Nathan Frazer

I write this on Labor Day 2024, completely unpremeditated. I just came off a pretty good month of music. A lot of ups and a few downs. Doing this work is hard sometimes. 

I'm sure its obvious to some of you by now but I am not an ordinary musician. I'm not out there trying to play radio hits, or get people to dance (though its nice when they do 🙂.) My first and foremost goal is to write and share my songs.  My second goal is to be somewhat of a “Folksinger…” That's a word and an identity that has a lot of baggage and it means different things to different people. To me it is about carrying forward a tradition of sharing songs…Sharing songs that otherwise might not be heard, because they are not  "commercial" (which I take to mean that they are songs that are not good at selling cars, or insurance, or whatever else they pedal on commercial radio these days.) 

I only want to get better at what I do. Better at playing. Better at singing. Better at preforming. Better at making a connection with a crowd that mostly sees me as secondary to what is happening. They're out on a friday night to drink beer, and talk with their friends…There might be a few people that are out there to listen to some music. They are who I am playing for, and I'm always hoping that they are gracious enough to open their mind and heart to something new and authentic. Or maybe a different take on something old.

I feel like I'm on a mission sometimes. Like I have a blessing, from all of these cats that I look up to and who were mentors to me, and showed me how this was done. Mike, Howie, Eddie Jeff, Colleen, Charlie, Mason, Randy, Jim and so many more…But then sometimes I wonder why the hell I'm doing this. Confidence is rocky. My heart hurts and I feel lost. I see other musicians and bands resting comfortably playing safe songs.  I get feedback from a venue about not playing songs people recognize even after I told them exactly what I do, what the expectations are going to be IF they want ME to play there. 

But then there's a show where someone comes up and says , "man its so great hearing good original music. I'm tired of all the same ol bands that come in here playing the same 20 songs…" Where someone says “Hey we're all listening here and we really appreciate what you are doing…” When someone comes over out of nowhere when we're on break and says “I really liked your music, thank you!” FUCK YEAH! 

All this is just to say if you're out and there's someone up there working with a guitar, piano, whatever… and maybe warbling a few tunes. Throw some money in that tip jar and give him or her come encouragement (IN COURAGE ment) You're going to get good karma. You're going to put wind in that persons sails. A kind word to an artist goes along way. It goes longer than criticism (even valid criticism which artists need from time to time…) But from my point of view artists are usually well aware of their deficiencies and are always trying to break out of them…that kind word can really lift em up. 

Thank you to all ya all who give me kind words of encouragement this summer.  

Peace and Love 

N