A note to music artists of all genres:

I don’t want to come off like I’m complaining even though I suppose I am a little.  I love all you artists on HonkyTonkJunkie.com but I have a few issues with some of you.

I spend a lot of time searching for music. Initially I used MySpace to find bands to play on the station. I combed through many hundreds of pages, listened to the posted songs and if I deemed them “Junkie Worthy,” I sent you a friend request and a note telling you about the station and how I would love to play your music and give you some exposure. All you would need to do is either send me a CD or tell me where I could download it. Almost all accepted the friend request but I got very few responses to the request for music.

Maybe I was naïve to think that a lot of you guys would jump at the chance to get some free exposure, even if it is on a little internet radio station on the popular and growing live365.com family where we happen to be the #1 honky tonk station (I’m just sayin’.) A handful of you contacted me for my mailing address and never sent anything. Still another handful actually did follow through and sent music.

It’s not that I’m opposed to spending money on the music; to the contrary, I purchased more than 1,500 tracks on iTunes last year which I happily wrote off my taxes. But when I hear complaints from bands about not being able to get on the radio then when you’re offered that chance, you flake out, it annoys me a little. If you want it bad enough, you ought to be working it. I should know, I wrote a hilarious (if I do say so myself) book of short stories that I haven’t pushed at all and I have no one to blame but myself (insert shameless plug here for “How TV Ruined My Sex Life and a Bunch of Other Messed Up Misadventures.”) But I digress. There is a lot that can, and should be done, but you have to put some work into it.

On the rare and exciting occasion that one of you great, undiscovered bands from some lonely corner of Nowheresville comes to town to play, I want to get one of your t-shirts.  And yes, I want to pay for it since this is one of the most lucrative revenue streams that a band has and I want to help support you. Simple, you say?  Not so much.  I can’t get one if you don’t have them.  Every single time, and I truly mean every single time in the past year-and-a-half, you have either been out of the style I want or the size I need. The litany of excuses is always the same: “We ran out at our last show,” or “We didn’t bring any of those,” or “we’re in the middle of restocking them,” or some bullshit combination of all three.  Come on people.  I’ll bet half of your fans wear a XXL-sized shirts. You ought to have more of those than anything. I can’t tell you how many shirts I have that are one size too small that I bought thinking that I would lose enough weight to wear it. I also have a closet full of the ugly-ass ones that were in my size but nobody else wanted because they were a fucked up color.  Again I say, come on people. I’m willing to pay $15-20 to advertise the band for free and this is the best you can do?  So I go online to your websites and MySpace pages but most of the time you are sold out online as well.

I want to support you because I think what you’re doing is important and worth it, but you have to meet me halfway. You have to help me help you. Okay, that’s it.  Carry on, folks.