Like I've said, I love this time of year. I love the feeling of resolutions and new beginnings. Perhaps that's because, so far, every year of my life has been better than the last. Even the hard years, and this was a hard year for me personally (as well a hard year elsewhere in the world).
Though the years are more and more delightful, I'm never sorry to bid them farewell. I like dusting the old year off my fingers and turning my face toward the new.
I have a mission: to be able to continue living my life as a musician without burning out. You see, I flamed out as a musician in my 20s and stopped doing it for over 10 years. Performing was too painful and scary. And I was too fragile.
I'm a much stronger person now than I was all those years ago, but still, I know I need to take care. This business can be discouraging. It's a hard living to make. It involves quite a lot of vulnerability and rejection, and it can be lonely, in between the periods of intense connection. The financial sacrifices can be a little hard to take, too.
Some days, it's easy to think: "What the heck am I doing? Why don't I go get a nice office job and sit on my backside for a guaranteed salary?"
But that's not the life I want.
What this job takes in terms of money, energy and (sometimes) heartache, it more than pays back in creativity, freedom and (sometimes) elation.
This year, as part of my burn-out prevention plan, I'm getting rid of all the "should"s.
"You should apply there, you should play at that festival, you should, should, should...."
When I have the energy, I'm going to humbly ask people for opportunities to play. But when I don't have that energy, I'm not going to worry about it. I'm just going to work at my craft and focus on becoming a better musician, a better songwriter, a better singer.
I'm going to nurture my light. And shine.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Friday, December 28, 2012
2012 Retrospective
What a year it's been.
I love this time of year. Looking back over the past. Looking forward to the future.
I love resolutions and plans. And every year I get better at taking time to absorb and appreciate the good things that have happened, as well as the lessons I've learned.
This year was full of happy shows and fun times visiting with friends, new and old(er) in the Nova Scotia music business.
Some of the most special shows were in intimate settings, like Fables in Tatamagouche. I played a show there in February for Freedom to Read Week, where I challenged myself to fight off my inner censor and sing some of the songs that scare me. I was really nervous, but the warm crowd at Fables cheered me on.
I also played for the first time at Cove Music in Sandy Cove, NS. I had never been to that part of the province before and was moved by the friendliness of my hosts and the beauty of the spot. I can hardly wait to go back when I have enough to time to continue on down Digby Neck to Brier Island.
I had a great time playing at the LaHave Folk Festival and helping to organize the Pennybrook Folk Festival. At Pennybrook Festival, I heard one of the greatest things I've ever heard: Adam Iredale-Gray of Fish & Bird playing a fiddle-to-cockadoodle-doo-et with Pennybrook Farm's rooster.
I also played some truly awful gigs this year. If I learned anything, finally, it's that I'd rather play fewer shows than pad out my schedule with gigs at restaurants where the audience is talking loudly over me and the staff wouldn't dream of asking them to take it down – just by 30 or 40 decibels to let the people who want to listen do so. I've had enough of that to last a life-time.
No, it's listening audiences for me!
Like the beautiful audience of over 90 people who packed out the hall in West Dublin for my CD launch show. We had a full band on stage with me, Jude Pelley, Jordi Comstock, Jim Bell and Liam Finney. My beautiful friends and neighbours, Pennybrook, opened the show. We had a whizz-bang celebration to launch Blackbirds, my 3rd CD, that had started months before at The Old Confidence Lodge in Riverport. People are still talking about that show.
I'm looking forward to giving people more things to talk about in 2013. What about you? What are your magical moments from 2012?
I love this time of year. Looking back over the past. Looking forward to the future.
I love resolutions and plans. And every year I get better at taking time to absorb and appreciate the good things that have happened, as well as the lessons I've learned.
This year was full of happy shows and fun times visiting with friends, new and old(er) in the Nova Scotia music business.
Some of the most special shows were in intimate settings, like Fables in Tatamagouche. I played a show there in February for Freedom to Read Week, where I challenged myself to fight off my inner censor and sing some of the songs that scare me. I was really nervous, but the warm crowd at Fables cheered me on.
I also played for the first time at Cove Music in Sandy Cove, NS. I had never been to that part of the province before and was moved by the friendliness of my hosts and the beauty of the spot. I can hardly wait to go back when I have enough to time to continue on down Digby Neck to Brier Island.
I had a great time playing at the LaHave Folk Festival and helping to organize the Pennybrook Folk Festival. At Pennybrook Festival, I heard one of the greatest things I've ever heard: Adam Iredale-Gray of Fish & Bird playing a fiddle-to-cockadoodle-doo-et with Pennybrook Farm's rooster.
I also played some truly awful gigs this year. If I learned anything, finally, it's that I'd rather play fewer shows than pad out my schedule with gigs at restaurants where the audience is talking loudly over me and the staff wouldn't dream of asking them to take it down – just by 30 or 40 decibels to let the people who want to listen do so. I've had enough of that to last a life-time.
No, it's listening audiences for me!
Like the beautiful audience of over 90 people who packed out the hall in West Dublin for my CD launch show. We had a full band on stage with me, Jude Pelley, Jordi Comstock, Jim Bell and Liam Finney. My beautiful friends and neighbours, Pennybrook, opened the show. We had a whizz-bang celebration to launch Blackbirds, my 3rd CD, that had started months before at The Old Confidence Lodge in Riverport. People are still talking about that show.
I'm looking forward to giving people more things to talk about in 2013. What about you? What are your magical moments from 2012?
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