New Song Every Week ......week 2

Well, last week's email campaign and blogfest has opened up my inbox and message machine to quite a barrage of incoming comments. It's nice to hear that people are actually reading the page and listening to the music. The Internet is so impersonal that it's hard to know that there's actually anyone out there. Nine out of ten times I feel like I'm just writing to myself. Maybe I should start responding to myself. Asking myself questions about my inspiration. Telling myself that my songs suck and I should give up writing and go back to being a drunk waiter. I could start doing happy hour gigs at local pubs and play "Margarittaville" and "Free Bird". Maybe some one would request "Brown Eyed Girl"....god do I love to play that song.

Anyway, I had a great conversation yesterday about writing, playing gigs and following your dream. This here business will beat you up and spit you out and turn you into a real jerk if you let it. I've played my share of shows to no one in the middle of nowhere. Seriously, me and the bartender. The only reason he was there was because it was his job. BUT, that's not the point. The point is that I was following my dream......actually living my dream. I have travelled around the country and parts of Europe playing MY music for strangers. I've made some great friends in places a lot of people will never go. I've been back to small towns several times and watched the crowd grow with each time I return. I've heard my songs on the radio. I've received messages from people who had seen me play telling me that a song of mine really touched them. I've had strangers shout out requests for my songs at shows in foreign countries.

I am not only following my dream, but I am doing exactly what I was put on he earth to do. I will never get rich doing it. I, however, feel like I am the luckiest person on the planet to be able to clearly identify my purpose. To not only be clear about what I want to be when I grow up, but also to be able to maintain the focus and drive to follow through with becoming that. There are not many people who can say that. I am truly blessed.

I, of course, still dream of being famous and having people line up to see me play. Mothers, Fathers, Sons and daughters lining up to get my autograph after a show. Booking agents calling me asking me to play at their club. I dream about nice hotel rooms and a driver for my tour bus. Shooting a video on the beach in Hawaii and taking the band to Amsterdam for a "Post-Tour" party weekend. I think that it's CRUCIAL to dream. I believe that once you stop dreaming, you die. I am grounded in reality, but I keep my eye on the sky. I think that the most important part about being human is realising that YOU have the potential to be what you want to be. For me it's clear and I'm being that. I am a songwriter. I play shows for people who line up to buy CDs (or beer...I usually set up my merch table near the bar). I make records. One day some one will find one of my CDs, probably still in the shrink-wrap, and they'll put it in some kind of digital rejuvenation machine to decode the ancient medium and play it. I have left my very small mark on the world. I am fulfilling my soul and I am a part of the culture of humanity. I am part of the pulse of the artistic community.

Got to go!
JR