This discussion got way off course, veering into "doing A cover tune" vs "doing 3 hours of copy tunes".

Once again, FOR MY TASTES, I would prefer 50 minutes of mediocre originals to 3 hours of perfectly executed covers because the writing is what stretches the player into another level. I know of great players everywhere that have yet to have even one original thought, be it writing a poem, a limerick, telling a story with lyrics.... FOR ME, that is the side of this I am most interested in and impressed with.

I have a friend here who has the best voice I have heard since Emmylou Harris. She plays in 2 bands. When I go see her, when they do the old country classics, the old folkie classics... yes it is entertaining to hear sing. But my ears perk up when they do songs she wrote. Those are emotional things coming out of her. The first day of music classes in college, the prof will ask "What is music?" and the correct answer is "Music is expressed emotion". I am sure when Hank Williams wrote "Cold Cold Heart", it meant something personal to him. It doesn't to me. My song "Do It All Again" means something to me. It wouldn't to Hank. (Particulary since he has been dea for a long time.) A GOOD original takes your emotions and reaches out and grabs someone elses emotions. That girl I mentioned writes that way. When she sings about some event in her life, it makes you feel like it happened to you, and in a sense, in our own way, it has. We have likely experienced something similar and there's a connection.

And again, for me, my opinion, what I prefer, what I would pay to see.... is THAT kind of performer. For the same reason you may like slasher movies and I hate them.... I don't go to bars at all and never see cover bands. I DO go to concerts, like Mary Chapin Carpenter, Bonnie Raitt, etc.... and yes they played older songs, but they were older songs they wrote. Of course you play songs teh crowd knows, but they also played a sample from the new album they were on tour with, and sales in both cases were quite good. (I am cheap so I didn't buy one, but I'm just sayin'...)

On topic, those 2 artists make a living touring and selling CDs. Others make a living hosting jam night. Whatever fills your sails.

I am using the new 1040XTRAEZ form this year. It has just 2 lines.

1. How much did you make in 2023?
2. Send it to us.