Help support live music and the artists that provide live music. This page is functional but under construction. Please excuse the incomplete story until we have time to fine tune it.
Over the past several years, the economy has changed drastically – especially for musicians. Gone are the days when you could play well paying gigs six nights a week. And gone are the days that being a full time musician provided a more than comfortable living. Budgets are getting cut everywhere from Arts Centers to Libraries to Summer Concert Series to Schools, Universities and Senior Centers. These are the venues I depend upon to hire me often enough and pay me well enough to meet my own financial needs.
Furthermore, people don’t go out to hear live music as often as they used to. And people don’t buy CDs anywhere near as often as they used to. There are too many ways to get free music now a days for 99% of musicians to make a decent living.
As a result,
I am turning down performance opportunities that I would otherwise accept. Had I financial resources, I would attend more concerts by my peers and the likes of Arlo Guthrie, Peter Yarrow, Josh White Jr. and other artists that I have so much to learn from. How can I carry on their tradition if I don’t get out to see them as often as I could? I get asked all the time to support a charity, an environmental cause or a peace concert by donating a free performance. And although I do about 30 non-paying concerts each year – concerts that actually cost me money to do – I also turn down just as many, especially in New York City where it costs $30 just to show up.
The reality is that the days of being able to survive financially as an independent artist and without patrons are over. A general consensus is developing that over the past 2000 years, there was a 70 year period when an independent artist had a reasonable chance of making ends meet. That time frame was from the 1930’s to shortly after the financial collapse of 2008.
The new model today
is to stop looking at music as a commodity and start giving people more ways to support the arts and artists. So, I am offering anybody who wants to help support the cause the opportunity to do so.
Here’s how you can help:
* Buy some CDs and T-shirts. Give them away as gifts. I’ll be happy to sign or otherwise personalize any of them.
* Help organize a concert. (Inquire for more info.)
* Send me an email and ask how you can send me a donation.
Thank you for your support. I couldn’t do what I am doing without it.
– Spook :->