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In every walk of life there are those of us who are charged with the duty of pushing papers back and forth across our corner-office (or cubicle) desks. And so it is in the world of touring music groups — no exception here. The problem is, in our chosen profession of “performing songwriters” there is a constant ying-yang-esque battle between the “artistic” and “practical” sides of the business. As musicians, our ideal world would be one consisting of writing songs, practicing our collective performance skills and individual instrument skills, broadening our abilities musically, and perhaps occasionally having a nice dinner party to help us relax (and to get our weekly quota of social interaction, which would otherwise be completely lost to us)... In every walk of life there are those of us who are charged with the duty of pushing papers back and forth across our corner-office (or cubicle) desks. And so it is in the world of touring music groups — no exception here. The problem is, in our chosen profession of “performing songwriters” there is a constant ying-yang-esque battle between the “artistic” and “practical” sides of the business. As musicians, our ideal world would be one consisting of writing songs, practicing our collective performance skills and individual instrument skills, broadening our abilities musically, and perhaps occasionally having a nice dinner party to help us relax (and to get our weekly quota of social interaction, which would otherwise be completely lost to us). But in the real music business world of cut-throat competition for a few performance slots here and there, and where everyone and their dog is recording a CD on their home computer, that ideal world of musician bliss simply doesn’t exist. A band has to be simultaneously writing songs for the next album release, creating unique stage shows, coming up with new ways to promote, all while staying on top of the booking process of acquiring new show dates. This is not to mention website management, new photography, any videos they want to produce, public appearances, press & media promotion (and press release writing), etc. So a band is required to be much more than just “a few guys with guitars” if they truly want to attain any level of real success. This is part of the reason we started our “Song of the Week” podcast — to help remind us each week that, amid all the paperwork and band chores we have to do in addition to “just the music”, the most important thing of all is to maintain a high level of creativity. During the summer, it seemed like keeping up with the “Song of the Week” writing was easy enough, because we didn’t have a heavy tour schedule while school was out. But now that things are picking back up on the tour front, spare time is getting more and more scarce, and creativity starts to wane in the face of practical responsibilities. We have three huge self-promoted concerts that are in the works right now for Lexington in October, Huntsville in November, and Huntington in December, in addition to the regular concerts at colleges and festivals, and promo shows at cafes, schools and record stores. With all of this, there are a lot of business decisions to be made, booking paperwork to be done, travel time to put in, conference calls to be a part of, and an endless procession of secretarial tasks to get out of the way. But somehow we’ve managed to stay on top of our songwriting, practice sessions, studio recording, and performing. Last edition, I left off as our troupe was parting ways and heading back to our respective destinations, on our way to Paducah, KY for a special end of summer Labor Day street festival we were invited to perform at. It ended up that the day we were supposed to perform, after driving hours to get there, the outside wall of one of the historic downtown buildings collapsed pretty much right on top of the place where we would have been playing on the street later that evening. Luckily no one was injured, but the festival was completely cancelled. Our resourceful manager, Doretta, immediately got on the phone and scheduled us a last-minute show at Max’s, a very upscale restaurant near the waterfront in the tourist area of town. So the trip ended up not being for nothing, and the city even helped us out with travel expenses. It’s been said before in this column that on the road, you really never know what to expect, and should always have a “plan B”. This trip ended up being an excellent illustration of that. We’ll see how our upcoming trips to Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, KY, and the APCA conference in Coralville, IA go. Till next time… The Redding Brothers are an alternative rock & roll trio originally from Charleston, WV, now based in Nashville, TN. They produce a sound similar to Barenaked Ladies, Sister Hazel, and Matchbox Twenty, and have just released their second full-length album “The Physics of Immortality.” The brothers are well-known across the nation for their unique “Song of the Week” podcast, where they write, record and release one new song every Saturday at midnight. The podcast is available for free on their website, ReddingBrothers.com.
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