Jack Of Arts

January 7, 2012 – Saturday 9 pm – Blackbird Café, Nashville

"So, he left town?" A man asked Rez. "Yep. Since Christmas." Rez replied. "Did he say when he'll be back?" The man followed up. "No. From what he said in his last gig, he just said that he's leaving and we never saw him since." Rez said.

"Hmm. That's a pity. Alright, thanks man." The man said before leaving the bar. "Did you know who that was?" Irene, a regular performer at the bar asked. "He said he's some producer from Grand Country Opera." Rez said, smiling. Irene was surprised at this. Grand Country Opera is a weekly concert by the biggest country acts. It is also broadcasted live on TV and Radio all over America. With the Opera's prestige, even the "undercards" performing before the main act have received some critical acclaim.

The Grand Country Opera also gives out awards that are similar to sports organizations' Hall of Fame. A country star that would be "Inducted" to be a "Member of the Opera" will forever have the reputation of being one of the best country artists of their generation.

"So, what did he want with Isaac?" Irene asked, finding Grand Country Opera looking for Tayaw, quite a big deal. "They're looking for him to be one of the openers." Rez replied, feeling glad for The Opera's recognition of Tayaw. "Hmm. Lucky him." Irene scoffed. Since Tayaw refused her invitation for 'company' last November, the two were very cold to each other whenever they see each other in the bar.

Rez didn't like the tone Irene used. "I won't call it luck. You watched Isaac a lot, do you really think it's luck?" Rez said to Irene, to Irene's surprise. Rez would not usually care about other performers in the bar. She also thought that Rez is right about Tayaw deserving to play at the Country Opera, but because she doesn't like Tayaw, she would not admit it. "Whatever. His loss." Irene just shrugged and joined her band to pack up their instruments.

"Wonder what happened to them?" Bobby, who was just listening to the two, asked Rez. "I don't know. It's weird, right? Isaac is kind to everyone so I think Irene must have done something." Rez replied. "I think Irene somehow offended Isaac. I mean, even though Irene can be a b-… can have a strong personality, Isaac is very forgiving. Even to Travis." Bobby said. "Hmm. It must be really specific then. Well, whatever it is, I don't care." Rez said, being on Tayaw's side.

"Still, The Opera looking for Isaac, huh. Do you think Isaac will come back to Nashville?" Bobby said, feeling it was a pity that The Opera's people were late looking for Tayaw. "If he is a full-time country artist, then he has to. This is a great opportunity for any artist. But.." Rez sighed. "You don't think he needs it too, huh?" Bobby finished Rez's sentence.

"Yep. You've seen him. You've seen his band. He can be a rock star if he wants to." Rez said. "True. If we don't get a big break, we can never be as rich or famous as him." Bobby said as he shook his head. "Hey. I think he will definitely come back." Aaron, their band's banjo, cut in. Bobby and Rez just stared at Aaron, waiting for Aaron to explain further.

"Think about it. He's a famous author, right? He's also a successful business man. But how many people really know that he's the famous T.L.D Grimmauld? How many people really know that he's also a successful businessman? He asked us to keep his status a secret, right?" Aaron barraged Bobby and Rez with questions. "What are you getting at?" Bobby asked, him and Rez confused at Aaron's questions.

"Look. He doesn't want to be famous as both an author and a business man, right? But why didn't he care when he's getting popular as a musician?" Aaron said. Bobby and Rez are finally enlightened. "He wants the recognition!" Bobby exclaimed. "EXACTLY. He wants people's approval of him as an artist." Aaron nodded. "So, just like us, playing for the Opera will be a huge honor for him." Rez said, finally understanding.

"So if he wants that honor, he will have to come back. That's why I said I'm sure he will definitely come back." Aaron concluded. "I hope you're right." Rez said. Bobby also nodded.

"Hey, this morning, I saw Randall on Red Abbey." Bobby switched the topic. "Randall? That guy from Kentucky?" Rez said, surprised at Bobby's news. "Yeah. That's the one. Ever seen him play?" Bobby asked. "Yeah. I've seen him play with Kenny Clay a lot. Well, good for him, he deserves this, the guy's been grinding longer than I have." Rez replied.

The 'Red Abbey' that Bobby is talking about is not the beer company, but Red Abbey Sessions, the YouTube Channel started by Walter, the owner of Red Abbey Lager. The YouTube channel quickly gained popularity among country fans. This is evidenced by Tayaw's five videos in the channel have an average of 900,000 view counts each, after only a month since upload.

"Why don't we contact Red Abbey? Maybe we can play there too." Bobby suggested. "Let's just wait and see. I know others who have already tried. Some of 'em are also good, but they were refused." Rez replied. "Really? Well, why don't we ask them to promote us instead, we can save up to pay." Bobby said, really desperate to play for the YouTube Channel.

"Man. They're different. The folks I know said Red Abbey don't do promotions. They are the ones who will look for the artists instead. They even pay the artists they invite." Aaron said, shutting down Bobby's hope. "Why don't we arrange songs more, then?" Aaron instead suggested. This interested Bobby.

The Percussive Connections, after all, amassed millions of views in each of their videos, making the band YouTube famous. It's just unfortunate for the subscribers that the band has not released anything since they uploaded their busking at Monna Park.

"You saw Isaac's YouTube channel with his band, right? Why don't we do the same? We can get more exposure if we do great covers of famous songs." Aaron said. Unlike Aaron's opinion earlier about Tayaw's return to Nashville, Aaron's suggestion sounded less hopeful.

"Look, Aaron. Why do you think Isaac's band got famous on the internet?" Rez asked. "I don't know, they sound great?" Aaron said, unsure of his answer. "True. But others sound just as great. We can even sound better if we practice harder. So, I don't think they're famous just for sounding great." Rez disagreed. "What do you think then?" Bobby asked.

"The song arrangements." Rez answered simply. Aaron and Bobby also thought for a moment about Rez's answer and they realized it. "That's right. They can make famous songs sound different. They can even make old songs sound recent." Reaz explained. Aaron, who was hopeful about doing a youtube channel, almost gave up.

"Well, why don't we try?" Bobby however, found Aaron's suggestion plausible. "It's not like we can't arrange songs too. If we keep arranging songs, we just might resurrect an old song. We can also improve our originals." Bobby said. Rez, finding it reasonable, nodded. "Why don't we arrange songs for our gigs and record them?" Rez added.

"Alright! I have a camcoder. Let's tape our gig, let's see how it would look." Aaron, who was downcast earlier, said in excitement. "You do that." Rez nodded, glad that the band is about to do something new.

"Good evening, fellas. Did I miss something?" John, the band's drummer and youngest member, just arrived to the waiting room. "OH. We were just talking…" The band members caught John up with the discussion. "I think it's a great idea." John said, finding the plan hopeful. "By the way, why don't we talk to Isaac? He might be able to help us." John, who got to friend Tayaw on Facebook, suggested.

"Sure. Why don't you look up what time it is in Teungeb first?" Rez suggested. "It would be… 4 in the morning there. It's gonna be rude, but let me try calling him." John said. The band liked to stop John but knowing how forgiving Tayaw is, they just let John call. This was evidenced when Tayaw immediately picked up John's video call.

"Huh. Isaac, just how early do you wake up? You don't look like you just woke up." Bobby was about to apologize first that they're calling him too early in the morning, but he was dumbfounded instead when he saw that Tayaw looks neater and fresher in his regular home clothes than how the band looks.

"I didn't have a gig to do, so I wake up early at 2 or 3 in the morning these days. How about you fellas? Don't you have a gig to do?" Tayaw also asked seeing that the band is calling from the waiting room of the bar.

"We still have two hours. We're planning on starting a YouTube channel and we want to ask for some advice." Rez said. "That's great! What are you guys planning to do?" Tayaw asked, glad and hopes that Strawberry Front gains a lot from promoting themselves in the internet.

"Well. First, we plan to arrange some pop or rock songs into country…" Strawberry band started telling Tayaw of their plans. "That's a good start. Why don't you also try to do some busking somewhere busy, like a street or near a university? … " Tayaw also approved of their plans and started suggesting the steps he took to advertise the Percussive Corrections.

"Thanks a lot, Isaac. Hey, I know this might be too much but… Do you have any spare arrangements?" Bobby asked hesitantly. The bad is also surprised of Bobby's questions and how presumptuous it sounded.

"Oh! There are! I'll give you some of them." Tayaw said enthusiastically, to the shock of the band. "Hey! I was kidding!" Bobby said, feeling guilty on how easy it was. "No. No. It's fine." Tayaw said. Unknowingly to them, Tayaw re-arranged more songs than what he and his band can perform.

Tayaw does not want to give all of his song re-arrangements to his band, Percussive Corrections. After all, Tayaw wants the band to master re-arranging songs by themselves instead of relying on him. Re-arranging songs would also train the band's sense in what songs sound good and how to play with them.

Once the Percussive Corrections starts composing their own songs, Tayaw is sure that their songs will not be good from the start. With their arranging skills however, they can make their not so good songs into songs that would at least be listenable.

Tayaw also graduated himself from performing cover songs. With his thousands of song compositions, he found that re-arranging and performing cover songs is just pointless unless there's a song he really wants to cover.

After talking about the plans for Strawberry Front's future YouTube Channel, Tayaw suddenly thought about something. "By the way, guys…" Tayaw smiled mysteriously, changing the subject. "Why don't I give you songs?" Tayaw said, to the shock of Strawberry Front.