The Unsigned Mind….. New Orleans or “Escaping the Artistic Desert”….

If you’ve been keeping up then you know we had a couple of really important shows recently. I’m not implying that all our shows aren’t important. These shows just had potential for being really huge for us.

 And in a lot of ways they were.

We had the honor of playing in a club that had been a Jazz and Blues club in downtown New Orleans since the 1890’s. The Ramp Room of The Little Gem Saloon is everything you might imagine of a place with such a heritage. Well lit corner stage surrounded by Red and Black seating and carpet with a hardwood bar. It was the perfect ambiance in a place with such a heritage…

But it wasn’t the room that really stood out. It was the performers…. they were awesome and there we were right in their midst. Treated as equals and receving the same accolades from those in attendance as the other artist that crossed the stage.

The next day we attended several seminars on the music business. Aspects of which we barely even knew existed and other aspects we had no clue about how to access….. it was a very eye opening experience. The panelist then spent time visiting with all the different musicians in the room and answering their questions about the music business and how to handle up and coming careers…… and there we were right in their midst. Treated as equals. Some of these panelist even expressing an interest in hearing from us in the days and weeks after the conference….. it was awesome….

Then onto another show at another club. This time in the French Quarter of New Orleans. There were other artist, people from a record company or two and all the scurry and excitement of playing music in such a historical place. You could hear other bands in other clubs up and down the street. Fans of all kinds walking by the doors and stopping to listen or coming in and sitting down to enjoy what ever artist was on stage at that moment…. and their we were right in the midst of the whole experience. Laughing and getting to know other musicians. Talking with people from a record company. Taking in the whole experience and being treated just like the rest of the musicians there….. it was an incredible experience.

We made new friends, some that we’ve already been in contact since the conference. There were other highlights too……

Our first day there as we were going into where the conference was held a man looked up so see us entering and hollered out “HEY, Captain Ledge Band!”…. it was the gentleman in charge of the entire event and he knew who we were! Now, that’s was a different kind of feeling. Eric introduced himself and walked us into the building, introducing us to his “people” and getting us checked in and registered. He event came to our second show and spent about an hour talking with us at the end of the night. Pretty big deal when you consider there were about 130 other bands playing over the 3 days and he chose to come talk to us……. there’s more to tell about how all that transpired but that’s another day for another post…..

And then it was over and we went back to our rooms to sleep a little before the long trip home…..

Honestly, it caused me some sadness……

We joked with people at the conference that our normal audience is the coyotes around the place where we live. We made the decision a long time ago to not be a bar band and instead concentrate on writing and recording. We’re honored to play most of the festivals in our area but those don’t happen on a regular basis so we just play and write music for our enjoyment most of the time.

This has had some positive results for us. We got invited to play in New Orleans for instance. We’ve had a video broadcast nationally on ZUUS TV. Our music and our band have shown up in various charts and rankings on sites on the internet. All good stuff but not near as satisfying as getting to play for someone other than coyotes.

But there’s another thing that we didn’t realize we don’t have until this experience. Something that we couldn’t possibly miss if we never knew we needed it……

The opportunity to hang out and communicate with like minded musical artist. Yeah, we don’t get much interaction out of those coyotes. We don’t get to sit around and talk music with industry professionals and we don’t get to spend as much time as we would like interacting with music fans and the techs that make those shows possible.

And in the process that was New Orleans and The Cutting Edge Music Conference and Festival it made me realize that is the thing that I thrive on the most.

So, we loaded up and headed back to the artistic desert. Yes, we have great friends here. Our family is here and our jobs BUT what isn’t here is that interaction with “music folks like us” and now we discover that this is one thing that is missing in our lives and we need very badly.

That, and more opportunities to share all that music with people that are music fans….

We thank each and everyone of you that take time out of their day to follow The Captain Ledge Band. We thank Web Greg and Tomy McDonald for being in our court and helping us to try and make all this possible. We need each and every one of you and New Orleans let us know just exactly how badly we need you……