Past Life

Last week I did a survey to see what you the reader want to see more of here on the site. Feel free to submit further suggestions as I'm certainly open to hearing them.

So, based on the request for more insight into who I am, I thought that I would tell a story...

You may or may not know that I used to be in the music business. From November of 2001 through March of 2003 I worked for a company called Tentmaker Music located in Lubbock, TX.

It all started out with someone asking me to help out at a Bebo Norman concert with some set-up stuff. Soon thereafter I saw a flyer that two of my favorite artists at the time were going to be in town during the coming months so I got in touch with the promoter and offered to help out again. We put on a coffee house show with Andrew Peterson and then were part of the much debated "Club Tour" that Derek Webb did shortly before leaving Caedmon's Call. Somewhere in the midst of all this, I became an unpaid, ad hoc employee.

The next spring I actually took on a formal role, pretty much for the sole reason of getting school credit as an internship. That spring we met and ran shows for two great artists who are still on the brink of stardom, Dave Barnes and Matt Wertz. We also promoted two shows, back to back (one in Lubbock and one in Abilene), during finals week for Caedmon's Call. (That ordeal is a story in and of itself, complete with hail, tornados, and a night in the basement of a theater.)

In the fall of 2002, I was in my last semester of college taking some of my most difficult classes so far. We had been asked by Bebo's management to take 3 shows on the fall tour throughout Texas because they liked working with us so much. It was something of an honor to not have to bid for the job, but it was also a beating (if you don't know this, Lubbock is basically in a black holeout in west Texas with nothing in any direction for about 85 miles). Because they had been through Lubbock the previous year, they wanted to go somewhere else, so we did one show in Amarillo (about 1.5 hours away), one in Waco (6.5 hours), and one in College Station (8 hours). The Waco and College Station shows were on Thursday nights and I could not miss my Friday 10am class (if I missed twice I would fail and not graduate). So we would pack up as soon as I got out of class on Wednesday, drive 'til 10-12 at night, do a show all day on Thursday, pack up and hit the road around 12-1am and get back in time for me to stumble into class on an hour of sleep.

Half the time it was a blast, half the time it was a beating.

We also did another Matt/Dave show that fall as well as a Shane and Shane show back in Waco.

During that time we also began managing an independent artist out of Amarillo named Trent Monk and I began courting a band out of Waco called Jenny Chisolm.

Trent began recording his album Stars Would Fall in November of 2002. I graduated from Texas Tech on December 14, 2002 (5 days before my 21st birthday). In January '03 my boss, Trent, and I loaded up in Trent's SUV and drove out to Nashville to put some more work in on the album. Donnie Boutwell, who we had met as an engineer on the Caedmon's shows and as a drummer on the Bebo tour, produced the album and allowed us all to sleep on random couches and parts of the floor throughout his studio for a week.

We also signed Jenny Chisolm while we were in Nashville (they happened to be there at the same time as us).

While we were there, though, I realized something about the music business and something about myself. We went to a friend/musician's house one night and there were about 10 of us. There was a label A&R person, a VP of a distribution company, a bunch of musicians, and my boss and I. And I realized something as I looked around the room: everyone here has something to sell. And, although, it appeared that we were just a bunch of friends hanging out, everyone wanted something from someone else. And I just can't do that. We can be friends and do business, but the two are completely separate.

Several things occured that caused me to leave the business in March 2003. Before I left, Jenny Chisolm changed their name to Addison Road. [Note: They are some of the most upstanding individuals that I had the pleasure of meeting during my time in the business. I've had the pleasure of working with them a couple of times since then and just love what they're about.]

Trent released his album, teamed up with a longtime friend, Michael Neagle, and became known as Monk & Neagle. They had a hit song Dancing with the Angels. Trent is solo once again as Michael has decided to return home to his family rather than being on the road.

I made ammends with my former boss for the less than clean break that I made when I left. He is now working for a management agency out in L.A.

Sometimes I think about doing it all again, but it's just not possible for me to live that life anymore. I love music and I love the business of it, but it takes a unique person who can live in that world.

So, there's something you may not have known about me.