Gigages

[fransmasereel]

I just realized, in replying to a friend's message, that I have somehow pulled off the planning to play in five, possibly (and most likely) six, different live musical performances, with as many projects, over this Friday and Saturday. Six? Damn. I'm unsure why it happened, but the offers to play the hired gun has morphed over the years from the occasional recording session or pick-up gig into suddenly having a permanent position playing live shows for a bunch of projects I enjoy so much I'm unable to let any of them go. The fear that I'm spreading myself to thin has yet to be tested as currently none of the projects are gigging heavily, but of the six I am playing with this weekend, three of them are recording and want me involved, one of them wants to record but doesn't have the time or the resources to do so (that project being my own, so obviously I'll always be involved), and one has just recorded an awesome set that may never see the light of day due to contractual b.s. With all of this action I am forced to wonder why I seem to be in demand at all, considering I am a marginal guitar player, reluctant to consider myself even mildly proficient on the banjo, and have never voiced a desire to pick up gigs. The only answer I can come up with is that I am now constantly visible as being a guy who gets hired. If all the recordings that are planned this year actually occur, I stand to be in the studio a lot over the next few months and I'm really excited to take part in all of these projects, which is a very different scenario from many of the previous recordings I've taken part in. Just for fun, I'm gonna look up how many performances I've done so far this year and tally them against what I did last year:

2005: 65
2006: 31

The total for 2006 includes the six performances I will do this weekend. It's not bad, especially for having a mostly dead April.