We talk about the importance of building email lists vs. social media following. We talk about a recent article where David Crosby the famous household name artist surprisingly says he's going broke because Covid 19 has shut down all live performances and apparently he doesnt have any savings. We talk about entertainers and athletes often arent good with money and blow through it quickly. Nicholas Cage (actor ) and Antoine Walker (Celtics NBA player) are two examples we discuss. We also discuss how most lottery winners end up losing it all cuz they dont know how to handle money.

Indiana punches above its weight with famous musicians (Axl Rose, Jackson 5 and Michael Jackson, John Mellancamp, West Montgomery, Cole Porter, etc).

Jimi discusses his plans for a new album.

We talk about how lack of live gigs is affecting musicians. Jimi says he has been getting calls from guitarist friends who are trying to sell guitars to pay the bills and they call him trying to get him to buy some of their guitars. We discuss how some artists and musicians probably will give up the music business and never come back, and how this will affect the music industry. We talk about a case study of a mid level band touring and how some unforeseen hiccups can completely turn the tour from a profitable one to being completely upside down financially.

Podcast #22: Most Eventful 2020 Discussion continues. We discuss how 2020 is shaping up to be one of the most memorable years in our respective lifetimes and it isn't even half over yet. We both had some personal trials early in the year, then the tornado devastated parts of Nashville, then Covid 19 and the quarantines, and now the George Floyd death/protests/riots/BLM movement. We talk about how the movie 13th is so valuable for white people to watch to get an understanding how even right after the 13th amendment was passed, the loophole in the amendment language denying freedom for anyone having had committed a crime was immediately exploited, as black men were arrested in droves for insignificant crimes like loitering and put on prison work detail as a way to recover some of the lost labor force in the South. This was the beginning institutionalized incarceration for black men in this country (black men are 6% of US population but over 40% of the prison population. AND, the USA leads the world in emprisoning its citizens. We have less than 5% of the worlds's population but 25% of the world's prisoners. And our poor population bears the brunt of that, and black men are the tip of the spear. )

We talk about how videos on social media continue to pop up about incredible racist interactions that happen in day to day lives of people of color. Jimi postulates that the vast majority of whites just dont udnerstnand the difficulites of being black in the USA, and once they can gain knowledge of this, most white Americans (we believe) would get behind efforts to reduce racism and discrimination in the USA.

We discuss how difficult it must be to be a police officer right now in the USA, and how difficult it must be to get up and go work. We believe that most officers of the law are probably good people, but that systems need to change.

This was our first live podcast on Facebook Live and we plan to do all of them live on Facebook going forward on Monday mornings each week. Follow us on Facebook at JimidandTheWolf.

We start by talking about the George Floyd situation and what led up to and contributed to his death. We talk about disparities in this country by race on things like incarceration rate, avg net worth, and home ownership. We discuss the existence of white privilege, and both of us believe that if it had been either one of us (two white dudes) being arrested for possibly passing a counterfeit $20 bill, we would both be still alive. We discuss the appropriateness of response to a potential $20 crime, and compare it to a suburban white girl getting arrested for a $20 shoplifting response and how different the police response probably would be.

We discuss how some research has shown that after about $75,000 annual income, additional income doesn't increase happiness and the pros and cons of whether this is true. We discuss the conditions at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in Tim's home state of South Dakota.

Quotes: "Don't normalize the exceptional." "All you know is what you see."

We discuss Asian races in the USA, and how many Americans don't realize how disparate Asia is with many races. Jimmy ponders if in China you have to "Press 1 for Cantonese, Press 2 for Mandarin." Finally we talk about Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjani in the latest Netflix Rom Com "The Lovebirds"

We start by talking about how many musicians who make their living from live shows are living in primal fear on how they are going to survive. Jimi says its the hardest time for musicians he's seen in his lifetime and he believes the effects will be long term. He knows a number of musicians who have been making their living by playing live for 20 -30 years and more who are throwing in the towel. Many live venues will close permanently, and even those that stay in business will be afraid to book into the future until they are sure the audience will be willing to come out.

We talk about how Wisconsin is opening up full stop post Covid 19 and Tim predicts that, because Wisconsin is "ground zero" in the bid to win the 2020 Presidential Election Electoral College, Tim predicts that if Wisconsin's opening goes on without a hitch, meaning that they dont have a sudden surge of new cases of Covid 19, then Trump will be re-elected as President. Conversely, if Wisconsin sees a new resurgence of Covid 19 cases, and is forced to close back up again, Trump will be defeated in 2020. Folks you heard it here!!!

We talk about how the effects of Covid 19 will only worsen the class divides and income disparities in the USA. Jimi also expresses concern about people's mental wellbeing from enduring this Pandemic with the quarantines and financial and social stresses.

Jimi helps Tim come up with a word he was searching for. Quote: "I'm stepping out of the tobacco patch!"

Finally we take great joy in the fact that the governor of Indiana (perhaps inadvertently) has officially indicated that DJ's are NOT real musicians. DJ's can perform currently at events in Indiana, but musicians are not allowed to perform in public spaces until July 4, which means in the State of Indiana's eyes, DJ's are not musicians. We joke that having that made official might make enduring Covid 19 worth it all (obviously joking, one death is one to many).

This is our first podcast in the same room together since Episode #15 and it feels good to be able to do the podcast together.

We start off by discussing Vincent Van Gogh's work ethic and even tho he saw no success in his lifetime (sold one painting), he still was grinding pumping out quality paintings at a super prolific rate. Quote from our podcast: "Just because as an artist you're making music that isnt successful yet doesnt mean it isn't any good." We touch on the screed that a suffering artist mades better art and discuss how accurate we think that principle is.

We talk about an interaction Tim had with a commenter on Quora who said that generally music today is all mid level junior league quality because the artists arent getting groomed by labels they way they were back in the day. We discuss our reactions to this.

We discuss why some fans want to find new artists before they are big but after the artists make it, those fans don't like them anymore (example: Nirvana and their early fans with whom Nirvana wasn't "cool" anymore after Nirvana went mainstream.

Artists we discuss include: Renoir, Manet, Mozart, Beethoven, Otis Redding, Vincent Van Gogh, Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, Tom Scholtz and Boston, Nirvana, Lake Street Dive and Lil Nas X.

We start by paying tribute to Little Richard (who died May 9, the day we recorded this podcast). Jimi talks extensively about his legacy and how much of a personal inspiration Little Richard was to Jimi. We then asked the question, who is coming up that can fill the shoes of the greats like Little Richard, a "swiss army knife" kind of performer? We discuss a number of artists, including Willie Nelson, Jewel, Lewis Capaldi, Elton John and Bernie Taupin, Ed Sheeran, John Mayer, Warren Haynes and Govt Mule, Derek Trucks, Blackberry Smoke and Joe Bonamassa.

We take a deep dive into songwriting culture, starting with the statistic that the top 25 songs on the Billboard 100 last year averaged 8.5 songwriters. We talk about top lining (a songwriting technique), cowriting, and discuss the specifics of a typical publishing deal in Nashville.

We discuss how hard it is for an artist to convince people who have never heard of him/her (cold audience) to listen to the artists music or be familiar with their music (warm audience). Its really hard to move people from the cold audience group to the warm audience group and we discuss the background of this.

Finally we discuss Joe Bonamassa and his claim on his Facebook page the he is one of the worlds greatest guitar players. We discuss our reactions to that and whether any of our heros (Jimi Hendrix , Eric Clapton, Santana, SRV, etc) would have ever referred to themselves in such a way.

NOTE: Sorry this podcast is a few days late. I had it edited and was uploading it, but the power went out in the part of Nashville I live in, and it just came back on this evening (Wednesday). Sorry for the delay!!

Some of the topics discussed:

power outage in Nashville and the Wichita Lineman. "Not quite the homesteaders we used to be." Some artists like Jack White makes this difficult for himself on purpose to stretch himself, like putting tools he needs out just out reach. We talk briefly about Jack White's place in great musical artists (winner of 12 Grammies) and is he deserving of that any. We discuss John Mayer and how we both were introduced to him. Finally Tim tell two stories of God and Angels intervening in his life in pedestrian but profound ways.

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We are doing this podcast while not being the same room for the first time, using Zoom.

We start talking about how the pandemic and social distancing, and how that has affected us. Jimmy states that he's in the best shape of his life, and has put on like 10 lbs of muscle during the shutdown.

Today's main subject is a NYT article talking about how this pandemic economic shut down is affecting Americans. According to Pew research, for people making $50k to $59.9K per year, it would take them 2 years to save enough money to cover 4 weeks of expenses, on avg. For people making $200k/year, they could save 4 weeks of expenses in as few as 2 months.

We talk about how people making $50K per years should be more than enough, "as long as you're conservative with your money." We talk about how Gary Vee is always preaching "why are you buying $7 coffee" "why are we buying a car or house we can't afford to impress people we dont even like?" QUOTE: Better to have a friend with a bass boat than have on yourself.

We talk about horn players who need to work almost daily to keep up their embochure. I mention a friend trumpet player who stopped playing to keep up his embochure because all he loses is the high notes and the only people who care about the high notes on the trumpet are other trumpet players. Jimmy talks about his friend who started playing piano, neglecting his trumpet, and how quickly in a matter of a few weeks "lost his lip".

If a friend has a house with a pool, does that mean we need to get a house with a pool as well? or does a pool table substitute adequately?

We talk about how there are more great guitarists with incredible facility on the instrument (as seen in IG and other social media posts) than ever before, but we wonder how they can incorporate that high level of musicianship into other musical situations, or wonder if maybe being an IG influencer is the end game for them. Major Youtube stars like David Dobrek and Pew Die Pie are making $10millin plus per year.

I discuss Chris Greenwood and his excellent artist coaching (affiliate link as promised:

https://fanbaseuniversity.com/fanbaseuniversitynow?affiliate_id=2376098). According to his experience, Youtube pays much better to musicians and artists performing songs than Facebook does. We discuss if Instagram pays similarly to Facebook since they are the same corporation.

We discuss whether musicians activity will change any after this pandemic shutdown is over. Musiicians who have discovered Facebook and Youtube Live, etc, as a source of revenue, will they go back to playing live the old way, or change their behavior after this shutdown is over?

We discuss how it is possible for people making $50K/year to be struggling. I mention that in my home town an income of $20k to $30k is really adequate to live without real needs.

According to the NYT article, only 52% of low income workers are affected by the pandemic, income wise. We are both surprised its this low. We discuss how some jobs (Fed Ex, UPS, Amazon) are working overtime during this shutdown.

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We start by talking about benchmarking countries performance metrics like good businessmen and women do for companies. Tim suggests that all Americans should be required to spend 1 year living abroad teaching English or something similar to learn about other cultures and America's place in the world.

We discuss some of the empires in world history and how many countries had their time in the sun but now may be a shadow of their former selves (Greece and Portugal were a couple mentioned. )We also discussed the Spanish Empire, Chinese History, and Mongolian history, especially the Yuan Dynasty when the Mongolians ruled China. We discuss how the USA has only been around for a little over 200 years and that is a drop in the bucket in the span of world history. We talk about how the USA really capitalized on the aftermath of WWII to cement our place in the world space. We discuss how France had over 5 million casualties in WW1 (4 million wounded and 1.4 million deaths) and how they had have have demoralized them when a mere 20 years later Germany invaded France to start WW2. It is our opinion that France does not deserve the reputation of just being good at waving the white flag; any country after losing such a high percentage of their population in a horrible war fought mainly on their soil would not have been ready to fight a mere 20 years later. France lost 5% of their population to military deaths during WW1.

We also talk about the common view in the USA that America won both WW1 and WW2. We discuss possible alternative outcomes to WW2: if Hitler had been able to take the UK; If Hitler had allied with the Soviet Union instead of attacking them; if Japan had attacked Russia from the eastern side.

Tim then tells the story of the 47 Ronin which is a true story that happened in 1701 in Edo period Japan when Japan was an isolated country for 300 years. We talk about the Samurai Code and how honorable Samurai would commit ceremonial suicide (Seppuku).

We talk about the origins of our respective states (Indiana and South Dakota). We discuss the Wounded Knee Massacre in South Dakota and Custer's Last Stand. We end with a brief discussion of the situation around the Covid 19 Pandemic.

We start this episode by picking up where we left off with Episode #13 talking bout American healthcare. We emphasize that we aren't necessarily for socialized medicine but that some changes need to be made as we have by far the most expensive healthcare for subpar results. We talk about how our current system isnt "free market capitalism" nor is is socialized medicine, it is it's own unique system. Tim says that if he was made the "Benevolent Dictator" of the USA the first thing he would do around healthcare would be to require all prices to be posted in advance so Adam Smith's "Invisible hand" could be put into play to bring price competition to health care. As it is now, pricing is obscured and a patient only finds out about what a procedure costs after the fact, as bills keep coming in the mail from providers the patient never knew was even involved or anticipated what those costs were. We talk about the a 2014 article in the NYT about Peter Drier who had spinal surgery and although the primary care surgeon's bill was $6200, a doctor whom Peter had never met and didnt know had been involved in the surgery sent a bill for $117,000 (NOTE: Tim misremembered it in the podcast as $112,000), because he was "out of network" and network limitations didnt apply. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/us/drive-by-doctoring-surprise-medical-bills.html (https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/us/drive-by-doctoring-surprise-medical-bills.html)

The article (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/06/opinion/working-class-death-rate.html (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/06/opinion/working-class-death-rate.html)) that we started discussing in Episode #13 about Deaths of Despair from white blue collar workers recommended that

American healthcare needs to be made more about Health (patients) instead of Wealth (doctors).

Jimmy states "The Fight is Fixed", and talks about how blue collar workers often avoid going to the doctor because they are afraid of the bills they would come that they can't pay. QUOTE: "What happens when people are afraidn to go see a doctor?"

Tim relays a funny story about his doctor quipping that they usually don't show the dead person's feet in the casket at a funeral.

We go on to discuss conclusion that economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton made in the original NYT article about Deaths of despair, that the US is not handling the effects of technology changes on our working class as well as other developed countries, when comparing the rapid rise of Deaths of Despair and other deaths of the working class (like heart disease) in the US and other countries. For one, the US has one of the worst income disparities of any developed country. But its not just financial. We talk about what life is like for todays working class vs years ago. Things like constant schedule changes for blue collar workers add stress. One big one is the fact that many blue collar workers no longer work for (get paid from) the company at which they work. More times than not, blue collar workers are hired and paid by staffing companies which takes away the pride of belonging to a company and an organization. We talk about societies loss of a sense of community and a sense of family. Jimmy theorizes that millennials and Gen Z more and more are content to stay in more, based on the age groups he sees at live gigs he does. QUOTE: "Younger folks are content to stay at home and live a virtual life."

Tim talks about his experience working for Dupont ("Uncle Dupy") back in the when Dupont ond corporate America had their employee's backs.

The authors suggested that the govt should encourage college degrees as college grads are more likely to: be employed, earn more, marry and stay married, be healthy and live longer.

Tim talks about graduating from SDSMandT (South Dakota School of Mines and Technology) and how valuable a STEM degree is vs say a liberal arts English degree from a Ivy league school. SDSMandT in a recent study was the only...