Its been 5 months since we started this show.    We are about to do our 24th show, or our 28th depending on whether you count the 4 Sampler programs in October.   We have a few sponsors and are hopeful we can attract a few more with the two hour show.   The bank account shows the strain.   But we are hopeful.   My wife helps me by taking photos in the studio, helping me get ready each week and allowing us to give up our Sunday afternoons without complaint.   She also endures the fiscal pummeling without complaint.  She believes too.     

My little brother has ascribed to me the moniker of “Free Spirit” which obliges me to conjure up visions of flowing long grey hair, swirling in the wind, held in place by a worn bandanna, and the glow of my wizened face squinting in the rising sun, as I wander among the tumbleweeds. 

Or not.   

He is right that this endeavor appears to have come out of nowhere.   But actually, I had notions along these lines for years.  I don’t listen to much music on the radio.   I was spoiled years ago by Bill Compton and KDKB (KCAC before that) and the wonderful artists he introduced to Phoenix, like Tom Waits, John Stewart, Gordon Lightfoot, Jerry Riopelle, and so many more.   He passed from the scene prematurely and as radio got worse and more monolithic, I retreated to listening stations in Borders and Barnes and Noble to try and find good music.    When the opportunity presented itself to me to perhaps combine business and pleasure……well, I jumped at it and figured that over time, I would meet enough folks to convert a few of them to clients and actually pay for the effort.   

So after 28 shows, 70+ guests and over 200 songs, what have I learned?    I have learned that it takes more time than I ever imagined.   (Thank you Martin, I don’t know what I would do without the website and your weekly updates and creativity)    I have learned that I say “Uh”, “outstanding” and ”very cool” WAY too much.  What comes out of my brain is much more lucid when I have the opportunity to edit.  (Can I blog the shows?)I don’t trust spontaneous for good reason.  I am not good at it.   I default to trite.  I hate that.   Did I mention that I am learning humility?  

I have learned that there is far more talent in Phoenix than I ever imagined.   That is not being gratuitous.    I have heard and met musicians who have more talent than a good share of the current occupants of the average radio playlist.   And that it takes more than talent and perseverance to be successful in the music business.    I have learned that this business is brutal.   I see it in the eyes of the ones who have been doing this for many years.    I have had to redefine what I thought persistence and dogged determination looks like.  The true professionals are ready and willing and able to appear almost anywhere, anytime and for any (or no) money to keep their music out there and heard.   Whether its by 20 or 2000 people.   They don’t care.   Staying tight and improving their craft and keeping themselves in front of an audience is what they do day in, week out, month in and year out.   Hoping, believing and continuing.    The true professionals smile and do it again, and again, and again.   And they never surrender.    They are gracious.   They make it a point to thank us for the show without exception.   They always smile.  But you can see it in their eyes.   They’ve ridden the up and down roller coaster so many times that their stomachs no longer participate.   But they know that the only way to stay in the game is to play.   It won’t happen if they sit on the sidelines and whine.   Or allow themselves to be defeated by the latest disappointment.   They get up, brush off and put themselves back in the game and hit “play”.  

I am not a fan of entertainers jumping on their soapbox and becoming instant experts on politics or the issues of the day.   Or life.  That’s why we keep this show about the music.   But we might learn a thing or two about keeping on…..about stick-to-it-ivity.   About not giving up at the first sign of adversity.    About running the long race.   Paul used the metaphor of athletes and marathon running in his epistle to the Phillipians.   But I think if he had met some of these folks, he might have written “I have played the long song, and finished the gig.”

Or not.

I can tell you one thing.   I hope we can keep this show going and get to 100 shows and many, many more.   But if we can’t keep this show alive and prove the concept, we will at the very least have had the privelege of meeting some extraordinary people and witnessing their extraordinary talent.   I will have come away from this experience learning my own limitations and maybe just a bit about grace and perseverance.   It will have been well worth it.