Nashville-Playing on Broadway

Ron Hogan · From: Nashville, TN, usa

I know many times over the years there are discussions from steelers wanting to either visit Nashville on Broadway to see steel players or move here and make a living on Broadway. Here is an example of "WHAT IT IS".

On Wednesday, I was suppose to play the 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM shift at one of the clubs there on Broadway. Circumstances were that I had to go out of state (Alabama) so I had someone fill in for me. The band and singer is a good one and I usually play with them around Nashville (I play for 4 different bands).

I got back early from Alabama and stopped down on Broadway to catch up with the band, have a beer and listen. First I walked down both sides of Broadway poking my head in the clubs looking for steel players.Seeing about 20 to 25 bands,there was only one steel players in the bunch and it was with the band I play with.

The pay for the night was $57.00. This includes a base pay and tips. It is always a gamble when you play down there. It depends on crowds, days of the week, weather and so on. Remember, each player also has to walk a long way to get to the gig, pay for parking ($10.00). So that $57.00 was really $47.00. If you drank a beer in that 4 hour shift that would be $6.00 a beer.

Anyway, think about that as a career. Do you really want to depend on that for your family? Not much money over a 12 month period. Even if you made $100.00 for the night and got lucky with 3 shifts per week for 52 weeks. That's $15,600.00 per year. Plus, you still have to pay taxes, you have no medical insurance and no retirement.

What made me really sad that night, there was only one steel guitarist out of the bunch.

gary pierce · From: Rossville TN

Thats exactly the reason I chose to have music as a hobby, after a year on the road in 1975. There is a small percentage of musicians who make a good living just playing music, and being married for 48 years with two kids, and four grandkids, I'm sure I made the right choice.

Fred Treece · From: California, USA

Ron, are you union?
https://www.nashvillemusicians.org/
You are a fine player and I just wonder what kind of power this union has if quality players are making so little money.

I donâ€™t know anyone who ever wanted to make a career of playing clubs for 50 bucks a night. If you are serious about the music business, clubs can serve the purpose of being a launchpad for touring, recording, or just for getting better live local gigs. It is definitely not a business where you sit around and wait for something to happen. From my personal experience, if you hang with the hobbyists, a hobbyist you will be.

Ron Hogan · From: Nashville, TN, usa

Fred, yes I'm union. But the union seems to leave the Musicians and club owners alone on Broadway. Even though it's the biggest venue in Nashville and draws the most tourists.

The only thing the union has ever tried was to get us cheaper parking. The club owners are making bank from the tourists, but the Musicians are scraping by and not just hobby players, mostly.

Don't get me completely wrong, there are shifts where you can make more. It's the role of
the dice. Still, in my example earlier, you don't make a killing doing this as your career for your family. I know many players in town that won't pick on Broadway.

It's degrading to step off stage and walk the tip bucket around to panhandle while your fellow musicians are still onstage.

Fred Treece · From: California, USA

gary pierce · From: Rossville TN

Fred, I lived in Nashville, and there are plenty of hobby players, because they need to make a living. The hobby players there could play any pro job that came along too.
I like to call it a part timer, a hobby sounds like a model airplane builder. Smile

Fred Treece · From: California, USA

Justin Emmert · From: Greensboro, NC

If walked up and down Broadway a couple times the last couple of days whil I'm here for work. Mostly listening to bands from the street. Haven't seen a steel yet.....

David Mitchell · From: Tyler, Texas

I went and got a good day job running a pawnshop/music store in 1979 in Dallas, Tx. that specialized in musical instruments. I got a lot of great bargains on Spanish guitars and pedal steel guitars. Lots of famous steel players came in their every week to buy strings and things. I got to tinker and talk music everyday as well as making loans.
Before that I was on the road with a well known regional band called Tony Douglas & the Shrimpers and they started me out at $50.00 a night (that's on the road away from home) and a year later I got raised to $60.00 a night. It didn't take me long to figure out that I couldn't make a decent living on $150-250.00 a week. So I ran a pawnshop for over 20 years putting in 60 hours every week only having Sunday's off and still managed to play 2 to 4 nights a week in Dallas in local house bands. I only went home to sleep but I really enjoyed my life and made some pretty good money to playing steel guitar. Working in a popular music store helped a lot with getting calls for gigs. I had to turn down more than I could accept. Saturday was the fun day at Pete's Pawn and Music. All the pro musicians came in on Saturday before the gigs. Guys like Tom Morrell, Tommy Allsup, Milo Deering, Dickey Overbey, Junior Knight and Gary Hogue to name a few that visited us.

Tony Glassman · From: The Great Northwest

I figured out that playing steel for a living would not financially sustain a family back in 1986 when my son was born. We were making $60 / night, 6-7 days per week, which added up to between $17,000-$20,000/year. There was no health insurance or decent family time, so I went back to college then Med school. At this point, Iâ€™m not near the player my peers became, but I donâ€™t regret the decision. So, Iâ€™m a hobbyist.

Jerry Overstreet · From: Louisville Ky

Ron, your insight into the atmosphere on Broadway is interesting to say the least.

I've been there many times and have seen the musicians moving one club to another too.

I would've thought the musicians made better pay. I know lots of times I've seen lots of big bills going into the tip buckets. Seems the later and drunker the tourists and partiers get, the bigger the bills.

I realize the establishment and it's employees have to make money too, but it sure sounds like that's where the lion's share is going.

Disheartening to know that the players are getting such a paltry sum of the till.

David Mitchell · From: Tyler, Texas

Musicians made Nashville into what it is today but they have no respect from the Apartment builders and Club owners that moved in to capitalize on the growth of Nashville. I remember what Nashville was and looked like in 1973. I remember property owners in Nashville despised musicians and considered everyone drug addicts that went into a studio. Rent on music row was dirt cheap back then because the city considered it the dregs of society hung out there. Some were drug addicts but that was the general attitude and not much has changed it seems. If not for all the people around the world that love music and it's performers Nashville would be a ghost town by now because the city council and it's non-music businesses never supported the music industry there. Anything ever done for the musicians there was always by musicians for musicians. I nearly puke when the city of Nashville boast about it being the home of Country Music and Music City USA. Yeah right.

Ron Hogan · From: Nashville, TN, usa

Iâ€™ll be playing Broadway on Tuesday the 6 to 10 shift at Rippyâ€™s.

Damir Besic · From: Nashville,TN.

Ron is right, that is what I've been saying for years, but whenever I say something, somebody gets mad saying how great music scene in Nashville is, BS , I know better... when I came to Nashville 20 years ago there was fiddles and steel guitars in every bar and shift... today you have to know exactly when and where to go is you want to see a steel guitar, back then it was all over the place... bars are getting bigger and bigger, 2,3 story high , but the guys are playing for peanuts as always, nothing changed ... sad... that is the reason why I don't go down town any more , not worth it ...
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Damir Besic · From: Nashville,TN.

regardless, I love Nashville, and I had some awesome times here, and was lucky enough to come just in time to enjoy the real deal, but unfortunately was here to witness the decline of the music as well, I even made a little video about it

https://youtu.be/YTSRq9jGDN4

I will never forget all the great musicians and people I met here, and will never regret moving here, I just wish everything would stay the same as it was, but it never does does it ?
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Rick Campbell · From: Sneedville, TN, USA

Damir Besic · From: Nashville,TN.

mtulbert · From: Plano, Texas 75023

Interesting topic for sure.

I live and worked in Nashville from 1972 to 1975 at Fred Carter's studio in Goodlettsville. In those days IMHO it was Music City. There were 85 recording studios including the major houses and independent houses. Like most studios we were busy almost around the clock.. A typical day was getting in at 9 and leaving around 2 if we were lucky.

Worked for almost nothing; just the nature of the beast. The studio musicians were all union and making pretty good money for the time.

The biggest issue was the sheer numbers of musicians coming to Nashville to seek their fame and fortune. To break into the recording scene was extremely difficult and other than the usual guys, I did not see many new faces in the 4000 sessions that I participated in.

Sad to say it was starting to change when I left. It was morphing more into business than making music. I recall a session with a signed artist and we are ready to record and we are all sitting around as the producer and publisher are arguing over whether the artist was going to get 3 cents per record or 5 cents. I shook my head is total disbelief as this was going on.

I never did feel or sense that the regular population in Nashville regarded the music industry as a blight. The tourist trade even in those days was a big factor in the economy.

I believe David Mitchell to be correct about the area where Music Row evolved, but at the time I was there it was still the existing homes remodeled into offices and studios.

Regards to all,
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Mark T

Rittenberry Laquer D10, Rittenberry Prestige SD10, Revelation Preamp,Revelation Octal Preamp,Lexicon PCM 92 Reverb, Furlong Cabinet

David Mitchell · From: Tyler, Texas

To show you how the music business made Nashville what it is today. In 1974 I rented a 2 story house with basement directly across the street from the new RCA building on Music Square West for $175.00 a month. Rent was cheaper there than an equivalent home in the suburbs. Try that now. Same spot is about $6,000.00 a month and inflation hasn't increased it that much.

mtulbert · From: Plano, Texas 75023

David
I get it. In 1973 I bought a house in Green Hills area of Nashville for 22000.Recently it came on the market for 585000. Would have bee'a great investment had I kept it.
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Mark T

Rittenberry Laquer D10, Rittenberry Prestige SD10, Revelation Preamp,Revelation Octal Preamp,Lexicon PCM 92 Reverb, Furlong Cabinet

David Mitchell · From: Tyler, Texas

Wow! That's incredible. You could have retired just with that house. I never met him but I heard Eddy Arnold got filthy rich from real estate around Nashville. They told me at one time Roy Acuff and Eddy Arnold practically owned Nashville. Yeah I bet a lot of people that could afford to sit on property around there cashed in big time and some probably still waiting to cash in. Great investment property or use to be. I guess it's so high now only the biggest celebrities can invest in it.

Ben Lawson · From: Brooksville Florida

Whenever we go to Nashville, we stay near the Opryland hotel. Other than seeing my old friend, Ron Ctites, doing his single, every band I've seen at The Nashville Palace or Music City Bar has had both steel and fiddle.

Joe Krumel · From: Hermitage, Tn.

I moved here around 88ish. Had a decent day job and took it all in. The changes are huge. From my perspective I miss all the legends and great nobodies that have passed or moved away. Still today ,Music city has a magic about it thats hard to describe.Things have changed alot,but like Damir said, I love this crazy place.when I travel,I cant wait to get back home.I never impressed anyone with my music,but being around like minded people is pretty cool.

Ron Hogan · From: Nashville, TN, usa

Just an update: Pay on Broadway the past week and a half has averaged about $82.00. You still have 12.00 parking. And again, you can make more then that depending on circumstances.

I don't have to do it for a living anymore. I do it for the enjoyment, fellowship, extra play money, keeping my chops up and name out there. This week I had six gigs in Nashville and one I had to turn down.

Roger Rettig · From: Naples, FL

Good for you, Ron. I admire your energy and perseverance. They're good motives to be sure - I remain thankful that I can get paid for doing something so enjoyable and fulfilling.
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Roger Rettig - Emmons D10s, Quilter TT-12, B-bender Teles and old Martins.
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