Great comments you guys...to chime in again...I agree with many aspects of all of your posts. I believe the essence, the nut, of what we are trying to get to is, what Andy, Jak, and Al said.

Jak, I could not agree more! You know, Colin, many JPF'ers play so many open mics for their original stuff as well as cover gigs which I do a majority of, as well as some of the bands who are members, etc. We do like to play our origninal tunes and most of us do just that on our gigs too, myself included as well.

But Jak, in my opinon, hit the proverbial nail on the head! We are not JUST an open mic. I believe the topics of interest from well versed, experienced, and educated speakers can be the "A-side" of these meetings with the showcase the "B-side".

We all have so mnay different projects going on and different TYPES of projects and goals, and members in our chapter might already be doing things that some of us have just read about and said "hmmm I wonder if I should start trying it that way?" or whatever.

Andy's point of keeping the venue's business flowing is another very valid point. This is an area where my expertise is ZERO. Actually Al is the man to address this topic in meetings : "How to keep a venue profitable with the live music/meetings".

Jak on fingerpicking and recording guitars, the biz, etc. - just another example. Steve V is one of the busiest JPF'ers I know in the current chapter. Maybe he could give a 10 minute talk on booking gigs and marketing, etc. I know we all do some of this and are probably knowledgable but a different perspective is always nice to have.

Look, we all seem to always check our respective egos at the door and that is one thing I love about JPF.

Anyway...I'll stop there...talk amongst yourselves!!!

PEACE...AWP


Alex Wolfe Parnes/Canis Lupus Productions
http://www.canislupusmusic.com
http://www.myspace.com/canislupusmusic