Below is the original text and the response below each one from the tour manager from a Texas band that I have found myself enjoying in the past...
NOTE: THE TEXT BELOW IS NOT MINE, it was copied from somebody's public Facebook note
/# begin quoted text #/
In Response to Ray Wylie Hubbard
By P###### H####
I just read this post that a couple of my friends reposted:
I'd like to respond.
#1: hey young bands, don't use in/ear monitors at a club. it looks stupid. quit it. you ain't bon jovi.
This doesn't make any sense to me at all. Especially when you incorporate it with Ray's #7. Are looks important only when the musician is wearing IEMs? Or only when they buy a guitar? Does it make sense to have in ear monitors because you want consistent, isolated, quality sound for every gig no matter it being in a club, a studio, or a stadium? As many of you know, there aren't many qualified sound engineers running monitors and many clubs these days. PLUS: IEMs can SAVE your hearing.
#2. ok especially txreddirt bands..if you gonna steal a riff and write a song, don't make it as obvious as 'stranglehold.' jeez.
I'm not sure to whom RWH is referring, but I strongly believe that from each song that is written, another evolves. Over and over. It's ok to be influenced by great music, songs, and performers. Take what's theirs and morph it into what you believe is another brilliant idea. Musicians, to me, are some of the smartest people I know. So artistic. So creative. Sensitive, emotional, hard, driven....I could go on. Musical evolution isn't something that is new or something that will ever go away.
#3. don't say your influence is townes and then write metaphor deficient mid tempo trite singalongs..leave that to me.
Why not? Who are you, RWH, to tell a musician what they can and cannot write? Who made you the musical composition ambassador to the world? Are you policing musical creativity? Why are there all of a sudden music writing restrictions? WHO ARE YOU TO SAY THIS??
#4. don't do walk/on music at a club gig. its hokey. cut the sound off for 3 minutes before you go on so the crowd can't compare you to other bands (that are better than you)
This is just dumb. Who's to say that the audience compares the performers to the previously played artist? What kind of gig, if not "club gig" is appropriate for this to take place? And where is the dos and don'ts musician's manual I can refer? A show, in my opinion, is an event. Something that a concert goer will get satisfaction from upon arrival and all the way until they leave. Popular music is just that, popular. I truly think it's ok for someone to listen to great music before a show. Even if they're better that the upcoming act. Or are we just going to decide this for our audiences also?
#5. right now maybe having tasty guitar chops isn't as important as being on the tx music chart but someday it might be all you have and will come in handy.
But this means bands should stop their song from reaching high placement on a chart? Can't an artist want/achieve both?
#6. even at some gigs if you think of me as an old whore still turning tricks..you need to know i ain't faking it.
Age has nothing to do with anything. You have stereotyped and labeled a group of musicians in almost everyone of your points. If you have beef with an artist, let em know. JUST KIDDING. Artists DO NOT NEED ANYONE'S APPROVAL to create, display, or perform their art, Mr. Ambassador.
#7. when in a music store and you want to try out a guitar, plug it into an amp..don't ask if they got a mirror.
I'm a 2 birds with 1 stone kind of guy. I suggest finding an amp in front of a mirror. And you do know that not everyone plays guitar, right?
