Big Decisions

About a month ago a band, who will remain nameless, put out feelers for a multi-instrumentalists. My boyfriend was contacted and invited to meet one of the band members for a casual audition in Atlanta. All went well and he was later invited to join the band at a music festival where they would be playing. It was incredibly exciting considering the success of this band and there was already talk of him joining them on tour and making some real money. About a week after he returned from playing with them at the festival he got a phone call from the lead vocalist informing him that they wanted to make him a permant fixture in the band. There was a catch though, if he was to join the band he would have to dedicate himself solely to this one project. There could be no moonlighting of any kind. It seemed a bit harsh to me, especially considering that they had yet to give him any sort of guaruntee concerning money.
Now here is the kicker...the band isn't very good. They get plenty of gigs but it is almost solely on account of the lead vocalist's connections. This fall he was already planning on touring with an environmental folk group. He loves to play with them but they don't really make any money. Now he has to choose between playing with a group that has talent and who he enjoys being with or a group that could possible further his career but that would be unrewarding in any other way. As an artist it seems that he should really stay with the group with talent but in today's world, where the word industry is always tacked on to the word music, is he really an artist? Also, to what extent can anyone stick with their principles while trying to succeed in their field?
I don't know the answer's to these questions but they seem to follow us around. In the end he decided to join the talentless band but was then saved from this decision by being replaced by someone who lived closer to the band's home base. Part of me wanted to criticize him but then he did what most of us do. He decided to save principles for easier times.

The Lies They Tell

Constant travel, free room and board, the girls, the lights, the drugs. "Oh, to be a musician!" Right? What people forget to mention when they tell a young boy that he has talent is that the road to stardom is absolutely filled with potholes that you may never pull your way back out of. You may get a free meal at the show but then you spend the next twelve days eating beans and rice breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And before you arrive anywhere in a limo you have to weld the front end of your car back together after your lead vocalist side-swipes it with the van. I'm not making this up, he even spray painted the brackets so they would match the car (very classy). I know all of this from first hand experience because I had the bad luck to fall in love with a young musician.
He plays the guitar, banjo, slide guitar, bass and pretty much anything else with strings as long as you give him a minute to figure out how to hold it. When I first met him he had spiked black hair, skin tight pants and liked to sport a dog collar. He played lead guitar in a punk rock band shouting out lyrics about the government and equal rights. He was pissed off (it's hard being a middle class white kid in the south). These days he has traded in the dog collar for flannel and spends his life in worship of Bela Fleck. A lot has changed except for one thing, it's still all about the music.
His tunnel vision and artistic longing seem terribly romantic but in reality his life is about as romantic as a trip to Walmart. I recently checked out the blog adamthedrummer.blogspot.com. He talks about stealing WiFi from Krystal and crossing his fingers over a job at UPS while anticipating an audition at the Atlanta Instititute of Music. As I said it is not a glamourous life and me and my guy have also spent our fair share of time sitting in fast food parking lots checking our email, hoping and praying for some good news.