Has Chad Taylor and Friends fizzled out? Options

[dangum]

It's been over 1 year since Chad Taylor announced his new project and in my opinion, it has been a spectacular failure.

A handful of concerts, poor audience attendance, no EP, no album, no songs released and not even a concert recording of any of the shows.

How hard is it to set up a video camera, point it at the stage and then upload it to YouTube?

Get your fans excited about your music, or at least have something to talk about.

[fightingwithclay]

It's been over 1 year since Chad Taylor announced his new project and in my opinion, it has been a spectacular failure.

A handful of concerts, poor audience attendance, no EP, no album, no songs released and not even a concert recording of any of the shows.

How hard is it to set up a video camera, point it at the stage and then upload it to YouTube?

Get your fans excited about your music, or at least have something to talk about.

While there's certainly some missed opportunities (my weekend cover band has a bigger social media presence than Chad Taylor and Friends), this was never going to be a huge project right out of the gate. Outside of Lancaster PA, his name is generally unknown. It makes more sense to book a few low-risk regional shows and dip your toes in the water than to try to book a self-financed tour. And unlike with Live or the Gracious Few, this is not his "day job".

So if you approach this as an unknown new band, you don't want to necessarily oversaturate the local scene by playing too many times a month (your friends and family cant make every show).
Although he's mentioned in an interview than he'd eventually like to do 60-80 shows a year (which he also called "barely working"), that's certainly a tall order from here. I know he's mentioned there's an album in the works, which I'm guessing will be a self-produced, self-released event. Even after that, it's tricky to grow into a touring act. Without financing, touring get get expensive, especially if you are used to touring with a bus, crew, etc.

I will say that I think the Americana genre is not a bad route for him to take, and the flexible lineup of musicians makes it easier. I'm sure if he wanted to go back to playing music fulltime, he would have to play in other bands besides his own project, and there's no shame in playing in a tribute or cover band (Jason Newsted did the same thing).

This post has been edited by fightingwithclay: Nov 14 2024, 1:08 pm

[Badman]

I completely forgot about this announcement. I googled it, found the website and said wow 3 shows in the next three months, this doesn't look like a failure. Then upon clicking the march show (the other two don't link anywhere) I realized these shows listed on their website are from last year. Sad stuff.