San Antonio

I said goodbye to my cozy parking spot in Georgetown yesterday and hit the road. It was nice to have a spot to call home but also caused a lot of commuting, not to mention the extra $300/month. I doubt I'll be able to pay for a regular monthly spot anywhere any time soon. It feels right to sacrifice some comfort to still be able to say music is my only job, I guess it's a point of pride for me now. I just have to make my lifestyle match my income.

Speaking of sacrifice, I've decided to not buy any beer until I get more money and gigs rolling in. Not that I was spending much per day but if you look at it by month it could easily add up to what my camper payment is. Most places that I perform at give me free beer, so it's not like totally being on the wagon.  I'm a bit bummed because beer was the only 'treat' I was allowing myself but I know things are already in the process of turning around.

I struggled a bit the last few days because it occurred to me that I was playing bars, coffee houses and such in Iowa and making good money but something drove me to move on. Now I'm in Texas trying to get gigs in the same places, is this just a lateral move? Will I wind up unsatisfied here too?

I was pondering this at a small restaurant in Taylor, TX as I dropped off a demo. A girl with purple hair plopped down next to me to order food. When she saw me drop off the demo we struck up a conversation. Turns out she makes a good chunk of her income as an on-call background vocalist for several studios in Austin. It occurred to me that this kind of thing has happened a lot since I got down here and that this is a huge difference between TX and IA, contacts. You can't swing a dead cat around here without hitting someone in the music industry. That is what will make my career move up a notch, I hope.

I played in a small coffee shop in San Antonio last night. Pretty poor turnout and only $26 pay but I had two different people approach me because they have friends that own venues that are looking for music. We'll see where that goes.

I slept in the parking lot last night and have spent the morning, as is my usual routine, on the web emailing music venues from the coffee shop. In Georgetown I did all this from my camper, much more lonely than the coffee house atmosphere. It's nice to do some people watching.

I've done my three hours of nerdy office work for the day, time to explore San Antonio after dropping the condo in a nearby Walmart parking lot. I've heard there is a beautiful river walk area downtown and that the music scene down here pays better.

I have 35 gallons in my fresh water tank, a full charge on my batteries and near absolute freedom. What more could a guy ask for?