The value of being older than most in a young person's game.

Tuesday night I met up with drummer Frank Russo, bassist Amy Shook, and guitarist Chris Kennedy at the studios of WTMD 89.7, Towson University's awesome independent public radio station, to do a taping for its weekly "Baltimore Unsigned" show. We recorded four of my originals and one cover song (Radiohead's "Fake Plastic Trees"), which will be broadcast along with an interview of me on November 4 and again on November 8.

I knew it would be a good musical experience, because my bandmates are just so, so professional in every way. Chris and I have been playing a lot together lately, but Frank and Amy aren't often available. I've always loved how they can just show up, set up, take a quick rehearsal-ish looksee at the charts I've brought, and then slam out the tunes as if we've been playing them every night of the week for months. In the case of the Radiohead tune, not only had we never played it all together, Frank and Amy (being a bit more jazz purist than I) had never even heard the original song. But we ran through the taping beautifully and gracefully, and didn't even have to make use of the one "mulligan" the producer would have allowed us.

Point one in favor of being past forty even while you're just launching a music career: You get to play with grown-ups.

The producer of Baltimore Unsigned, Nick, and the host, Sam, were both really nice and easy-going, which helped eliminate any last bit of nervousness or fear I had about live-taping. DJ John Matthews was doing his show, and when it was over I got to talk with him a little bit, too. One thing that sort of became clear as we were all talking...these guys must often have to deal with teenage or twenty-something musicians who, although they may be talented and ambitious, haven't really figured out how to comport themselves like adults. From the stories these guys told, some bands come in so ill-prepared for their taping, it's almost like they're doing a rehearsal in-studio. They'll start and stop tunes, and ask again and again for do-overs. They'll take hour upon hour to crank out the requested four originals. They won't have any idea how to answer interview questions in a sensible or meaningful way.

They're not necessarily idiots, of course--they're just very young. I might have been just that ill-prepared at the same age. The sad thing is, as long as they're having so much trouble handling the business & networking aspects of what they do, it may not matter how well they play or how cool their songs are. After putting up with their b.s., who's going to want to invite them back?

So, point two in favor of being older than most "new" musical artists: When opportunities arise, you know how to behave in a way that might actually lead people to offer you more opportunities....

Why do I bother to explicate all this here? Because I'm sometimes still not immune to the critical, regretful inner voice that says, "Damn, I wish I'd been doing this stuff when I was still young and had more energy...."

Well, yeah, maybe....but then again....maybe not.....