Social Media and Creativity

If I judged my music by the reaction I get on social media, I’d quit making music.

No. Seriously. Getting people to watch more than 3 seconds is a lot harder than it should be. Seems like everyone has the attention span of a flea…swipe on, America. Feed that scroll demon.

But you know what? I keep creating and sharing. I know a few people like what I create. That works for me. It’s enough. I’m not trying to get a zillion followers. Just connect with a few people, and maybe leave a record of what I’ve made. For my kids, or whoever might care.

I think that people shouldn’t judge things by what everyone thinks and likes. Everything is subjective, and what everyone thinks is great, rarely is. Life should be about what YOU like. What brings YOU joy. Who cares what everyone likes?

Besides, everyone knows that the best things in life are the secrets that hardly anyone knows about.

Authors Note: All opinions expressed here are just that: opinions. If you don’t like mine, I probably won’t like yours either. Let’s just nod, and walk away. Maybe come back with solutions instead of opinions. Because of the two, only solutions actually matter.

Eight Years of Gloom

The past 8 years have been a hard road. A lot of loss. A bunch of struggle and worry. Thanks to the pandemic, it seems like the whole world has been living under a shadow of gloom and doom, and me…I’ve been hiding under a rock, keeping my head down. Crazy fucking times. I rarely go anywhere anymore. Who can afford it anyway?

Strong emotions and insane politics tend to bring the muses round over here. A lot of new songs have come my way during the half-decade of torment, though I’ve been too distracted by my life to really bring any of them to into their own. I think some are pretty good, grain of salt, being my own post traumatic opinion. But I hope you’ll agree, as I share the songs, and some of the process, in the coming weeks.

I took up the bass, I’ve been playing electric guitar a LOT, and still working on making midi my bitch. I have a bunch of elaborate arrangements fighting for a chance to be recorded. I’m such a perfectionist, those will take time. I’ve been trying, but never seem to make much progress.

Well now, I’m tired of waiting. I want you to hear the songs. So, I’m gonna share the songs, raw, as they were written. I write most stuff on an old six string acoustic. That’s where everything starts. The roots of the song. Where everything the song will ever be already exists, hiding amongst the crude bangings and ringing open strings, with no distracting background vocals.

So later, when the ‘album version’ drops (not too much later, hopefully), we can all look back and say, “Why the fuck did you do THAT to it, man?!”.

Stay tuned. ~jamie

25 Years Ago Today: Final Grateful Dead Concert 7-9-1995

On this day, 25 years ago, the Grateful Dead played their final concert at Soldier Field, Chicago. A month later, Jerry Garcia would be gone from the stage forever, as the other members struggled to keep the music flowing thru the Space & Drums portion of the band’s long history.

Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead played their final show 25 years ago today, 7/9/95, but The Music Never Stopped.

The Music Never Stopped, as Bobby, Phil, Billy, Mickey, and all of their amazingly improvisational friends, have kept moving the Dead’s music moving Further on, Truckin’ through the Lilly Fields on the Bus to never-ever land.

I still miss Jerry’s soulful plucks and crackly croons, and watching the last show can be hard. Still. 25 years later. But if you’re so inclined, YouTube of the show is below.

Listen/Watch to the whole show on YouTube:

Watch “just jamming on an idea or two?” on YouTube

Believe it or not, I’ve been spending some time in the studio during this fucking pandemic. More on that later. But…Here’s a quick video clip from a recent jam session that I decided I’d use to try and sharpen my video? making skills.
Yeah…they still need some sharpening ?~jg

Jamie Gray 5/24 @Toad’s Place / New Haven Music Festival at Toad’s Place

Jamie Gray will be playing at the New Haven Music Festival at Toad’s Place in New Haven next month
Mark your calendars: Sunday May 24th, 2015 at 4PM.
Tickets are $10 adv and $15 day of the show, but you can get them ONLINE for just $8 from Gorilla Music! http://www.gorillamusic.com/eagleone/buy-tickets/
Mail order also available for $8 each.
Email tickets@jamiegraymusic.com for more information.
Get ’em today! See you in May!
**Be sure to fill in the “What band are you going to see?” box !
11012356_10153194125403604_161733592421438089_n[1]#music #shows #concerts #newhaven #newhavenmusicfest #toadsplace #JamieGray #jg

Keller Williams Live at The Sitzmark on 2015-04-03 : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

Keller Williams Live at The Sitzmark on 2015-04-03 : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

How much would you pay for this guitar?

How much would you pay for this guitar? (No, it’s NOT for sale)

#thewalkingdead

via Jamie Gray on Facebook: http://ift.tt/1Ib2CCK
How much would you pay for this guitar? (No, it’s NOT for sale)
#thewalkingdead #twd #music #guitar #RickGrimes #jg #NFS http://ift.tt/19Tgpzo