It’s been a very long time since my last blog post and for those that had followed my blogs in the past I apologize for the passage of time . No, I did not fall of the edge of the…Read more

Come November 13th, a HUGE 4-day, 3-night musical event/seminar/party will commence in the sleepy hamlet of Kerhonson, New York, just outside the Catskills. It is the annual conference of the North Eastern Regional Folk Alliance or NERFA. Officially, NERFA consists…Read more

It's been a while since I last posted on this Blog and I've taken this pause in my writing to think a good deal about the "why" of performance for emerging artists such as myself. I believe that I may…Read more

As an emerging artist, I try to participate in an open mike night in a different place each week. As it happened, I went to an Open Mike last wednesday and had a scheduled "gig" at the Starbucks at Harvard…Read more

I suppose there are whole books dedicated to the title of this blog posting. But I had an insight about this issue when I performed at an open mike that I had never previously attended. So, I felt it was…Read more

I'm sure there are literally thousands of different ways to get a gig these days. Much of it depends on the genre, the kind of audience sought and many other variables. I've tried the "Internet" method of looking for gigs…Read more

I just had a terrific week performing at Open Mikes last week, culminating in my getting three (and possibly four) new gigs at coffeehouses as a featured performer. I tend to use Open Mikes as a method of getting gigs…Read more

I just came back from performing at an open mike in western Massachusetts, the Luthier's Co-op. Even though it was more than an hour's drive from my home, I feel that it is an Open Mike worth driving to. As…Read more

As many people know who have seen me play, I am primarily a solo artist. For those of you that haven't, it could be said that beside singing, I play all parts of "the band" in a kind of percussive…Read more

I have a "love/hate" relationship with metronomes. There is no doubt that playing alone and preparing to perform using a metronome will make you a better musician by "aligning" your personal tempo with a mechanical/electronic norm. By playing your songs…Read more

One of the things I am most proud of when I perform are the complements I receive about my acoustic instruments. I recall recently receiving from another artist the comment, "wow, that is one beautiful guitar!" I genuinely appreciate such…Read more

You practice your music incessantly. Perhaps you even "role play" your performance in preparation for the real thing. Perhaps you worry about any lapses in memory of your lyrics that you might have. This is the common ailment of "perfectionism"…Read more