#275. That Tour Done, What’s Next?
That tour had been quite a ride.
I’d seen amazing scenery, met great people, and tasted some fantastic food. I had several rolls of film to develop. My best scenery shots would be blown up and made into large framed prints for my parents’ Christmas gifts. I sent the best ‘promotional’ shots to Larry at Country Music News.
Now, I had two long months to get through before our next gig - but this job sounded pretty good. It would be a short tour - only 4 weeks. We’d fly to Salt Lake City, then drive to a casino somewhere in Nevada. Here’s where it gets real sweet: We had the house gig at a casino for a whole month!
Coming back down to earth…
That was still two months away. In the meantime, I had to start ‘working the phone’.
I called Jerry of ‘Jingo’ fame and told him I was back. He had a few gigs for me.
Next, I called the marketing research office and Peg had a big diaper study underway. They needed ‘bag stuffers’ and if I wanted work, I should be there tomorrow at 9 am.
So, I wouldn’t starve.
Also around this time, ‘Dance For Me’ dropped off the chart.
It peaked, I believe, in the low 30s. That meant, the internal pressure was on to follow up that single with something bigger and better. I already had the tune written, but two bars of the melody just needed some tinkering.
Two bars.
But, I couldn’t even bring myself to work on the tune.
‘No More Looking Back’ was just too hopeful and optimistic. I wasn’t in that head space and knew I couldn’t fake it. I figured: Let’s just leave it.
Besides, the thought of going through all that record ‘production’ again was paralyzing. I became overwhelmed and decided to park that song indefinitely.
A few weeks went by. Then, I came home to this message…
Ron Dann liked to prank you. He’d pretend the phone line was bad, or he’d fade out his voice - as he did here.
When I called him back, he said he wanted to book me for a demo session. He gave me the date and time that I needed to be at his house.
“Great. What are we doing?”
“Your new song. The melody IS fixed now, right?”
“Uhh…”
(Busted.)
“It will be - I’m still....”
“Good.”
Click.
NEXT: #276. Ron’s Home Studio