Song of the Week – Upper Middle Class Blues
(c) 2001 Kevin Edward Rose. All rights reserved.
One night several years ago, my friends Paul McKenna and Steve Keefer and I were sitting on a deck playing guitars. Eventually we started playing the blues. As Paul was playing, something struck me as being a little off.
Besides being a good looking, outgoing guy with more musical talent than most of us can even aspire to, Paul is a successful architect and project manager with a beautiful wife (OK, we all three have beautiful wives, but that’s beside the point), a nice home, and two great kids. I had to ask myself, why was Paul playing the blues?
I wrote this song the next day.
-Kevin
A Little Background
Since this is a new blog and many people have no idea who I am, I should start with a little bit of my background.
Right now, I am one of the fortunate people in America. I have a job. While I am thankful for that, it does present problems. You see, I work on the third shift, and I work every weekend with only Sunday and Monday nights off. For someone wanting to become a full-time musician, this makes things difficult. In my area, Sundays and Mondays are not big nights for live entertainment.
As it stands, my only performance opportunities are presenting songs at the N.S.A.I. workshop I attend, and unfortunately, I am not a prolific songwriter. Some people write several songs a month. Heck, there are some writers who write several songs a day. I just don’t seem to be wired that way. I recently saw a television show where Elvis Costello interviewed Lou Reed, and both seemed amazed that there are people who can write that prolifically. If I recall correctly, Lou Reed said he has gone for years without writing, so I guess I’m in good company.
I have one bad habit I need to overcome. (OK, I probably have many bad habits, but I am only addressing one at this time.) I tend to dream about things rather than do them. I put all of my time and energy into researching new ideas, without actually putting the plans into effect.
I have had a lot of opportunities in my life that I didn’t take advantage of. After high school, I had the chance to go on the road with my cousin’s band, but I did the responsible thing and went to college. I formed a band in college and after graduation, I could have stayed with that band, but instead, I figured I would take a job in my field (broadcasting) and just get a little filler for my resume. Well, one radio job led to another, and I eventually ended up spending seventeen years working for a television network. Even during that time, I had the opportunity for better jobs elsewhere, but I always played it safe, staying in pretty much the same geographic area and not taking any chances. “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know”, as they say.
I did eventually start playing again, doing the coffee house and bar scene. I even played at some festivals and conferences, but music was only a part-time thing. I wanted to be a full time musician, but I convinced myself that keeping my broadcast career was the responsible thing to do. Eventually, I grew to hate the company, but when that job finally came to an end, I so identified myself with the job that I was too depressed to try the music thing. Since I wasn’t bringing in money, I didn’t think I deserved to enjoy myself. To make a long story short (I’ll tell about my bounty hunting days in a future post), I ended up in my current job, working nights and weekends.
As I get older, (I know, I still look like I’m twenty nine, but I am actually a little older than that), I realize that I don’t have the time to sit around and dream about what could be. I have to make things happen. People who don’t take chances don’t make history.
For now, my plan is to use the Internet as my venue. I have started this blog where I will make music and videos available, and I will have more videos soon on You Tube. I will set up a page on Myspace and Facebook . I have already had some interest from a person who promotes virtual concerts in Second Life, a virtual world where my wife spends a lot of time. I am cautiously optimistic about this, and I will keep everyone up to date as I find out more.
Well, that’s it for now. I guess I need to figure out a regular schedule for new posts here. In the meantime, thanks for stopping by and keep the lasagna flying!
-Kevin
Song of the Week – Black is the Colour
Welcome to the first installment of my “Song of the Week” feature.
To keep things simple, I decided to do a traditional song this week. I love Celtic music, and this song is one of my favorites.
By the way, I really hate the static image that appears in the player before the video begins. I was actually in a great mood at the time, no matter what my expression seems to say.
-Kevin
Hello world!
Well, here it goes. Hi. My name is Kevin and I am a musician. [VOICES OFF SCREEN]: Hi, Kevin. Anyway, I hope to use this blog as a means to keep myself motivated by publicly documenting my efforts to become a full-time professional musician. I invite you to come along and watch the progress.
My plans are for this blog to include tips for my fellow musicians, a “Song of the Week” video to feature either an original song or a traditional folk song (because I am too cheap to pay royalties), tales of success and/or failure, as well as any random thoughts that may pop into my head.
I will keep this first post short, as I need to get back to researching ways to tweak this site and figure out what the heck I am doing. Thanks for stopping by, and keep the lasagna flying!
-Kevin
