YOU DON'T NEED NASHVILLE #7: THE HEART PART

So far in this series called YOU DON'T NEED NASHVILLE I've posted about...

...what labels actually offer their artists, or what labels do.

...what a label does to promote artists and how an indie can do a lot of those things for herself, or the basics of promoting yourself.

...how being signed to a label often comes with a price paid paid from one's personal life, or the importance of priorities

...what artists REALLY make from this business, or all about my finances.

...what wearing the label "Christian artist" means one's audience and music will more than likely end up being, or are you "Christian" enough.

...how good a recorded project needs to be depending upon its purpose and intended audience and how it can be created for less, or recording for a reason on a budget.

I hope all that helped. Thank you for the kind e-mails many of you sent me through-out this series of posts. Your encouraging words and shared revelations kept me out on this limb long enough to finish the task.

The point of this series of posts was not to convince you, the indie artist, that labels are always good or bad. Nor was it to persuade you to sign or not sign on their dotted line. The goal was to give independent artists information from my perspective, certainly not the only or best perspective, about the industry so that fewer artists in the future make decisions they later regret or that do not get them closer to their musical and ministry goals. I hope you now recognize the complexity of the decision before you and now grasp why I can't answer the question, "Should I sign a Christian record deal?" when it's thrown at me after shows from that fast moving autograph line. The answer is yours to wrestle with.

In the end the indie artist is neither saved nor sunk after signing with or turning down a label. And that's the subject of my last post in this series. So much of my life post-school centered around trying to discern what "God's will" was for my life. And so much of that struggled was a search for the right job, a way to make money and be satisfied. How American and how not Christian of me.

I'm not saying that my heart wasn't occupied by God, my sins not forgiven and my eternal destiny not set in the stone of salvation simply because I constantly asked the wrong question: What job does God want me to have? But asking that question most is not Christian in that it does not reflect or require the priorities and perspective of Christ to ask it. It is asked most by someone who believes their purpose and/or worth lies somewhere within the box labeled "work", that life is just what we do from 8-5.

When God's will is nothing more than a job spitting magic eight ball we behave as if occupational concerns of ours are also the chief concerns of God. We live and pray as if the epicenter of God's will and our purpose is work. It is not.

The central component of the American life is work. It has to be in order for the GNP to rise, more cars to leave showroom floors, bigger and more houses to be erected, more taxes collected, parks built and bombs manufactured. The capitalist bases her life on labor for payment. The Christian, the citizen of Heaven first, is to build her life around God's highest priorities: relationship with God and man, knowing God and making God known, service to God and man, freeing slaves of all kinds, lifting the wounded in all gutters, making peace etc. In short, our lives are to be about making invisible God visible with others from this community called Church.

And I'm able to do that in many ways from any where in the world, doing almost any job (hitman and stripper not so much), and at any pay scale.

So many times, when I'm talking with independent artists who say they want recorded deals, their reasons stem from job dissatisfaction or a basic unhappiness with their life. They see my job as the greener pasture. But please believe me when I tell you I see no more content happy people souls in Nashville's label system than I did selling Walkmans at Service Merchandise, flipping chicken breasts at Chic-fil-A, entering data at a law firm or picking up discarded bulletins from my church's floor.

Contentment, I've found, does not lie in what I do but who I am. If who you are someone who spends most of their time and thoughts on work, if what you're supposed to do for a living is the primary question you bring to God day after day, work will continue to be your god after your sign that dream record deal. And no matter how sweet the success the sour feeling in your soul today will continue to poison your life with discontent.

But if you are person using every opportunity, talent, relationship and minute of every day to make God known and know Him better then you've probably found contentment already and will carry it with you into whatever occupation is up ahead.

So the conclusion to this series is a reminder that being indie doesn't change who you are and being signed can't do that either. That doesn't mean you can't move to Nashville, sign a deal and outsell me someday. It just means that as you do so you need to remind yourself that whatever you do for a living isn't most important. God's will is more than the classifieds. He's more than a career counselor. He's the one who made you full of melodies and personality and intellect ready to be spilled out on everyone in your life right now - not just someday. Make the most of where you are. Set goals for the future. And don't forget making records will never make you successful at heart. And it's the heart that matters most to Christians.

Thanks for reading. If I can ever be of more help to you please e-mail me. I'll do my best to listen and give good information.

And I know some label types have been lurking about reading this stuff. I alsa know I'm not right about everything. So please, if you disagree, agree or can just shed better light on anything this series has covered please step out of the shadows and post your words of wisdom here as a comment. We need all the help we can get understanding the machine called Christian music.

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