#200: Saturday Night is the Loneliest Night in the Week
#201: In the Wee Small Hours of the Morining
#202: I’ve Got a Lot of Livin’ To Do
#203: Harlem Nocturne
#204: Just a Gigolo/I Ain’t Got Nobody
#205: Zoot Suit Riot
#206: That’s Right, You’re Not From Texas
#207: Peg
Monday, May 4, 2009
One tube of medicine = Mark VI alto?
I just bought a tube of medicine for a skin condition which would have cost me $659 if I weren’t covered on my wife’s insurance. With a coupon supplied by my doctor the net cost was zero. It was a manufacturer’s coupon covering up to $50 in copayment costs.
Just to gain a little perspective on this, my Selmer Mark VI, which was bought for me in 1967, retailed at the time for $630. It was my first exposure to the crazy world of music store prices, and we ended up paying half that. If I sold that horn now, it’d go somewhere between $4500 and $5000.
But still, buying a 100g tube of medicine for nearly the same price . . . this is crazy business. No wonder something’s got to change.
Just to gain a little perspective on this, my Selmer Mark VI, which was bought for me in 1967, retailed at the time for $630. It was my first exposure to the crazy world of music store prices, and we ended up paying half that. If I sold that horn now, it’d go somewhere between $4500 and $5000.
But still, buying a 100g tube of medicine for nearly the same price . . . this is crazy business. No wonder something’s got to change.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Curiouser and Curiouser
My brother had to drive pretty far out of town to patch things up with the owner of a venue where the full band’s been hired in June to play a wedding. Now there’s no trouble between us and the couple being married, nor with their respective families. This is the owner of the place summoning Jimmy and telling him that we are too much for his room, which is the size of a barn.
People in “The Business” ought to know better. This is a place where 4-piece Country bands play week in and week out, and the long-suffering owner just thought that we, who will consist of 12 players (11 musicians and a singer) for that particular wedding will be three times the volume of the average Country band. What he didn’t know is we will be ONE THIRD the volume of the 4-piece Country band, unless we choose to. We use a lot less amplification, but the Wire Choirs have made these drives necessary by making an arms race out of volume. My guess is that, when we play in his barn, there will be 400 combined years of working the musical vineyard up on the stage, and enough common sense to keep the volume down.
Jimmy patched things up with the owner and left him with assurances that we knew what we were doing.
Such are the things that musicians have to put up with, and no one seems ready to ask the real question . . .
What country?
People in “The Business” ought to know better. This is a place where 4-piece Country bands play week in and week out, and the long-suffering owner just thought that we, who will consist of 12 players (11 musicians and a singer) for that particular wedding will be three times the volume of the average Country band. What he didn’t know is we will be ONE THIRD the volume of the 4-piece Country band, unless we choose to. We use a lot less amplification, but the Wire Choirs have made these drives necessary by making an arms race out of volume. My guess is that, when we play in his barn, there will be 400 combined years of working the musical vineyard up on the stage, and enough common sense to keep the volume down.
Jimmy patched things up with the owner and left him with assurances that we knew what we were doing.
Such are the things that musicians have to put up with, and no one seems ready to ask the real question . . .
What country?
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