One thing I’ve never been big on, especially in creative endeavors, is competition. I don’t want to say I always fold in the face of adversity or anything like that, but I tend to lose interest when something becomes a contest. I can’t play chess or Scrabble with my friend Ben anymore because he’s always been highly competitive and the games just aren’t fun since he’s also better than me.  And although it seems ironic, I think it’s actually related that I am not terribly good at cooperation, either.

But one thing that will make me strive to be better is: if I’m surrounded by other people doing something I’m interested in, and they’re creating something good, then I’ll want to also create something good, not because I think I can do it better than them or even because I want them to see me do something good. And although there are times when I might look at something really clever, cool, or unusual that someone did and say, “Wow, that’s a great idea,” and then go ahead and steal part of that idea, more often, it somehow becomes an inspiration to come up with something completely different.

I do plan on posting some things about the songs I’m writing, but looking back means I’m not looking forward. When you’re dangerously short on time to create so much material, there’s just no way to use up mental space on a tune or lyrics that have already been committed to a recording.

I made a decision recently that I think is worth writing about: I released Midway Fair’s recordings to a creative commons license.

There are a few different types of artists. There are commercial, professional artists, people who have identified a need for a type of creative work and go out and create it. It’s admirable work if you can get it, and it really is work for those folks that make a living their whole life at it, and a ton of the great unsung heroes of any art scene belong to it — record producers and engineers, film and sound editors, graphic artists and ad creatives, etc. Then there is the bohemian, the artist who does just enough commercial work to eat and continue to buy materials for their art. Sometimes they have higher aspirations, but most of the time they know what they want to do and they continue to do it. I know a lot of artists like this: Miss Shevaughn and Yuma Wray, Matt Pless, Joy Ike. Some people you might think of as being in the first category are in this category, too. It’s pretty brutal out there. Then there’s people like me, who think they’re creative but aren’t motivated to singlemindedly devote their lives to an artistic pursuit. A lot of professionals call us “weekend warriors,” which sounds pretty snide to me, but I think the smart ones realize that we’re one of the backbones of the artistic community, the people who will buy things and be boosters for the people who are actually “making it” in any sense of the word.

When it comes to copyrights, for the most part they most protect the people at the top of the heap from theft and derivation and the people in the middle from just being ripped off even when they’re doing the work day in and day out. If something’s worth stealing, it was probably already successful on its own. No, I don’t have any data. I’m just speculating. The people they employ obviously benefit, too.

But people like me? Why on earth do I need a copyright?

See, for a long time, it was drilled into artists’ heads that if you create something, you need to copyright it because someone out there might discover and decide to steal your idea and go create a million dollar product with it. If this was ever true, it’s probably not true now. No one can make a mint off of something creative without having a serious amount of work behind it. And the people doing that work — I’ve got bad news for everyone who loves the indie scene, but it’s mostly the folks working for those traditional label bohemoths that reinvented themselves and are again the major money makers — the people doing that work aren’t the performers or the people creating stuff, so they can’t do anything with it and they just want the next big thing. They’re not going to steal a forgettable song and make 50 cents on Spotify if they can get it legitimately, pay you royalties, and make money off the next thing you do.

Yes, for the most part, the market functions on John Nash’s economic theories. Or at least, in my naive worldview it does.

But it gets more complicated. We spent so much of the 20th century living in this fantasy world of creativity, a paradise where artists became millionaires and made other people billionaires. But then the number of new recordings doubled (at least) every decade after 1900; at one point you could probably own every great recording that came out in a year, but that couldn’t last. Because now there was so much stuff, so much good stuff in fact, that as soon as there was an easy way to steal it (DSL and reliable analog-digital conversion techniques), people started stealing artistic media because they simply couldn’t afford to pay for it all and the world was telling them they needed to have all of it.

This is too short a post to talk about all my thoughts on the ethics of “stealing” (downloading) a non-physical commodity. But I can briefly discuss the harm I think that expansions of copyright law have done to artistic expression from a utilitarian standpoint. You see, copyright originally covered things for a very brief period of time. Gradually it has expanded so that it now covers things more than 70 years after the creator’s death. In other words, it has ceased being a protection for the artist, which is how many people choose to paint it, and has become a protection for the people who profit off the artists’ work and their heirs.

Consider this: Shakespeare ripped off his contemporaries constantly and wrote what we consider to be the greatest drama, and some of the greatest poetry ever in the world. Not in the English language, not in the 17th century of England. Look at how a movie is created: A team of people, work together writing a script to tell a story that millions of people will want to consume, hand off their creation to a massive network of artists and engineers who make it a reality. Look at how a record is created: A band takes some songs they’ve worked on and works with a producer and engineer to create a record that many people (presumably) will want to hear. Shakespeare’s plays might have sprung from his mind, but their implementation rests with the actors who performed them (who probably had some effect on the brilliance of his characterization during the writing process) and the culture that succeeded him. Art is collaborative.

So this brings me back around to creative commons. I’ve spent so much time arguing that copyright damages the progress of mankind without thinking about how I’ve dealt with my own creations: they’re registered with the U.S. copyright office.

So I’ve stopped being hypocritical and released Midway Fair’s recordings to Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Anyone who wants to make something (even money) out of “my” work can do so, as long as they are also willing to share their works.

Maybe this post will someday convince another artist like me to do the same with their works.

p.s. Thanks to Joe Scala for initially bringing the Creative Commons to my attention. I’d like to add that his own most recent album also falls under a Creative Commons license.

Past Shows

April 30, 2016: Last-minute fill-in show (trio) at Roofer’s Union in DC.

April 16, 2016: Mad City Coffee (10801 Hickory Ridge Rd #101, Columbia, MD 21044) for Joe Isaac’s Music Matters Showcase.

March 17, 2016: As the featured artist at Marc Avon Evans’s long-running Acoustic Thursdays at Peace and a Cup of Joe, 713 W. Pratt St., Baltimore, MD 21201.

March 16, 2016: Jon short set as part of the Baltimore Songwriters’ Association’s monthly showcase at Bertha’s in Fell’s Point (734 S Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21231).

February 13, 2016: Benefit show for Music4More at Teavolve, with Mosno Al-Moseeki and the Moonbeams and ilyAIMY. This was a good one.

November 21, 2015: With Midway Fair at Mum’s Bar in Federal Hill (1132 S Hanover St, Baltimore, MD 21230) for Tim Kaye’s birthday party!

November 7, 2015: Opening for Woody Lissauer at Edith May’s Paradise (hosted by Georgie Jessup, at 7711 Apple Ave., Jessup, Maryland).

November 6, 2015: With Midway Fair at Roofer’s Union in Adams Morgan, DC. 2446 18th St NW, Washington, DC 20009.

November 5, 2015: Ledbetters (1639 Thames St, Baltimore, MD 21231) for happy hour (5-9) with Midway Fair.

October 30, 2015: Reverb Collective (2112 N.  Charles St. Baltimore, MD, downstairs from Brothers Music). With Stephen Lee, Happy Haines, and more.

October 29, 2015: Playing guitar for Joe Scala and the Marksmen at Ledbetters (1639 Thames St, Baltimore, MD 21231) for the late show 9:30-1:30.

October 25, 2015: Solo on Caroline Ferrante’s Americana radio show.

October 21, 2015: With Midway Fair at Ledbetters (1639 Thames St, Baltimore, MD 21231) for happy hour (5-9).

October 10, 2015: With Midway Fair at the Baltimore County Arts’ Guild’s Art-AGstravaganza.

October 9, 2015: Ze Mean Bean Cafe, 6:30-9:30. 1739 Fleet Street, Fells Point, MD 21231.

September 30, 2015: Playing guitar for Joe Scala and the Marksmen at Ledbetters (1639 Thames St, Baltimore, MD 21231), happy hour 5-9.

September 11, 2015: Solo at Ze Mean Bean Cafe.

August 29, 2015: Folk n Potluck 2 at Reverb Collective (2112 N.  Charles St. Baltimore, MD, downstairs from Brothers Music). It’s a mini folk music festival, with music all day! Check out the Facebook event for the full lineup. My solo set at 6:50, and then I’ll also be playing guitar with Steven Lee at 11:55. Oh, and it’s potluck! I’ll be bringing potato gratin. The cover is donation based, but $5-10 is suggested.

August 21, 2015: Solo at Ze Mean Bean Cafe.

August 14, 2015: Solo at Ze Mean Bean Cafe.

August 9, 2015: Sunday Songwriters’ Songfest at Frederick Coffee Company (100 N East St, Frederick, MD 21701). Music from 4-7 p.m. Andrew Luttrell is also on the bill!

July 25th, 2015: Full band (Midway Fair) at the Hamilton Street Festival. We play at 12:30-1:15 on the Gibbons Ave. stage (the stage at the south end of the festival).

June 17, 2015: Short set at Bertha’s for a Baltimore Songwriters’ Association showcase.

May 7, 2015: I’ll be at the Waypost in Portland with Jake Kelley and Barry Brusseau Facebook event is here. If you know anyone in Portland to send our way, that would be awesome!

April 16, 2015: Short set at Bertha’s for a Baltimore Songwriters’ Association showcase.

March 22, 2014: Teavolve Cafe and Lounge, 1401 Aliceanna St., Baltimore, MD. Katie Bowers Band (Katie & Joe Scala) will headline, playing, I hope, many of their original songs. Mosno and I will be doing opening sets.

2013: I could have sworn I played some shows in 2013 …

May 19, 2012: At the Catonsville art expo, 3:00-5:00. I’ll be playing guitar with Black Dress Jess (aka Jessica Rhee) and mandolin with the Andrew Luttrell Band. More info at this Patch link. They’ve packed an amazing bill with some of my favorite local artists into a short concert: Dylan Lee Brady, Acacia Sears Band, and ilyAIMY are also playing. It’s at the Maryland State Government Building, 106 Bloomsbury Ave, Catonsville, MD 21228.

May 23, 2012: The Metro Gallery (1700 N. Charles St.) for “The Nine,” DC songwriter Justin Trawick’s multi-city songwriter series.

The show starts at 8:00 and will end by 10:30. Each songwriter plays twice throughout the night in random order.

May 25, 2012: Teavolve in Harbor East. Last-minute!

1401 Aliceanna St
Baltimore, MD 21231
410.522.1907

Show is 8-10.

June 7, 2012: Bread and Circuses, 401 Delaware Ave. Towson, MD 21286 (410-337-5282). A last minute show for my buddy Elliot while he’s in town. Help me make him regret his decision to continue pursuing a PhD in a far-away town. (Heh.) I’ll figure out something super cool for this show, you know, beyond playing it.

June 10, 2012: Honfest at the Bacardi Umbrella Radio Stage. With anywhere between 1 and 2 other members of Midway Fair. Oooh, mysterious! We play at 4:00.

June 17, 2012: Sunday Songwriters’ Songfest at Frederick Coffee Co. Todd Walker’s wonderful almost-weekly event at this beautiful little coffeehouse in Frederick, MD. Visit their web site for directions and menu. I’m very excited to share the afternoon with an amazing musician, Mosno.

June 24, 2012: UPTOWN CONCERTS AT ADAT CHAIM, 115 Cockeys Mill Road, Reisterstown, MD 21136. Opening for the amazing John Gorka. Show starts at 7:00. Advance tickets are recommended. Purchase tickets online at www.uptownconcerts.com.

July 6, 2012: At the 8×10 as a guest (on mandolin) with local hero Matt Pless. The 8×10 is at 10 East Cross St Federal Hill Baltimore, Maryland 21230. Matt’s been blowing up since being the opening track (and creating the cover art for)  Occupy This Album. Cara Kelley And The Tell Tale & the John Mancini Band are also on the bill.

July 13, 2012: As the featured performer at the Baltimore Folk Music Society’s Friendly Coffeehouse. The Coffeehouse is in its twenties and still going strong. This evening is also an open mic, so bring your instrument or your voice. Sign up early — it’s consistently extremely well attended. The feature usually plays around 8:30. The Friendly Coffeehouse is held in the basement of the Calvary Baptist Church, 120 W. Pennsylvania Avenue (corner of Baltimore & Pennsylvania) in Towson, Maryland. There is a parking lot off of Baltimore Ave.; go through the glass doors and down the steps straight back. There are drinks and snacks provided; please bring a small donation if you plan to partake. (The hosts buy the snacks out of their own pocket and volunteer to run the coffeehouse, so DO NOT be a cheapskate/freeloader or I will stop being friends with you!)

July 21, 2012: I’ll be playing guitar again with Black Dress Jess (Jessica Rhee) at Mad City Cafe for their long-standing songwriters’ series. I’m a big fan of Jess’s singing and songwriting: she puts on a quiet but emotionally intense show, and the room is always absolutely silent the moment she starts to sing. The set we played together in May got a huge response, so if you missed it (or you want to see it again), come down to 10801 Hickory Ridge Road #101  in Columbia, MD. Free show, but please be prepared to tip the performers.

August 11, 2012: At Bohemian Coffee House (1821 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21201, 410-400-0022) with two artists from the Pacific Northwest: Watching Whales Sleep (Americana/singer-songwriter/alt-country) and Praying for Greater Portland (experimental/noise/rock … it’s one guy and he uses live drums to create loops and then plays guitar over them). Music starts at 7:00.

August 18, 2012: Hot August Blues as a guest (on mandolin) with Matt Pless! Capping off a summer at some pretty high profile shows in Baltimore, Matt will take the stage at this huge summer festival. Time TBA.

August 25, 2012: Cromwell Valley Arts Festival, 3:00, Sherwood House at Cromwell Valley Park, 2002 Cromwell Bridge Road, Baltimore, MD. I did my best to make this a Midway Fair show — it was our first show and we’ve been asked back every year, so it’s something of a tradition for us — but everyone is out of town that day. So it’s just me. I just saw that Letitia VanSant is playing, too. Be sure to catch her set, she’s really great. Check the poster for the other exciting stuff. It’s a cool little festival that’s grown and expanded every year.

Cancelled. August 29, 2012: Joe Squared Station North (corner of North Avenue and Howard St.), 7-9. A dinner set at Joe Squared! (Finally.) Chances are I’ll have a friend or two along for this one, so stay tuned. Cancelled.