Bradley Minnigan

Category: Live Shows

All It Takes Is a Little Progress

Sometimes music gets hard. It gets frustrating. It feels like it is going nowhere. Fast.

That’s when a little progress can help.

This last week, we found a little progress. My wife has written some new songs and found one by a fantastic and well-decorated songwriter here in town, and we are itching to get them recorded. This week, we made progress on finding a producer/engineer to help us make those songs come to life. There is still much to do, but every little bit helps.

On top of that, several shows are coming together. A show here, a show there. Each one means another $1 in tips (really, that’s what we average – Nashville apparently doesn’t believe in tipping for music), more exposure, and if we are lucky, one CD sale. Riveting stuff here, folks.

One day at a time. One show at a time. One song at a time. It all starts with a song, and then that song must be sung. That song must be heard. That song must be loved. Then that song can be sung back. I can’t wait for that last one.

Can’t wait.

July 27, 2014
No Two Shows Are the Same

But sometimes, you’ll play the same show twice.

That’s what happened to us last week. My wife and I were on vacation, and she was smart enough to book a show while we were on vacation to give us some exposure while we were out of town. She’s a smart one!

Well, here’s how it went down: my wife booked the gig via email, and in the last email she sent, she asked how long we needed to play. That email went unanswered. We didn’t think about it again.

Until we finished our set.

One of the guys we had met that week had gone inside to the bar to get another drink, and they said there would be music until 11. The current time was approximately 9. We had just played every song we had prepared.

Luckily, we had a good crowd – family and some new best (tipsy) friends! So we played the same set we just finished all over again!

Yes – we played the same set twice. That took us to about 10 or just after, and then we conversed with our small crowd. One guy even bought us a round of my wife’s favorite liquor! Fireball!

Then he proceeded to buy another. Oh boy!

All in all, it was a great time. We really enjoyed ourselves, and we even tried out our new PA system – a Bose L1 Compact. Man, it did the trick! We even had one lady ask the waitress if we could turn it down (to which she replied in the negative).

This one goes to all those audiences that have been great to us!

July 14, 2014
July + Parking Lot + Middle Georgia = Sweaty

Well, that was…hot.

We played an hour set for the City of Centerville Fourth of July celebration last night. Our set started between 6 and 6:30 (I still don’t know what time we were supposed to start). It was fun, but boy, was it hot!

My wife said, “Why don’t you play in shorts?” I come from the school of thought that musicians always perform in pants unless the specific dress code calls for shorts. My wife had a good idea – playing in shorts was so much better than playing in jeans would have been last night.

We were up on a big trailer in an asphalt parking lot, playing in front of a crowd of people who were in line for face painting, corn dogs, and cold sodie-waters. I think they liked the music – Jessie signed hundreds of autographs (or at least 9), and they all had such nice things to say!

We made sure to dress festivally, wearing our red, white, and blue! Even Nana showed up in the cutest outfit!

I’m sure I drank 3 gallons of water, but nothing seemed like enough. I think we survived, though, and it was a fun event. Hopefully we get to do it again next year! It’s alway fun playing any chance we get, especially when there’s a crowd willing to listen!

July 2, 2014
You Get For What You Pay

“You get what you pay for,” or as the grammar-nerd in my likes to correct, “You get for what you pay.”

Music doesn’t make a whole lot of money. Sure, there are some superstars, but that’s the exception. For every superstar, there are hundreds and thousands of musicians (and drummers) who play for fun, play for tips, play for food, and play for beer.

Music, even as a hobby, is not cheap. Let’s break it down to it’s cheapest form:

Buy a guitar. That’s a couple hundred dollars, at least.

Take lessons. You can either take lessons and pay someone for it, or you can learn yourself. Either way, you’re spending your time. Someone once said time is money.

Learn songs. You have to hear songs before you can learn them, which probably means purchasing (or stealing, whichever your conscience lets you do) songs.

There you go. You’re still looking at several hundred, maybe even thousands, of dollars. No biggee.

The masses don’t always understand what it takes to have music for an event. I get that. I don’t know what all it takes to build a hospital. But I do ask others that build hospitals what kind of money it takes to build hospitals. If I can’t afford it, I don’t build hospitals. If music is expensive, I guess you’ll just have to go without.

Something that also goes into having music is amplification. Most every bar, restaurant, clothing shop, and gas station in Nashville has a PA system because they all have live music. However, go outside of the city limits, and people don’t always think about these things. I get it. However, it then puts the musician in a tough place – somehow it becomes the musician’s job to now track down a PA system.

The life of a beginning artist – you learn who your friends are. The ones that have PA systems. The ones that let you borrow those PA systems. The ones that have it ready to go at a moment’s notice. The ones that let you use it rent free. Man, I love those friends.

June 27, 2014
Olympic Hurdles

So the second show felt like an olympic event. Here’s why: late Thursday night before the Saturday show, the A/C in our venue crapped out. Died. Stopped working. This is not good for middle Georgia in July. Postponement was not an option – we had to play this show because Kickstarter needed this show to happen now.

Thanks to Jessie’s parents working tirelessly, we were able to find another venue 2 blocks away. A church graciously opened its doors to us and let us use their sanctuary for our Saturday night show. A venue!

So once we get inside this church, we realize that the sound system is going to be, as we like to say, fun. We brought a sound system capable of powering a 1,500+ venue, and here we are in a 500 max sanctuary. It was loud (sometimes a little too much maybe), but we got it all figured out by the time we went on stage. Also, luckily, people showed up – around 300 – and that helped our sound not echo off the wood-panel walls so much. And then…

My wife put on an awesome show. Probably one of her best. I’ve really only played 2 “real” shows, this one being my second. But I have played around town with friends. It’s hard playing to a Nashville crowd. But playing to this crowd on July 28 in Georgia was a blast.

I can’t wait to play not-Nashville again!

November 22, 2012
First Show – Done!

So our first show is done. AND IT WAS AWESOME! Things couldn’t have gone smoother, and my wife even thought it was good – she’s the one whose opinion really matters. It was a relief, too. She had lost her voice on Monday. We had rehearsal on Tuesday, and she sang more than she probably should have. Wednesday her voice was worse, and she either would speak the lyrics at rehearsal, or sing them an octave or two lower than normal. Things were not looking pretty. Then Thursday, we had to work with our background vocalist to figure out her parts, and again Jessie had almost no voice.

But the show must go on.

So Thursday night, she took a pain killer/sleep aid, and got a great night’s sleep. Friday, after a lot of rest and some slow warming up, her voice was feeling strong enough to perform.

And perform she did! It was great, the crowd loved it, I loved it, and she loved it! I’d say that’s a winner right there.

November 22, 2012