It’s the end of the academic year in my day job, which means I’ve found myself in a number of meetings, receptions, events, etc. with people who know me but I don’t see on a day-to-day basis. Those who know me well enough to know about my music life sometimes make conversation by asking “so, do you have any upcoming shows?” I respond by rattling off my next three or four show dates and locations, often mentioning that “I play at least three or four shows a month.” Three times in the past week the response I’ve gotten is “wow – that’s a lot.” That response stuck out to me because my usual perception of my music career is that I don’t really play that many shows. I certainly don’t play as often as those who make music a full-time career do, and I don’t play as often as I’d like to, because family obligations and the other things I do with my life and job demand attention I would otherwise devote to music. Or because it can be hard to get more worthwhile shows within the distance that can reasonably be traversed when I do have an intense day job. So when I’m comparing my music life to the music life I’d like to have or to the career of those whose music careers I’d like to emulate, I am generally thinking about how infrequently I play. But to someone who can’t imagine having a second career (because, as I know, this first one is often already too intense and overwhelming), it must indeed seem like a lot. And I also realize that, to the me of five years ago, it would probably seem like a lot as well. That there would be that many places that would be interested in presenting my music (since these days most of the shows I do have booked are reasonably substantial shows), that I could turn out a respectable audience to many of them, and that I have on hand a repertoire of my own songs that could fit any length show, ready to play, would have been nearly unimaginable. I guess it is, after all, a lot.