I just went through 5000 emails. I cleaned up my Desktop. I downloaded quickbooks for my accounting. I’m trying to be an adult. I’ve been working towards a more streamlined way to run this “business”. The whole get a real job thing is definitely a joke in 2022 and will be even more of a joke in 2023. Working in the music industry these days is like having 10 jobs at once. It’s hard to stay on top of all of it and also afford yourself an adequate practice schedule. I am doing my best to create a framework where these things can be done using some streamlining technology and then I can have a bit of an easier time of staying on top of my books and my accounting. Email organization also has something to do with it because so many clients and companies work with digital invoices and digital receipts these days. It was a huge job to go through my gmail account and correct three years of laziness, but we got there. Fresh start. Here we go. PS: I could use some words of encouragement. *hahahaha*

Looking forward I am hoping to make this business something bigger. I’ve been working on advancing my home studio and doing high quality productions out of my house. I also have this big idea for a documentary film about my friends around Alberta. I’ve always wanted to work in the world of movie scoring but haven’t been able to find any people to team up with. So with lots of thinking I came up with the idea that I’d hunt down a couple cameras and then just start filming my own documentary and coming up with the score myself. It’s a big endeavour but I have some good people on my side that can help me make this thing a reality. I want to underline the fact that so many people around this beautiful province are taking the torch from the folk musicians of the past, a new generation of extremely talented folks are populating stages all around Calgary and Edmonton and surrounding areas. I want to focus on this scene and highlight their talents. There will be interviews and artsy filler segments and live performances all compiled into a nice big feature film. At this point its just an extravagant idea, but I believe it’s something worth pursuing. The idea is that it will also be coupled with a podcast which will be released on streaming platforms and also have a visual series on YouTube. The future is bright folks. I’m looking forward to keeping myself very very busy over the next year. Lets ring in 2023 with a bang and close out my 35th year the way I intended, the second half of 35 will be filled with progress. Mark my words.

Winter gets to me. Acoustic guitar is what gets me through. I can’t really focus on anything else during the chilliest part of the year. I tend to pick songs to play that remind me of summer. Of times when the days are longer. Of times where the sun still warms your face at 9 PM and the temperature never drops below 20. I long for the outdoors and fresh air. I spend the majority of my summer sitting on my deck plucking away on the classical in the sun or sitting under the tree in the backyard working on fiddle tunes. If there’s one thing I can appreciate winter for, it’s the fact that when you miss summer this much you really learn to take in and appreciate those few months where the weather wouldn’t take you out if you got locked out of your house for an hour without a coat on.

Luckily, when winter depression hits, I usually have some gigs to look forward to that will help pull me through the dreary season. This Friday, ROOKS will be performing at the King Eddy. Cover is $15 at the door or $10 in advance. Our drummer Darryl has been gone for a few months on a big tour so we’re really missing the stage. Looking forward to letting loose and laying down all of our original material.

I’ve started playing a little bluegrass with my friend Dave and we will hopefully be booking some gigs around Calgary in the near future. I haven’t played much bluegrass publicly yet except for here and there in my solo shows. But I can really feel my playing getting to a place where I’m going to be playing that style a lot more soon. It’s an exciting transitionary times and the pandemic had a lot to do with me moving this direction. I’m not grateful we all had to go through a pandemic but I’m grateful for the time I had to study and progress.

My long term goals with the whole bluegrass thing is to put together some type of string band that can back me up on my original material. When I’m playing “solo” it will be bluegrass instrumentation whether or not we are playing bluegrass songs. I guess you could call it “folk” then, but there will be some grass standards peppered in here and there for sure. Keep an eye out for the advertising. I’ll plaster it all over this site and also spread the news on socials when bookings do happen. The search starts today.

Anyways, I hope you’re all well. Just wanted to spill my thoughts for a few minutes. Hopefully I will see some of your familiar faces at the ROOKS show on Friday! I’ve heard its getting close to standing room only, so if you want a seat you should call the King Eddy and book your table!

-JB