Dan Garner

I left Tipitina's Foundation back in March to become a full-time musician. What was I thinking?
This:
If I could manage to increase my monthly gigs I could theoretically make more money performing music than working at my previous day job. This month I hit the sweet spot, i.e. I have officially surpassed what I would be making if I had stayed on with the foundation...and looking at my calendar I will hit the sweet spot again next month.
This is all possible because:
A) I have a very understanding wife.
B) Now I am able to take on gigs at unorthodox times during the day or night and sometimes both.

It is not the easiest work.
Each job is a compilation of finding the gig, getting the gig, setting up for the gig, playing the gig, tearing down after the gig and if everything goes right, being able to get the gig again. And this process is ongoing. No, it isn't easy, but if it were, everybody would be doing it.

At the moment I am doing most of my own booking and juggling solo performances with two different duos and at least three different bands. There are also the "out of the blue" gigs that are always satisfying. 'Frinstance, I just went in and cut a commercial, doing all the music (guitar, harmonica, vocals AND my 1929 National Triolian) as well as the voiceover. I haven't done this kind of work in several years but I guess, like riding a bicycle, you never forget how once you've done it for a while.

Mind you, so far all of the work I've been doing has been local. I've taken a couple of jobs in East Texas and there are a couple that have been a few miles outside of the city limits. I haven't really gone on the road yet, which is sorta on my to do list.

I was just reading a short blog by Seth Godin, "Priming The Pump of Efficiency" and it talks about the lag time of becoming efficient once you've changed the way you do things. That got me thinking about my lag time in getting to this place, the sweet spot, but here I am.

So this is a follow-up report to my last installment for those of you that may be interested. From time to time I'll try to write an account of my trials, tribulations and preferably successes as I continue to pursue "The Sweet Spot".

(Long Article Alert)



If you've read anything I've written, you're aware that I'm not much of a word smith...and I've been struggling to find a way to explain to people why I left Tipitina's after four years...usually right after they ask me why I left Tipitinas. Well, for one thing, it was time. It was four years...a good four years in which a good program for local musicians was implemented and successful to boot...Ronny Cates is now heading up that venture and I can't think of anyone more qualified.

I had never worked in the non-profit sector before and it was a great experience. The musicians and digital artists who became part and parcel of that experience taught me more than they thought I taught them and they were, in a way, responsible for my paradigm shift...

One purpose of the Co-Op is to provide musicians with the tools to make the next leap forward in their music business. I had first hand access to those tools and I began thinking, "Why am I not taking advantage of those resources and taking that next leap?"

Then two other things happened. I attended the International Folk Alliance in Memphis, thanks to the Shreveport/Bossier Convention & Tourist Bureau
and met a lot of folks who are living as musicians AND I read the following blog by Lee Stranahan, a guy I have had long term respect for.

Here it is:


"Yesterday afternoon, I signed some papers, turned in my badge and walked out of the job that I’ve been working at for five years. I wasn’t fired or laid off. In the middle of a huge economic crisis and big unemployment numbers, I left of my own free will. I walked away from a steady paycheck, benefits and health insurance…and I walked away smiling.
People’s reactions generally fell into two methods of showing concern for my welfare. Some people showed a mixture of concern and an odd sort of pity at the horrible and possibly insane decision I was making. Others looked me in the eye and told me they weren’t worried and that they knew I’d do great things. Both of these reactions came from people who cared about me but they show the single biggest factor in deciding to make a living without a job.
Fear.
If you can overcome your fear by thinking through your options and coming up with a workable plan, you can overcome your fear and leave your job.
I wasn’t afraid today when I walked out of the the building but I sure have been afraid. I was in fear that I’d be laid off or worse, that my hours would be cut or that everyone in the company would be required to take a few extra weeks off without pay. I’d seen it happen and I was barely making it, living week to week and paycheck to paycheck. I was afraid of blogging the wrong thing and losing my job because of something I said. I was afraid to do much to try and get outside work to increase my income and I was afraid to make waves or ask for more money.
I walked out on fear today. I got tired of the illusion of security and of trying to tell myself that my job was somehow going to work out any better for me in the future. It wasn’t. Simple math and common sense told me that I wasn’t making enough to pay my bills or that the work wasn’t going to become satisfying. So, I quit.
I quit fear…that’s what I gave up."







This blog lead me to read his other postings:





"29 Dec, 2008
Shifting To A Make Money Mindset
Posted by: Lee In: Success
In the five years that I’ve had a full time 8-4 job, part of my brain has melted away. When I was freelance for the prior fifteen years or so, I constantly had MAKE SOME MONEY thoughts rolling around in the back of my head. I had to or I wouldn’t have eaten.
Now that I get a check every Thursday, those brain cells are dead. I know money is coming is in and even though it’s not enough to pay my bills, really, that false sense of security envelopes me in a nice warm cocoon of stupid so I don’t have to have income ideas percolating. Now I think about all sorts of stuff - art projects, things I can write, film ideas - but making money isn’t a constant.
If ever there was a reason to not have a job, this is it.
It really does lull you into the self sustaining myth that having a job solves some problems. In my case, it’s caused more problems than it solved if I stop to think about it. I’ve gotten further in debt because my false security said taking on more debt would work out okay since I have a job. It’s cost me income. It’s hurt my brain.
So I’m having to kickstart my brain and literally force myself to try and get the freelance attitude back, even though I’m still at my day job right now. I try to trick myself into thinking that no more paychecks are coming When I have an idea that could generate income, I jump on it and try to take some action on it right away to create a little momentum for myself.
What do you do to keep your brain generating income producing ideas for you?

04 Jan, 2009
Who Will Make The Fries?
Posted by: Lee In: For Artists| Success
Be ever vigilant..
Pretend you’re a guitar player but for your day job you work at a fast food joint. One night, the Biggest Band In The World sees you at a gig. Afterwards, they pull you aside…a one night contract in hand…
“Dude, we want you to open for us tomorrow night at Madison Square Garden!”
It’s the best news of your entire life. It’s your big break. You go back to work at the fast food place expecting high fives and congratulations. Instead, you get pulled into the manager’s office.
Dude, you’re on the schedule for tomorrow night. This is your job, cancel that guitar thing. Otherwise, who will make the fries?
This is why a job - especially the wrong job - is deadly to creative people. Your fellow employees often could care less that you have a big break. In fact, the idea pisses them off. They don’t want to see you on the cover ofThe Rolling Stone or featured on Pitchfork while they are still going home smelling like burger grease for minimum wage. They don’t want to hear about your good fortune because all your dreams mean to them is that they have to work the fry machine for a night.
Maybe it’s your job where people feel this way. Or maybe it’s your family. Or maybe your friends. It really sucks but you can’t let people hold you back. They will if you let them.
At the first signs of this attitude, do what Freddie Mercury says…
Spread your little wings and fly away."





finally...
Lee suggested a click on this link:

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2008/12/how-to-make-lots-of-money-during-a-recession/








so...that's pretty much it.

I figure that within the next 6 months, I can make more money doing my music related activities than I can working my former day job...and in the long run, a whole lot more,...

In other words, proving the Co-Op program is viable.

I feel empowered.

I've got a woman who is supportive and has pointed me in a direction that I could not have imagined for myself.

I am a working singer/songwriter/musician...and yet when I meet someone at Brookshires and they ask me what I'm doing now... I can see that they think that they are staring at someone who may be mad.



To quote Leonard Cohen last Friday night:

"I'm just a crazy kid with a dream,"

Labels: jobs, life, love, music, pursuit of happiness, Tipitinas, work

Here is a first review of my new album, DAN GARNER IV by Karl Hasten:

DAN GARNER 1V
“IV” kicks off with the neo-punk urgency of “Wild” and ends with a complete three-sixty on the sweet acoustic coda of “Calling of Your Heart.”
In between, Garner has crafted his most consistent and cohesive body of work rocking through a number of style-checks from such icons as Bowie, Alvin Lee and, dare I say, Nick Drake. There is even an understated homage to psychedelia – on the appropriately titled, “Something Strange.”
As always Garner liberally deploys his secret weapon, the virtuosic guitarist Mark Griffith who here flows fluidly from searing to plaintive with the blink of an eye. Griffith lets a “Jean Genie” riff out of the bottle on the rocking “In Love, On Fire, Not Ashamed” and lets his guitar gently weep along with the singer on “Happy Birthday To Me”. The latter song is a lament to loneliness that is tight, country blues perfection.
Though Garner never sounds LIKE any one particular artist, he deftly sprinkles subtle musical references throughout the CD’s ten impressive cuts. Rock is the dominant language here with a vibrant energy percolating in many of the pieces, yet the folk/blues/roots undercurrents are shaded in with an artist’s touch.
Most recording artists have a defining moment where all their influences and experience and daring coalesce into a masterwork that catapults them to another level - arguably “Rubber Soul” for The Beatles, “Highway 61 Revisited” for Dylan, and so on. In my humble opinion this one shows Garner has the legs to go the distance. “IV” is a X.

Click here to buy my CD.

Unfortunately, as of this writing, "25 THINGS" and "The Second Album" are only available on iTunes...

NOIR by Dan Garner @ H&H’s on Hope Through September






Ron Hardy asked me to put together some paintings to hang @ H&H, located on Hope Street next to the old "Pete Harris Cafe" and across from the Intergalactic Headquarters of Playaz and Playettes. This is an all age participation non-profit operated by Ron. These guys are responsible for all sorts of good things happening throughout the city and in the Leadbetter Heights area.

This is how it reads:
(bold added by me)


Sec. 58-28. Shouting, hooting, etc.
Yelling, shouting, hooting, whistling or singing on the public streets, particularly between the hours of 12:00 midnight and 7:00 a.m., or at any time or place so as to annoy or disturb the quiet, comfort or repose of any persons in any hospital, dwelling, hotel or any other type of residence, or of any persons in the vicinity, is hereby prohibited and declared to be loud, disturbing and unnecessary noise in violation of this chapter.
(Code 1971, § 23-3)