I played fulltime for four years. It had its ups and downs, major down being the essential loneliness of solo touring on a tight budget. This is the major risk of road work. You must make yourself attractive to win over the audience, but avoid entanglements at the same time. It is a fine line.

It is a 100-hour-a-week job if you do it right. When you are not actually performing, you are looking for work, or chasing payment for previous shows, or trying to get ink from jaded music writers, or...it never stops.

What helped me was having official status. I got onto the artist roster of our state arts commission, and did a lot of school residencies in between road tours. Grant money was available for some trips.

Advice? Start a year ahead of time setting up your first tour. Expect to lose money on it. Learn to love beans right out of the can. Spend your second year touring AND setting up your next year's work.

If you are lucky, you will find an agent. I never did. Agencies generally avoid solo singer/songwriter acts because we are low-end and don't do weddings and bar mitzvahs.

If you have ANY other skills, fulltime music should be your second choice. I only went out on the road due to a back injury that kept me from working in the mines. I played music while I learned another way to make a living.

Much nicer balance is to have a fulltime day profession with a few weeks off each year to go out and perform.

You have to be engaging and accessible, while staying on your own side of the boundaries. Kind of a tightrope walk, isn't it?

Like walking a tightrope carrying a piano.

I was a full-timer for 16 years but spent most of that time working as a sideman in fairly commercial country music. Although I'm a folkie by orientation, I decided that earning my living as a musician was more important to me than scraping by creating great art (which, in reality, I may not have been able to do).

Advice: if you feel like you have to do it, do it. You CAN go home again. Learn stuff: know more than you think you need to about equipment. Don't allow yourself to be victimized by incompetent sound people and shaky equipment. Make sure that there's a market for yout skills: who's doing what you see yourself doing? Is there room in a market for your talent? Do you have to create the market (are you prepared to do so?)?

Jim Pipkin addressed the loneliness issue eloquently. Obviously, it's a very different story for soloists than for side musicians. In any case, it's great to have a safe haven to return to. Through my 20s and into my early 30s, I lived in a house full of good, smart, talented musicians (who also had a talent for friendship). These guys (one of them was Pat Donohue so it kept me from feeling overly cocky about my instrumental prowess) kept me grounded andI was in a situation which allowed me to discuss the vagaries of professional picking with people who truly understood it (in a way that people outside the biz tend not to).

I'm a part-timer now but the long period of playing 200-250 gigs a year means that now, in my early 50s, I still get to work with big-name acts where I live (Switzerland). Doing the full-timer thing is scary but I know very few (but some!) people who took the plunge and regret it.

I've been rambling (sorry) but in summary: ask yourself how much you want it; know the market you want to enter (ask lots of questions); plan; know equipment (yours and that you're likely to encounter); go for it!

Stephen

All of the above advise rings absolutely true. It's lonely, and you have to keep your head on straight all the time. How different is it for a women, I can't answer, and maybe some FA input from some on the playlist/rotation might be able to give you some insight.

I don't know your style of playing Joan, but it's my opinion folkies have it a bit tougher, especiallly the poetic, literate types whose music isn't particularly suited for bars.

You might want to consult the Magic 8 ball.

Stephen, that kind of fulltime pro time must have done fantastic things for your playing ability. I expect your chops these days are all the better for that sustained total immersion.

Yes, Joshua, you have me pegged, ouch. A fingerpicking, folkie, sensitive singer/songwriter type. Its hard to envision what kind of bar that would work in, and what they'd have to be drinking -- absinthe, probably.

For myself, the urge to take it on the road pretty much subsided once the new day job materialized! But the fantasy festers on, and Jim's thought about planning out your first year a year in advance makes a lot of sense.

I played both types of venues, and it cost me. On a couple of important shows I forgot which crowd I was playing to. In one instance a lot of bar fans came out to a show I was opening for some big names I will not drop here.

Man, was that a disaster. I played to the first three rows - and alienated the back ten!

Oops. Needless to say the promoter dropped me right of the ol' Christmas list.

would like to know more about the online open mic... i consider myself to be a "folk poet" www.lgjaffe.com.

ml,
larry

Hi Larry,

We're currently working on getting the Folk Alley On-line Open Mic up and going. We received great feedback and ideas from our earlier post, but we're still a month or two away from launching. We'll give everyone a heads up when we're ready to move forward. The rough plan is to allow unsigned, developing artists to upload their original material in MP3 form. We haven't thought about 'folk poets,' but sure, we'll consider designating a category for that. It's a good idea. There's some great cowboy poetry out there -- Stephanie Davis's "The Spotted Ass" leaps to mind. Check out her site: http://www.stephaniedavis.net/lyrics.htm

All the best, Linda

Hi Joan,
I'm a woman who toured the "folk circuit" nationally for over a decade and first and foremost I would advise you to take the leap if you really want to! What's the worst that can happen? You may find out that it's not for you and go back to your day job...But having never tried would be infinitely worse.
That being said, it is not exactly a pleasure cruise to tour that circuit, particularly for a woman. And that's not because it's dangerous or laden with drunks throwing beer bottles at the stage...Generally it's because the folk circuit is notoriously notorious for underpaying musicians--Embarrassingly underpaying them. Additionally, folkies are either reluctant or paranoid about conducting their shows in a business-like way which makes for, well, poorly run venues and series. Yes, this is a generalization, but that's because it's generally true. There are some gems out there too; you just need to know where to look.
And there is a pretty strong undercurrent of sexism when it comes to hiring female performers. Take a look at any lineup for festivals or series and you'll get the picture. I don't think this sexism is by any stretch intentional or mean; it's just a fact. Female musicians are still looked upon as "female" musicians. Men typically prefer male musicians and 95% of the time it's a man doing the hiring.
BUT...you should at least give it a summer or a year. You won't regret it, that I can guarantee! The plusses far outweigh the minuses. If you're mostly looking for the experience of doing it and the love of music, you must do it..it'll be fun. If you're thinking of making a living at it, I'd still give it a shot, but it may not be as much fun.

Good luck!!!

Its tough at the top but the first step is the one that counts. Be cool,without letting anyone take you for granted. You will soon know what it all means to YOU which is all that matters really. Enjoy it and good luck,trust yourself.

On the other end of the equation, I am part of a non-profit venue that is constantly looking for very-good to excellent acts to showcase. My suggestion would be to produce a demo C.D. and send a copy to any venue you can contact(go to links on this web-site and branch out from there). If the others are like us, they will then ask where you are appearing near enough for one or two to come and hear you live. Check out the websites of all you can. and try to schedule enough venues in one geographical location so you aren't dashing from Connecticut to Vancouver and back to Vermont.

Good Luck...Martha

Here's another note. While I don't generally approve of free gigs, the big exceptions are those small folk societies and listening rooms with a commitment to the craft. These venues can be your best chance to pick up gas money (via CD sales) between wealthier venues where less attention is paid to your music.

In short, they come under the "kin and friends" clause. If you can afford to, help them out.

my brush with the pro music industry has left me feeling that a hobby is a passion, but real passion is blind you cant stop yourself. Either do it or dream but remember keep your options open and say yes and you will be there i had 18 months of a residency same place same time audience different good bad and indifferent its hard work but i wouldnt change the experiance the only thing you have to loose is your inebitions have a go but do the ground work .