Words of Wisdom From Big Joe Burrell

There are nice people wherever you go. As a musician playing with the Unknown Blues Band for the last twenty years, I have been kept young by Paul Asbell, Charles Eller, Tony Marsellis, and Luke Eller. It’s unusual for a band to stay together as long as we have. But I always say “I’ll put my last dollar on you guys!” And there are good reasons that we have stayed together.

Disposition. We keep our egos in check. Some people think that they know everything and they won’t listen. They pout. They don’t give it their all when they play and eventually you just have to get rid of them. 

In our band, we deal by talking. We just sat down for a good old fashioned talk. You have to talk to each other or else you’ll always be breaking up. You want to iron out what the difficulty is - not every minute of course - that’ll get on your nerves, but right at the first sign.

For example, someone calls the tunes, and maybe a player doesn’t like the song and doesn't want to play it. So they only half play it. Or someone doesn’t take care of their appearance or they don’t carry themselves well. Or they start running back and forth, doing the third party thing; talking to the boss, or backbiting. 

In these situations, you have to take that person aside, and talk about it. Or sit down with the whole band. Bands have to work as a team. I don’t care how good you are. It’s always better to get along with other musicians and stay in the band.

Otherwise, you end up playing by yourself. People get tired of you. It’s better with all the different personalities coming together for the audience. Everyone brings something valuable to the group, and therefore, to the audience.

It’s different if you leave a group and you’re the boss. It used to be that way years ago in New York City. You hired a player. He showed up and played what you told him to play. You paid him and that was it. You had to give him two weeks notice, and the reverse. The musicians union was strong that way.

Now, with the Unknown Blues Band, it’s us five guys and we run it like a corporation. Everyone has their assigned jobs to do. One handles the transportation-tickets and mail. Another handles the promotion. Another handles the booking and dates. He keeps the calendar. If someone asks me about playing a date, I refer to the band member handling that. Otherwise, if just one member ends up handling everything, he’d go crazy! Everyone needs to pitch in. I’ve seen it where one guy does all the work and the rest complain.

So, if you’re in a band and you’re not pitching in and trying to make it work like a team, chances are the band won’t make it. To be a good working musician you also need to have a good disposition; playing with everything you're got a helping make the band come together as a team.


Big Joe Burrell is Big Joe Burrell. 


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