Passion is one thing: making a business out of your talent is an entirely different matter. The arts are littered with the roadkill of unsung heroes who never broke out, never found their audience, never got their due, however you phrase it. But there are always exceptions, of which one is Ken Waldman, “Alaska's Fiddling Poet.”
Since taking the plunge as a full-time musician in 1995, Waldman has released six poetry collections, and seven CDs, which you can find through his official site, www.kenwaldman.com/. However, I'm focusing on Waldman's first memoir, ARE YOU FAMOUS?: TOURING AMERICA WITH ALASKA'S FIDDLING POET (Catalyst Book Press: 2008), which tickled my synapses for three reasons.
First, I didn't have enough room to discuss the book in my two local newspaper interviews with Ken, so it only seemed fitting to do so here. Second, there's a lot of straightforward advice that will benefit anybody else in the trenches (see Chapter Five, “Two Gigs And A Tour,” for just one example).
Third, even if you're not a performer, you'll find plenty of foibles here to amuse you –-such as when Ken calls his local bookstore in Anchorage, to see if they'll stock his work. He's swiftly routed to the corporate office, where –- after a go-nowhere conversation –- learns that he's talking to some guy changing lightbulbs!
But Ken remains unbowed, despite his run-ins with the “usual suspects” -- clueless agents, tone deaf art bureaucracies, indifferent bookstores – that he so memorably describes. Here's some of the highlights of our conversation. (For more information, visit www.kenwaldman.com/, or www.catalystbookpress.com.)
“MY JOB IS GETTING OTHER JOBS”
CHAIRMAN RALPH (CR): As I remember, when we talked last time, you said: “My job is getting other jobs.” And so, certainly, that part of it doesn't have seem to have changed, especially from reading your book...
KEN WALDMAN (KW): Oh, yeah, that's part of it -– it's the same work, whether you're making $50, $500 or $5,000.
CR: Very true. So, having said that, what was the basic motivation for writing it [ARE YOU FAMOUS] in the first place?
KW: I had a window of time –- this was June 2005. I had a whole month. In my case, I thought, “If I can just stay on top of this, day in and day out, I can finish something.” I kind of just gutted it out. I thought I had something to share, and the response has been really positive. But it's a tough world out there, with a small press. This was the first book that they'd ever done. I'm not a big name.
CR: The stuff that's most resonant is when you talk about the collisions you've had with the publishing industry [such as a New York agent who decided against taking Waldman's work].
KW: His response wasn't surprising, given the agency. But he read it, and said, “Look, people will ask, 'Who's this guy?', and I've got nothing to say, I can't sell it.” That may be part of it –- there's the haves and the have-nots, you know?
I''m applying for teaching jobs, actually – I have six books of poetry, I have this memoir...but you find that six poetry books and a memoir can get trumped by one book with the right publisher, and this book isn't very good. You have a major publisher, or you have that platform, but it doesn't matter if the quality of the work is not even [readable].
I had kind of a crazy response from a library district. Some libraries have some money, and do summer reading programs. I sent a decent packet to the supervisor, and then the answer comes: “We don't have the budget, and we don't think there's really a fit.” There's a library, a summer of being creative –- I'm going, “If that isn't a fit, I don't know what is.”
CR: Right. Or, as you say so memorably in the book, “Fiddling and poetry? Who needs them? Creative, engaged students? Who needs them?”
KW: Yeah, I know. I [once] got an email from somebody I'd met at a conference, their state arts education person. I'd had dinner with this person, sent them a packet, and never heard [anything]. I followed up, and this person said, “Well, I don't think there's any way I can help you.” Maybe it's because their budgets are cut so much, they are unwilling to do something – but what are they doing,, if...
CR: ...if they can't help you?
KW: If they can't, I go, “Well, is the work deficient somehow?” I go, “I don't think so. You just process it, and go on to the next [project]. It still strikes me as kind of weird. My final response is, “Well, I'll write another book,” you know: THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF THE FIDDLING POET.
CHATS WITH DOUG
RH: So, do you and Doug Yule exchange Christmas cards, now that you've met at the Crocodile [Club]?
KW: I knew him just as a fiddle player in Seattle, and when the book came out in 2000 –- my first book, and CD – he was already curious about I was doing. I saw him at a festival, and he says, “I couldn't get your thing.” We've done shows in the past –- if I'm doing a show in Seattle, I'll either see if he's available, or other people want to play with him, so he can get word out –- because he likes what I do.
RH: One of the more charming anecdotes in your book was running into him in that situation, because he got a bad rap [as the post-Lou Reed Velvet Underground's frontman]. And a lot of people, of course, have written him off ever since.
KW: Yeah. I had a friend who was a big Lou Reed fan, and I go, “Well, he's just somebody that I know.” He got really soured on the music business, because I tell him, “Doug, God –- you could use that [VU name] with your string band stuff.” He goes, “No, I'm not gonna do that.”
I say, “Doug, it would make sense – you're doing that string band stuff, to just kind of bank on your name,” and he goes, “No, that's not what I do.” And I go, “OK, I'll respect that, you know?” To me, it seems a no-brainer –- hey, the Velvet Underground, it brings people out there.
SOME PARTING WORDS
RH: What would tell anybody who picked up your book, and says, “Wow, this sounds like a pretty exciting, maybe difficult, thing to do, but I'm not deterred, I really wanna do it”?
KW: If they have the self-confidence, let them go ahead and do it. Maybe you learn things to save a few steps –- if I look back on it, I don't think I could have done anything differently, and however it ends up, I've done the best I could, I'm doing the best I can, for as long as I can.
RH: Well, the one chapter I could see people borrowing is “Two Gigs And A Tour.” I guess that's the obvious example from the book that comes to mind.
KW: Yeah. How those jobs came into play, and how that tour came into play –- everything I'm doing is a variation of that. And sometimes, you see how a single job for a couple thousand dollars for a solo artist was several years in the making. One of the things that you learn is that you can't micro-manage everything. You can contact people, but you know how it is. If somebody doesn't want to return your call...
RH: They don't.
KW: If somebody doesn't want to return your email, you can't make 'em return your email. But then you meet people happy to hear from you, and wonder where you've been their whole life. You do what you can. I don't know what to say, other than, “Keep at it.” When there's a complete obstacle, just go, “OK, work around that,” or try to make something useful.
RH: Work around it as best as you can – and do the best you can, when something like that happens.
KW: Yeah -- it's like the times in Barrow [Alaska]. I remember the first time I went there. Worked at the middle school, stopped at the elementary school, and the principal said, “We don't see ever having a need or interest in you do.” And that guy was gone, and for the next four years, I worked at that elementary school. What does that say? If I hadn't gone the first time, I wouldn't have had that conversation.
RH: You never know.
KW: You never know, man.
KEN WALDMAN DISCUSSES HIS BOOK: "ARE YOU FAMOUS?"
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