This month's guest is the incredible Steven Paradis

Steven plays 5-7 times a week in the Bradenton, FL area.

I've had the pleasure of seeing him play a few times and he is an incredible performer

who has fun with his audience.

I thought Steven would be a great guest because he started performing solo later in life.

One day he said screw it, quit his job, and started playing gigs

He'll tell you how he did it in this episode.

We'll also talk about:

Making time for vacations

Making that leap of faith from a regular job to pro musician

Having fun with the audience

How not to be intimidated by people who we think are more talented than us

Hosting open mics

Steven's awesome social media strategy

We're also gonna talk about how your critics probably aren't doing anything anyway

Steven's advice for beginners

Paul McCartney is allowed to screw up and so are you

…and of course the 5 songs you should know according to Steven

Something a little different today…

Today, we have a duo on the Solo Performer Podcast.

I wanted to interview a duo because as you can imagine, there are a lot of similarities and overlaps between a solo and a duo gig.

But there are also some nuances that are specific to duos.

The duo I have today are the husband-wife team Casie and Jonny Thibodaux.

They have been playing consistently for about 20 years, so believe me when I say

these guys know what they're doing.

They play mainly in a small geographic area.

That would be the Houma-Thibodaux area in Louisiana. Now I know most of you

aren't familiar with that region...it's about 50 miles SW of New Orleans

Here are some of the topics we cover:

How to start playing even if you're not ready

Playing songs you don't know

Playing consistently in a small geograghical area

Long term thinking

The advantages of duos

Dealing with imposter syndrome

Picking the right songs to play

Drunks crashing into gear

Avoid getting hurt on stage

Songs every female singer must know

How and why to separate music lover in you from the musician

Networking

Todd and I are lifelong friends. We met in 2nd grade at East Park Elementary and paid a lot of musical dues together.  He has been playing solo piano for over 25 years now and has tallied over six thousand gigs! We talk about a lot of stuff including: Why you should take requests - Bring you "A" game whether you're playing for 40,000 or 4 - When to take a break - How to recover from bombing - The 10 songs every piano player should know.

In this episode I talk with solo performer Cort Farris. Cort does his solo gigs on steel drums! He is also the booker at several venues and gives a ton of insight on what people who book solo performers look for. We discuss many topics including: 

What bookers look for when booking gigs

Why the pros get more gigs

How to cope with anxiety and self doubt

Why talent doesn't matter

Episode #1

P.D. Brody--Why You Should Max Out Your Credit Card Whenever You Buy A Guitar

P.D. has been playing solo acoustic gigs at a high level for nearly a decade. There's a lot to learn from him in this, the debut episode of Solo Performer Podcast.