A FIVE-YEAR PLAN?

I have another out-of-town job interview next week (first one in a while), so I get to fantasize (again) about what it’d be like living in a new place.

Musically, I think they all follow a set pattern. If there’s somebody I know living in the area (and I would in this case—I know a lot of people), I get in touch with them. I want to find out if there are any open mikes, and any jam sessions; I’ll make sure to go. If there’s an organized group of songwriters, I’ll join; if there’s an organized group of musicians, like the Blue Mountain Fiddlers, I’ll join that, too. Creates a quick network of local musicians to play with, and a quick start of places to play, that I can build on. It’s easier than starting from scratch. If those things don’t exist (and in some of the places I’ve looked at moving to, they don’t), I do have to start from scratch. I’ve done that, too. It just takes longer.

In all cases, I want to expand the number of places I can play (and it’s nice if some of them are paying gigs); I want to expand or create the local fan base; and I want a band. What I managed to find in my last two “incarnations” are impromptu “bands” of very good musicians able and willing to assemble on short notice to be “Joe’s Band” for concerts or an album, and that really did work out well; it was the musical equivalent of “regular sex partner with minimal commitment” instead of a marriage, and it may not be possible to do everywhere. If I have to be part of a regularly practicing and performing band, so be it. I’ve done that, too.

One thing I can add to this year’s list of accomplishments is something I didn’t expect: I will have produced an album, from start to finish—the “Broken Record” project. If I were doing a commercial venture, there are some things I’d hire out (like making the CDs—since there will only be 16 copies instead of thousands, I’ll do it on my old, slow CD burner)—but I’m getting to see, and do, every step of the process. If I get to do Dick and Carol’s Christmas album, I’ll have done two. And Outside Services Ltd. The Record Company may not seem such a far-out possibility.

Songwriter Vikki Flawith was advocating recently the need for a Five-Year Plan, and it’s a good idea. I have, with my New Year’s Goals, gone just year to year, and that doesn’t tell me how what I’m accomplishing (or not accomplishing) fits into The Larger Picture. Where do I want to be in five years? Absent that depth of vision, efforts can easily get scattered; I run up against the proverb of a former boss of mine, back when I was a lobbyist: “Never confuse motion with progress.”

A compromise, then—something I did with one of the cities I worked for. Let’s have a Five-Year Plan, but update it every year. We can reflect changed conditions, but also lop off the list things we’ve accomplished, and add new things. It becomes a “living” document—we are always thinking five years out from where we’re at.

Five years from now is (like the old song says) when I’m 64. I’ll still be working, but I’ll be a year away from retirement. My idea of “retirement” still has me working half the year—probably interim city-manager gigs, for which I’ll need that degree—and playing music the other half. No interest, really, in being one of those Nashville stars, but I’d like to be regionally famous, playing gigs and selling records in sufficient quantity to more than pay for my “habit.” I’d like my songs to be in demand; I want, in other words, to have people who are better’n I am recording my stuff. I want my publishing company to be in a position to handle the placements—and placements of other people’s stuff, too, that I’ve done music for. And for that, I need better notoriety.

There, as Ronald Reagan used to say, is “the city on the hill.” Having envisioned the city on the hill, one can next envision how to get there. How does what I’ve done fit into or further that vision? And what do I do next?

UPDATE: Cover art is done for the “Broken Record” project, and I’ve typeset the songs I already have recordings for, that I know aren’t going to change. I don’t think I can decide what order they go in until I have all of the recordings in hand, and can hear ‘em. Still waiting on photos from a good two-thirds of the people.

Joe