Jim and Sam – TOUR TIPS

In this Tour Tips segment, the wife/husband singer-songwriter duo, Jim and Sam, recommends their top tips for being an artist on the road. You can check out their advice, after the break.

In 2016/2017 we played one show every day for a year with no days off. Things went wrong, things went right, most things were very unexpected. We’re now on the road again with William Fitzsimmons…Here are some tour tips that we’ve picked up along the way:

1. Take a walk…
when your bandmate is pissing you off…
when you’ve been in the car for 6 hours…
when you’ve convinced yourself that being on stage is your daily exercise (it’s not)…

2. Don’t panic, surrender…
when your flight gets canceled…
when your playing for the bartender…
when you lose your mailing list…

3. Hydrate
when the drinks are free all night…
when it’s a day off, don’t drink…
when you’re one month in and your voice is on its way out…

4. It’s okay to have a side hustle
when the shows are fun but they don’t pay enough…
when your landlord threatens to kick you out for AirBnbing…
when you want health insurance…

5. Take a day off
when the only show offered between two major cities is a three-hour gig in a sports bar…
when you are within 100 miles of a National Park…
when you’re afraid you might be losing your mind and beginning to question why you made so many normal-life sacrifices to pursue being a touring musician in the first place…

*The road is long, and the speed bumps are disruptive. So if you’re able to, find good humans that you trust and hit the road together.

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(photo credit: Mike Zwahlen)