“Morning Stars Mournings Hush” is currently sitting at #7 on the !earshot Canadian National Folk/Roots/Blues Chart (for the week of February 10, 2026). Bring on the fireworks! Only got a cherry bomb? Let’s go! Anyone packing some prosecco? I’m ready for “pop, fizz, clink!”
I mean, I would still play songs even if no one listened and no one cared, but, when they do listen and they do care, and they play my songs on their awesome radio shows, I am really grateful for that!
Cynicism about forging a life in music might be at an all time high, especially amongst musicians. But can you blame musicians for feeling that way? The prevailing narrative in the media about the music business is all gloom and doom! Honestly, can we all collectively agree to stop posting our Spotify royalty statements please? One more of those and it’s going be like, time for Hara-kiri!
Like so many things in contemporary life, the music business has been become very data driven. Opportunities abound, if you have the stats! By stats I’m talking about likes, followers, streaming numbers, monthly listeners and by god, radio chart position – all contemporary musicians know this. It’s a source of a kind of boundless and infinite collective grief. If you were making records before social media was a thing, you might even feel totally lost in this new paradigm.
One of my fave Canadian songwriters Ryan Boldt of “Deep Dark Woods” put it like this: “Back then there was touring and MySpace to earn an audience. Now you’re supposed to claw for attention by posting into this festering hell or something like that.” Ha! I had to laugh! I have felt that, as have most musicians when they sit down to make an IG reel to get word out about their next show or release.
I hear a lot of my musician pals opine about the superficiality of musicians and music on their social media feeds. Trust me, I get it and I feel that too sometimes. It can get tiresome. Musicians don’t have to post on social media and I know many who have simply checked out of this aspect of things. And I can respect that. Last I heard, you can still make records, put up posters, give out handbills, do radio interviews and play live shows without social media right?
The way I see it, it’s okay to dream of a better world while still living in (and participating) in the world as it is. I learned a long time ago that there are certain games to be played in order to open doors as a musician, but that doesn’t mean that being a musician is all a superficial and meaningless game. It doesn’t make playing music less fulfilling or diminish the soul nourishing quality of playing songs, which is an end in itself. It’s just part of the job. Nothing can ever taint or ruin the unselfconscious joy that comes from simply being in the moment with your music, as your voice or guitar hangs in the air like smoke before vanishing into oblivion. Nothing can diminish “all the feels” we get as we play together with other musicians, totally synchronized in spirit, time and space, riding a wave of euphoria and literally making something out of nothing. And where does a song go when it is over? The moment is gone but the afterglow remains.