I guess I'm just temperamentally a glass-half-full kind of guy. Since the advent of the internet-indie scene, I've had at least one track top 1000 listens. I suppose every other track taken together have garnered maybe 3000 more. If all those listens were individuals, I filled a hall.

On top of that, I've gotten hundreds of comments--quite a few of them seemed genuine. And I've also gotten to work with superior musicians on song-writing collaborations that I would have had no chance to do in the "real world".

I might trade that for the talent, chops, guts, and drive to play live. But every time I've picked up a guitar (and before that, a uke) to "practice", it has turned into at least an earnest attempt to write a song. That's what gets my mojo rising.

Me and a guitar on a small stage has worked the few times I've done it, but if I was waiting for the next stage to do the same thing--it'd be a loooong wait. Besides, they were there to be entertained and people really don't like to NOT like your act. Family and friends are not there to be entertained and they really don't want to be put in the position of having to "like" your act.

Since, however, I'm not a particularly good singer it takes a more specialized "audience" to appreciate what I do. Few of my family or friends are that "audience". Really ,none are consistently.

When people "get over" the vocals of a Bob Dylan, or Kristofferson, or Johnny Cash then they can appreciate what those guys do. For each of them, it took somebody else to be their "special audience" first. There aren't any music columnists writing about Farfetched Tangmo Band and why anybody should listen.

Whatever the degree of "polish" any of my songs may have, I'm still writing Demos. That's my limitation. Nobody can do it all in music (except maybe Paul McCartney).

Before music was recorded, it was all played live. And most of that in small venues or on the front porch of the cave. That's the internet indie scene, and that's cool with me.

Is that encouraging?

BIAB 2021 Audiophile. Windows 10 64bit. Songwriter, lyricist, composer(?) loving all styles. Some pre-BIAB music from Farfetched Tangmo Band's first CD. https://alonetone.com/tangmo/playlists/close-to-the-ground