Water At The Bluebird

People line up to get into the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville a couple hours before it opens each evening. And in the summer it gets hot.

So each afternoon, before the line starts, the staff put out one of those big orange water dispensers on a stool with a bunch of cups…and then go back to work. As thirty or forty people are lining up and baking in the Nashville humidity they can at least stay hydrated.

It’s a great idea…and the Bluebird doesn’t have to do that but they do anyway because it takes care of a problem.

But it could go wrong and it doesn’t scale.

What if a thousand people get in line? The water dispenser would have to be twenty water dispensers and a few employees monitoring the station. Too much work, let’s not do the water thing at all. But there isn’t a thousand people…there’s a few dozen.

The Bluebird is surrounded by other businesses and foot traffic…the cooler will probably get stolen or graffitied or tipped over by teenagers. It’s best to not put it out at all. But it doesn’t get stolen or abused.

What if a weird bug somehow gets in the water and someone gets sick from the Bluebird water cooler? The liability expenses could be off the charts. The historic venue could go bankrupt. But this type of worry only comes from the camp of ‘hey anything is possible’.

Sometimes the present problem needs to be addressed and solved simply by solving it for the present. Not having endless meetings about the what-ifs. Not running through all the hypotheticals. Not putting it to a vote. Not worrying about if it’s a forever fix.

Just take care of it. It might not work for everyone but it works for you. And in your world that might be enough.

So if you head down to the Bluebird this summer…go for the show, go early for the water.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Before I Had A Bass...

I started a band.

It was a three piece. And between the three of us we had one guitar and one snare drum. That seemed to be enough. On top of that we figured out a way to make our own lighting gels so that we could turn the basement lights blue or red (or stack them together and make purple).

Early on I had a sense of what it meant to be in a band, the power of a band, the majesty of a band…I wasn’t going to let instruments get in the way.

Once we’d secured the identity of a band we knew the instruments weren’t far behind, along with the songs and the shows…after all, that’s what bands did…and we were in fact a band.

The identity is what drove the action. And when operating like this, all the actions make sense.

Action with no identity is when we get lost and without even realizing it.

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Depths Of The Struggle

As a creative, a songwriter, a maker of new things…the hardest part isn’t when the creativity is slow and the good ideas seem few and far between.

No. The real hard part is those moments and sessions and seasons when you think everything has already been done. That there are no more ideas. Not even bad ones…just no more ideas at all. The whole idea of having ideas has run its course.

This is part of the deep struggle.

If you can learn to move with and through this, you have a shot at being great.

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The Recorded Version

The recorded version is so good. You got the groove just right, comped a great vocal from a bunch of takes, compressed the low end nice and punchy…it’s really a thing of beauty.

So you start playing it live.

But it never hits quite like the recording. Night after night you’re trying to get it to that level but it never happens.

And then…finally on the perfect night you play it even better than the recording…which is even worse…because now the recording isn’t all that it was cracked up to be.

You see the cycle here.

You want to make sure the recorded version is a good one because that’s the one that gets passed around the most and is going to live on after you’re dead. But the game we sign up for as artists isn’t to surpass the recorded version or the version we played last night…rather, the game is to see what we can do this time.

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Sincerity and Consistency

As a professional it’s important to understand why consistency will often be more important than sincerity.

Sincerity is rooted in feelings, which change all the time…So it’s not the most reliable building block for the long term.

Consistency, even though it may not always be as sincere as sincerity, is reliable…and reliability is one of the most important building blocks for the long term.

»» A likely scenario is that (professionally) you will concoct a version of sincerity that you want to present to the world, that is unique to you, that the audience enjoys…and then commit to it. It’s not always sincere but it’s always a part of you.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Sandwich Artist

When someone else makes you a sandwich it always tastes better. Even if you know all the ingredients they used you still get to think there must be some extra special way that they put it together and that’s why it’s so good.

The real magic is in knowing all the ingredients, putting it together yourself and still being amazed and inspired by the outcome. That’s the real sandwich artist...ie. The real artist.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple