Friday, December 01, 2006

Oil On Canvas

My friend John plays in like 4 different bands. I recently took my other friend John along to one of his gigs. He was playing with Oil on Canvas at the Purple Turtle in Camden. When we got there it was pretty dead, and the first band to play was some pirate/sailor themed band that drew about 6 people total to watch. But, we got to hang out with John for a good part of the evening and talk about life.

One of the things we talked about was how the church used to be a big supporter/patron of music (and other forms of art as well). I would like to see that practice revived, and we talked a little about how to make that happen. Even though John isn't big on "church" or "religion" himself, he said he'd be very open to having a local church as a sort of patron, as long as they didn't try to control his music.

Any of my readers have any experience or ideas for how to pull off something like church-sponsored patronage for local bands/artists? I'm not just talking like "open band night" for the youth - am I totally ignorant of history, or did musicians used to make their living producing music for the church?

3 comments:

Jeff and Jodie said...

Did you say a pirate themed band? Was Captain Feathered Sword from the Wiggles there?

Anonymous said...

Keep following the music thing to see where it leads. It's such a powerful medium and there's so much of life to talk about through music. Most musicians are eager for a forum for their music--how cool is your "church" could be that place--a coffee house, jazz cafe or whatever works there. I like it, and I think you're on to something.

Anonymous said...

You already know I'm all about it :) Only 6-7 months to go...Lord willing!!