Today we’d like to introduce you to Andy Burr.
Hi Andy, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
This is the story of how I became a barely successful musician and avoided a soul-crushing ‘real’ job. At my age, a lot has happened, so it’s hard to be brief….
I grew up in the hills of North Arkansas in the early 1960s. The area was musically special. It had a unique folk music culture from the Scottish immigrants who had settled the area in the 1800s and then remained isolated until the late 1940s. Practically everyone there played and sang traditional mountain music, me included, (Though I really preferred The Beatles and Bob Dylan, The Kinks, The Stones, etc).
Luckily for me my family was poor, so I was able to attend college with the help of Upward Bound. After earning a B.A. (History. There’s no future in it.), I spent several years moving around, eventually winding up in Florida, too broke to wander further. I barely supported myself working restaurant and bar jobs and playing music in dives asround Tampa Bay, then Cape Canaveral, then Orlando.
Around this time, 1977 or so, I met some like-minded musicians also working restaurants in Orlando, and we grew into a band we unimaginatively named Shades of Gray. We started by mixing ’60s pop with some original tunes and then punk and ‘new’wave’ covers by bands like The Clash, Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, and others. When we discovered Ska and Reggae, we added them to the mix, and became pretty popular in the clubs in the small area of Winter Park. Popularity was nice, but it didn’t make a huge difference in my bank account. I promoted a few successful events in the area: New Wave Dance Festival I and II and a Reggae-themed festival I can’t recall the name of. All were successful in terms of drawing a crowd and selling tickets, but not so successful in providing me a consistent living.
In the early 1980s I began working as an advertising salesman for a free Orlando entertainment magazine called “Steppin’ Out.” I wasn’t much of a salesman, but it was part time, and the publisher allowed me to contribute editorially, which came in handy for promoting my band’s gigs. The magazine morphed into “Jam Entertainment News” and went statewide with separate editions for North, West, and South Florida. I morphed into Senior Editor. I was responsible for pretty much all the text; another guy did pretty much all the graphics and layout. The magazine was very supportive of local musicians, and I was proud of that. It paid a (barely) living wage and allowed me to promote my band and a side project (a Local Music distribution business that helped keep me busy) and that was enough for me–for about 10 years, anyway.
Meanwhile, for a while I had been slowly moving away from The Shades band. I was tired of the volume, and of the repetition playing the same material, and I was frustrated that we hadn’t advanced beyond a certain point. I started playing off and on with a reggae band called Jah Sons, which had a much less-intense vibe and landed some nice Disney gigs. More years pass, the reggae band fell apart, and I was getting tired of the grueling publishing schedule at the magazine. When the magazine was sold in 1993, I took the opportunity to leave.
My daughter was born in 1992 and needing a new form of income, I turned back to my roots, forming a trio with a banjo player, a washtub bass player, and myself on guitar and harmonica. We played a blend of hillbilly and cosmic country and bluegrass. For some reason, we weren’t getting a lot of gigs. I can’t imagine why. We figured adding an accordion player would surely remedy that problem. It didn’t, but it led to the formation of a new, more successful band, The Porchdogs, specializing in Louisiana Cajun and zydeco music, and a musical partnership with the accordion player, Greg Baldwin, that has lasted (so far) over 30 years.
About 20 years ago, I formed another partnership: my second marriage. This time, I did what I should have done the first time and married a musician. Sara plays mandolin and knows a lot of the old-time mountain melodies that I learned almost unconsciously as a child in North Arkansas. We perform as a duo we call Mountain Brew (the name ‘Mountain Dew’ was already taken). It wasn’t much of a stretch to add Irish songs to the mix, and now the week of St Patrick’s Day is our busiest and most profitable week of the year. We also play a lot of the folk-rock and rock songs from my teen years. It seemed not many buyers wanted to hire an oldies rock duo called Mountain Brew, so we formed a ‘new’ band we call The Retro Ramblers. Always interested in a new niche to fill, we added a Ramblers show doing ‘Retro’ Christmas music from mainly the 1950s and ’60s. We also do a 1950s show and have recently been building a set of 420 music for ‘Hippie’ theme events. The costumes are fun.
A few years ago, I was thinking about a show that we could market to kids and possibly to the Fair market, so we combined snappy versions of our old-timey music with silly farm jokes and started a show called Pickin’ & Grinnin’. It hasn’t been as successful as I had hoped, but it’s good for occasional work. Our newest project is with Greg, our accordion playing partner from The Porchdogs — The Alpiners plays polka standards and is beginning to help us fill our Calendar’s October dates. We’re now starting to work up songs for a Renaissance Music set, and we recently booked our third gig doing a Pirate theme.
It’s been an interesting musical journey so far. As I’ve grown (and aged), I’ve gone from playing nightclubs and festivals and fairs to playing conventions and country clubs, to over-55 communities and retirement communities, then to assisted living homes and nursing homes. Now I’ve arrived at the stage where I’m beginning to get memory care facility gigs. The good thing about them is that I only need to know one song.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Well, I think I made it clear in my previous answer that achieving a regular income has always been the major problem. As the years go by, the actual ‘work’ seems to be getting harder and harder. Luckily, the equipment — speakers, amps, mixers, lighting, etc — have been getting smaller and lighter.
We’re always interested in more work. But is it really work if you love what you’re doing? Please visit the Calendar page at our website to see what we have scheduled and where we’ve played the past few years. If you visit my YouTube channel there are examples of almost all of my band work from The Shades through The Porchdogs, Mountain Brew, Retro Ramblers, and Pickin’ & Grinnin’.
It’s a bit of a challenge working up the courage to perform our original tunes. While I’m not ashamed of the songs I’ve composed or written, I have to admit that they suffer a bit when compared to Bob Dylan, Lennon/McCartney, and many others.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m most proud of surviving, I think. Of sticking with it long enough to get a bit better at what I do. I’m happy that I’ve had a sort of entrepreneurial streak that has kept me working even when gigs have been slim. My Local Music distribution business wasn’t a great money-maker, but it helped me keep busy. Event promotion was an interesting sideline. For about 7-8 years pre-covid I made supplemental income by importing and retailing LED stage lights and effects lights to Bands, DJs, churches, and nightclubs. I’m not afraid to try something new.
I’ve learned from my side jobs and day gigs. I worked at a talent agency for a while, and partly because of that I’ve become good at working with agents and with finding and booking gigs on my own. Restaurants and bars taught me how to get along with people. Working with PR agents and press agents at Jam Magazine taught me how to write a decent press release myself, a skill that served me well in the past, though I haven’t pursued press mentions in years.
Maybe what I’m best at is getting along with people, and with recognizing talent in others. As someone with only moderate musical ability, I’ve always been blessed with talented partners and co-workers. Back in the day, I always said my best talents were owning a van. liking to drive, and having a strong back. I’m relatively sober, too — I suppose that might be a talent.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Yes. I wish I had practiced guitar more. I learned my cowboy chords then coasted. For years. About 20 years ago I started using bass and drum ‘tracks’ as accompaniment for gigs and practice. They allowed me to stop concentrating so much on rhythm playing and to begin learning more single-note technique and soloing. But it also helped solidify my tempos and accompaniment skills. The years of playing rhythm have been beneficial and have increased my value in group playing — I see lots of young players who can shred on guitar, but don’t know how to support their fellow musicians.
Also: take care of your health!
Pricing:
- You can afford us!
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.MountainBrew.net
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThePorchdogs/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@andyburr
