ION INDIE MAGAZINE September 2015, Volume 16 | Page 68
A friend recently posed the question to me "What is the greatest
challenge facing artists today?" Well, more specifically in
terms of musicians like myself, it is time. Those who strive to
make great music must often hold down a day job which drains
their energy. I am no exception. Most artists and musicians in
the Rust Belt, work one or several side jobs to support their art.
I just worked all day yesterday, drove to the gig directly from
work and walked right onstage to play, dead exhausted. Once I
get going I perk up from adrenaline, but I would imagine this is
a very common scenario. In my late thirties I decided I was done
stage performing and dragging my amp out of clubs at 3:30
a.m. I spent my whole youth doing this every week. However, I
came to the realization that I only had so many more years to do
this--even if that is forty years, it's gonna end one day. I guess
that the love of what we do keeps us chugging away, even during
the discouraging times. There always comes a show that makes
the struggle worth it.
***
Downtown Tommy's Guitar Lesson of the
Month: Like many other guitarists, I
stubbornly refuse to mess with alternate
tunings, and play strictly in A440. This
includes tuning down a half step, which
messes me up because my C is no longer
a C when I tune down. The good news is,
there are plenty of transposed guitar tabs
out there for guitarists like us. My band
added "Coming Right Along" by The
Posies to our set--a favorite song of mine
that I played for them on our practice
break. The original is in some odd tuning
configuration that I had no intention of