Apr. 4, 2001
Do the Hustle

OK, the music business is nuts. It’s completely weird. You call up these coffeehouses in places you’ve never been or even heard of, and you do a little spiel that goes something like: "Hi, my name is Lindsay Smith, I’m a songwriter from Atlanta, and I’d love to play at your venue. Can you connect me with the person who handles your bookings?" Usually at that point the person on the phone says something to the effect of, "Well, he/she doesn’t really answer the phone, so why don’t you send him/her a demo and then try fruitlessly to call him/her for the next few months?" OK, they don’t say that. But that’s pretty much what happens more times than not. And I did an internship at Eddie’s Attic my senior year of college and saw the sheer volume of unsolicited materials that passed through the booker’s hands on any given day, so I am certainly not going to grumble too much given that I am yet another nobody trying to start a music career.

But anyway, imagine my surprise when, a few weeks ago, I called the Canton Coffee Co. in Canton, GA and said, "Hi, I’m Lindsay blah blah blah" and the guy on the other end said, "Oh yeah? Well, let me ask you a question, Lindsay. You got new strings on your guitar?" I was caught a bit off-guard. "Um. Well, no," I said. "I gotta be honest. At this moment, I do not have new strings on my guitar." He said, "Well, maybe if you got some work you could get some new guitar strings!" Then he laughed. I was thinking that he was chastising me for not being professional enough to keep new strings on my guitar at all times, but it seems he was just having some fun, for he then took out his calendar and said, "Let’s see… how’s March 30?" It actually wasn’t a very good date for me to schedule something seeing as how I was supposed to be at a dress rehearsal for a choral concert, but I sort of panicked for no good reason and said, "Sure, sounds great!" And Charles and Jeff and I went up there and did the show, and it was a lot of fun, and now we might get to do a big festival thing where they close off the streets of downtown Canton and have 4 stages with lots of different bands and probably – if I’m very lucky – funnel cake! So just tell that to anyone who says persistence doesn’t pay off!

I got another good review, on a site called The Global Muse. Yay! In other internet news, "Answer Me Back" is soon to be featured on two MP3 radio stations. It’s already being played on a station devoted to the music sold on CD Baby; click here to listen. (I’ve had trouble with this link; if it shoots you to the search page, just search for "cdbaby artists on mp3.com" and the station will come up.) The other station is really cool and has articles and reviews and stuff in addition to the music. It’s called ProCritic Radio, and "Answer Me Back" is supposed to be joining the playlist this weekend, so check it out!

I had a crazy busy weekend, what with the Canton gig, the Colleguim Vocale concert and music rehearsals for the Renaissance Festival. I spend all my time at these rehearsals grumbling and complaining (‘cause I’m just like that), but the truth is, I love that music. It gets stuck in my head all week and makes me feel festive. The melodies are so jaunty. It’s all just really sucky to play on guitar because the chords change, like, twice every measure, and the rhythms aren’t anything like the stuff I’m used to playing, so I just have to play it really straight and try to keep up. I hate playing anything that makes me feel like a bad guitar player. Plus, I think it’s a rule that we musicians are all supposed to have a really bad attitude about front gate, so I pretend to hate it. But it’s actually one of my favorite parts of the day. (Matthew, if you’re reading this, I have not changed my stance on The White Cockade one bit, I think that song manages to be difficult to play and boring at the same time, and no amount of cooing and pleading on the part of the white cockade in question will convince me otherwise.)

My other favorite thing about the Renaissance Festival is the amount of time we all spend just sitting around and singing songs. I like performing, but it’s not nearly as much fun as learning those cool old songs and making up harmonies and new verses and stuff. Wouldn’t it be cool if going out drinking were still like that? If, when you walked into a bar, people were singing songs and telling jokes and stuff? I would like that a lot. When I decided to do the Renaissance Festival last year I thought I would hate it – and I admit that dressing up in period clothing and accosting people “in character” is still not my favorite thing in the world – but I didn’t realize there would be so much music involved. I learned so many new songs and remembered some long-forgotten ones that my mother used to sing. It’s a blast, man.

What’s in my CD player at home: