How Technology Changed The Band (At least my part)

When you say technology and music you get two schools of thought. First their are the purist or Old School Artist who have done everything the same way since the beginning of time and then their are the tech heads who look for new ways to reinvent themselves.  All my life I have enjoyed how technology has simplified my life. Now in my 3rd decade of performing professionally I decided to take a look back to the beginnings and reflect on how Technology has helped me saving time and energy in this fickle thing called the music business.

Now that I think of it there are way too many advances in music to write about without creating a book so lets just talk about one item that gets taken for granted.  Creating a set list.  You would think that picking out songs to perform and putting them in order was, well, not a huge task.  Hmm "Jessie's Girl"  lets play that in set two, 10th song.  That wasn't hard.  What else should we play? Whats new? hmmm (I'm listening to talk radio now so that is not a good barometer).  Hey First Lady " What else should the band play? I got "Jessie's Girl" on the list.  "Go away I'm Playing on my iPad". Hey that's an idea.  Lets check out this program on my phone called "Spotify".

Some would only see a program that allows you to listen to most any song you want to here but I see a set makers dream.  First of all I can research all the hits in a genre that I like just by pressing the radio button.  So I am listening to Paramore, and I hit radio and instantly I hear all the songs for that style.  The songs start playing and I simply move them to a list I created so I can vet them later.  The songs cover everything from 80's, 90's and today.  PERFECT!  What songs are popular? I can find that out by how many plays each one has so I know I'm in the ball park when I see a song with 50 million plays.  I then take the songs and arrange them into three set list by dragging and dropping them.  I need an hour for each list so instead of adding up times i just look at the overall time at the top of the list.  Instantly I know how long each set  list is so I don't have to guess.  I then want to share with the band, no problem, they subscribe to my lists, and they have them in order on their phones.  Need to practice? Still no problem, I just plug my phone into my guitar rig and play along.

One app on my phone takes the place of what used to be hours of work, looking at lists, recording all the songs on cassette, (OMG that took days, not hours, days) getting the songs to the band members, scribbling out a list on paper and re righting it many times to get the order correct, (Spotify just drag and drop) then coping the paper list at the drug store for 10 cents a copy, driving to the gig and distributing the list to everyone only to hear, "Really? Jessie's Girl in the 2nd set my voice is tiered by then"  Oh Brother...

Best investment I ever made

Back in 2006 I was working for a Ford dealership after I had gotten off the road as a full time musician.  A lady came in and wanted me to take a look at her car as there were a few pieces on the ground and she

didn't want to move it.  She was local so I stopped by and found a 1995 Red Ford Taurus with a broken front spring.  I towed it back to the shop and gave her the estimate to fix the spring which was now out of warranty.  She did not want to spend the money on a car with 165,000 miles on it, so she offered to sell the car. I bought the car and pulled the records at the shop and saw that she maintained oil changes and all the maintenance so I was comfortable paying what she asked. She sold it to me for $100.00.  I fixed the springs which cost about 200 bucks and started driving it.  Everything worked good on the car, even the air conditioning was cold.

Over the years I made sure to change the oil every 3k and I had to replace little things.  Back springs, Alternator etc.  Finally at 225,000 the transmission was slipping.  I did my homework and found a replacement for $200 which was under 100,000 miles and had a mechanic install.  Total price $500.  Not bad, the Air conditioning was still blowing cold and everything seamed to work on the car, even the cruise control.

Guess what?  It is now the summer of 2014.  I have owned the car for 8 years and have drove it daily.  It has just turned 300,000 miles and burns about a 1/2 quart of oil between changes. The radio is stuck on AM and there is some rust and dents but overall still solid.  Recently it saved me from a pretty major accident in which a big truck pulled out in front of me on the highway and forced me to do some fancy NASCAR moves to avoid total destruction. Who would have thought in the 1990's that with regular maintenance a car could be on the road 19 years.  My youngest daughter only remembers one car and she is now 9.  Both the girls never are embarrassed to be seen getting dropped off at school or ask to get rid of the "old junker" matter of fact it has been in the family so long it is almost like a family member.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it when I get a new car.  You can't just throw it away and with that many miles it might be hard to sell.

The only thing I know is that I saved the car from the junk yard many years ago and it has paid me back 10 fold.  It is the oldest car in the company parking lot and it has survived living outside in the Minnesota winters, driven my kids to 3 different schools,  numerous sets of tires, brakes, oil changes, trips to work, trips to the grocery store, vacations, being broke into, a couple of windshields and even a hail storm or two. I have an old golf club to prop the hood open when I need to check the oil.  There are coffee stains on the rug and you can pull the key out of the ignition when its running.  But like all things, it is showing age and I know there are not many miles left to be had. I hope to get through one more winter and then its time to replace with a new model.  My 100 bucks have served me well and guess what?  The Air Conditioning still blows cold.

How much could a woodchuck chuck??

First of all, it has been a while so thanks for hanging out with me.  I recently was talking to one of my
cousins, (large commodity in Kasson MN) about fire places.  He was bound and determined to sell me on the fact that a wood  fireplace is the way to go.  I am in a unique position because I grew up with a wood fireplace and now have a gas one.  Let me tell you the difference in my own creative way.

I sat down to watch a movie this winter and went to crank up the fireplace for a little warmth and atmosphere when all the sudden I flashed back to 1979.  The thought ran through my head, what would I be doing if I had a wood fireplace and not a gas one.  Well glad you asked.  First of all I would have to find a $1000 pickup truck.  You can't cut wood without a truck that is pre-dented and rusted.  I would then take a Saturday to go to the local Lowes and pick out a shinny new amputator..ahhh chainsaw.  I would need to pick out one that would not start on the first or second pull so I would have lots of 4 letter words to spout as I cursed the day away. Where would I procure the wood?? Maybe a local farmer would not mind me ransacking his grove so I could work out my back muscles that I forgot I had.

Oh there is more, much more!  So now I have to call the local rental company and rent a wood splitter so I can get the lumber into manageable pieces.  I un-stack the wood, split the lumber and re-stack making sure I cover with a tarp that I have to chase after on windy days . What am I up too in cost and time.  $2000 in truck, saw and rental plus 2-3 Saturdays and a couple days in bed to relax the aching back?? OK I am on the home stretch now.  I bring the wood downstairs an hour before my movie, dropping slivers on to the carpet that will soon find their way into the bottom of my foot. I stack an adequate supply next to the fireplace door which I can not see through since there is a buildup of soot from the last time I used it. So I grab the glass cleaner and spray the glass, dripping all over the newspaper I forgot to lay down...Crap!!   I then put the wood in the fireplace and strike the match. Forty five minutes later I now have a fire which I have to pause the movie for, so I can open the flue, close the flue, clear the smoke, swear at the ants crawling from the stack of wood and re-stoke for the perfect amber glow...

Or I can press the button on the front panel and sit back and enjoy my gas!

Obama care and the only 1 fact that matters!!

They say my grand fathers generation was the greatest generation.  There where quite a few advances in technology, and industry. So where am I going with this you ask?  How does this tie into Obama care? I want to talk strictly about the Government and only about Government. When you get done you will have the ONE fact you need to know about Obama care that will predict the future of healthcare.  So let me get out the numbers so we can compare the greatest generation to our current administration.

Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1942.  Shortly after that america went to war.  Between 1942 and 1945 american government produced:

22 Aircraft Carriers
8   Battleships
48 Cruisers
349 Destroyers
203 Submarines

Are you still with me...

99,950 Fighter Aircraft
97,810 Bomber Aircraft
23,929 transport Aircraft

Shall I continue:

105,251 self propelled guns (Tanks)
516,648 Artillery
1,477,400 Machine-guns
197,100 Military trunks

 and in 3 years this generation can't even put together one stinking WEBSITE!!