But I Don't Want To Be Peter Lawford

I was trying to understand why I found myself stating my disappointments of late, regarding my music life.  It's annoying to most and it's generally not seen as professional.  Aside from the fact that Facebook is a narcotic, most folks recognize that the music landscape has turned upside down.  We applaud the fact that record companies aren't even a second thought anymore, except if you're a young hip-hop artist or a young booty, buxom beauty that can hold a microphone and let the engineers do the rest.

Being an independent artist is the norm these days. Using social media to build an audience, promote shows etc, is what we're all trying to do.  People like what they like, and unlike record companies, people directly aren't as discriminating about age, beauty or even quality.  This is a good thing. If an artist has any hope, it's because the fans want what they are creating.  Sadly, music fans have become dormant and passive. The reasons are understandable.  But artists have a serious problem before them.  If no one is buying their music, why should they produce it?  Because they love it?  Again, If no one is buying music, why are the studios, studio musicians, cd manufacturers, etc., still charging?  Because they don't love what they do?    

It was always seen as unprofessional to talk about our hardships except if you've already achieved fame or someone is talking about you on "Mysteries & Scandals.”  You have to be dead, of course. The thing that has been most frustrating to me is the formality that I have to be silent and pretend that I'm not effected by the lack of tangible support.  There's nothing to hide behind anymore.  If I don't sell a CD, I can't blame the retail stores for placing it in a bad spot. Are we not selling our music because our fans simply don't want it?  I don't really think that's the case. However, I am clueless and puzzled as to what the actual reasons are. Maybe fans don't know the details of today’s musician’s woes.  We spend (a lot) more, and we get nothing in return but debt and anecdotes from people who make their money from other sources.

This has never been an easy business.  I think it's more difficult today, because while it used to be some talent agency or music “authority” who would convince fans to support artists, now it’s entirely up to the artists themselves. Most of us don't have the skills or financial resources to take on this task. The least I can do is talk about it and stop pretending that this is business as usual. Things are different. Very different. We're all stumped.  But there's one thing that hasn't changed - in fact, it's more clear than ever.   If any artist has a chance, it's because you, the fan, values what they do - and lets them know.

ps. I'll be asking for your dough in a few weeks.   :)

www.michefambro.com

What About Alvin Ray Jr. ?

I'm a late bloomer. Real late. I never had the courage to do most of the things I try to do these days.  Perhaps it's a "I'm over 30 years old and I don't care anymore" thing. I've always had all these things flying around in my head, but being the typical shy person, I kept it all to myself.  One day I decided not be afraid of looking stupid.  That was the beginning. It opened up a whole new world.  Of course I couldn't or wouldn't to anything without the permission of a stage.  

When I lived in Ithaca, NY, I'd play gigs with some great musicians, these guys could play a solo for hours. When it was my turn to solo, I'd play 16 or so bars and get bored.  I'd just stop and start telling a story. I'd just make up something, whatever came in my head.  The band indulged me.  Now this was fun.  It's amazing the things you can do when you're not afraid to suck. Really. What's the worst that can happen?

   

I've discovered lots of things about myself.  Such as being consumed with characters and not just a song. Alvin Ray Jr. was one such character.  One day I realized that I could do a few Jimi Hendrix like things. I'd try to talk like him and play guitar with some of his phrases, just enough to have fun with it.  My goal was to make a short self made movie about a guy who clearly was Hendrix influenced, but hated it when people actually noticed it.  "Hey, you play like that left-handed guy!" "Who, Albert King?"  

I really wanted the opportunity to play loud and dirty and too much.  I dusted off my electric guitar which I hadn't played in  30 years and put a band together in hopes of warming up for an eventual film shoot.  And what the hell, let's see how an audience might react to this.  After two shows, I think I'll just stick with the original idea.  We have one more show in April. After that, we may become a virtual band. More to come... 

Sexy - Redefine 2013

Words can lose their meaning if overused.  Take "awesome" for example: 

[awesome |ˈôsəm|adjective

extremely impressive or daunting; inspiring great admiration, apprehension, or fear : the awesome power of the atomic bomb.]

Today, everything is described as awesome and usually for things are not awesome at all.  I'm trying to figure what's better, being 'awesome' or being 'dope'.     

Another word whose meaning has become nebulous is "sexy". What does that mean exactly?  

Clarification is needed.

When someone says "You're very sexy". Does it mean:

a: You want to buy that jacket for your boyfriend. 

b: You want to mate, whether in captivity or not.

c: You want to copulate with someone you really desire.

d: You're ready to read a harlequin.

e: You want to be 'taken' now or after "So You Think You Can Dance?"

f:   All of the above

g:  None of the above

Let's clear this up...

  

Has Social Media Changed The Rules?

Has social media changed the rules?  There used to be clear boundaries in social behavior. You'd only speak privately about certain things such as politics, religion, abortion, sex, family, depression, etc.  Today, it seems like there are no boundaries. People are open about things that we really don't want to know about.  On facebook we all post what we're doing, how we're feeling, who we've slept with and pictures of cats dead or alive. 

In the musician / artist realm, we're all being humbled with low audience turn out and almost zero sales in our music.  There was a time when it seemed counterproductive, if not tacky to let people know that you're doing badly instead of great.   I find that I no longer feel the need to hide the disappointment of yet another low to no turnout or anticipating such.  The clubs don't hide it from me.   "Your band is excellent and you should be famous but…  you'll have to share the night with six other bands if we have you back." 

Now do you drift back to a network such as facebook and pretend that you're unaffected by this. Nope. We do what we always do. Type away and press post, with typos and all.

Again, I used to try to keep this all to myself, but it's getting unimaginably ridiculous to be quiet about it all.  No, this is not personal, but that doesn't make it feel any better.

So what do I do? I make fun of it.  What else is there to do? 

But I do wonder, what are the rules now? Where are the boundaries? 

What's Killing Live Performing?

Is technology killing live performing. I just watched the "Dave Chapelle in Hartford, CT" video. Respect? What respect? 
True, all comedians have experienced a tough, noisy crowd, but usually not super stars.  Not to mention a super star that just came out of 'hiding'. No doubt, everyone in the audience was probably on their cell phones texting, filming, everything else but giving the entertainer their undivided attention.   

When I was playing a lot of coffee houses, I was getting a bit frustrated. You'd be in the corner playing and people would sit right in front of you, staring at their laptops and ipods with their ear buds plugged in.  You're standing there singing asking yourself, "Why am I here?"  After a while, if I was playing a coffee house which might pay only a cup of coffee and people were ignoring me while plugged into their ipods, I'd just leave after a set.  It wasn't worth the time or tips. I got tired of giving it "my all" in vain.  I didn't care about the repercussions. What was the owner going to do, not give me coffee? It's different if you're paid to do a show, you're professionally obligated to tolerate the crap.   

These days most people live by their cellphones. They carry around their friends, their music, their videos.  You can't pull them away from it.  

If no one is buying music, if no one is coming out to shows, if those who come out are still tapped into their 'world in a pocket' while you're performing, what are the incentives for artist to give you all they've got? Love?   Most musicians love what they do, but musicians are not loving what the audience is doing these days.    

PS. Obviously Dave Chappelle is a REAL pro.  He handled himself with comedic class.

Here's a monologue about some of my coffee house experiences. It's from my CD "Cafe Vignettes"

Conspiracy Theory #1

You Better Stop! The Tom You Claim May Be Your Own:

The "Man" no longer has to work hard to hold blacks down. Blacks do it all for him. It's built right into black culture.  Violence and more violence. The calling each other nigger in their music and profiting from it. Thugs are Heroes, etc.

The KKK and other such groups are quite satisfied with this cultural shift into African-American chaos. You won't hear them talk about it. The media doesn't report about it, instead the media is quick to report about blacks being sympathetic victims of racism. Why is that? 

For the conspiracy minded, the plan could be simple. Stay mum. 'Let them destroy themselves, it's not our problem if they're too blind or ignorant to see it.'   

Blacks are quick to accuse other blacks of being uncle toms, even if it's just for having an objective opinion. 
Today the term is overused and misused.
It's use only seems to be an effective way of saying "Shut Up!"

The term "uncle tom" has many definitions, here's a couple:

1. A black man who will do anything to stay in good standing with "the white man" including betray his own people.

2. An epithet for a person who is slavish and excessively subservient to perceived authority figures, particularly a black person who behaves in a subservient manner to white people; or any person perceived to be a participant in the oppression of their own group.

- Who does this sound like?

You Better Stop! The Tom You Claim May Be Your Own.

I Woke Up From A Dream:

Why would it be expected that MLK would be alarmed at the state of 'black on black' crime and the decline of family values? No one else seems to be.  The only leaders that can help the black community today is mom, dad, grandpa, grandma, the aunt, the uncle, the brother, the sister, the neighbor, the friend, and yes, even that sell out, if you care about objectivity.  

One must be able to acknowledge the truth, handle the truth and tell the truth.  MLK Boulevards in urban areas has done NOTHING significant in the growing development of the black populace.  MLK has become less than a dream, less than a thought or perhaps only a thought.  If that's not true, how could things possibly be the way they are today? 

It was a beautiful dream. It's time to wake up and get busy. 

An Inquisition

• Son, you know that prisons are overcrowded with black young men like yourself, why would you commit a crime? 

• Son, you know that drugs ruin lives and destroys families, why would you take them?

• Son, seeing the devastation of drugs and incarceration, why would you sell them?

• Son, is being poor a sin?

• Son, is the quest for not being poor, worth selling your soul? 

• Son, do you remember what you were proud about? 

• Son, you know that people have fought and died for you to have the things you weren't allowed to have, not that long ago.  Do you not want these things now?

• Son, if I were alive, would you show me the respect I showed my father?

• Son, the gun you possess could be the gun that took my life. 

• Son, the "man" is impotent.  He's afraid to speak, he's given you more than you'd probably give someone else.  He's on the ropes. You gain nothing in dropping him.

• Son, the white man you hate and blame has not the power you think.  He can't help you.  Neither can I.   

• Son, helping yourself will give you all the help you need. You're as free as you live it.   So Live it.      Love you.

Doctor My Eyes

Lately, I've been concerned that my perspective on race is unfounded. How could I possibly think I'm seeing the things that are before me? 

On the issue of race today, it seems a huge majority of blacks and a good number of whites are seeing something else compared to what I'm seeing.  In the Zimmerman case, people see a man playing judge and executioner on an innocent teenager because of his color.  I see a tragedy within a tragedy.  I see the result of a culture that's extremely out of control with crime and violence and THAT should be addressed with high priority. It appears that if you acknowledge that as a problem, you're a racist, or if you're black, a Tom.

So I concede to being a "Tom".  I should point out that I don't find the title offensive anymore.  Seriously, what does it take to be a 'Tom' these days anyway?  The same thing it takes to be a racist these days, absolutely very very very very little.  

   

• "You don't agree with the rest of us? You're a Tom."  

• "You think blacks need to get their house in order? You're a racist." 

I'm trying to understand a race that has established some exclusive, yet questionable standards for itself.  

For example:  

- "Nigger" is supposed to be a despicable word. No other race can use this word, but WE can. Oh, and there's a difference between "Nigger" and "Niggaz".  

This is a lame rationalization at best, don't you think?

Only children can get away with this. 

"Cool. Let's address ourselves as such and put in it our music too.  That's right, we're a PROUD people."

- I'm also trying to understand yet another questionable standard:

 No other race can kill us without the scope and scrutiny of the nation and the attention of a raging populace, but we can. We can murder our own, in massive numbers if we want. And guess what? We do.

Don't even think about talking about it.  Don't protest about it. Don't be enraged. Don't cancel your gigs because of it. Don't report it.  
Just let the media dictate or manipulate what your concerns should be, the outcome of which is clearly to THEIR benefit. 

I am concerned that I must be deadly wrong about all of this.  

What I'm I missing here?  What's wrong with my eyes? 

Off To The Races

It's sad that it seems almost pointless to speak candidly, preach or pontificate about anything of significance these days, because no one is listening.  Initially, one of my concerns about the whole rap/hip-hop thing was, everybody is talking and everybody has something to say, but nobody is listening or looking beyond themselves. The only thing being listened to and looked at is the dollar. 
It's puzzling to me that courtesy the Zimmerman trial, everybody is talking about race problems, but not about the ingredients in the  complication.  Blacks and whites are screaming "injustice" and now everyone is talking about the Stand Your Ground Laws.  I'm not saying that these things are unimportant, but in my eyes, all of this is avoiding the real issue. Yes, racism as we know it, is going to be hanging around for too many years to come.  But today, triggered by this trial, we're dealing with something that's a little different.  Racism vs. "Hey, I'm not blind."  It's one thing to hate someone because of their color, it's another thing to be afraid, to be cautious of a 'people' because of the same reasons that that race is afraid, cautious and concerned of it's own. 

 No one should pull a trigger on anyone, but chaos breeds more chaos and fear. What are folks to do? Pretend they don't read and watch news reports? Yes, profiling is wrong, but black or white, would you feel comfortable walking in a black neighborhood at night? Why not? If you're approached by someone wearing a hoodie, would you say "hey nice color, where'd you get that?" You wouldn't be afraid, right? Not everyone wearing a hoodie is a thug. There are many exceptions, but not enough. The exceptions are not the problem. 
 So here we are. Post Zimmerman trial. How's life in the inner city, better? Is life back to normal? Has there been any murders? Has only one life been taken? How old? How young? Were whites involved? Drugs? Guns?  Will Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton disappear until the next tragedy that makes the headlines?

I don't know what it will take for something or someone, what used to be called a leader, to speak out about what's really going on and the cause and effect of a our civil problems. 

On the subject of personal and or societal growth, some of the more profound questions one could be asked might be :
"What are you contributing to your inability to succeed?" 
"What are you contributing to your problems?"
 Listen...