Alternative Career for Musicians

So you wanna leave everything behind, start a new career, do something that you'd like to do and start a new life?

Those who are engaged in routine jobs think of artists as people who enjoy what they do. But, it is now a known fact that musicians, at least, are tied by the contracts and guidelines of record companies, not free enough to do what they really want to do - till they find an appropriate indie label or start a record company of their own.

For Chris Rea, his recent illness gave him the impetus. He wanted to pursue his interests in painting, link them with his music, and for music- he has returned to his roots.
He has released a 11 CD set book pack of blues tracks (130 songs!) called "Blue Guitars" with a three piece band "The Fire Flies", along with prints of his paintings and liner notes - on his own record label "JazzeeBlue".

I like Chris Rea for his uplifting melodies like "Looking for the summer", "Windy town", "Driving home for Christmas". I don't think I'll like him sing the blues and I may not invest $85 for this box-set, but I am glad that he is doing this!

The American Dream

Columbia Records has released the 30th anniversary edition 3CD set of Bruce Springsteen's monumental Born to Run album. Interestingly, a book of stories had come out (not related to the box set release) based on the song Meeting across the river from the album, early this year. 20 writers have woven their stories around the song plot where the protagonist is released from the jail and waiting to meet his girlfriend and the ‘man on the other side’. You can read the first story online on Amazon. As per the review, though the plot is the same, the authors have leveraged on the silences in the song (which can be attributed to Springsteen's sparse lyrics) and the stories are quite diverse.
Probably they were filling in words for the saxophone playing throughout the song, which creates that haunting atmosphere!

Meeting Across the River: Stories Inspired by the Haunting Bruce Springsteen Song (Paperback)
by Jessica Kaye, Richard Brewer (Editor)
Bloomsbury USA (July, 2005)

I’ll post a review update, if I can get hold of the book!