I still haven't had any luck finding an IT day job in the Dallas area and am thinking of moving back to the Manchester/Nashua, NH area next spring. I figure I can be out of work up there as easy as I can here in Texas. I've also read that the IT industry is "supposed" to pick up in New England first.
Are there many (or any) bands working in this area, and if so, how much are they working, what kind of money are they paying, and more importantly are there any bands that need/want a steel player?
If I can stand the cold winters there as opposed to the hot summers here, I'll be closer to my family, seafood, and great Harley riding.
Jim, It would be nice to see you back here in New England. The bad news is... there are very few gigs nowadays. It's nothing like the 1970's when you played six nights a week here. No band is playing more than three jobs a month, as far as I can tell. I play about five gigs a month between three bands, playing mostly guitar and some steel, and most of the gigs are an hour away. I don't know about NH specifically, although I did play a dance in Keene last weekend. Like I said, the gigs are few and far between all over.
Thanks Doug, Texas isn't any better these days, at least for me. I'm only doing two or three gigs a month between two bands here, and some of those are up to two hours away.
So much for retiring and playing music full time, huh!
One of the interesting things I discovered after moving to Texas in 1984 was how far one would drive to a gig. Whereas up north, a 30 or 40 mile drive was the limit then for most including myself, I found out that was nothing in Texas and the West. Driving 300 miles for a one nighter happened often. I would think, going back up there, with the idea that a 1 1/2 to 2 hour drive was acceptable (providing the pay was inline) would open up a lot more opportunities. I'm just guessing but no way will I attempt to find out :) I left the cold winters of NY and OH and never looked back. Texas will miss you for sure if you do head back there.
Yeah, I try to keep my total driving time to less than the gig time, but that doesn't always work in Texas.
I haven't missed the New England winters at all, but I don't like the long hot summers, flat country, and lack of scenery in Texas either.
A couple months ago I rode my Harley almost 5,000 miles to Bangor, Maine and back. The mountains and ocean views were breathtaking, and I can never get enough seafood.
Dana Flood used to have a small jam in Bangor I think it was on Tuesdays he owns Kingdom Music in Bangor and a fine fine steel guitar player. I am in West Virginia and nothing here also.
I know Dana very well. I grew up and started playing steel in the Bangor area, and most of my family is still there. There's little to nothing of any kind going on there and it's "wicked" cold, which is why I moved from there in the early 70s.
Hey Jim.....I, too, remember those days in the Bangor area...as I grew up and lived 26 miles north in Charleston. One of the first gigs I landed while I was a teen, was playing rhythm guitar and singing with Shorty Thomas....and your x-father-in-law, Milo T, was the steeler.....I was at his house the day his new ZB guitar came in....Man he was so proud of that guitar....between him and my 3rd cousin, Joe Macomber from Dover-Foxcroft, I got hooked on the steel guitar. If you do move up that way, you might get a hold of John Penny in Waltham, MA and he might be able to help with some gigs, or know of someone looking for a pro player.....Good-Luck in whatever you do. HAL
HAL...Excel D-10 w/ 8 & 5. SteelSeat.com w/back,SteelSeat.com Pedal Board on Legs with Quilter Tone Block 200 amp, Boss GE 7, Boss DD 3, Boss RV 6, Boss RT-20 Hilton Expression Pedal, Evans Cabinet with 4 ohm Eminence 15" speaker. BJS birthstone bar, Powder coated Tone bar by Michael Hillman. Dunlop Coated finger picks and Zookies L30 thumb picks.
Jim Cohen wrote:Which is cheaper: paying for air-conditioning or paying for heat?
My apartment in Texas is all electric, and my bill is actually lower in the summer than in the winter. I guess the air conditioners are more efficient than the furnaces.
Most of the apartments I've seen listed in New Hampshire include heat and hot water, so it should only be a little extra for AC in the summer. (The apartments up there do have AC, don't they?)
I know of "country" bands that are playing 6-8 gigs a month here in NH, but the gigs don't pay too well, and those bands do lots of classic rock and not a lot of steel-friendly country. I could probably be playing every weekend between my two bands if my wife didn't notice I was missing. But she would. It's nice to be wanted. *sigh*
There is a surprisingly large number of steelers in NH. I was playing a gig in the middle of nowhere on a Saturday morning last summer, and there were three other steel players there, only one by design. The down side is, I live in a town of a few thousand people, and I can't even say I'm the best steel player (just by dint of being the only steel player) in town. No fair.
My main band here does some classic rock too. I like it, and I get to use my IVL SteelRider for the sax and organ sounds. They also do enough classic country to keep my E9 chops up.
So what are gigs paying up there these days? I'm making less per gig now than when I first moved to Texas in 1980. Back then they paid $100-125, but now they average $80, and only once in a while will pay $100.
I'd say $70-100 is normal, so $80 is probably around the average. Keep it to four pieces and the pay goes up, of course. In the bigger towns (I hesitate to call anything in New Hampshire a "city"), there are more gigs but they tend to pay peanuts. With his bar tab, our bass player actually owed money at the end of one gig in Portsmouth last month!
I've also read that the IT industry is "supposed" to pick up in New England first.
*sigh* 