Photo credit: Starla Dawn
Tell us about your tour vehicle. Any notable breakdown stories?
I’m driving my dream touring vehicle: a used Honda Fit that I got a great deal on (thank you, rebuilt transmission). It’s right in the sweet spot of compact parking sized meets great mpg meets plenty of storage space meets nobody breaks into it because it’s a Mom-mobile. It’s just under 100K miles right now. So far I’ve been lucky- no major breakdowns, just some flat tires I’ve had to change. But it’s a relatively new (to me) car so let’s give it time.
How do you eat cheaply and/or healthy while on tour?
Sometimes I buy protein shakes and drink those instead of doing the drive through for breakfast and lunch on the road. It keeps me full without a big caloric cost, keeps me from eating too much Wendy’s (I love Wendy’s) and means I’m actually hungry for whatever free dinner the venue or host gives me. No fridge for leftovers on the road so I can’t really save any of my dinner for later if I don’t leave room for it in my stomach beforehand, haha. I always have a snack bag and a little cooler with sparkling water and sodas. I try to hit up grocery stores and local dives with good ratings if I want actual food.
How many strings do you break in a typical year? How much does it cost to replace them?
I really never break strings. I think it’s happened once in like 5 years? Strings are relatively cheap and I don’t change them all that often so I spring for the good stuff: Elixers.
Where do you rehearse?
I mostly rehearse at home and in hotel rooms and green rooms. I’ve rented out rehearsal spaces in the past when I’ve played with my band, but mostly I just play in my bedroom or living room. And maybe the night before the tour or gig I run through the tunes that I feel shaky on. I don’t play to a metronome or anything like that. When I’m active with a band, I rehearse a lot more, because then you have lots of musicians who all need to be on the same page. But when I play solo, it’s fairly organic.
What was the title and a sample lyric from the first song that you wrote?
When I was like 4 or 5 or something I wrote a song that my mom notated on sheet music paper for me. It started out with this line: “Someday, someday, it will all change. It will all be different in every way.” I can still remember the melody. I was fascinated by my mom’s ability to capture it and put it down on a page. But that wasn’t my first song. It was the first one that was notated on sheet music, but from the second I could sing, I sang constantly as a very small child. I would walk around the house, making up a musical soundtrack to whatever I happened to be doing; “I’m picking up my toys and I’m going to the potty and now I’m eating my applesauce!” etc.
Describe your first gig.
I played a house concert for this great guy named Tom Noe, who lived near Dallas and was an atheist who built telescopes. It was right after I’d been to Kerrville Folk Festival for the first time and many of the attendees were friends I’d camped with a few weeks earlier. They put these little camp lanterns in the middle of the living room to make it feel less intimidating and more like it was just a campfire. I met my dear friend Dirje Childs that night. Dirje is a cellist and I spontaneously asked her if she wanted to sit in and play, when I noticed she’d brought a cello. She did, even though she’d never heard the songs. We played and recorded together for lots of years after that. The morning after the concert, Tom made me breakfast and we happily debated the existence of God and an afterlife. He was a really wonderful person. He passed away some years after that. I’ll always remember him.
What was your last day job? What was your favorite day job?
When I’m not on the road, I sometimes moonlight at a coffee shop/ice cream parlor in East Nashville. It’s the best- all day long I give ice cream to kids and dogs and caffeine to their parents. I’m basically a legal drug dealer. It’s very rewarding. Maybe my favorite day job so far. But I’ve had many and I’ve actually really liked a lot of them.
How has your music-related income changed over the past 5-10 years? What do you expect it to look like 5-10 years from now?
Well, it was many, many years of embarrassingly low income. So low I wasn’t required to report it on my taxes. Then it gradually started to pick up, with some good years before COVID – 2017, 18, and especially 19 were great. COVID killed my touring income and I had to supplement with Patreon (thank God for small and loving fan base I’d assembled over the years) and the advance from my publishing deal. I’d recently signed two record deals (one as a solo artist and one as a band) and that’s helped keep me afloat and from having to run Kickstarter campaigns – which for artists represent basically 3 months of round the clock unpaid, ego-crushing work to raise the bare minimum amount of money necessary to record an indie album. Before I signed my little record deals, I did Kickstarter campaigns a few times. I’ve been very fortunate to have wonderful, supportive fans, producers, and patrons. These days, post-divorce, I’m back to the income situation I had in my early 20s. I’ve got three roommates and several side hustles and day jobs going, for when touring is slow.
What one thing do you know now that you had wished you knew when you started your career in music?
If you work hard all through your 20’s, good things will happen to you after 30. Don’t believe that if you haven’t reached monumental success by 30 that you can’t have a career. But by the same token, work as hard as you possibly can while you’re young and can benefit from both the cult of youth and the ability to drive like 12 hrs, play a gig, and then sleep on a futon.
Success will look different than you think (and that’s a good thing). Define it for yourself.
Music is not only a vocation. It is also a business. If you don’t understand the basics of how it works and advocate for yourself, you will be taken advantage of. Educate yourself.
Your body is your instrument and you only get one. So avoid addiction. Get some sleep. Brush your teeth. Do a little yoga.
Be a good human – not just a good artist. Have a life outside music. Read books. Call your mom and your best friend when you have a long drive or a day off and talk about nothing. Pick a hobby – any hobby. Something completely unrelated to your work that you do purely for pleasure. Pick a cause or nonprofit and dedicate your time and talent to giving back. Balance prevents burnout results in a long, stable career.
Music is about collaboration, not competition. Build community anywhere and everywhere you can. Without community, none of us can do this. There is no big break or important contact more valuable than the community you build yourself, one fan, venue, friend, co-writer, at a time. We can all do more together, not just to advance our own careers but in the pursuit of making the whole industry better for everyone. Don’t forget to lift up the next one in line.