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How Working Musicians Try to Make Themselves Recession-Proof

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The bitter reality of a tough economy is a been-there, done-that obstacle to most working musicians. Making a living out of playing music has never been an easy road, and hunger (both literal and figurative) is a big part of the job description.

People who play music are better able to handle whatever the economy throws at them because theyre always on a tight budget, says Katie Tuten, co-owner of the Hideout, a North Side club that books hundreds of independent musicians annually.

For Bruce Lamont, who plays saxophone and sings in the art-metal quintet Yakuza, the economic downturn has prompted him to handle his career in the same way he does his instrument: by improvising.

Last March we came back from a five-week tour and we came home in OK shape, but we decided we needed to refocus financially, picking and choosing how we go on the road, Lamont says. Clubs werent paying as much as they would in the past, even though the same number of people were coming to see us, and for [merchandise] sales, people were more choosy about buying things. The rising fuel costs killed us last year was just ridiculous.

Yakuza once did as many as 200 shows in a year, most recently traveling in a 15-passenger van with all their gear and merchandise. After the harsh lessons of the 2008 band tour, Lamont next went out with just his saxophone in a rented economy car with another musician and performed solo just to keep the bands name and music out there.

We actually make more money staying at home working our day jobs, says Lamont, who tends bar at the Empty Bottle during weeks when he isnt touring. He also plays in a dozen other bands, ranging from experimental projects to a cover band, Led Zeppelin 2.

Thats the moneymaker for me, he says. We played House of Blues in January and sold out. Now House of Blues and Live Nation are all about the band, and they booked other shows for us. The money is coming in, but Im not spending it on a Corvette, Im funneling it into the six other bands I need to feed.

Lamont says Led Zeppelin 2 got more serious out of necessity: founding band member Paul Kamp lost his job as a chemist and needed income. He was the most reluctant to do this, but now its hard to pass up the money, says Lamont, who has never done anything quite so mainstream in the past. Its fun, we dress up, I play Robert Plant and cover all my tattoos with makeup and get a hair stylist. Plus, you get to play Led Zeppelin music for a couple hours.

For Bradley Parker-Sparrow, the revenue needed to keep afloat comes not from covering a famous bands music but from covering rental space in drywall. He fixes up apartments and rents some of them to support his career as a label owner, recording engineer, composer and performer.

Im a janitor-landlord-piano player, he says. I got frustrated begging for money [as a musician]. If you beg for it, you might get a hundred bucks for a gig. So I figured it was better to make my living doing manual labor, and keep my art pure by making it more of a hobby.

Sparrows hobby has occupied his life since the mid-70s. With his wife, jazz singer Joanie Pallatto, Sparrow runs the Southport and Northport labels in Wrigleyville out of a second-floor office-recording studio. He also records his own music; his latest release is a solo piano hybrid of jazz and classical music, The Black Romantic.

I will always find time to be creative, he says. But in the midst of the worst economy Ive experienced since Jimmy Carter was president, the musician says its more essential than ever to have steady revenue from some other line of work to support his music.

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