Hi Folks,
Here's today's newsletter:
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Welcome to Just Plain Notes
Just Plain Notes: Volume 1.165, June 28th, 2007
Written by Brian Austin Whitney
Visit the Website:
www.jpfolks.com Mail CD's @ 5327 Kit Drive, Indianapolis, IN 46237
Copyright 2007 Just Plain Folks Productions.
Just Plain Folks Member Population: 42,166
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Just Plain Quotes:
"We know truth, not only by reason, but also by the heart." -Blaise Pascal
"Take what you can use and let the rest go by." -Ken Kesey
"Always do what you are afraid to do." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
"I have always regarded myself as the pillar of my life." -Meryl Streep
"What you are is a question only you can answer." -Lois McMaster Bujold
"We can only do so much to prepare and we can only live our lives with the best intentions and most sincere efforts we can. If we do that, even in the face of life's tragedies and roadblocks, we can soldier on and be glad that, at least for now, we're doing what we love." -Brian Austin Whitney
My Take:
It's been a long time since I wrote about a Roadtrip Tour. For the first 7 years of JPF I spent a great deal of my time out and on the road visiting and meeting members across the US and Canada. In 2006, because the music awards had grown so large and due to some health issues, I was forced to stay off the road and in my office all year until we headed west for the 2006 Awards show. Now that I am back out on the road, I remember why I did it all in the first place. It's a unique and rewarding life experience each and every night!
That said, it can be a pretty intimidating thing to visit places you've never been to spend time with people you've never met and do things you've never done and have no idea if they'll even work when you try. I bet many of you have had a similar twinge of anxiety when you've considered jumping in with both feet to something new involving your music or life in general. Planning a tour outside your local comfort zone, contemplating going into the studio for the first time, committing to a new band or even a shift from doing cover songs to doing all originals can all be major shocks to your system and psyche.
So how do I jump headfirst into so many seemingly crazy things? You know, like staying with members I've never met before after shows booked in venues I've never been to in cities I've never visited with artists I've never heard? Here's a few things that work for me that might be useful when you tackle something new or overwhelming. Feel free to use or ignore as you see fit!
1. Think about things on a grand scale, treat them like a small thing.
Even the most ambitious plan is really just a series of small things that need to be lined up. Once we know how to deal with 1 event, we know that pretty much applies to all the others. Build your career one venue in one town at a time, but plan to expand that circle to include the surrounding region. Work on your songs methodically and use the same expertise on each. Even the biggest career plan is just a lot of little steps.
2. The more things slow down, the more you should speed up.
There are all sorts of things that keep you waiting during any major project. The key is to work furiously on other aspects of it when that happens. If you're waiting to hear back from one music conference gig, apply to 3 others (using the knowledge you gained from the first). If you're waiting to learn if a song is going to get a publishing deal, realize that your work has enough merit for consideration and send out other songs to other publishers. Don't stop everything waiting to hear back from anyone. Relentlessly move forward.
3. Well meaning clueless people will divert you, don't let them.
We all want the blessings of others in our plans. Often we can fall into a trap trying to please people and vice versa. They will offer opinions which usually differ from where we want to go with things. They do that because when asked for advice, people feel the need to improve on or offer alternatives to what we're asking about. That's human nature. Don't be misled by well intentioned but clueless people. No one knows more about your project than you do. Don't get off track and going in the wrong direction to please others.
4. Do what's right and it won't fail (even if it does).
Our lives are the sums of our actions and our own internal morality behind them. We know when we do right and wrong and that adds or subtracts weight on our shoulders as we plow ahead. If we do the right thing and it doesn't work out, we've still done something positive. If we do wrong, we lose no matter what the result.
5. It's better to get beat up along the way than to simply rot in one place.
An active person doing something challenging will likely crash into barriers along the way and that will leave it's marks on them. No pain no gain is more than a cliche, it's often a reality. But sitting around in perceived safety doing nothing with take a toll on your soul far more devastating not to mention remove any chance at success you wish to have.
6. Planning too much is as bad as not planning enough.
This is huge. If you have a good outline and you've thought things through, you don't need to micro manage everything along the way. Always refer back to the primary goal in your outline when things go awry. Don't worry if a part of what you want to do fails as long as you redirect things back to the outline in your head. Over planning often kills any chance of happy surprises as well. Keep your focus on the primary result and simply move towards it, no matter how much you might veer off to the left and right along the way.
7. Pleasant surprises usually come when you do something unplanned that could turn out to be unpleasant.
I can't tell you how many times something amazing has happened when I took a chance on something that could turn out miserably. A personal example is the fact that I often stay with strangers in cities I've never visited before. Sure, sometimes I end up sleeping on a hardwood floor with a sheet and my jacket for a pillow or in a backwoods shed with a dirt floor and a garden tractor as a bed, but more often it turns into something amazing. On this last tour I was surprised to find out one last minute host is one of the animators for the Simpsons. He showed me his work on next season's premiere episode! Another last minute host is the voice of Sprint PCS phones and she has been talking in my ear literally every day for the last 10 years when I get my voice mail messages. I knew nothing about these cool little facts when I followed them each home after two shows where I had no place scheduled to stay. Now I have new friends with amazing day jobs and heck, they even had nice guest rooms I got to stay in. The bottom line is that sometimes you just have to do something risky to end up with a great life experience and even the bad results often turn into the funniest stories later.
8. When you ask others for their opinion, it usually means you don't like the truth you already know.
When planning anything crazy (like our Roadtrips or a career in music) we are faced with a lot of realities that are tough. A lot of the time we ask others for their opinions simply because we don't like the obvious truth. We all do it. Just work to understand that fact and you'll often be able to just move forward faster and on your own while bypassing the middle person.
9. The most important person in the room is rarely the most obvious.
I always make a point to let folks know that the best contact they may make at one of our events may not be the best performer or singer they see. I use an example of a night where we had a weak performer who didn't sing or play well. Most of the folks at the show ignored this person and made no attempt to meet or network with him. That was their loss because he was a major label A&R rep and he really came out to the show to see if there was any interesting talent, but was enjoying the vibe so much that he wanted to be part of it and play a song. A lot of folks missed a golden opportunity pick the brain of an active expert who was happy to share what he knew. Those who did meet him gained a great new contact in their careers. Most people don't bother to work an entire room when networking. They size people up based on who's famous, who's overtly attractive and who exhibited Alpha characteristics in the room. A lot of the industry veterans are also experts on how to NOT stick out because they don't want to be overrun at every event they attend. But many times when introduced to someone the right way, like they're another actual human in the room and not some equivalent of a career ATM machine, they're happy to offer info, ideas, feedback or actual help. You never know who might be in a room unless you bother to learn. Networking is about meeting someone and learning something new, not simply chasing VIPs you already know about who are likely overwhelmed and unable to help you even if they wanted. That expands nothing including your career opportunities. You can always follow up with the obvious VIPs through traditional means later.
10. Make sure you get you pleasure from the doing, not the recognition.
Whether it's your career in music, your efforts to support the community or anything else you do in life, do it because you love it, not because you want others to love you for the effort. You'll never get the thanks you deserve for the hard work you put in or the accolades that are justified for the talent you have. Always do whatever gives you personal pleasure and satisfaction. Everything else is gravy. If you don't get enough pleasure from simply doing something, find something else to do. You'll be much happier that way.
11. Accept that no matter what you do, the world will insert obstacles and tragedies along the way that you can't anticipate or avoid.
No matter how hard you work, no matter how much talent you have, no matter how good a person you are, no matter how well you think things through or how good your intentions are, life will throw curve balls at you and horrendously sad things will still happen. That's a part of life that you can't control or plan.
Just before this tour started, a young artist contacted me about following along on all the dates of our Southeast tour. We exchanged emails and chatted on line about it all. He was excited about the prospect of visiting all those cities and meeting a lot of new people and finding some of his own gigs along the way. Yesterday I got an IM from a family member telling me that this young artist was killed in a motorcycle accident over the weekend. Though I barely knew him it still stopped me dead in my tracks. No matter how old I get or how many similar experiences I have had, I still have trouble accepting that one day someone is planning their future with great excitement and joy and the next minute they are gone forever.
This isn't the first time that we've lost someone during a tour or faced tragedies of all types, nor is it likely to be the last, but the tour will go on and it does so with the knowledge that none of us know what will really happen tomorrow or even later today. We can only do so much to prepare and we can only live our lives with the best intentions and most sincere efforts we can. If we do that, even in the face of life's tragedies and roadblocks, we can soldier on and be glad that, at least for now, we're doing what we love.
Thanks to all of you who help me continue doing what I love. See you on the road!
Learn, Succeed, Thrive. We're All In This Together!
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Just Plain Notes Table of Contents:
Today's news focuses on just a couple things. We have added a new 2 week Roadtrip tour to the US Mid South (TX, AR, LA, OK, MS, TN) in August. Time is limited to set up venues, so if you want us to visit, we really need your help! We also have the upcoming US Southeast dates and the European dates posted.
01. 2007 Just Plain Folks Roadtrips: US Midwest, US Southeast and Europe
02. JPF Member "MySpace" Database and "CDBaby" Gallery
03. Rock The Net: The Battle for Net Neutrality Wants Your Involvement
04. New Weekly Mentor Lyric/Song Critique Program is Launched!
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2007 JPF Roadtrip Sponsors
The following JPF Community Partners are sponsoring our 2007 Roadtrip events:
Disc Makers: Nobody makes CD or DVD manufacturing easier and no one delivers faster. When you need CD or DVD replication, short-run duplication, complete printing and packaging options, sturdy duplicators and printers, or affordable blank CDs and DVDs look no further. They've got it. They also now handle licensed merchandise for you (t-shirts, hats etc.). See them at
www.discmakers.com/jpfolks. TAXI: The independent A&R Vehicle. If you want to work toward getting your music to the top publishers, labels and industry opportunities, TAXI is your best bet! See them at
www.TAXI.com Future Of Music Coalition: The indie artist/writer freedom fighters! These folks are working day and night to protect our rights. Be sure to learn about the issues they are fighting for and get involved! Later in this newsletter we have information on an important current program called "Rock The Net" that they want to get you involved with. Please take a moment to read this important info! Visit them at
http://www.futureofmusic.org/rockthenet Song U: This is a formal education site with both written lessons and real time instructors and a great community vibe run by 2 JPF mentors Danny Arena and Sara Light. They have a lot of programs and options and their students have already started finding success from the program. Visit them at
www.songu.com.***************************************************
2007 Just Plain Folks Roadtrips: US Midwest, Southeast, MidSouth and our first ever European Roadtrip!
We just completed our Midwest Roadtrip last weekend after visits to Cincinnati, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Saginaw, Grand Rapids, Chicago, Madison, Minneapolis, Sioux Falls, Omaha, Iowa City, Des Moines, Shawnee, KS, St. Louis and Indianapolis. Next up we have the US Southeast and a new Roadtrip we are considering scheduling to the US MidSouth. After that we'll be visiting Europe for the first time ever!
What do we do on Roadtrips? In most cases we set up member networking showcases that welcome ALL genres, ALL levels of performers as well as non performers to come out, play a song or two and network with tons of artists, writers and industry professionals in your town. In the past 9 years we've featured thousands artists at one of our JPF Roadtrip or Chapter events and we're very excited to visit a bunch of new cities this year and meet a lot of new and old friends around the US. EVERYONE is welcome and encouraged to get involved.
These trips take a lot of planning and therefore there's a lot of info on how they work, what you need to do to participate and what sort of help we need. All of it is found at this link:
Roadtrip FAQ:
http://www.jpfolks.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=485183&page=1#Post485183 If you read that information and still have questions, email me at justplainfolks@aol.com and place "Roadtrip Question (And the City You Live In)" in the subject field.
We need help setting up venues in all the cities unless noted below as "Venue Set:"
-If you can help us out with a VENUE, please email me at justplainfolks@aol.com and place "Venue (City and Venue Name)" in the subject field. (PLEASE DON'T EMAIL ANYWHERE ELSE!).
I also need Hosts in each city that can offer me a private room to sleep in, Internet access, safe parking for our JPF Van and air conditioning (I can't believe how many of you live without A/C. I can't do it!).
-If you fit the bill and would be willing to HOST me the night of or before the show, please email me at justplainfolks@aol.com and place "Host (City Name)" in the subject field. (PLEASE DON'T EMAIL ANYWHERE ELSE!).
Southeast US Roadtrip:
We start this trip in 2 weeks and we have performance slots open in nearly every city. We are still urgently trying to find venues in all the open cities below. We are also well under the minimum required number of performers for a showcase in West Virginia. If you want us to include a stop there, please sign up today!
Sun, Jul 15: Louisville, KY Venue Set: Pour Haus
Mon, Jul 16: Lexington, KY Venue Set: Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour (Meeting/No Showcase)
Tue, Jul 17: Charleston, WV
Wed, Jul 18: Roanoke, VA Venue Set: Martin's Downtown Bar & Grill
Thu, Jul 19: Winston-Salem, NC
Fri, Jul 20: Charlotte, NC
Sat, Jul 21: Columbia, SC
Sun, Jul 22: Charleston, SC Venue Set: Sunfire Grill and Bistro
Mon, Jul 23: Jacksonville, FL
Tue, Jul 24: Orlando, FL (Eustis) Venue Set: A Third Place
Fri, Jul 27: Tampa, FL Venue Set: Puttin' On The Ritz
Sat, Jul 28: Tallahassee, FL
Sun, Jul 29: Athens, GA Venue Set: Nuci's Space (Meeting/No Showcase)
Mon, Jul 30: Atlanta, GA Venue Set: Red Light Cafe
Tue, Jul 31: Birmingham, AL Venue Set: Birmingham International Center
Wed, Aug 1: Nashville, TN Pineyfest Music Conference (Meeting/No Showcase)
Thu, Aug 2: Nashville, TN Venue Set: Bluebird Cafe 6-8PM (2006 JPF Award Winner Showcase)
Fri, Aug 3: Nashville, TN Pineyfest Music Conference (Meeting/No Showcase)
Sat, Aug 4: Nashville, TN Venue Set: Lyrix
Note: To sign up to perform at one ore more of these events, read the FAQ or follow the instructions below.
Mid-South US Roadtrip:
We are just starting to set up this tour. We need venues in every city as well as sign-ups by artists. We will do shows in any of the cities below in which we can get at least 20 artists signed up to perform and a venue to host. We need hosts in all the cities for myself and also Linda in LA, MS, AR and TN.
If you can help with a venue or host or want to sign up for a slot
Sun, Aug 19: Tulsa, OK
Mon, Aug 20: Oklahoma City, OK
Tue, Aug 21: Dallas, TX
Thu, Aug 23: Austin, TX
Sat, Aug 25: San Antonio, TX
Sun, Aug 26: Houston, TX
Wed, Aug 29: New Orleans, LA
Thu, Aug 30: Jackson, MS
Fri, Aug 31: Little Rock, AR
Sat, Sep 1: Memphis, TN
Note: To sign up to perform at one ore more of these events, read the FAQ or follow the instructions below.
2007 European Roadtrip Dates/Cities/Countries Are Set!
Our first European Trip is part Roadtrip and Part Tourist Trip. Our goal is to at least meet members in each of the cities below. If time allows, we'd also like to set up some JPF Showcases if we can get enough support from members in the cities/countries below. We will also consider attending members shows on the days and cities listed below. If you live in or near any of these areas and want to meet us, and possibly perform in an event in the cities listed below, please email us. We are new to all these places, so we can only pull this off with direct assistance from members in these places. We need venues, and at least 10-20 local artists to do a showcase. Otherwise, we're happy to meet with anyone available on or about the dates and locations listed below. We'll be in many other cities around each date playing tourist and may be available in other cities along the way.
Tue, Sep 25: Bruge, Belgium
Thu, Sep 27: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Tue, Oct 2: Munich, Germany
Fri, Oct 5: Prague, Czech Republic
Tue, Oct 9: Salzburg, Austria
Mon, Oct 15: Venice, Italy
Thu, Oct 18: Florence, Italy
Sun, Oct 21: Rome, Italy
Mon, Oct 29: Monaco, Monaco
Tue, Oct 30: Nice, France
Sun, Nov 3: Montreux, Switzerland
Thu, Nov 8: Paris, France
Note: We decided to do a separate 3 week tour of the UK and Ireland in 2008. Watch the newsletter for info on that!
If you would like to sign up to perform or attend one of these events, please follow the directions given at this link:
Roadtrip FAQ:
http://www.jpfolks.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=485183&page=1#Post485183 If you read that entire FAQ and don't see the answer to your question, email me at jpfolkspro@aol.com and place "Roadtrip Question" in the subject.
Once you've read the FAQ, or if you're already familiar with what we do, here's the form you need to sign up for a performance slot. You can also forward this to friends.
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To get a performance slot at one or more Roadtrip shows:
1. Email these requests to justplainfolks@aol.com (this is the ONLY email address you can use to sign up. PLEASE do NOT send requests to jpnotes@aol.com, jpfolkspro@aol.com or anywhere else. You won't get signed up!).
2. In the Email Subject field, please place the date(s) and cities you want to attend (You can include multiple cities in one email if you want).
3. Inside the email, please include:
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Date(s)/City(s) Interested in:
Artist/Band Name:
Contact Name: (If different from above)
Full Address:
Phone Number:
Email Address:
Website:
Music Genre:
Band Size and Instrumentation:
Short Descriptions of your music, style and experience: (Please keep this to a couple sentences MAX!)
Special Time Needs: (Note: we can only accommodate "early" or "late" on a first come first served basis)
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That's all there is to it! We'll send out updates to each show lineup with more details every few days leading up to the event. You won't get an immediate confirmation. Remember, everyone who asks for a slot, gets one at any show that is available.
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Are you having trouble explaining what a Roadtrip is to friends? Here's a detailed FAQ that should answer every question they have. (It also lists all the cities/dates of the tour below the main post).
Roadtrip FAQ:
http://www.jpfolks.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=485183&page=1#Post485183 I have also had requests for a Press Release about the show. I wrote a generic template you are welcome to use. It's long, so just use the parts you need or have room for and feel free to customize it for your city.
Roadtrip Press Release Template:
http://www.jpfolks.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=495679&page=1#Post495679---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Remember, some of these dates and cities are still subject to change. We need enough interest in a city to do a showcase which means at least 15 artists. If there isn't enough interest, we may still visit, grab dinner with those interested and do some documentary interviews instead of a showcase. The JPF Roadtrips are a great tradition and I look forward to meeting lots and lots of you face to face on the road this year!
Our 2007 Roadtrips are Sponsored in part by Disc Makers, TAXI, The Future of Music Coalition and SongU. If you'd like to help sponsor one or more events, please email me at jpfolkspro@aol.com and place "Roadtrip Sponsor" in the subject field.
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JPF Member "MySpace" Database and "CDBaby" Gallery
Jeff Van Devender on our message board has created a database of any JPF members who have MySpace pages as well as a Gallery for any of you on CD Baby. If you'd like to be included in either or both, here are the links for each. This is another networking opportunity
To be added to the JPF MySpace Database for networking, post your request here:
http://www.jpfolks.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=472838&page=0&fpart=1 To be added to the JPF CD Baby Gallery, post your request here:
http://www.jpfolks.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=162674&page=2#Post162674***************************************************
Future of Music Coalition & Rock The Net: Fighting for Net Neutrality!
R.E.M., Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam, Boots Riley of The Coup and many other musicians and independent record labels are joining a nationwide campaign to recruit thousands of artists to support the fight for net neutrality. “Rock the Net” is being organized by the Future of Music Coalition, Noise Pop, and Zeitgeist Artist Management.
“Four years ago we got 4,000 musicians (Ed Note: Many of them were JPF Members) to sign on to the battle against radio consolidation. With Rock the Net, we intend to get thousands of the nation’s musicians, independent labels and music services to become part of the effort to keep a ‘payola’ system from being established on the Internet,” said Jenny Toomey, executive director of the Future of Music Coalition. “This will be the largest coalition of musicians for net neutrality in the country.”
There are more than two dozen founding members of the campaign including the Kronos Quartet, Sarah McLachlan, The Wrens, OK Go, Death Cab for Cutie and the Barenaked Ladies. Rock the Net have launched a website (
http://www.futureofmusic.org/rockthenet/) that allows other musicians, independent record labels and music fans to sign onto the campaign and take action to support net neutrality. Bands and fans will also be able to track Rock the Net events around the country with an interactive map.
Net neutrality is the idea that all websites and services should be equally accessible on the Internet. Some Internet service providers have proposed charging a fee to Internet content providers to make their sites load faster. Rock the Net believes such a move could make it harder for fans to access the vibrant array of musical offerings now available online.
Here’s a complete list of Rock the Net’s founding bands:
R.E.M., Stone Gossard (Pearl Jam), Ted Leo, Boots Riley, Barenaked Ladies, Sarah McLachlan, Death Cab for Cutie, OK Go, Bob Mould, Calexico, Kathleen Hanna, The Donnas, Jerry Harrison, John Doe, Les Claypool, Kronos Quartet, Jimmy Tamborello, Street to Nowhere, The Locust, Rogue Wave, Guster, State Radio, Matt Wertz, Griffin House, Matt Nathanson, The Wrens
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Weekly Mentor Critique Program
If you are a lyricist or songwriter, JPF Mentor Harriet Schock is doing a free weekly Critique lesson on our new JPF Message Boards. Each week anyone can submit a Lyric or Lyric and MP3 file link for consideration. Harriet chooses the most educational entry (i.e. it's not the best or worst, just the one she can make the most interesting points about) and she does a full critique for free. The next step is that your peers chime in and do a critique themselves of the work. Next, we post Harriet's Critique and then open it up for discussion. The benefits are in learning how to look for areas to improve, which ones you got right and which ones you missed and learning how to improve them. By learning how to critique others well yourself, it will make you a better writer the next time on your own work as well. Check it out and you'll be blown away by the educational benefits of it all. And as always, it's free to everyone! So please join us! You'll find the posts in the Mentor Critique section just under the 3 Lyric Feedback boards.
Here's a link to the message boards:
http://www.jpfolks.com/forum/ubbthreads.php(Scroll down a bit to find the right board)
To register to post (which means choosing your own User Name and getting a password back via email)
Click here:
http://www.jpfolks.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=newuser We take submissions on Thursdays and Fridays, so there's still time for you to submit something by Midnight tonight! On Saturday and Sunday we have peer critiques. On Monday we post Harriet's Critique and we discuss the entire thing until Wednesday night when we start it all over again Thursday Morning. In recent weeks we've also had Guest Mentors Sara Light of SongU.com, John Braheny, author of The Craft and Business of Songwriting and Multi Platinum Songwriter Harold Payne.
To learn more about Harriet Schock, please visit her Website at:
www.harrietschock.com . She's a great educator with custom critiques, classroom courses in Southern California and on-line course as well.
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Copyright 2007 Just Plain Folks Productions
