datamusicata

It’s Monday, June 30, 2008, and I just got back from an east coast tour last night.  Saturday, I was in Smithfield, VA for a benefit concert at the Smithfield Little Theatre for the Isle of Wight Arts League, an organization helmed by Jim Abricht, whom I met at the last national Folk Alliance conference in Memphis in February.

Jim is a wonderful fellow who knows how to promote a concert. I had never played there before, and so had little constituency, but he beat the bushes, created a press buzz and got a crowd in there …and raised some money for his organization to boot.

To get back to the Folk Alliance for a moment, I want to bring up the point that going to these conferences, you meet people who get what you do and might actually hire you to do it. So once again, being a member of the Folk Alliance and attending the conference helped me get a gig.

And the thing is, at these conferences you can meet and network with a large variety of people. I personally enjoy connecting with people and what I do is to look for people with whom I can actually do that…connect.

I don’t support being obsequious and kissing up to those that can give you work or further your dream in some way. I look not only for people that I can genuinely connect with amongst those that are there and could help me, but anyone who’s music or persona moves me, regardless of their influence. Being genuine simply makes for a rich and rewarding life experience, and everything comes from that.

If you do the work and are prepared, the opportunities will present themselves. If you don’t do the work and aren’t prepared then you blow the opportunity.

And yes, there are those who do the work and are prepared and who also seem to know who to kiss up to and do it with a remarkably sincere presentation. Maybe they mean it, who knows? I only know that my jackass barometer rarely fails me and when I ignore it, I usually regret it.

Now back to the Smithfield concert. First, I came in a day early, which I like to do I possibly can. This time, I made a fatal error and left Philadelphia by car at 1:30 pm. At 3:00 pm, I was in Baltimore and by 3:30 pm, I was in Washington, DC, where I sat on the beltway until 6:15 when I finally got to Fredericksburg, a scant fifty miles away.

That’s right. Three hours to drive fifty miles. So here’s the lesson that I have to keep learning. Pay attention to traffic patterns and local traffic info. Also ask people and always remember that on a Friday afternoon you are going to be sharing the road with everyone who got off early or on time, or who shaved a little off their workday to beat the traffic on POET’S Day, as the English say. That’s an acronym for “piss off early, tomorrow’s Saturday.

Leaving after lunch on a Friday is also something I wouldn’t have done if it were the day of the concert. I had personal business to attend to and consequently couldn’t leave Philadelphia until after lunch. I knew I was letting myself in for some traffic, but I had no idea what gridlock the nation’s capital had turned into. Makes me wonder why the politicians who work there don’t notice and do something about it: staggering the work schedule perhaps, or instigating more public transportation.

But I digress. The short version of today’s post is to be aware of traffic patterns and give yourself enough time to deal with them in a stressless manner. Due to the fact that it took me nine hours to drive to Smithfield, I got there too late to sit in with anyone to promote my date and also arrived too late and too fried to do my Friday post.

Fortunately, I had all day Saturday to promote my show and I did so by going over to the Farmers Market and doing a few songs on the stage set up there and also going over to the Smithfield Times concert space and sitting in with my old friend and well known folk musician and folklorist, Bob Zentz (www.bobzentz.com) for much of his two hour show, which also featured Jeanne McDougal.