We all get to play, and to listen to whatever we want.

Eddie, you'd probably walk out on us. We do "Sweet Home Alabama", "Brown Eyed Girl", "Mustang Sally", "Sweet Caroline" and quite a few other often requested songs. (Our audience is from 50 to the final coda).

3/4 of our 500+ song list came from audience requests. Whatever gets requested most frequently goes to the top of the list, and if we can cover it, we will.

The other 1/4 are songs we wanted to learn, Unpopular but sometimes recognizable songs by Mose Allison, Grover Washington Jr., Marcos Valle, A.C.Jobim, etc., plus some not blockbuster hit rock songs that we just like to play.

It's give and take and we are making a living doing music and nothing but music.

I even like making my own backing tracks, although it may take a couple of days to get them right, it's a labor of love. On a related note, I like making Band-in-a-Box styles. Playing music live into a sequencer/DAW, extracting the parts, and assigning the 'handles' on them is fun, especially when they turn out right (when they don't turn out right, they go into the discard folder).

I could buy karaoke tracks, but they aren't the same. I bought a couple for 'throw away' songs like that obscure first dance at a wedding cut that nobody else ever wants to hear, and (1) they aren't necessarily in our key (2) they are mixed for recording, not for live performance (3) somebody else is doing the solo in the middle and I admit, I'm a solo hog (4) they are often too short for live play (5) sometimes the intro is too long and the dancers stand there and wonder if they want to dance to it or not (6) fade out endings.

But my way is not the right way for everybody.

In our area there is a trio going around singing to Karaoke tracks. They play no instruments, the male singer is terrible, one of the females is decent the other barely adequate. They undercut bands by about one half, and have taken some work from us. But they haven't hurt our bottom line because we just got other work to fill the gap. If that's what people want, karaoke jocks on the cheap, that's what works for them.

And I would never-ever knowingly pay full price to see a tribute band masquerading as the real thing.

Nor would I want to be in a tribute band. I like being able to play a variety of music from different bands and different genres. I have a friend I grew up with who is happy to play in an Eagles tribute band. He is a great guitarist and is now playing note-for-note solos created by various members of the Eagles.

There is more than one right way to make a living doing music. The trick is to find one that works for you.

And to get back on topic.

We used to do "Kansas City", "Satin Doll", "In The Mood", "Be-Bop-a-lula", "Kokomo" and quite a few others a lot. The public decided to retire them. When they quit working we put them in mothballs.

Insights and incites by Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com

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