92 Too Many?

Tad and I have completed a double album of 92 tiny songs.  We designed a cover and wrote some listening tips and are packaging it all up.  

Adam, the first recipient of the tiny songs album, cornered me at a Packer party to say that he likes it, but, as with all this stuff I make, it’s not commercially viable.  He assumes what we all assume these days, that success equals commercial viability and mass recognition. 

Here’s a little story:  A local musician hit stardom, touring with a very popular singer.  He started a wonderful little music festival that is a tremendous success.  So, moving into its third year, one hears grumblings about this man who has brought a new vibrancy to the community, jealousies wrapped up as some kind of truth.  I say congratulations to those of us who have managed to not get famous, to not be recognized on the street.  What a drain that must be, to be constantly approached and asked to give your time, to be scorned because of your hard work, to inevitably become disappointing. 

Music is sound patterns.  We grow comfortable with certain patterns, and the more repetitions, the more memories we attach to them.  Familiar patterns sound “correct” and unfamiliar patterns sound “incorrect.”  Often because of our discomfort with “incorrect”, we reject new patterns without taking the time to notice what they have to offer.

I am interested in the “incorrect” and so it doesn’t surprise me that what I do has not made me money or fame, nor do I think it ever will.  So I find no problem in continuing to make the music and art that I want to make rather than the music and art that others believe I should be making, even though Adam will laugh at me for saying it.

tad neuhaus, guitar

joanna dane, vocals

For your very own tiny songs double album, please send a self-addressed stamped envelop to: 

Joanna Dane 

℅ The 602 Club

602 N. Lawe Street

Appleton, WI  54911