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Topic: Hows the scene in Nashville ? |
Wally Moyers
From:
Lubbock, Texas
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Posted 23 Oct 2017 8:54 am |
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| Go give it a try, just know when to get out if you see the reality doesn't match your dream. There are lots of levels of making it, doing what you love is a big part of it. I'll never regret my time there in the early 80s, things are much different now.. Looking back all these years later I know that leaving there I made the right decision for myself and my family even though I had a great gig and offers for others.. My friend Don Kelly told me back when I was there that most musicians living in Nashville shouldn't be there. When we talked last week he told me that he is leaving and headed to Florida to retire. Don is one guy that made the most of playing on Broadway. I'm sure playing on Broadway was not his original plan or dream but he made the most of it for many years and in his own way made an impact on the Nashville music scene.. If you go at least if you will know the reality.. |
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Ron Hogan
From:
Nashville, TN, usa
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Posted 30 Oct 2017 5:01 am
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I moved to Nashville 35 years ago, played for a bunch of the stars and even did Hee Haw with Faron Young. Back then, you didnt play Broadway as it was known for only bad players. You didn't want to be seen there.
The town turned it around to make it what it is. Just don't plan on making a career there as its not a real future in tips, no retirement or hospitolization. By career I mean 30 to 40 years. But you can have fun with it and get by. If you want to be a bar steel player all your life, go for it. |
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David Mitchell
From:
Tyler, Texas
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Posted 4 Nov 2017 2:15 pm
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| I know of several monster/ somewhat legendary steel players that lost out road gigs with celebrities to mediocre players and I'll tell you why. It's just like any other field of employment. They just want someone to play the parts relatively close and stay with the band. Great players have a reputation of not staying anywhere very long. They are just passing through waiting on a bigger gig. |
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Fred Treece
From:
California, USA
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Posted 4 Nov 2017 4:08 pm
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| I hope the OP has sorted through her regrets. The grass isn't always greener somewhere else, but it is different grass. If there is nothing holding you down where you are now, and as long as "disappointment after trying" doesn't qualify as another regret, why not give it a shot? Lucky is as lucky does. You can't win the lottery if you don't buy a ticket. |
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robert kramer
From:
Nashville TN
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Kevin Fix
From:
Michigan, USA
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Posted 5 Nov 2017 5:21 pm Day Job
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| Had a chance at it about 20 years ago. I am glad I kept my day job with a full pension. I retired 9 years ago. Now I play what I want and when I want. Working with a vintage country band now for the last 2 years. County Fairs and Festivals. Lots of fun. All out door gigs. |
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Karen Sarkisian
From:
Boston, MA, USA
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Posted 7 Nov 2017 8:12 am
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I dont know why I'm not getting notified of watched topics anymore, but this thread has gotten a lot of posts since my last visit. I have found a great band here in Boston to work with so I will stay put for now. If anything changes I will once again be on the lookout for a move. I appreciate all the feedback, I dont think I would like Nashville honestly. Maybe 20 or 30 years ago, but not now. Austin is more up my alley, but now that I've found a good band here I will stay here until further notice 
_________________
Emmons PP, Mullen G2 and Discovery |
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Fred Treece
From:
California, USA
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Posted 7 Nov 2017 10:36 am
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| Congratulations, Karen. Glad you were able to find something without having to pack up and move out. The local music scene anywhere is what the local musicians make it. Wherever there is a good bass player, the possibilities are endless. |
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Barry Blackwood
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Posted 8 Nov 2017 10:03 am
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| I dont think I would like Nashville honestly. Maybe 20 or 30 years ago, but not now. |
With that thought in the back of your mind, you are wise to stay where you are. Be happy. |
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Chris Templeton
From:
The Green Mountain State
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Ron Hogan
From:
Nashville, TN, usa
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Posted 1 Jun 2018 1:56 pm
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On Broadway you will work for tips and average $27,000.00 per year, if you can work at least 5 gigs a week. Thats before taxes and no benefits.
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Don Aycock
From:
Hollister, FL
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Posted 1 Jun 2018 4:01 pm Nashville
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| I was in Nashville last week for my son's wedding. We went to lower Broadway and I was astounded at all the clubs with live music during the day. The sidewalks were full of people and the restaurants were full, too. Something is happening but I don't know how that affects musicians. On a funny note, one guy was hurrying down the sidewalk carrying a pedal steel from one club to another. He had a towel over the strings and name but I recognized the knee levers. I asked, "Is that a Shobud?" He said it was and that it was "born" just one block from where we were standing. |
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Darrell Criswell
From:
Maryland, USA
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Posted 4 Jun 2018 7:10 am
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Just my perspective, I have been to Nashville a lot the last 8 years and the place has dramatically changed. i have talked to some of the musicians that play Broadway.
The place overall is just a mess, they have built multiple convention centers and sport stadiums in the downtown area. Parking is just ridiculous. A room at the Comfort Inn on the weekend within very long walking distance of Broadway is $300 a night. Parking can be $30. There are absolute tons of bicycle powered bars riding around, as well as trucks and tractors hauling people around, you can drink on all these and they stop at bars. My guess is they get a lot of bachelorette type parties as most of the people on them are young girls.
In terms of the clubs, most have live music with bands who play for tips, some make an incredible amount of money but it is totally variable. I have seen people giving $100 tips and seen other bands in clubs where absolutely nobody showed up, and the band was great. People tend to just wander in a club for a few songs and not stay long, however there are people who often stay for a set at some of the older clubs like Roberts. The music people tend to like is the old George Strait, Garth Brooks type songs from the 90's. Some bands play some neat stuff, but most of it is the older worn out stuff, not the good old stuff. Ask for a Faron Young song and they may ask you who that was, or have to think about it for a little while. A lot of clubs having two guys singing and playing guitars, I bet that is a lot cheaper than a band.
Physically the place, Lower Broadway, is just incredibly overcrowded, the bars there make a fortune. Nashville overall has more money than it knows what to do with, a lot of people are moving there but I have no idea how they can afford it. They are building a JW Marriott next to the new Convention Center. I stayed at a JW Marriott one time, the going rate used to be about $500 a night. In the downtown area they have built a bunch of condominium type high rises which you can probably afford if you make several hundred thousand a year. Just go to a place like the Gulch, where the Station Inn is, and see if you could afford to live there. |
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Darrell Criswell
From:
Maryland, USA
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Posted 4 Jun 2018 10:41 am LA lower broadway
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What a coincidence, below is a link to today's article in the nashville newspaper, that basically confirms everything I said, only he situation is probably worse overall. Here is what it says about musicians pay, but read the whole article its pretty interesting.
“The clubs, servers, tour companies and taxi drivers are all making more money than ever before, but in most cases, it does not trickle down to the players,†Pomeroy said. “The supply versus demand factor works in favor of the clubs, and makes it difficult for musicians to stand up for themselves.â€
New Jersey native Alex Hernandez, who performs under the name Rocky Bottom, moved to Nashville three years ago to pursue a career in music. He averages six gigs a week on Lower Broadway and said the base rate paid by bar owners ranges from $50 to $100 for a three- or four-hour shift. Hernandez said he can make anywhere from $100 to $500 in tips on top of that.
“I think you can make a living doing it, absolutely, if you want to,†Hernandez said.
https://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2018/06/01/nashville-honky-tonks-cma-fest-lower-broadway-tootsies/657157002/ |
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Damir Besic
From:
Nashville,TN.
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Darrell Criswell
From:
Maryland, USA
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Posted 5 Jun 2018 5:23 am
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Damir:
How do you think Hernandez is wrong? The money that I think he is talking about seems to me to be for a band and not an individual player. I've heard of bands getting $3,000 in tips in a night and also seen them get less than $20. What clubs do you play at?
I looked him up and found his Facebook page. I don't think he exactly has a band with steel and twin fiddles. Looks like a solo player, and a typical Broadway musician unfortunately. |
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Barry Blackwood
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Posted 5 Jun 2018 7:56 am
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Beware, Nashville, remember what happened to "family friendly" Las Vegas back in the '90's?
http://vegasseven.com/2012/04/12/lonesome-death-family-vegas/
Regarding Hernandez, I see him as a modern-day carpetbagger in a Grandpa Jones hat. Sorry, Grandpa, wherever there's crap there's flies.... |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 5 Jun 2018 9:40 am
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| Darrell Criswell wrote: |
Damir:
How do you think Hernandez is wrong? The money that I think he is talking about seems to me to be for a band and not an individual player. I've heard of bands getting $3,000 in tips in a night and also seen them get less than $20. What clubs do you play at?
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I dunno...I'm skeptical too. Three grand in tips sounds awfully high. In most places I've been, usually only one person in each group of customers even leaves a tip. Three grand? That would be like having 150 customers, each dropping twenty bucks in the tip jar. Or, 300 customers, with each dropping a ten-spot. I haven't been to Nashville since the '90s. But back then, the joints on Broad weren't nearly that popular, and the customers weren't that spendy.
'Course, if you're talking a band that plays 3 or 4 joints a night, then three grand total, in tips, sounds maybe within reason. |
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Darrell Criswell
From:
Maryland, USA
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Posted 5 Jun 2018 10:43 am
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Donny Hinson:
I didn't say three thousand was the norm, just I had been told it had happened. And I have seen a frenzy with the tipping at some places in Nashville but more often than not you say " wonder if there will even be enough money to divide up". One time at AJ's I saw a guy come in and give the drummer an enormous rolled up bundle of money, tips from another club, even if it was all ones it was still a good bit. |
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Kyle Everson
From:
Nashville, Tennessee
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Posted 5 Jun 2018 11:20 am
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deleted.
Last edited by Kyle Everson on 6 Jun 2018 5:41 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Darrell Criswell
From:
Maryland, USA
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Posted 5 Jun 2018 1:56 pm
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The draw of Nashville isn't the music scene. There are a lot of seriously high paying jobs, primarily for young people who are highly educated with specialized skills. I really don't know what they do, but they draw some real money. |
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David Zornes
From:
Ohio, USA
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Posted 9 Jun 2018 4:38 pm Making it in Nashville
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| When I was working the road in the late seventies and eighties, I always wondered why they called Nashville-Gnashvile. I went there to seek work and found out why. |
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Barry Blackwood
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Posted 10 Jun 2018 7:42 am
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| Quote: |
| The draw of Nashville isn't the music scene. There are a lot of seriously high paying jobs, primarily for young people who are highly educated with specialized skills. I really don't know what they do, but they draw some real money. |
It is if you're a steel guitar player posting here. It's kind of like Hollywood. The old Hollywood is dead. There are computer technicians here making more money than most actors, yet the lure continues... |
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Justin Emmert
From:
Greensboro, NC
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Posted 19 Jun 2018 5:38 pm
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| I know a couple of guys that make a decent living playing on Broadway and the surrounding area. To make the most, you need to be able to play guitar and sing, not just be a steel player. You gotta be able to take solo gigs just as fast as full band gigs and network like crazy in between so people will call you for sets. They typically play 5-7 days a week and play multiple gigs a day sometimes. |
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Eric Philippsen
From:
Central Indiana, USA
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Posted 20 Jun 2018 2:00 am
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I know it's all about supply and demand and I get that. I really do. But it kills me to remember decades ago making relatively the same $$ per gig then as I do now. Yet drink prices have doubled, tripled or gone up even more.
I'm just not sure whether moving to Nashville as a musician is an overall smart move. It's been said before but the guy working the quik-mart there can probably play rings around you. |
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