Journey or Taylor Swift?

My friends, you might want to skip this post — it contains hard, cold truths about the kind of music that pays these days. But as a musician, just about anything is better than working at McDonald’s, which is what my non-musical work experience would suggest I’m qualified for.

I am trying out for a classic rock cover band tonight. The audition selection:

Carry On Wayward Son by Kansas

Never Been Any Reason by Head East

Who’s Crying Now by Journey

Blue Bayou by Roy Orbison

With the exception of the last one, which sounds like Orbison crippled the melody of Desafinado until it worked with a country guitar progression,  I like the songs. A handful of interesting, challenging rock songs like the Kansas could make up for a good amount of boring crap. So assuming these guys can play, it seems like a pretty good gig. Also, with some tight pants and a perm I would make a pretty okay eighties rock star.

But I’ve just been assured by someone who needs a keyboardist to play Taylor Swift and “progressive country,” that his band will pay a lot better. See, they play at casinos rather than bars, and they’re “grooming” his niece, the singer, to be some kind of pop star.

I may have made this sound like it was a hard decision for me, but no, it’s not really. Even assuming I am not too scruffy and strange for this guy to allow me to back up his niece, the pay difference would be swallowed up by a burgeoning drinking and gambling problem to help me forget the shame. You have to draw the line somewhere, and mine comes after Journey but before casinos. And long before this music video.

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