I spent about five years running an event band company, about five years as a professor (these mostly overlapped), and two years as an iron worker. The bulk of the last 20 years though, I've worked full time as a trombone player, which most folks might think is weird by itself. But...oh the places you go doing that!

There are plenty others, but here is one stand-out week from the fall of 2007. Off and on, from 2006-2008, I would tour as part of the backing band for Elvis impersonator contents. We would go around the country for regional and national finals in the warm months and then do lesser paid 'rehearsals' with the local guys at animal lodges (Eagles, Elks, FOA type places) during the cold ones. These shots are from a regional final in Oklahoma City.

The week in question, we had one of these in Lubbock, Tx. Here's the Elvii all lined up again waiting to hear who won. Oddly enough, this is the only time I've been to Texas outside of an airport, including with other bands.

As one might imagine, backing Elvii was not my life aspiration as a trombone player. The next day, I had a gig in Brooklyn for Atlantic Antic with an original project that did house, dnb, and other experimental electronic music with live musicians. I told the guy that ran the Elvis thing that he had to fly me to New York instead of back to Ohio. He was cool with that, so I took the gig thinking that I'd be able to do this more artistic project no problem. What he didn't say, was that we didn't have a hotel that night and had to stay in the event space...which was where the county fair would have livestock awards.

I awoke, in the middle of the night, to the rest of the band drinking and partying. Nobody else had a gig the next night, OR an early flight. Worst of all, they found the venue's smoke machine and had filled the space in this picture ENTIRELY!

The next morning, I made it to NY with little sleep, but still had a fun show.

We sat in with some old friends afterwards. Then, the keyboard player, who had never been, asked me to show him the city. We didn't get any sleep again, which was fine because I could ride back with everybody else.

EXCEPT, they didn't take me or the bass player's brother (who was going to come back from NY to visit in Ohio) into account for space for the return journey. We were a really lean unit, so they had crammed in unsafely on the way there already. One band member was too young to rent a car, one had just got a DUI, one had bad credit, and one didn't have a license. So, not only did I have to drive back home, I had to rent a car too! The guys helped out with the cash, but it certainly wasn't an ideal situation with the liability.

The next day, I played a birthday party in a big tent on the front lawn of a conservatory.

At the time, this seemed as weird to me as all the other stuff. Look at the bathroom. Yes, that's a port-o-potty in a tent. Honestly, after this era, I spend decades off and on doing high-end weddings and corporate parties and have since seen more how the other half lives. I know that's probably passe to many, but I didn't grow up rich and thought this was just wild at the time.

Anyway, the next day was back to business as usual at a music festival. But you definitely see a lot doing music.

My goal right now is to pivot into something bitcoin oriented (and therefor not music). The kids are in school and I think this is a more important revolution than anything going on in the arts right now.