Brad Bailey

Seriously, I don't know what's wrong with me. Almost two months since my last blog post.

Anyway, moving forward.

I play guitar. I create music. I also try and teach people how to do these things, too. 

My first question to my students is always "Why do you want to play guitar?" And I'm always amazed when, quite often, they don't have an answer beyond "My parents want me to." And somehow, their parents are angry that they don't make progress. 

Now, I will take their money. I'm not yet at the place where I can fire students for wasting our time. I'll sit with them for their scheduled time and keep trying to reteach the thing I taught them the week before, which they forgot because they didn't practice. I'll try and get them interested in playing enough to motivate them. But if they don't know why they are playing guitar, or worse, they don't particularly want to, I'm not going to be able to do much for them.

I used to have this idea that I would teach my kids to play guitar, but they just weren't that interested. I figured our time was better spent playing Legos or princesses with them, as opposed to frustrating them and me. Finally, my 14-year old is interested in learning. She loves music, and wants to play what her favorite bands are playing. She takes the initiative to find music to study. She practices because she wants to, not because I said she has to for a half hour a day.

I play guitar. I create music.

I don't have a regular job. I stay out late watching other musicians when I'm not playing my own shows. I practice, compose, and write lyrics much of the day.

"Why are you doing this?" Normal people see that as laziness, lack of ambition, moral laxity.

I don't make music because I want to. I have to. It's who I am, who I was made to be. Trust me, I don't want to be out. If I could just stay home and be successful, I would.

So, since I'm made to do it, I'm going to do it. Keep fighting, keep pushing forward. 

Love,

Brad

Wherein I rave over Spock's Beard.

I have finally started a youtube page. My first video is available here. It features my songs "Father of the Year" and "Events of the Morning." I'd love to know what you think of it.

Today I turn 36. To celebrate, I'm giving away free downloads of the new album, Earthbound. Go to bradbaileygtr.bandcamp.com and get it. Thanks for all the love and encouragement.

My new column at GuitarFresh.com is up now.

Been a while since my last blog post. Sorry.

The actual CDs of Earthbound are here. It looks great. You should all go to the button on the side, or the store page, and buy one. It will be awesome.

I'm now teaching at Ensemble Arts Academy on the Northwest side of Las Vegas. They're good people.

The next booked gigs are December 1 at Shifty's, and December 27 at Whiskey Dick's. I'm hoping to have a few more come in, and I'll keep you posted.

I will be an instructor at Ensemble Arts Academy in Las Vegas, NV.

I wanted to share with you the liner notes from Earthbound, since it hasn't been released on actual CD yet.

Well, you can finally buy Earthbound on iTunes and CDBaby, with other digital retailers soon to follow.

Here is the cover art for Earthbound.

A large part of my job the last nine years was to play percussion in concert band.

I have a CD coming out. (Earthbound. It's awesome. You should totally buy it. There's a link at the side of the page at www.bradbaileymusic.com. I'll wait.) Near 1000 facebook friends. 700 some odd twitter followers. A cool website. But I still don't really know what to do to make this whole music career thing happen.

I was in the Army for 8 years, 11 months, and 27 days.

September 11, 2001, I woke up early with my son, who was just 3 months old or so.

The new CD, Earthbound, was sort of an accident. A few months back, I bought the TASCAM iM-2, a microphone that connects to your iPhone or iPad. As I was packing for a family trip to Colorado, I threw the mic into my guitar case. On the drive up, I thought, "Maybe I should try and record something each day." So, after I got the kids to bed each day, I went outside and sat on the porch, pushed record, and started to play. I thought I could put them up on Soundcloud or something, give people something to listen to. Then I really started liking what I was doing. "I could turn this into a CD."

I had been telling myself I would record an album for a couple of years. You may have noticed that Earthbound is my first CD. Exactly. I had a flash, that I could do this. I had to do this. I got really clear about it. It's amazing what happens when you are really clear in your mind about what you want.

I remembered that Ty Tabor, of the amazing band King's X, does mastering projects when he's not busy being the guitar player in one of the best bands ever, so I went to his studio's site and got the ball rolling. This was when I knew, "This is really happening." I took a step towards the goal, and all of the sudden felt like I was rolling down the hill.

So. I had planned for years that my CD would have my vocal songs on it. All those passionate tunes that I sweated and agonized over. But what happened was six nights turned into a new vision for what my music could be. Still passionate, heartfelt; but also raw and in the

Guitars, Guns, and Helicopters. Lots of awesomeness.

Hey there, friends, family, and other friends. I have some very cool things on the horizon that I want to tell you about.