I went to the Happy Basset Barrel House open mic (for comedians) last week. This was my second time to do this. The first time i played a funny song I wrote called Justin Case. This time I actually got up with just a mic and told stories. You probably wondering why I did this? Yeah, Me too. lol

     I am getting ready to start booking and doing gigs. I needed to work on my witty banter, that I used between songs and also just to get more comfortable talking to crowds. Practice, Practice, and more practice. That is the only way to get good at doing anything. It doesn't matter if it's cooking chocolate chip cookies, singing, playing guitar or telling a joke. 

     Here are some of my ideas or witty banter that I'm thinking about sharing in my show. I just retired from Dillons grocery store. I messed up when I got that job. Where I messed up is, whenever I talk about going to my job, it is called going to work. 

       As a kid, I didn't want to go to a job. I wanted to go play. I remember wanted to be a professional baseball player, or a pro football player, (changed my mind, on this one) , or a guitarist in a rock band. All of these profession you do not go to work. No you play football, you play basketball, and you play guitar. This is where I messed up.

       As a kid, I really believed that I could have a job where I could play for a living. Me and millions of other dreamers belived this. I grew up and realized that this dream was never going to happen. After I turned forty I realilzed that the NBA was never going to give me a call, so I quit going to the gym and practicing my jump shot. 

      I decided that I would pursue a job as a country songwriter. I wanted to get a publishing deal. This was my new dream. So  I have been pursuing this for the last fifteen years. This made sense to me. I could do this.

      I heard a statistic this week that blew me away. The stat was the odds of making it as a hit songwriter is smaller that the odds of playing professional football. Add up all of the football players in the NFL. This is easy to figure out. The number of spots on the roster times the number of teams in the NFL. There are less proffessional song writers with publishing deals in Nashville than their are football players.  

      I might want to rethink my strategy. Maybe getting a songwriting publishing deal is an unrealistic goal and I should go get my football out the garage and work on throwing some perfect spirals again. 

      The odds of achieving any long lasting success is tough in all areas of life. That's okay. Really, I wouldn't want it any other way. Success is not determined by how high we go up the ladder. No success is whether we every got on the ladder in the first place. So here's to doing my best and seeing how high I can go with God's help. 

    I was going through some of my songs and I found this one. It is called Puddles of Pain. I had a demo made of this song with a really great singer. I always wanted to hear what it sounded like with my voice so I spent a few extra bucks and did my version. The other version is so much better but this was fun to do. 

https://jimmccarter.com/track/3606203/trusty-sidekick

     I am a big kid at heart. I got married at the age of eighteen. Also, had a son at the age of eighteen. It was a busy year. Growing up, my siblings, were older than me. ( They still are) I was eleven years younger than by brother Richard and fourteen and fifteen years younger than my sister,  Lana Mae, and my oldest brother, Larry Dean. 

     I didn't have somebody to play with. It was a real treat for me to get to play with other children. When I had my son Jeremy, he became my buddy to play with. We used to play baseball, wiffle ball, football, video games, etc. Now I play with my grandaughter Ella when she comes over after school. I enjoy playing, some things never get old. 

      My sister in law, Barb was telling me about her playing with her grandson, Cooper. This is a song I wrote about her and Cooper. It is called, Trusty Sidekick. 

Trusty Sidekick

 Cooper's  looking for monsters with Grandma by his side

an Iphone flashlight, they'll find where they hide

Monsters and vampires, oh, they hate the sun

Grandma's got his back and a loaded cap gun.

     Chorus- Oh Batman's got Robin, Lone Ranger's got Tonto

     they all got a friend they fight evil with

     she's there when you need her, like  a pistol on your  hip

     Cooper's got Grandma his trusty side kick. 

Grandma ain't very big, and she don't look mean

If she see's a spider, oh, she might scream

It's alot of work, saving the earth

So we refuel with her peach cobbler dessert.

     Chorus

          Bridge- They will both grow older, like we all do

         somday He'll say, 'll never forget, a grandma like you.

     Chorus

     I used to have a band, back in the day. It had a very catchy name. The Jim McCarter band. Yeah, that isn't original at all. Why did I pick that as a name?  Honestly, I had a couple reasons, maybe not good ones but I had reasons. 

     One of my thoughts was that if the band disentegrated, I would still have name recognition. I was the driving force behind the band. I was the lead vocalist, the acoustic guitar player, songwriter, gig getter, set list maker and I had the PA and speakers. 

      The other reason I chose that name was I had learned how important it is to get your brand out there. I used to have a real estate license and I sold homes with my sister, Lana Mae Leach and her husband Robin. It was a great part time job. I worked for them. They had their names in the paper with how many dollars of home sales they achieved for the year. My name was not in the local newspaper. My sales were under their name or their brand. That was when I learned how important it is to build your own brand. 

     I had two other musicians in the band. Jason Finson was the bass player. He is one of the finest bass players I know. He had more musical ability and band knowledge than me. He went on to bigger and better things. He's a rock star. 

    Atef Khalil was the drummer. He played a mean, and loud hand drum. Jason and him  could really get a groove going on a song. This made it so much fun to play and sing along to. Atef and I both worked at Dillons grocery store. Dillons is part ot the Kroger grocery store chain. It is not much different that any business. Atef and I were assistant store managers and they thought they owned our lives. And they were right. It was impossible to work around our work schedules. 

     I used to talk and tell stories between songs. It was basically filler. You needed filler time when you were going to be playing for three hours. We had between 30-40 songs on our set lists to fill. I would talk about things off the top of my head. Jason didn't say I was funny but he did say he liked my  witty banter.

     Maybe that should of been our band name. Witty Banter. Sounds like a idea but I think I'll just go solo and stick with Jim McCarter- Kansas Songwriter. Not to original but it gets my name and music out there. 

     I heard a story about a school that was in a bad economic part of town. All of the children were on free lunches and all of the students received food to take home on the weekend. (so they would have something to eat.)These children had parents who had struggles. Some were their fault and some of it wasn't but the children were all affected. 

     They say, that children in bad homes, don't go to school to learn. They go to school to be accepted and loved. They are craving for the needed attention that they aren't getting at home. This school has teachers that care about the kids. They are making a difference in these children's lives. Is it hard? Yes. Could they make more money doing something other than teaching? Yes. Could they go to a different school in a better part of town and have an easier job. Yes. But these teachers don't leave, they stay. 

     These are the cream of the crop teachers. Teachers that could do other things, get promoted, and move up in the business world. So why do they stay and continue under these circumstances? They buy stuff for children to help them out. A new coat for a child who doesn't have a coat.  Maybe it's school supplies, book bags, pencils, paper, etc. They do all of this because they care.

     I believe the reason they stay is, They have a purpose. Not a job, not a career, but a purpose. Their purpose is to love on those kids.  These teacher do it to see a child smile and give you a hug or a high five. To know that you made a difference in somebodies life today. Thank you to everyone who is living life with a purpose. Making a difference in other people's lives. May God bless you richly.