The one-man-band experience

 

In 2003, I began playing solo gigs on acoustic guitar and vocal. My wife’s friend’s husband had been doing this work for a few years and was moving to Florida. This created an opening in his revolving engagements with a local mexican restaurant chain. The “Taco Tour” was the beginning of a musical odyssey that has had its share of rewards and its share of low points.

 

I was facing a very likely downsizing (the second in three years) from my graphic design job at the time and it seemed I could make almost as much money doing music (potentially more in a few years) as I was making at that job. This was very attractive to me and, despite warnings from a friend who had “been there, done that”, I jumped with both feet.

 

My guitar skills at that point in time were less than stellar. It was hard to me to gauge just how much work I needed until I got out there and did some gigs. With my fingers nearly bleeding after every 4 hour ordeal, the first several months were difficult to say the least.

 

After a while the guitar playing became not so much an issue and I was enjoying my folky acoustic show. With some prodding from my friend, bandmate and agent Mark Ledford, I began to explore some new avenues in my solo performance. He told me that if I played keyboards and used backing tracks, he could get me better gigs.

 

I tried that and did a couple auditions which didn’t get me any gigs. I didn’t give up on the idea and instead went with electric guitar. That proved to be the winning move. Soon, I was doing something that gave me a rush like I never quite experienced before. Slinging an electric axe and playing rockin’ tunes with real solos was just too cool. I’d never been able to see myself as an electric player, especially not playing screaming solos. I landed gigs in nicer places including The Tavern at Phipps, which is pretty much the top of the heap in Atlanta and did some private parties and corporate events. At some point became clear to me that this was just not going to be the career that would satisfy all of my needs and my freelance graphics business was not getting enough of my attention to thrive. I decided it was time to make a commitment to becoming a fully competent web professional.