The Best Advice for Musicians that I’ve Heard in a Long Time

by Jason on December 30, 2009 · 8 comments

Danny Barnes

Thanks to a tweet by Bob Lefsetz I came across the blog of Danny Barnes. I’ve been familiar with Barnes since my friend Matt turned me on to his band Bad Livers many years ago, but I had never seen his site before. Not only is the whole website beautiful and easy to navigate, Barnes’ blog is chock-full of incredible insight from a guy who’s been there, done that. If you’re looking for wisdom about making music, making money, and navigating the music industry, look no further!

The subject of Lefsetz’s tweet was a post titled “How to Make a Living Playing Music”. It’s an A-Z guide (literally!) about the do’s and don’t’s of making money from your music and it’s brilliant from start to finish. Go there. Read it.

Then, if you haven’t had enough, read his latest post, called “A Few Reasons the Music Biz is a Good Biz: A Rebuttal to Negative Conversation About the State of Music”. Again, brilliant! This is a guy who gets it.

And how fortunate for me that he lives in my hometown of Seattle!

Danny – I’m comin’ for ya! You and I will meet and we will have much to discuss. If I’m lucky, maybe we’ll even play some music together.

Thomas Marriott December 30, 2009 at 11:55 pm: Jason – This is a FANTASTIC article – Mr. Barnes is on the money. These are all lessons musicians usually learn the “hard-way” and are usually better for it. Thanks so much for posting this and drawing attention to it. -TM
Jason December 31, 2009 at 12:16 am: Thanks for the comment, Thomas! Your new website looks great!!
steve Lawson December 31, 2009 at 12:55 am: I’m about half way through the a-z, brilliant stuff. I love Danny’s playing on Frisell’s ‘The Willies’ album. Proper awesome. Clearly the thinking behind the amazing music is just as awesome.

Great find, Jason, seriously great find 🙂
Jose Gonzales December 31, 2009 at 12:19 pm: Wallllll, Mister, this gives me much food for thought for the new year. Things I loved about the article: moving throughout your musical life with GRACE; having interests outside your art; “keep your art the main focus. it isn’t about you it’s about your art.”- love that!; “think of your art as a work in progress.”- most definitely…my whole life is a work in progress!!! Thanks for the post, J…peace.

Now let’s jam!
Hal Rose December 31, 2009 at 5:00 pm: Very down to earth man. Tells it straight. I am still going through all of the letters but there is a lot to chew on there.

Thanks for the post Jason!
Sunna Gunnlaugs January 1, 2010 at 4:35 am: nice Jason. Thx for letting me know
Chris Hodges January 7, 2010 at 9:12 am: Thanks for hipping me to Danny Barnes, man. So much information!
Mike January 10, 2010 at 7:51 pm: Danny Barnes is the mack daddy. I loved those blog posts and I was really impressed when I saw him in Seattle. He and the guitar were one, and he was a force.