My new life in the Caribbean

I just spent an hour on deck staring at the water and the beautiful island of Grand Cayman while drinking an oil can of Fosters. I find myself reflective and ready to write again.

So here's been the seventeen months since my last blog entry: I gave up on Austin after a few weeks because there was just no way for an unknown artist to make any real money. I moved to San Antonio and quickly got plugged into the bar music scene. Almost immediately I met a beautiful bartender that took me in and went to amazing lengths to help me make life for me in San Antonio work. She treated me much better than I deserve and I am still thankful. I also met tons of amazing people and made some friends that I know I will have for the rest of my life but after several months I came to realize that I was in the exact same spot I was in Iowa; constantly calling/texting/emailing managers or bar owners trying to keep enough income rolling in to cover my bills but even with her help my bills and debt grew faster than my income.

For a person in my position, commission only sales, having lots of bills and debt makes the lifestyle very stressful and difficult to enjoy. Until just recently I hadn't written anything for nearly two years. To me that was a sure sign I wasn't in the right spot, for whatever that means.

After about a year things between me and the girl went sour, I'm guessing due to financial stress but who really knows. I moved back into my RV and one drunken lonely night I emailed a booking agent that handles entertainment for cruise ships. Just a couple days later I got an email back that Carnival Cruise Lines wanted to offer me a contract on one of their ships in the Caribbean.

I decided to, in my typical fashion, jump in with both feet. I sold my RV and my XTerra, both for a terrible loss, and got my passport in order. On June 17, 2012 I boarded the Carnival ship Valor based out of Miami and here I sit today.

This is my favorite job that I've ever had. I still play guitar and sing what I want but now I get a regular paycheck every two weeks, free health care, free food, free room all to myself, I walk to my gigs and all I carry is my guitar and a backpack of cables and my looper, I haven't driven or put gas in a car in six weeks, I have a guy that cleans my room for me every day, nearly every morning I wake up at a different tropical paradise, I can enjoy a party atmosphere on the Lido deck full of beautiful women in bikinis or I can go to the crew only deck and enjoy the most amazing quiet time staring at the ocean or the stars, and let me tell you about the prices at the crew bar!

And here's the best part; every week I have three thousand new people become captive on my floating stage. In the past six weeks I've made ten times more fans that are ten times more appreciative than I have in the last five years of performing on land. People applaud after nearly every song, they honestly request to hear the songs that I wrote and when the cruise is over they find me online to follow my crazy life. This is soul food to the starving artist in me.

I own almost nothing now. I have no car, no home and nearly no belongings that do not relate to making music. What I now call 'home' is either a twelve by ten room in the Caribbean on a one thousand foot long floating resort or a five by ten storage unit in San Antonio, TX.

I miss you all but I am happy, my soul is full.