A Bard's Real World Blog
Journal, Blog, News, and Diary

Feeling better, but perplexed
Ye know, it's kinda funny (not haha funny, but funny funny). I spend so much time at work and think to myself, "Man, if only I could take some more time off from work so I could finish some projects."

Then a weekend like this one pass where I have the Whole Weekend at my command, and don't do a dang thing!

Well, I'm throwing around ideas as to why, and a couple ideas clicked around 2am last night when I was up journaling. Fortunately, I had kitties. I was lying in bed writing when Torre came up and plopped down next to me baring his tummy, saying, "Love me." Then the purring started. Oh! There's nothing like a kitty purring. Kinda a wiped away my depression and made me giddy again. So I petted him in between writing.

Then Tiziano joined in and the kitties fought on my bed with Torre pouncing Tiziano at every opportunity. There's nothing like a kitty romp to really put things into perspective. After enjoying watching them for a while, I drifted off to sleep.

This morning, I was pleasantly pleased to step outside the door and feel the cool morning air. Oh, how I miss that. I love cold fronts. They bring storms followed by cold weather. Man, what can be better!?

Lamenting my place in the world
So what was bugging me last night. Well, there were a lot of things, but one of those that hit late last night was how much The Bards aren't loved.

I guess I feel excluded somewhat. Though admittedly, it's a self-induced exclusion. We are not a part of the Celtic music community in Texas. For that matter, we don't really seem to be a part of the Ren Faire music community in Texas either. Or the filk music community, or the classical. Heck, we aren't a part of ANY musical community.

I guess that's alright though. It means we stand apart. We are different. I should celebrate those differences rather than lament them.

I got an email from one fan and DJ up in the Northeast who hosts Zion Planet with DJ Sterling on WWPV 88.7-FM. He mentioned the thing he loved about our music. We have a different sound. We stand apart from the crowd.

A part of me knows that is good, but then the other part of me wants to have a sound like Capercaillie or Lunasa or Brian McNeill. I mean, they have just great professional sounds. Maybe we just need a wee producer, but that might just take away from our unique sound?

Somehow I doubt that though. I've been listening to Autoharp Legacy a lot recently. And there is one thing I can say whole-heartedly, my autoharp has a sound ALL it's own. None of the other autoharpers out there sound remotely like me. Good or bad? Who know. I love the sound these other autoharpists have as well, but I also really enjoy my sound.

Kinda makes me think that I was successful. I created a sound all my own. I mean, to some degree that's every musician's dream.

But the challenge is that it becomes that much more difficult to get people to take notice of you. Yes, we've had a lot of success online with our music. Not many indie musicians can claim 3.5 million downloads of their music. But we can. We make dozens of new fans daily, thanks to our success on MP3.com as well as people like you going out and sharing our music.

But at the same time, we've had very few CD reviews. The media has not grabbed onto us. They haven't even taken much notice. Course I'm also not the greatest publicist. So if ye know of one who wants to work for peanuts, let me know. :)

There's just too much going on in my world. I just don't seem to have enough time for it all. Heck, I don't seem to have enough to time to focus to start doing any of it as I didn't do this weekend!

I guess in all I'm just scared. I'm scared people won't like us, won't give a damn about our music, or will belittle us. We have a few musician friends, but we just don't know too many bands out there. I guess our musical networking skills aren't quite up to par.

But then... we do have fans. And not just people who listen to our music. We have Nagians... People who go above and beyond the call of duty. People are personally interested in our success. We are blessed with people who are not just into the music, they are into the lifestyle that sets them apart.

Our Nagians are different, alright. They celebrate their differences and say, "screw those who expect normality." I guess, I still have a lot of to learn about the wonderful people who enjoy our music. I'm still just perplexed. But I am also extreme blessed. So thank you for the inspiration!

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Well if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer those as well.