They have no employer-provided health insurance, no paid vacation, no retirement plan, no perks and, worse yet, no job security. And those are only the clearly identifiable and at least conceptually tangible factors - down sides that leave one wondering why some musicians continue to try to support themselves pursuing their passion. Almost without exception, our local musicians must feel like they're walking uphill every step of the way, swimming upstream through rain-swelled rapids. Nothing comes easy. Breaks, even small ones, are few.
Local musicians keep playing for the same reason bad golfers keep playing.
The crowd wasn't huge, but everybody was into the music. People clapped at the right times, laughed at the right times, sang along at the right times and, most importantly perhaps, stayed quiet at the right times. The veterans become steeled to the negatives, a necessary defense mechanism as they focus on the material satisfaction of a payday, no matter how meager. And they keep making good music, for its and their sake. One of Little Rock's best bands is a desperately cynical lot, but they keep playing great shows and, more satisfying, I'm sure, they keep making better and better records.