My good friend Pat Harris alerted me to this article a few weeks back, and it’s something my thoughts have returned to repeatedly since.  It’s by banjoist Danny Barnes, whom I was hipped to in 2009 after he sat in with Dave Matthews Band for various stops of their 2009 tour.  It’s a distilled, thought-provoking, honest, practical, and highly interesting discussion of what it takes to “make it” in music, written from the perspective of someone who has put in a lifetime of work.  I encourage anyone in a creative field to give it a solid read.

http://www.dannybarnes.com/blog/how-make-living-playing-music

[His most recent album, Pizza Box (2009, available on Dave’s record label ATO Records), is one of my most treasured purchases of the last year, and will surely be the topic of a post in the not-too-distant future.]