rejection -- as a musician -- how you do handle it????

[huckleboogie]

the great Sherman Robertson (possibly the BEST Texas electric blues guitar player alive) told me something once.

"Don't wish for the blues, Bobby.....you might get it"

he was right, as usual.....

ah, You met Sherman?? i tour with a blues lady from Michigan, and we shared the bill with him couple of times in europe! great musician and super nice guy!
small world

[GDKing]

A few years back we played a festival to 10,000+ people only to play a club the following night to 8 people.That kills ya more I think.It is a funny business.

That is why I got an agent and just do corporate and private party functions now. No more weddings, no more bars no more crap.

I am in two bands, one band does 80s-90s alternative set (pixies, nirvana, cure, REM etc) and the other band does psychedelic rock (DMB, Phish, Dead, ABB). Both bands are the same people but have 2 different band names. We do not mix the two the people hire one or the other.

Specializing gets us a lot more money. We play 3-4 gigs a month total between both bands a lot more around Christmas, usually like 9 or 10. I would have to play literally 20 bar gigs or more to make the same dough I make at 4 of these gigs, the people that are hiring me are responsible for the crowd there not me so if nobody shows up it is no skin off my ass and I am already paid. I hate that feeling of dread when 10 people are at the bar and I am waiting til the end of the night for whatever BS excuse the bartender has for shortchanging me for lack of people.

After 20 years of doing this I finally realized if you price and present yourself like a whore people treat you as such. Get a good package, demo and get a niche you can live with (if you can do modern country you will make 2x what I do I just can't stand it) and end all that bar crap. I am sure you guys play better than I do, I get by because I can sing

Just an idea that worked for me now that I have pretty much given up the whole notion of a label and all that.

[Bobby D]

the great Sherman Robertson (possibly the BEST Texas electric blues guitar player alive) told me something once.

"Don't wish for the blues, Bobby.....you might get it"

he was right, as usual.....

ah, You met Sherman?? i tour with a blues lady from Michigan, and we shared the bill with him couple of times in europe! great musician and super nice guy!
small world

hey huckle!

no...i PLAYED with SHerman, all over Europe/UK/USA.......

he is AWESOME, is he not?

i just had a VERY big difference of opinion with his MANAGER, and we parted ways.....now he just hires band from the UK and uses them on tour, so i guess that works better for him financially.

he is one of my "blues fathers"......

here is a photo of Sherman SCHOOLING me in the blues.

every night on stage with him was a master class....


as you can see in the photos, I am playing rhythm.......and watching Sherman closely

[Bobby D]

by the way -- that vintage ES-355 that he plays -- and has had since 60s -- I rewired the electronics and pickups in that guitar to give him the "Peter Green" sound, and he LOVED IT, and I am sure it is still the same today

[huckleboogie]

hey Bobby ,

small world indeed....we might have met!
but the times i saw him, he didnt have a 2nd guitar player anymore...and he had a strat clone for a guitar. Sherman is good friends with Sharrie Williams, the blues lady i work for...if You look on my myspace, You'll find a song of her (BTW recorded with a honeybee:-) and vids too:
http://www.myspace.com/larskutschke
last year we recorded at BBC studios London for a radio broadcast with my band, and i used Sherman's amp
the manager - is that Mike Hellier, the guy who plays the drums also?

and BTW thanks for pointing me to that EGDM - unfortunately i can't afford it right now
take care, Lars

[Bobby D]

you are VERY welcome....i saw that EGDM for $275, I am sure someone has probably grabbed it by now.

Sherman is the BEST electric Texas blues player alive....and he is a fantastic singer as well.

Seriously -- playing for him was like "blues college"......he's a great guy, I love him DEARLY, but you know how things in the music business go.....managers, budgets, $$$$.........all that crap gets in the way.

I am one of the only guitarists that Sherman has EVER used, he hates to play with other guitarists, so it made me feel pretty special that he had ME as a guitarist in his band

But what i DID to earn that gig was to play VERY GOOD rhythm guitar, and to sometimes treat my guitar as a B3 organ.....used an HK rotosphere pedal, and through vol/tone knobs, playing techniques, and the rotosphere, i ALMOST could sound like an organ player......and that's what Sherman liked about me....

[huckleboogie]

yeah, i bet touring with Sherman was a lifetime experience!

hope You'll get a chance to do it again...

on these occasions one learns more than in 10 yrs of practicing...the REAL school

[Bobby D]

yeah, i bet touring with Sherman was a lifetime experience!

hope You'll get a chance to do it again...

on these occasions one learns more than in 10 yrs of practicing...the REAL school

someone I know said that "one gig equals 10 rehearsals"

I would love to play with Sherman again in the future, but I believe he is still managed by the same person, and that person will prevent this from occuring.

This is the point where the music business screws up the music art.......

But Sherman prefers to just have a keyboardist anyhow.....I have to tell you though, I learned SO MUCH from watching him handle an audience. I have seen him in front of the entire town of Palermo Sicily, and he had EVERY PERSON in the palm of his hand.....watching him, loving him, hanging upon his every note.

And I have seen him sit down in a small bar with 20 people there, just Sherman and acoustic guitar, and bring all 20 of them to TEARS......there's a video of that performance that exists, but the manager has it..grrrr.........

One thing I loved about Sherman was the FEROCITY of his playing. He did not like effects pedals, but I let him try my zvex SHO, and then suddenly it was GONE for the rest of the tour......he LIKED that one. Maybe for his birthday I should send him a SBEQ -- because he is never carrying his own amps on tour in Europe and UK....so the SBEQ would be a good tool for him, and it's even BETTER than the SHO.....

We showed up in Sardegna, Italy........GREAT PLACE by the way.....beautiful island off the coast of Italy.

The promoter had this weird vintage collector guy, who showed up and askd us "what amps do you want?"

He had a LIST of some of the most desireable amps ever made.

I chose for Sherman an original Marshall Plexi head and early 70s 4x12 cab. He plugged his 355 into that, and proceeded to make it sound AMAZING.

I used a 65 blackface Twin, and the tonal complement between the two amps was VERY nice...


I miss touring with him, I really do. But at the end of it all, he told me to "do my own thing -- go make your own record, play that rock music with your blues, and make it your OWN"

he's right......

[huckleboogie]

oh yea-talkin about growing on these gigs....
my job with sharrie Williams took me all over Europe, north africa and the states....BIG festivals like Chicago blues or the North Sea Jazz. and to see all the artists perform there...sometimes sharing bills with bonamassa, ike turner, walter wolfman or buddy guy. intimidating, hehe! i've seen my share of seasoned bluesman driving audiences wild with three notes....and we had to go on after them more often than not...here i was- skinny white boy trying to do my best. these "lessons" are the most important in my musical life.

i also got some advice from Sherman, it was just after i started touring with that blues artist and he told me - off course!! - to play LESS. hahahhah! that was three years ago and i'm working to get to the "essence" eversince. well growin old helps alot too, i guess.

wish i could see that video of You and Sherman performing...and to play good rhythm is SO MUCH underrated. i listen a lot to comping, especially on blues and swing records.

well it's fun talkin:-) and You shouldnt have told me too much bout the SBEQ- i'm beginning to want one..

[Bobby D]

Huckle -- you and I are like on similar trains, traveling along the same routes, and seeing the same things!

the SBEQ is VERY nice, and maybe I will buy one and send it to Sherman for his birthday. Most of the guitarists I have ever worked with, either as a player or as a tech, always regard me as their "gear guru"....I tend to keep my ears open, try a lot of things, and have always had a pretty good ear to hear what the "good stuff" is, and which artist would really like which product.


Playing in Europe and the UK was the best live experiences of my life, and i want to move there and say goodbye to the USA......

Some of those big shows are amazing...funny story about one.....that will always make me smile, and hopefully you too!

We flew into Germany for a big festival. Lufthansa was wONDERFUL......and they gave us each a "lunch bag" with food as we LEFT the plane....i thought that was quite nice of them

So, we go out to this big bus, and it is the bus that is taking all the artists to the festival.

However, our plane was late, and we were the last artist to arrive.....so the bus was FILLED with some VERY pissed off, tired, and unhappy VERY FAMOUS blues artists

I walked down the aisle to find a seat, with everyone grumbling about how they had been "waiting for us for hours". It wasn't our fault, the plane was LATE......

The only open seat I can find to sit down is next to MATT GUITAR MURPHY

I ask him "Mr. Murphy, is it OK if I sit next to you, sir?"

He grumbled at me and said "ok, sit down boy"

He started complaining and complaining about how his band had been the FIRST one to arrive, and that he had been sitting on the bus for HOURS waiting for everyone else to arrive.

He also said how he had not had anything to eat, and that since he had some health condition like diabetes, he NEEDED to eat regularly to maintain his blood sugars, etc.

I immediately remembered the "bag lunch" that the Lufthansa flight had given to me, so I dug into my bag and produced the bag lunch, which had a sandwich and an apple in it.

"Well Mr. Murphy, I have this lunch bag, and if you'd like to eat it, it is YOURS"

His eyes got so big......he smiled and said yes.....and ate the sandwich and the apple, and was my best friend.

Years later at a NAMM show, he came RIGHT UP to me and said "hey man, you that boy that gave me your SANDWICH on that bus in Germany!!!!" and gave me a big hug.

Matt remembered me for the rest of his life as that "whiteboy who gave me a sandwich".....

another lesson about how small things and acts of kindness go a long way.

I could tell MANY more stories about bad experiences........but why? Life is beautiful.....