Back in the mid 90's when I was in college in Columbus, OH, I was playing a lot (for me) of solo guitar gigs - easily 100 a year. I remember talking with a local well known, highly regarded jazz guitarist once. He said that there were a lot more gigs in the late 50s than in the 90s, and that the gigs in the late 50s paid the same as gigs did in the 90s. He said that it was rare for him to get a jazz gig, just occasional country gigs. (Lot's more opportunities to play 3 chords for hundreds of people than to play hundreds of chords for 3 people). He had invested in rental properties back in the 60s and 70s, and thats how he made a living.
My son has a rock band. He recently had the opportunity to schedule a 2 hour solo gig, and he invited me to help him out, because he doesn't have 2 hours worth of solo material. We will resurrect some of the Spanish guitar stuff that we used to do when he was in high school - over 15 years ago. And I will also play some solo guitar.
Yesterday, while dusting off some of the solo tunes, I had the same thought as the title of this thread: Where did 20 years go? While I have continued to play somewhere between 10 - 50 gigs a year with my wife for most of that 20 years, I never intended to stop playing solo guitar gigs for 20 years! How did I go 20 years with nary a single solo guitar gig? When I was in school, I thought that once I finished school that I would have more time for guitar. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Obla di, obla da life goes on........
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