Well it happened! I done gone country...damnit! I suppose the only fair thing to say is that it has been happening for quite some time now...I have just been fightin' it!
I am 99% redneck and about 1% high class...IT WAS INEVITABLE! I just can't help it, I like wearing cowboy boots with skirts and dresses, love cut-off shorts and plain white T's and well...am lovin' the country music! I grew up in the city I suppose with an ocassional move to the country...nothing too long but I guess enough to be artificially insemenated!
Just got back from Laughlin, NV from a trip with me and the hubby...oh and every Teamster Local 986 in America! haha...ok not EVERY teamster but quite a few! I spent most of the time in my room...yeah I know...but all those damn lights, bells and whistles sucked! The hubby was in meetings for most of the time and well being that it was 115 degrees outside...And yes I walked the strip in my boots and cutoffs...seemed silly to be out there, when I could be inside with a beer and CMT (That's Country Music TV).
Well I quickly became addicted to Sugarland, Keith Urban, Toby Keith...hope they aint related??? I fell head over heels for Kenny Chesney and thought Jewel was absolutely adorable! Then it happened...I saw "pig chasin"" and I know now that I will soon be chasing me a damn pig! I tell ya, that looks like a hell yeah good time! Speaking of hell yeah, can I get one? Gretchen Wilson hooked me with "Redneck Woman" so there just aint no turnin' back now...I done gone country on your asses!
Last month I was asked to post a "musical memory" about Michael Jackson over at JamsBio. The one that left the most lasting impression on me, was the one where I tried to be tough...just read the memory below, and you will see why "Tough Girls Do Cry".
It was a cold and dreary September morning and I was on my way to school. The radio had been playing Michael Jackson so much; one would have thought that he was going to quit the music biz the next day! Well my first class of the day was Drama 1B, and we were preparing for our big production, "Thriller". I was so excited about this show because it would be the first time in my life I could get away with wearing black fishnet stockings, tons of makeup and ratted out hair! Let's not forget the fact that my mom was going to have to let me listen to the "Devil's music" now, yes folks that is what she called it!
My girlfriends and I brainstormed this idea of starting a "gang" of sorts. The idea would be very similar to "The Pink Ladies" from the movie grease, but we would be better, we would be "The Thriller Girls"! Don't ask me what we were thinking, we were teenagers, we were not supposed to think! One thing I will say is that we had it all figured out like a dream. We were going to all have matching red jackets (instead of pink) to pay tribute to Michael Jackson of course. We would wear those fingerless gloves and studded belts.
Oh boy was I getting excited about this! While sweeping the floors and painting sets, I could hardly wait for the bell to ring at the end of the day. We were going to head over to a costume thrift store in town called "Perry's Nickle & Dime" The store is no longer there, but back in the day, this was the store to get just about anything!
3:00 came like a flash and off we all went. We walked to the store with the allowance we had saved up, or in Janelle's case, the money she took from her mother's wallet! The store was so cool! It had costumes, wigs, makeup galore. There it was, the jackets! Just as the night is black, right in front of me was a rack with several red jackets! Yeah, I know who could imagine that there would actually be matching red jackets to compliment our pea-brain idea of "The Thriller Girls"? I was waiting for pearly gates to open up and I would then hear angels singing, "Halleighluah". Instead, the counter boy just rang up our $12.50 cent jackets that smelled like a well lived in mouse hole.
There were five of us girls; I was the quiet but mischievous one and most likely the most excited one about this whole idea, solely for being able to wear makeup and fishnets! YES! Janelle was the real tough one of the bunch; she had a knack for intimidating people with her look. Wearing her hair ratted out to Venus was her normal style anyway. Donna was the loud Italian girl, who in reality was a clone to "Rizzo" in Grease. Stephie was the flirt, and wearing fishnet anything was going to be second nature for her, then there was the "Debster". Debbie was this bookworm that we somehow adopted into our circle of friends, quite possibly to help us with homework. The only thing more frightening than the thought of Debbie being in a gang was Debbie's MOTHER!
Well it happened, the big day! We all met at our lockers the next morning dolled up in our "Thriller" outfits and our minds set to the tune of "Beat It". We looked like a bad scene from Westside Story! We had been rehearsing our walk, talk and look all night, not to mention, we had real rehearsals of "Thriller" in Drama class. So we were ready, we thought.
At lunch, we picked out "our" table, sat down and looked at everyone as if a single glare or stare from any of them would cause a riot among us. That is until "they" showed up. They were the girls from Wilmington that were bused in. They were not very nice girls and did not need red jackets, torn gloves or even ratted hair to scare the living daylights out of someone! They had tattooed eyebrows and fists made of iron! One of them was even missing a tooth, a TOOTH!
For some strange reason, Donna (the Italian) figured we could take them, no problem. We had the walk remember? We could dance to "Beat It", Billy Jean or any other Michael Jackson debut thrown at us! We were the "Thriller girls"! So I sat there trembling inside, thinking of which way I would run, if needed.
I kept singing "Beat It" inside my head for what seemed to be an eternity until my lyrical thoughts was scratched to a halt like a warped record from the sound of BEAT IT NOW! Hey, this wasn't in the song, nope it was the toothless girl telling us to beat it, get lost or she would beat us.
If you have never seen what happens to eyeliner when a girl is crying uncontrollably, consider yourself lucky! My nerves got the best of me and I broke down into tears, I had hoped that the loud crying for scare these girls away.
Poor Debbie already was heading north; she had been through this sort of thing numerous times throughout her school years. Donna just blurted "fungu's" which I believe is a word Italians use to say I love you, yeah that's it, I love you. She kept muttering this under her breath, conveniently quiet enough for no one except her to hear.
Janelle found some boy to stand behind and I was left there crying like a fool in my tight blue jeans, red jacket, fingerless gloves and fishnet stockings with a river of black eyeliner streaming down my face. I truly looked like one of the ghouls in Michael jackson's "Thriller" video.
Our gang days were short lived, but the memory of Michael Jackson's "Beat It" will forever be in my head! The show went on with huge success and we made sure to have our mom's right outside waiting to pick us up. I soon joined the Tall Flags Team.
Making or Breaking...In The Music Biz
"Nice article Erinn!.. keep it up.. wonderfully written...thanks for sharing it..."ThanksTy Cohen
Written By: Erinn Soule
This is an age-old question asked by everyone who has ever been in a band, was in a band or even pretending to be in the band. There is no magical answer, but I will tell you that there is plenty of work involved with a sprinkle of luck added.
I started out with an interest in music, writing lyrics to be exact. I searched far and wide for anyone that remotely resembled a musician to hand my tattered old notebook filled with a thousand pages of words, lyrics, poems and chicken scratch. This was 7 years ago, and as you can see I am writing just personal blogs now on Hub Pages, Helium, AC, myspace...well you get the idea.
I started my own Music Company called SouleD Out Music, ran that into the wet dirt of the music industry for several years and recently decided it was time to dig up my roots again in writing. SouleD Out Music is now my portal into the writing world.
Along the way I heard people tell me that it was all about who you know, persistence pays off and all that other garbage. I am hear to tell you exactly what it is about, from a real person who not only tried to do it, but helped others try to do it.
The music industry is tricky, wonderful, perverse and a bit eccentric, so keep that in mind while reading this post. I promoted several if not hundreds of bands on my little home on the net, and none have truly made it into the business for real.
These bands that I have on the website are fantastic and wildly talented musicians, playing gigs here and there, but still no phone calls from Sony, why is that do you suppose? It is because there lucky number has not been picked of the vine of stardom yet, if at all.
Some of these guys "know people" too, heck "I know people", and you can obviously see where it got me! I had a correspondence going for awhile with Keifer Sutherland's Record Label, thought I would be a shoe in there, new label, looking for real people, well I think they blocked my number or something.
Endless hours spent putting together press kits, calling labels, calling venues and convincing some big wig promoter that "Jellyfish Tango" was the new hot ticket! That name is copyrighted by me, just so you know...see another bad quality I picked up in this business...distrust!
Simply put, because I could go on and on about this topic, It does not matter who you know, it may help but it won't guarantee. Talent does not always guarantee either, again, it helps.
What matters is paying close attention to "mainstream" music, start listening to what is hitting the commercials as theme songs, build a HUGE fanbase, even if you have to pay them to listen to you. You need to become the next big thing among the PEOPLE, not the industry. The people is who these labels are paying attention too, the label will not be buying your albums, the people will be buying your albums.
I truly believe my lyrics were just too deep, too real and a bit normal. Today's society is "out there" and they want music that is "out there", in every sense of the word. Have you ever heard the expression, " You are just too over-qualified for the position"? That is me and about a zillion talented real musicians out there. We are over-qualified to rockstars!
Good Luck
