Tag Archives: tips

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So you got a gig in Nashville…

Last night, I worked in a bar downtown. Our entertainment for the night brought a lot of promise, and we were anticipating a good night. What we got, however, was someone who really didn’t seem to know how gigs in bars in Nashville work. This artist was green. And I venture a guess that they got the gig through a friend of a friend.

Still today, I am stewing over how the night went, and its in hindsight that I wish I could have pulled the person aside to give them a little advice for future gigs in Nashville. I speak from the perspective of a musician’s wife as well as a bar employee.

My advice would have been:

First and foremost, the bar relies on you just as much as you rely on the bar. It is a symbiotic relationship. Realize this fact alone, and you’ll already be on your way.

— Even when the bar is empty, play like its full. This is HARD to do, I know. My utmost respect especially goes to those musicians who do an acoustic set — just them and their guitar — to an empty bar… and they sing every song like its to a crowd of 1,000. Why do you do that? Because when customers come in the door, they are going to size you up in about 15 seconds right along with the vibe of the bar. “Do I want to listen to this? Am I interested?” If you are just goofing off or treating it like a glorified rehearsal, your potential crowd will never happen. You’ll run them off before they come in the door.

— Remind the crowd to take care of their bartenders. If the bar serves food, mention that as well. A lot of times, a person is new and might not know what all is offered at the bar. As for “take care of your bartenders” — well, take care of them, and they take care of you. You’ll get your beer a little faster, etc. Again, you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.

— Come prepared to do a four hour set, but also know how to fly by the seat of your pants.

— Encourage people to buy a drink. Even if its just one. The register ringing means the bar stays open and you keep a place to play. Ignore that fact, and you’ll find yourself scrambling to find a bar willing to bring you on to play. If you aren’t an asset to them, they won’t want you.

The other symbiotic relationship is that of the lead singer and the band. You rely on them just as much as they rely on you.

— Introduce them. Acknowledge them. Let them stand out on their own… they are trying to make it in this business, too. Give them a chance.

— Tips are split among everyone on stage. Do NOT pocket all the tips yourself. They worked just as hard (if not harder in some cases) than you did for those tips.

— Treat them with respect in general. Word gets around who the “problem artists” are, and you may find yourself hard pressed to find really good musicians willing to work with you.

Come hang out and watch other acts prior to your show. You can learn a lot by just watching and keeping your eyes and ears open. Also, go visit The Nashville Musician’s Survival Guide. He can tell you even more tips that are far more technical that what I can share. I’m simply sharing what I’ve witnessed and experienced. When I go to work downtown, I look forward to hearing good music as I work. When the music is sub-par, the night is long and I get cranky. I’m STILL cranky from last night, in fact. Truly, that is because what went wrong last should not have happened. It’s fundamentals of Nashville musicianship. If you don’t have those… you don’t have a chance.

tips

A cell phone trick…

Bailey waits for a phone call

In continuation from yesterday’s post, its 5 pm and I have only been up for MY Thursday for two hours. That’s because I went to bed around 10 AM…

My husband was back in town and ready for me to come pick him up from the bus around 6 AM. Since I’m a night owl, I found it easier to just wait up for him than to go to bed and sleep a couple of hours before going to pick him up.

As you can imagine, this meant getting caught in morning traffic through downtown Nashville… twice. Making a usual hour-trip closer to two hours in stop-and-go traffic. And, of course, we got home and both were too wired from driving in traffic to go straight to sleep.

When we went to bed, I silently prayed that the phone would not ring and wake us up early.

It did ring around 2:30 pm with a telemarketer. I suppose I should be grateful, because had they NOT randomly pulled our number out of a hat, I’d have probably slept until more like… well… I’d still be sleeping. But instead, of course, I grumbled and cursed under my breath for my sleep being interrupted.

Then I remembered an old cell phone trick I used to do when I’d work much more regularly in a bar downtown. I’d get home around 4 AM, and by the time I went to bed I knew my phone could easily be ringing by 9 AM while I was trying to sleep. The easy answer: turn the phone OFF. My rebuttal: I don’t ever want to be unable to be reached should anyone in my family have an emergency.

I have special ring tones for my family and closest friends.  For example, my husband’s ring is the song we danced to at our wedding. (Awwww… right?) Other ring tones include  “Small Town Kid” by Eli Young Band and Pat Green’s “I Like Texas.” There are others, but I’ll leave you with that to marvel in my phone geekiness style.

I figured out that if I set my “default ring” to silent (or the case of my current phone, the quietest notification sound), my specialty ringtones would still ring loudly. So instead of silencing my phone or turning it off to avoid being bothered while I sleep, I can rest easy knowing that in an emergency my family can still reach me but other random calls would not bother me.

Now a key thing is that upon getting up, you can’t forget to change your default ringtone back to your normal setting!  But that little trick came in handy countless times in the past, and any time my husband and I have one of these wackier-than-usual sleep days, I’ll be putting that trick back into service.