A View From the Stage

First of all...
Happy new year everybody. I know that this year I'm late to the party, but 2009 left me in a serious fog for most of the year.
For those of you who wrote, wondering where I am, let me calm your fears.
Throughout most of the year I was gravely ill, culminating in November with surgery being performed to remove my thyroid . During the course of the procedure a mass was discovered, and upon trying to remove it I bled out so profusely that the doctor had to actually stop my heart.
Normally more anesthesia is given to a patient, but in my case my kidney function which was already low prevented that, so in effect the doctor had to end me (I'm trying to be delicate here...).
As you can imagine, my wife Vickie had to endure all of this (I'll never stop being grateful to her...), and pray for a different outcome. We made it through, and a few months later here I am.
From this part of the stage, I feel eternally blessed, and thankful for my very life.
Now...
One of the side effects so far that we've been faced with is that I've seeming lost my voice. I'm having some trouble rendering any type of pitch. In plain english that means that I can't rise to certain notes like I did before, and it hurts a little when I try to sing or play the saxophone; but I'm seeing a speech pathologist who is fighting with me to help gain it back, and so far it's working pretty well.
So a view from this stage is saying that I have to continue to work hard to get back what I lost.
When you lose something so dear to you that it scares you, that's the time when you have to lean on faith the most. I'm learning a valuable lesson about patience and perserverence right now, and it's a hard lesson to learn; believe me.
This all sounds tragic and crazy at the same time, but I really am going through it and I'll get through it.

PART 2
A few weeks ago, Vickie and I decided to go and listen to some music, as I was becoming restless just sitting around the house recuperating. While we were enjoying the evening with some friends a fight broke out just at the end of the billiards area of this place, and in the resulting melee the police were called ( everyone has been to one of these places commonly known as a dive...).
All of that got me thinking...one of the hardest parts of being a musician on the rise is staying out of the middle of scenes just like this, and many musicians and singers often find themselves on the short end of that stick for a couple of reasons. 1:many times the band gets associated wrongly with what goes on in a place. When something like that happens many people just connect the band to the trouble. Now that's not to say that now and again it's not deserved, but for the most part it tends to be unfavorable...for the band. 2. alot of musicians sticking their necks out for people find that doing so can create enemies who may have been fans...if everyone just would step back for a moment.
I'm saying all this to say that musicians should always try to use their music to create fun and warmth and harmony.The saying that applies here is of course "music soothes the savage breast." So a view from the stage should always be how can we make some negativity quiet down.
One way is to use your music to make people face forward toward you as opposed to trying to hone in on the negative action. To capture someones attention...whisper.
Finally a view from the audiences' stage is that they are there to hear you, whether they paid or not for that doesn't matter, they're out there for you so give them the best, and leave 'em thirsty for more, so that they will...
Support Live music today tomorrow and always.

See ya soon.