FRIENDS....this is the TWELFTH (12) Aaron Starkey Music Newsletter!

If you are getting this for the first time..it's because i'm still learning to send email. If you are sad to get an email from me....please respond back with "no thanks!" and i'll gladly remove you from all future missives!

ok..lets chat:

[before i get started...the spelling of "twelfth" always looks wrong to me. does it to you? ok. carry on.]

As you all know, marketing and messaging about shows is my favorite thing.

But really, i have deep gratitude for still having the opportunity to even message folks about playing music for anyone and with anyone. I'll never top saying that out loud. grateful to the band(s) and folks that i get to engage with on the stage and in the rehearsals rooms. a gift.

And HALF of the folks reading this email are musicians (and btw, once a musician, always a musician) and i suspect they are all pretty grateful to get to do what they do. I know I am. In my "youth" i think i sometimes (lets say often...) took it for granted or even expected people to care? The entitlement and arrogance of youth is a grand thing (i have a dear friend who many years ago chastised me for the use of the word "grand"..and it makes me chuckle every time i use it. I'm not sure what her argument was for not using it, but 30 years later, here we are. things are grand..) and easy to do and humbling to let go of when you eventually realize that it's all a gift and luck and good will.

One place I never take for granted is the Tractor Tavern. When the J and first contemplated moving here, we were flown to Seattle by a large software company (circa fall of 2000) to "evaluate" living here. In Chicago, where we lived, i was frequent patron of Schubas and The Hideout (chicago) and americana (alt-country!) in general and i was curious to know if Seattle had a similar scene and so we turned our rental car from downtown seattle to the neighborhood of "ballard" on a dark and stormy november night (i love a cliche!) ..and got fairly lost because our mapquest print out wasn't very accurate. Eventually we found ourselves outside the doors and it was closed..because...how did we know?!.

That's my story. we went and it was closed.

Very Seattle in a way. But Ballard ave was rainy and you could smell the sound and it was a vibe i'd witness again and again over the next 25 years. Little did i know how often and integrated that street and venue would become in my life. Big Thanks and Awkward hugs to Dan, Ryan, Katie, Will, Aubrie, Jeff, Leigh, and really the whole gang of folks that work and have worked there over the years to make it what it is. (this is feeling like a Tractor Testimonial..sorry!)

Anyways, i've lost track of all the shows i've seen, and played, there which wasn't a thing i would have thought then, but it's now become place for me where there is always a friendly face at the door, and at the bar, and quite often a friend on stage. It's as close to a cbgb's, or lounge ax that'll i'll have ever have, and again, I couldn't be more grateful.

You can probably guess where this is all going. Long Dark Moon, this friday, will play the stage for the first time. Other projects, other nights, and other moments, etc have happened many times, but never a full band set from LDM. AND, to have it be opening for the Moondoggies as they celebreate 20 years...AND to have Brenna Bruce opening the night (who has the best voice in seattle IMO) is really, honestly, something. I tend to be pretty loose anymore about rehersals...i like to "let if flow..." but for this show, along with some wisely applied pressure from the band (hi Tony!), we actually...rehearsed...hard and sweaty...for this night. i might even have more of the lyrics memorized than usual. no promises though. i mean..words? who needs 'em as long as i have a guitar!?

...ok. UPDATE!!!!!!

FRIDAY MAY 22nd...Long Dark Moon @ at TRACTOR TAVERN WITH THE MOONDOGGIES AND BRENNA BRUCE

• ticket ---> here:

And i'd be remiss and a bad band leader if I didn't mention that you can still pick up a cassette in person at SONIC BOOM RECORDS in ballard or via the Den Tapes Label bandcamp ->. get it here: https://dentapes.bandcamp.com/album/cold-atlantic (please pick one up!)

If you've read this far...I invite you to write me a question and I'll try and answer it in my next email! I like questions!

...most recent questions:

KateO asked "Whose responsibility is it to pay musicians in a capitalist society? Do musicians need to provide a product that fulfills a service or solves a problem? Should musicians that make challenging and non-mainstream music still be compensated fairly for their contributions? (sorry, that's three questions)"

Aaron's Response (that's me):

let's see...if it's pure capitalism (whatever that means) then I would think it's whatever the market has the will to pay. In some ways venues and the musicians are really held captive to that scenario, but you used the word "responsibility"..which i think is a curious word. i don't think there is a responsibility for a for-profit business to book music that will put them out of business. I think as a strategy, clubs should book music that brings in audiences they can build. I think it's good sense to build an audience around new artists, and often that means "unknown" music, but that comes with risk. As someone with a pretty deep knowledge (now) of the economics of the industry, i think it's a miracle that any club can survive, not to mention that most clubs still live/die based on the selling of booze. the marigns are paper paper thin. Do folks need live music as entertainment like they once did when there are SO many other ways to spend time..probably not? are they as enriched, probably not.

do i think our "society", which may exist in a capitalist structure, has a responsibility? 100%. in the same way that society should have math or history education that is "difficult." It's not for everyone, but it makes for an educated populace. IF we believe that art and music and education can make our lives better, then society should champion them and enable that ecosystem for the good of all. Does private industry need to do the same? Probably not. If a night of 12 tone music isn't selling out a 400 cap room on a friday night...is it the club, the audience or the culture? Might need a smaller room.

What i do think is interesting is that some art forms that are also less commercial (poetry, classical music, abstract painting?) have a home in academia. There are degrees, and advanced degrees in these art forms, along with historical traditions and journals, etc. There are grants and schools that perpetuate (in a good way!) these art forms. But rock and roll? Rock and roll better find a dirty stinky rock club or backyard party and claw its way to the top fueled by drink tickets and trader joe's hummus (if you're lucky). By nature i wonder if (and i know you're not talking about "rock" really) some of these art forms HAVE to live in a structure that is re-inventing itself outside of the rules (Even though the rock scene as more unwritten rules than an MFA in Poetry...) in order to find meaning. I don't mean you have to suffer for your art to be valid, but rather, does forming and existing outside of the capitalist engine allow for more freedom? Again a theory worthy of arguing against!

love you all!

Aaron

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