It's either a piece of cake, or completely impossible

Anyone who's in a band or books musical acts will tell you: booking shows is tough, time-consuming work. Between booking and promotion, there are untold man-hours of labor behind each and every show. As the band's fan base and reputation grow, booking shows becomes a little easier. That is, until you start looking to play other cities outside your comfortable home base. Then, you pretty much revert back to being a brand new band that nobody has heard of or cares about. In a new city, you're starting over.

As far as Paradigm goes, if you took all the hours that Myron and myself have spent researching venues, chasing down club owners, arranging show trades with other bands, and doing various other promotional things, it would easily amount to a full-time job. Is it worth it? Hell yes, it's worth it. When you're doing something that you love and believe in, the work associated with it doesn't feel like work at all. Nonetheless, it can be frustrating at times. For weeks, I spent multiple hours per day trying to arrange some sort of tour for us into the Northeast this summer. I would have been happy with 3 or 4 shows. What did I end up with? Nothing whatsoever. As Bruce Hornsby said, that's just the way it is.

On the other hand, we had plans for a Labor Day weekend tour starting in South Carolina. After some initial difficulty, shows in West Virginia and Ohio pretty much just fell into our laps. It was literally a case of thinking "I wonder if we could do a show in West Virginia?" and the very first person we contacted saying "Absolutely!" Then, thinking "Well, now we've got South Carolina and West Virginia. I wonder about Ohio." And once more, as if that person had been sitting by the phone waiting for our call, we get a big "Yes!" and two thumbs up from the very first person contacted. Both of these instances happened within an hour of each other. Frankly, it was pretty strange all around. It's a shame that the music business can't be this easy all the time. And with that in mind, let me take this opportunity to give a heartfelt thank you to Gypsy G's, The Empty Glass, Omega Love, Rumba Cafe, and the HooDoo Soul Band. We'll see you all over Labor Day weekend.