Bunker Rock/JimBaumerMe
Movin’ On (A New Musical Home)
Vol. 3/Issue 1
November and December was music-free for me. Rather than playing music, I was immersed in holiday nostalgia via movies like Feast of the Seven Fishes and of course, the most nostalgic of all Christmas movies—It’s a Wonderful Life—while coming to terms with living in a new state and region.
In September, Mary (my wife) and me drove to Central Virginia to look at houses and scout out places like Roanoke and Lynchburg. Lynchburg is where we found a house we wanted to buy, so JimBaumerMe is no longer in ME, but VA. It may necessitate a name change. But perhaps not—Matt Pond PA never changed his moniker despite changing geography. Actually, Matt Pond PA is on hiatus until 2025/26 according to his website.
[New house, new city]
Here’s hoping that gigging in this area in 2023 is as good to me as New England was the past two years. I’m sure it will be.
I’ve yet to play an official “gig,” but I have been making it out to some local open mics. It’s been good meeting some of the local musicians. I also did a live stream on New Years Eve.
Given that my music is oriented towards indie rock and not just cover fare, I think Charlottesville and Roanoke offer possibilities. Then, I’m only two hours from the music hotbed of Raleigh-Durham and even Greensboro in North Carolina. We’ll have to wait and see how the booking turns out.
A resource that’s really meant a lot to me in 2022 is Zen Guitar, written by the late Philip Toshio Sudo. To say it’s a self-help book for guitar players diminishes the scope of the book. But that’s a good starting point. The author helps readers understand the guitar-playing isn’t just about virtuosity but infusing your playing with soulful spirituality. Or something like that. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to be a better musician.
I closed out my playing dates in Maine (and Mass.) with fair dates in Fryeburg (for the second straight year) and Topsfield (for the first time). I also played the Bolton Fair in Bolton, MA in August. Overall, I played fewer dates in 2023 (about 40) than 2022 (when I crossed the 60 gig threshold), but I began figuring out where I wanted to play rather than simply accepting a date for the sake of having one. Some of my favorite places to play in 2022 besides the fairs were SoPo Seafood, Tumbledown Farm to Fork, Side by Each Brewing, and participating in Newton’s Porchfest in June.
[Rockin’ at the Topsfield Fair]
My CD, Living in Some Strange Days, got some radio airplay on MIT’s outstanding college radio station, WMBR. I also got an invite from Lorenzo at WMPG to play live at the station in May.
Stay tuned for the next JimBaumerME musical chapter. Looks like I will be participating in the RPM Challenge 2023. I’ve already got one song in the can.
Happy 2023 from Central Virginia.
-JimBaumerMe