cbaileysway-blog

[cbaileysway-blog]

Grateful

This past weekend was a busy one, I had been planning and preparing for this show for about a month now! Saturday, we had the show at City Winery, I waited late Friday night to book the rehearsal spot for Saturday morning and almost wasn’t able to lock anything in but I found a spot and got it booked. I got up at 7:45am because I had to pick up the guitar player for rehearsal at 9:15am. We got to rehearsal and ran through everything, and made sure everything was solid. Afterwards I went home and grabbed my clothes and then stopped by my job to print off set lists before heading to the venue for soundcheck. After soundcheck everyone that was performing hung out backstage until show time. While there in that moment I felt extremely grateful. Beforehand some of the special guests I hired to enhance the show are good friends of mine and when I got the call to put together the band and music for the event that night I wanted to bring some of them to the stage because I knew it would be a great opportunity and moment for them on top of adding to the show and music. But being backstage it hit me that much more that we were performing at THE City Winery, where Ive seen a-lot of artists that I look up to and love their music, perform, and in the green room behind the stage there is a board, where a slew of people who have performed there have signed. Its safe to say City Winery is considered a prestigious venue to perform at in town especially on the main stage and even though it was my 3-4 time there, a good number of people that night have never played or performed there and it was on their bucket list as it was on mine before I played there. And at that moment I was very grateful, grateful that I got the opportunity and platform to give others that opportunity and chance to play there, and sign the wall letting everyone know they were too, sign next to artists like Tank, Damien Escobar, Moonchild, just to name a few. On top of that we got word late Friday night that the show was completely sold out, 314 people strong! I know Saturday I got at least 20 calls and texts from people asking about tickets, and people performing with me said they got about the same number as well. We even found out someone tried to scam people by trying to sell counterfeit tickets to the event. In closing, the show was a huge success! All of our planning, emails, calls, texts, practices, ideas, disagreements, etc paid off more than we could imagine making this show our best one yet! Im honored, grateful and blessed to be in a position to offer the platform to those who are friends and some who are like family, the opportunity to play there!

[cbaileysway-blog]

Letting Go!

The day is Saturday, January 19th, 2019 I’m currently at work going over music more and making notes and in a few hours I’m about to head to the first full rehearsal with full band and all of the vocalists performing for our City Winery show next week on Saturday the 26th. We just had a very successful vocal rehearsal this past Wednesday and I’m excited to see what everything is going to sound like and also worried that I may have missed something, maybe I forgot to tell this person about this change, or tell this person that “oh yeah I need you to do this as well” and also just making sure Im fully on point as the drummer AND MD (musical director). I get off work and pick up Syvén the guitar player and we head to rehearsal. We get there early so I can get a head start on everyone since I have the most to setup and I was the one who booked the room. Shortly after everyone starts arriving and rehearsal starts and Im excited and anxious, and I say to myself lets go! Throughout rehearsal everything goes amazing and what I was most happy about other than the sound, was Hank Brown, our keyboardist. He actually arrived and was there before I got there, but he helped take the music to another level! I had already sent out the music and had the skeleton and the basic concepts together, but he took that and added different musical elements to it, transitions, breaks, endings, etc! I didn’t have to do much at all, he literally took care of everything! The reason why it meant so much to me was because I naturally am a person who worries too much at times and being MD in most situations where Im playing I cant ever just truly let go and be present while playing, I normally am watching the artist and the rest of the band making sure I remember to cue different people at different times with the music to keep everyone on the same page, while also remembering lyrics and singing/rapping along in my head so in the event the artist forgets the words they turn around and look at me and I can feed them to them lol. I have to schedule rehearsals come up with setlists, send emails, be in touch with the venues and sound engineers making sure everything is ready, work out contracts and pay for the artists and band. And because Im such a hands on person its very hard for me to delegate responsibilities and different duties. All throughout my career people would always tell me I look like Im thinking alot when I play, or I’m an awesome drummer and the day I learn to let go, will be the day I become a true beast! With anything you want to be great at you have to consistently practice it, so this year I made a promise to myself that I would really actively practice being present in the moment while playing, and not worry so much and also learn to delegate responsibilities to others and trust they’ll be able to handle it and it will get done. Because of Hank I was able to do that, I was able to relax and let someone else take the lead and I could just focus on drums. It was a very freeing moment for me and I could tell a major difference in my mindset and even more, in my playing! I’m mad at myself for not doing it sooner.

So to Hank I say “thank you!”

[cbaileysway-blog]

Boundaries

Hello guys and good morning! Today I’m very excited because we have vocal rehearsal later on with the artists for our City Winery show on January 26th! I’m happy to see all of my hard work and preparation coming together and I’ll get a chance to see the first signs of how everything will sound. This year I’ve decided to go harder and be more in depth as my role as MD (musical director) in the shows I’m in, and be more organized and dedicating a lot more focus and energy into each show/project. This past weekend I travelled to Houston to support my line brother who was planning a live cd release concert, but ran into some issues and had to reschedule it. Nonetheless I had already purchased my ticket so by the time I got the news it was already too late, but hey, a vacation never hurt anybody 🤷🏽‍♂️ lol. But that word is very important, VACATION! Even though I was on “vacation” I still had to work to an extent, I had to communicate with the various artists and musicians who are a part of the show to coordinate song choices, rehearsals and base those around individual schedules, plan out other important details of the show pertaining to showmanship and how I want things to look. Also while there I had other issues happening back in Nashville that distracted and drew me away as well. The one word I heard in my head and from others over and over again was BOUNDARIES! Setting and establishing boundaries in your life, relationships, work, etc is so important, and something I struggle with but Im actively working to get better at! Whether we believe it or not we cant control a-lot of what happens to us but we can control how we react and respond to it. I’m choosing at this point in my life and going forward to be in more control of me and where I allow other areas of my life to try and pull me to, we all have a-lot more power than what we think!

[cbaileysway-blog]

Hello all! This is my first blog post of the year, trying something new and different. Last year on my Instagram account I did a daily vlog for a week to give you all a sneak peak into my daily life and what I do from the time I open my eyes in the morning until the time I lay my head down at night, and it was well recieved by my current followers at the time and the new followers I gained during that timeframe. So in resarching ways to expand my business I decided to start a blog and as for now will serve as a written journal or account of my life. Thats right, I’m giving you a behind the scenes, personal tour of my life and thoughts. Now, I haven’t decided the frequency of how often I will post yet, I think I’m just going to let it flow and be organic and I’ll write when I have something to say or share! Today started off good I went to work and got a lot of planning and strategizing done for a huge show I’m apart of January 26th at City Winery here in Nashville, TN! We have a dope line up of artists and musicians who will be performing, I have, so far, one special guest confirmed and performing! I’m super excited for you guys to hear this music! For the band lineup we have: myself on drums, keys, bass, guitar, saxophone, trumpet, and a male and female vocalist, so yeah we’re loaded so get your tickets now!The rest of my day was pretty chill and just ended with me at home and then writing this post to finish out my day before going to bed. With thay being said, good night, I’ll probably watch a few episodes of some tv shows and then get some rest in before church in the morning. Hope everyone is having an awesome weekend so far, if you’re out tonight be safe! And until next time....✌🏽

- C. Bailey

Be UNDENIABLE