands of followers...proceeds to tour bus and sits down at the computer. Rock Star blogs about what happened that night, uploads a video clip from the evening that was just imported in, and clicks "Publish." Instantly, not only can those followers who were there re-live that night and pass it around...but the entire globe can be there, too. The entire population of the planet now has a chance to see what occurred on stage in New Hampshire...via text from the performer and video of it happening...via a link to a Flickr profile with accompanying photos...via a friend request on Myspace or Facebook. Instantly. The life of a musician? Of course. But I was actually talking about Bill Richardson, the Governor of New Mexico who is running for President. Bill's got some hilarious campaign ads up on Youtube. And a Myspace profile. And a Flickr photo pool. And a blog. Welcome to Campaign 2008, Web 2.0 Style. This is true democracy, people. Sure, America has always been a republic. We elect our leaders. (Well, some of us do). But there's always a been a bit of a wall between us -- the voters -- and them...those who do the actual decision-making. Sure, we give input. We write our letters to our Congresspeople and we get a form letter back from an aide and we hope that our opinion was tallied in a memo that the representative maybe read before going to vote on some issue. And if they vote against our views on an issue? We write another letter, or maybe an email...and maybe our dissent gets tallied again in the next memo. But what about this internet thing? Could it be that all of these crazy tools musicians use -- and lots of other people in lots of other fields -- are finally breaking into that stodgy, long-curtained-off backroom of politics? The inner workings of our nation...up on Youtube? The guy who might be in the Oval Office...in a Flickr pool? This is your backstage pass, America. And guess what? We control our VIP status. The more feed subscriptions Bill gets? The more he'll blog! The more Facebook friend requests he has, the more interactive his campaign will be. That translates into...the more input you have on your Presidential candidate...in real, immediate time. Remember that news story last week about how Digg almost collapsed under a revolt brought on by its own users, doing the very thing Digg is designed to do? (When people like an article/think it is informative/whatever...they can Digg it...and the articles with the most Diggs rank higher. Very democratic). That's an example of the population being able to actually sway the usually behind-closed-doors-type company into changing policy...in MERE HOURS. It did not take a board meeting, a bylaws re-write, a vote, an addendum, another vote, ad nauseum to get Digg to change its policy. It knew what its constituents wanted immediately, and reacted in kind. Apply this to our politicians...put them in the light, shine the warm glow of Web 2.0 on them...and see how they operate when they can actually see all of the voter's faces looking right at them and paying attention.