The joys of being a working musician… you don’t get paid if you don’t draw crowds, and even if you do draw, you sometimes don’t get paid what you thought you would. But advice? That’s everywhere—as free as it is unsolicited.
Over the years, your friendly neighborhood Crawler has collected such post-performance pearls of wisdom as “You guys should, like, make a record and give it to a radio station,” and “If I were you, I’d call the Civic Center and ask if you could open for Van Halen” from passersby as he wrapped up his cords and placed his trusty Guild guitar in its case for the evening.
In stark contrast to those advisers, singer/songwriter David Wilcox (davidwilcox.com) knows of what he speaks. And this Saturday, March 19, he will illustrate his expertise in both, courtesy of a workshop he is hosting called Building A Sustainable Career Making Music at the Northampton Community Music Center in the afternoon, followed by an Iron Horse concert proper that evening.
“I’ll be showing how, from a songwriting standpoint, I take it slow and let the heart lead so I can find out what the song knows about my heart,” says the man who has independently sold some 750,000 CDs in his career, “while my manager Tom will explain business plans and my social media guru Jaime will highlight the exciting new marketing possibilities out there.”
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Meanwhile, like most musicians, the members of The Gallery (thegallerymusic.com) want to be big rock ‘n’ roll stars. Difference is, you may actually be able to monitor how long it will take these Valley-based indie rockers to achieve the oft-elusive dream with an egg timer.
As chronicled in previous installments, the folk-tinged foursome was recently selected as one of 16 finalists in the “So You Want To Be A Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” contest—a competition whose victor will become the first unsigned band ever to grace the cover of the Rolling Stone.
The Crawler caught up with the band as they were en route to perform at the much-ballyhooed South By Southwest Festival. Texans, forgive our local boys if they look a little preoccupied—or keep checking their cell phones—throughout any of their four scheduled performances that weekend. Last they had heard, they would be receiving word on the contest results on or around March 16.
“We played a festival in Miami last fall, and apparently someone at a label we had been talking to was interested and submitted us… We didn’t actually know we were in it until we found out we had been chosen,” the band reported in a joint statement. “So it’s tough to tell how we’re doing because all the votes are hidden, but we’ve certainly been pushing the voting sites hard on all the social networks& and really, whether we win or not, we feel like it’s been a great opportunity since so many things have happened already.”
As of press time, The Gallery’s next local stop looks to be a May 6 engagement at the Iron Horse.
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Last but not least, the usual suspects have once again been rounded up for some St. Patty’s Day shenanigans this Thursday, March 17. In fact, local Celtic faves Dicey Riley were actually fortunate enough to land an opening slot for the world-renowned Red Hot Chili Pipers band at the Mass Mutual Center on the high holy day. For those who say bollocks to big venues, and believe St. Patty’s Day ain’t St. Patty’s Day ‘lessin’ they’re packed in like porn stars in Charlie Sheen’s suite and drenched in each other’s sweat and Guinness, well, Valley upstarts the Big Bad Bollocks have another option for you as well. They’ll be holding court at the Iron Horse all night long. Tickets range from $20 to $30 for the former show and are $10 in advance, $13 at the door at the latter. For specifics or to purchase, kindly point your browser to massmutualcenter.com and/or iheg.com respectively.
Send correspondence to Nightcrawler, PO Box 427, Somers, CT 06071; fax to (860) 394-4262 or email garycarra@aol.com.
