I'm done

Ken Lang · From: Simi Valley, Ca

Our sometime band has had a party booked for some months for Oct 9th. We rehersed a couple of times, but my heart wasn't in it.

My first pro gig was New Years Eve of 1961 and a lot of water's passed under the bridge since then. The excitement is gone, the musicians' ego is gone as well as what chops I once had. I can still enjoy music by others but my own will be tinkerin' around the house from now on.

The singer called and said the gig was cancelled. Instead of sadness, all I felt was relief. It's time to give it up and move on.

I never ever thought this would come to pass, but I'm done.

Al Marcus · From: Cedar Springs,MI USA (deceased)

Hi Ken, I am sorry to hear that. I know it is hard to keep going at times. Especially when guys get older and jobs aren't there anymore. Or so it seems. There is playing gigs out there , but they are not out in the bars like they used to be....so just take a break then start practicing again. You never know when things will look better....Good luck...al

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My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/

Jack Dougherty · From: Spring Hill, Florida, USA

Ken

My guitar sat in the closet for many years....I was tired too and had no desire to play. But one day for no reason I decided to pull it out and take a look at what once was fun. I set it up and pluged it in and started to play. I've been at it since......I can't give you a good reason not to quit. (except maybe health or family matters) However, there is every reason to play. I'm haveing more fun now then before. I don't know how old you are but from the sound of it you might be around my age or a few years older. No Matter,,,,,It's all about you and your music.
It's all about you being able to do something no body else can do. It's all about you having the ability to make someone smile. And it's NOT ABOUT YOU if your feeling sorry for your self.. So go have some fun....... Play!!

JD

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There is no such thing as too many steels!!

Gene Jones · From: Oklahoma City, OK USA, (deceased)

Ken, you have "hit the wall" just like a runner who can't go any further!

The FIRST time I hit the wall came at a time in my career when I was working more and making more coins consistently than ever before. It had been getting ever harder to go to work....I was working a full time day job plus 4-6 music jobs a week, so one morning while having my first cup of coffee and getting ready to go to the day job, I realized that I couldn't burn the candle at both ends anymore.

I remember it well, because it was the first day of December, the best paying month of the year, with a full month of bookings with clubs, office Christmas parties, etc, and finishing with a good paying New Years job.

So, I reached for the telephone and called my band leader and said "Replace me, because I am quitting music". I packed my guitar and amp away in the attic and stayed completely away from it for 14 years.

After retiring with financial security from the day job, I started playing music again, and enjoyed it for a few years, but I was working more than I wanted to and was close to "hitting the wall" again when a serious illness in my family gave me a reason to quit and focus on that.

My equipment has been idle for two years now and so far I have had no interest in playing again. Thinking about playing is like trying to eat when your not hungry.

The music life has been good to me and I have a lifetime of memories....but, I am probably through forever this time!

www.genejones.com

Gere Mullican · From: LaVergne, Tennessee, USA (deceased)

Ken, I know just how you feel. I won't go into details but in 1984 I was in a diabetic coma and spent 5 weeks in the hospital with total kidney failure and lots of other stuff. I was not expected to live so I fooled them After I came home I was not physically able to play steel so it sat out in my storage shed for several months. I had no deisre to play because I know longer had what little ability I had before. Then I sold my steel and amp and went for about 5 or 6 years with nothing to play. But I had a very burning desire to play once again. And the surprise one day before Christmas a couple of years ago a dear friend of mine presented me with a brand new GFI SD10 for Christmas. I just couldn't hack it any more and was about to give up again when I decided I was going to play that thing again. Well in fact I did get some of my ability back but never thought I would play in public again. I was wrong again. I do play now each Thursday night at a small place in Nashville where they come just to hear some not real good country music but the folks love it and allways complement me on my picking. DON' GIVE UP. By the way, I am 72 years old.
Gere

[This message was edited by Gere Mullican on 03 October 2004 at 04:49 PM.]

Damir Besic · From: Nashville,TN.

I played all over the world since 1989.Germany,Italy,Austria,Slovenia and from 1997 till about 2001 I played all over the USA also.I had a great time,traveled all over the world,making friends (and girlfriends

) and then I met my wife.We didn`t have nothing.I was a roomate at my friends house and my wife had leased apartment in the East Nashville (not the best neighbourhood to live at).We didn`t eveh have a washing machine so she had to go to the laundromat to do our laundry.All those years brought a lots of fun and crazyness but now, it was a time to get serious.I got a real job and with hard work and good portion of luck we today have a brand new house,two `04 SUV`s ,motorcycle and planty of money to eat at Logan`s or Red Lobster any time we want to.Even if I wanted to go back to music ,I couldn`t make enough money to pay my bills playing my guitar anymore.Even working for a artist making $40K a year.Music...It was a fun ride..but I like my prime rib better than bologna sendwich.

Db

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"Promat"
~when the tone matters~

Roual Ranes · From: Atlanta, Texas, USA

Hey dont do like I did. We had a 5 hour booking for a Christmas Party (a yearly affair) in 1979. I quit rather than do the job. I sold everything I had and would not even listen to the radion for 15 years. I got the bug again in 1995. Boy you can lose a lot..........but I am having more fun now than ever. I dont know why. Just take a couple of months off.

Roger Shackelton · From: MINNESOTA (deceased)

Damir, I may be a yankee(originally from Minnesota) but you just flung a craving on me for a Bologna Sandwich.

Roger

David L. Donald · From: Koh Samui Island, Thailand

Music is something that often ebbs and flows in ones life.
Both stylisticly and applied timewise.
Times change and we lose interest as what we get to play changes,
until some little something prompts us back.
Like a style revival or just hearing that one old song again by accident.

Sometimes it is your musical path that changes,
sometimes it's your life that changes your musical path.

There have been times I really didn't want to play for various reasons.
Or I didn't want to play a style, and only did others.
TImes I always played some, but with little or rare intensity.

Other times it has been totally overriding all else in multiple styles whenever opportunity presented itself..

I don't find either situation particularly unique at this point.

I can see Damir's liking his new found security and partnershiop with the Mrs. But he STILL has a nice steel and plays when he likes something.

And also Gene's getting back into it after being shifted off the path twice, even a 3rd time this last year a bit.. Yet here he is back in it.

I say any woman who trys to get a musican to stop playing,
or not startup playing again at some point,
is just asking to become a single woman.

It is in our blood, just sometimes the conentration of the music virus gets lowered a bit.

But also, we can hit our personal plateaus too,
get to a level of technique, asty there too long and,
and get frustrated we can't do more and hang it up too... for awhile anyway.

But when I see Gene out at ISGC just digging al the playing,
and Roy Ayers up there playing it after all these years,
reconfirms for me that old musicians never stop playing in their heads,
they just sometimes take LONG breaks from doing it with the hands.

So Ken, good luck with this break,
but I won't bet dollars to doughnuts you won't be pickin' again in the future.

[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 04 October 2004 at 03:00 AM.]

Jerry Hayes · From: Virginia Beach, Va.

Hey Ken,
Fortunately I've never been in that situation except for maybe a month or two. I've been doing paid gigs for over 40 years now and loving every minute of it. I played full time from '63 until the end of '85 in the Los Angeles area. When I left music and LA I moved to Virginia with the intent of giving up playing but it just didn't happen. I'd gotten a truck driving job and one day at work one of the other drivers was playing his truck radio loud as we were servicing our trucks. He said "Man, listen to that steel guitar". To which I replied "You like the steel?". No one there knew that I played at the time. It turned out that he had a ShoBud student model and we talked and wound up going to the club where his teacher was playing that weekend. His teacher told me of a Jam Session the following day at a club in Va. Beach. He said they had this "old" dude playing steel who was pretty damn good. I went there and met the notorious Kenny Dail who's been one of my best friends ever since. That was almost 19 years ago and I've been playing part time since that time. We play at some fast food restaurants (Hardee's) for mostly senior citizens and the response is wonderful. The older folks really appreciate what we do and they have a helluva good time. I don't like to do those dang moose lodges or things like that as that can really burn out a picker. I think at the moment I'm playing almost up to the level I was when I did it full time. I like to practice now and learn new stuff. I've been going to some MASGA (Mid-Atlantic Steel Guitar Association) jams and shows and playing there and that's really been fun. Maybe you should just look for another venue to do your playing in, there are others out there if you'll look for them. This day and age you almost have to make your own gigs but it can be done. Have a great day and keep on pickin'....JH

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Livin' in the Past and the Future with a 12 string Mooney Universal tuning.

Buddy Castleberry · From: HAWKINSVILLE GA USA - R.I.P.

KEN I PLAYED MY FRIST NEW YEARS EVE DANCE
IN 1962 , AND HADN,T MISSED ONE SINCE
THEN UNTIL THIS PAST YEAR , I SPENT
NEW YEARS EVE IN ICU WITH BACK SURGERY.
AND UP UNTIL ABOUT TEN YEARS AGO YOU COULD
COUNT ON YOUR HANDS AND TOES HOW MANY
SATURDAY NITES I MISSED PLAYING SCINCE I STARTED.BUT NOW I HAVE BEEN THINKING ABOUT
SLOWING DOWN

Chris Brooks · From: Providence, Rhode Island

David,

You said some "bons mots" there, mon brave!

Hope all is going well with you in France. I still remember this summer's afternoon back-yard jam and the evening hayloft jazz session with pleasure.

I am planning a trip to Paris in January. Will you be in residence in southern France at that time?

Salut,

Chris

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now living in the Ocean State ....

CrowBear Schmitt · From: Ariege, - PairO'knees, - France

you ain't done, till you gone

James Cann · From: Phoenix, AZ

Two days from now I will take delivery of a Sho-Bud LDG, something I craved since the late 70s. Some ten years after that, I sold my MSA Semi-Classic and, since then, have regretted it more times than I care to admit.

I've had many feelings such as have been shared here, both high and low, but the lows were never as distinct as the highs, and the high of my next two days and what will follow is in a class by itself.

I can hardly contemplate that, If one has the genes that bring this type of ability, the desire could completely disappear.

James
Sho-Bud LDG (two days out)

Jim Phelps · From: Mexico City, Mexico

.

[This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 17 November 2004 at 07:54 PM.]

Willis Vanderberg · From: Petoskey Mi

Ken:
Before you sell out and hang it up , try a little country gospel and get a small group together and play nursing homes, mobile home parks and such. The money isn't big but the satisfaction is complete.

You will see a lot of smiles and the fact that folks come to L-I-S-T-E-N.is worth the effort. So much of the pedal steel is the little fills and beautiful little licks you can create. These can not be heard in a bar setting. Try it , you will love it.

Old Buddy Van

Wayne Cox · From: Chatham, Louisiana, USA * R.I.P.

Hey, thats great news, Ken & gene and everyone that is quitting! Maybe if everyone else will quit too, I'll be able to get more work! NO,NOT REALLY! Actually
I have have hit that wall several times,once for 5 years, but even though I
am a senior citizen now and my fingers are stiff,it is still a big part of who I am
and that is just something I cannot deny.
No matter what you choose to do in life, I wish you only the best that life has to offer! ~~W.C.~~

Ray Minich · From: Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra

Burnout happens in a number of ways. Give it a break, give it a rest. I'll bet though, that in a month, a year, or a couple of years, the itch will come back, usually does. Maybe not for intense work, but you'll be wantin' to put the picks on. Don't sell the gear just yet.

Andy Zynda · From: Wisconsin

"you ain't done, till you gone"

Usually when I'm feeling like that, a change of musical venue is what lights the fire back up. That's why I play Blues, Country, Swing, Rockabilly, Bluegrass, and Jazz.
And my band does all of the above.

One more thing, I keep our schedule at 1-2 gigs a month, with 1-2 practices per week, no more.
...needless to say, we all have full time jobs, and the music is the relaxation.
-andy-

Ken Lang · From: Simi Valley, Ca

Golly, I didn't expect all those replys. I thank all for your concern and advice.

The "I'm done" meant only giving up as an active player on the job market as I no longer have any interest in doing that. Having to get up at 4:15 AM curtails the night life for sure.

What I'm not going to do:
1. Hang up my R'n'Roll shoes.
2. Pull off my Cowboy boots.
3. Sell anything musical I own.
4. Turn my acoustic to the wall.
5. Put all pickin out of my life.

I'll be here in my garage, tinkering, tuning, playing with my MSA and generally enjoying myself without the hassle of getting up for a real gig.

Thanks all.
Ken

Rick McDuffie · From: Benson, North Carolina, USA

Ken,

Just before I met my sweet wife 26 years ago, I had given up on women "for good".

The best things in life often come to us when we're not really looking for them.

Take a break, but don't be surprised when a "serendipity" occurs.

Rick

Glyn Bone · From: Halifax.Nova Scotia. Canada * R.I.P.

Rick..what you said....I also `gave up` on women, but I gave up on my music as well...tha was about 1997....since then I have re-married to a wonderful lassie, and wouldn`t you know it..she got me playing psg again...like you said...serendipity does come around...in my case twice in one hit

Glyndwr

Earnest Bovine · From: Los Angeles CA USA

Glyn Bone · From: Halifax.Nova Scotia. Canada * R.I.P.

Earnest
I don`t feel it`s "coming out" as such, to me it`s more akin to talking with family and getting advice ect. No doubt others feel this way too judging by some of the posts that appear here from time to time.
And I`m with you....a big thanks to b0b and to the rest of the `family`.

Glyndwr

Glenn Austin · From: Montreal, Canada

"Stick a fork in me, I'm done" . When my wife of seven years left me in March of 2003, I essentially went into a long downward spiral, where I gave up on everything that I used to enjoy. But since that time I have met a wonderful woman (who I met on Lavalife of all places, isn't the internet great! )) who is totally into the idea that I play instruments. Trouble is, because I'm doing so much with her, I don't have time to play. So don't give up on women or music. It's all about change and reinventing yourself anyways.

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