NETWIFM: Duncan McFarlane!

[kniteracy]

Not Exactly [Last] Week In Folk Music: Duncan McFarlane!

We didn't go to Folkmob last week; we were just knackered.

But Tuesday night at Sharps was something not to be missed-- the guest was Duncan McFarlane, and he is completely worth your time if you have the opportunity to go and see him. stevieannie, I think you would particularly enjoy his driving mix of traditional and original-nodding-to-traditional material, not to mention his obvious homage-to-Nic-Jones guitar style. He was fun, he was energetic, he was right there and not at a distance, and he was really enjoying himself. He was chatty and personable at the break, got everybody to sing along, and didn't take himself too seriously.

My itty bitty floor spot went OK; I sang "Shirt of Lace" with the lap harp and it wasn't awful but it wasn't perfect either.


Good and bad parts about this experience:

Good parts about seeing DM-- the whole concert experience was terrific, and it was great to just sit back for most of an evening and be entertained. We'd planned to leave early, since Wednesday morning I had to be on a train at oh-my-god-o'clock in the morning for my training day in Oxford, but needless to say, we didn't make it out. I actually put my name on his spam list, because I wantto know where this guy goes.

Bad part about seeing DM-- frankly, if a performer this good and this accessible and potentially popular has to have a day job and talks about his day job (at a school) as if he has no intention of leaving it although music is what he does, there is absolutely no hope for me to be a 100% professional musician in the UK, period. While it was really delightful to see someone who is really good, someone I'd happily pay to see, at Sharps, it was kind of depressing to know that somebody this much better than me can't make a living making music.

Comments

[folkmew.livejournal.com]

frankly, if a performer this good and this accessible and potentially popular has to have a day job and talks about his day job (at a school) as if he has no intention of leaving it although music is what he does, there is absolutely no hope for me to be a 100% professional musician in the UK, period.

I wouldn't assume that. I've known plenty of musicians (besides us) who choose to have a day job because it gives them a lot more freedom to enjoy the music and not work the business so much. The Short Sisters (one of whom is Peggy Seeger's daughter) are full time teachers too. They love it because they *like* teaching and it's a security net that is hard to find with music, and it affords them big blocks of time off to travel (the entire summer and their schools support what they do and let them take occasional jaunts other times).

The problem is (and I can't believe it's that different in the UK) if you want to work 100% at music you have to be really good at business and you have to be diverse (usually). I mean look at all the pies that unclechristo has his fingers in!

I think I saw our set of "Doing Music and Nothing Else" stuff in the storage cube, next time I go maybe I'll dig it out, copy it, and send it to you. They say the 50/50 rule. You have to spend 50 % of the time working hard on your music and 50% of the time working hard on the business.

Most artists, authors, and musicians I know are not great at the business piece and hate it. So I wouldn't give up the dream if it really is your dream and if, like me, you find that it really isn't that important to you to "work full time" as a musician as long as music is always a part of your life? Then be OK with that too. I think part of the problem too (at least for me) is we musicians often get ourselves into a state where we feel we aren't *REAL* musicians unless we are supporting ourselves with our music. But I really think differently now. I know how many amazing musicians there are who don't choose to do it for a living. Lots of them have happy little hobby/careers or second income careers and others still don't do it professionally at ALL but you hear them at a hall jam at a folk festival and guess who is there with them? All the really good pro players because they have a reputation even if they *aren't* playing out pro. They're good, they know they're good and they don't have to perform professionally to do it.

Which is not to say you shouldn't follow that dream because I happen to know that you are. I think you could combine teaching, workshops, performing, recording... etc and create a very nice musical career with or without keeping your Sharp job but I just want to say that I for one know you are truly a fine musician whether you end up doing it full time or not.

For me it took me years to realize that one of my favorite CHarlie King songs applied to my work as a musician too: "Our life is, more than our work, and our work is, more than our jobs."