Talk\u00a0about what you do when you\u2019re not playing at the airport.<\/strong><\/p>\n Anne: I work as a freelance performing musician, a composer, and I teach private flute and whistle lessons.\u00a0 Along with that, I went back to school to get a degree in Music Theory and Composition which I expect to finish December 2016.\u00a0 That makes for a very packed schedule.\u00a0 Aside from that, I enjoy decorative painting, bake my own bread, and raise Monarch caterpillars to become butterflies in the back yard during summer.<\/p>\n Jeff:\u00a0I am\u00a0a ship’s captain and spent most of my\u00a0career at sea, with a good bit of it running a fishing charter business. There are occasional opportunities to play music venues around the Jacksonville area and I spend a fair bit of time locating additional venues. I am retiring soon and hope to keep playing music until I can’t anymore.<\/p>\n How did you get\u00a0started playing your kind of music.<\/strong><\/p>\n Anne: I play a variety of musical styles from orchestral flute work to rock and Irish jigs.\u00a0 My mother taught me to read music at the age of 5 with some basic piano training.\u00a0 I began flute at 11 in junior high school band.\u00a0 Adulthood brought recorders, tin whistle, fife and voice.\u00a0 I became part of my first acoustic rock band when I learned the “Moondance” flute line for an open mic in 2000, not long after singing in a church choir.\u00a0 “My kind of music” is a little hard to pin down.<\/p>\n Jeff:\u00a0I started playing the guitar in High School and played in the jazz band for two years. \u00a0I would sit in my bedroom when my brothers weren’t there noodling to Neil Young, Jackson Browne, The Beatles etc. then I started working with a class mate who just came back from the army and we started a bluegrass string band called Surewood and played all around the Seattle area in the mid seventies. \u00a0I have always been a bluegrasser at heart but fingerstyle guitar really got my creative juices flowing.<\/p>\n How did you get involved in the airport music program?<\/strong><\/p>\n Anne: I began playing at the airport through Road Less Traveled.\u00a0 Most of the time, we play the airport as a duo.\u00a0 Honestly, it can be a long, lonely day playing solo.\u00a0 We decided to try it out, so we contacted the airport\u00a0& followed the process.<\/p>\n Jeff: I thought it was pretty cool that there was music 7 days a week there and so made the contacts for my duo Road Less Traveled and here we are.<\/p>\n What keeps you coming back to play a non-paying gig?<\/strong><\/p>\n Anne: Mostly, it’s a vehicle for keeping my chops up when gigs are few.\u00a0 It allows me to try new music in public before an important concert and to keep past pieces under my fingers. \u00a0 Furthermore, if I am going to be busking, the airport has high traffic flow, is climate controlled, and there is plenty of security nearby.\u00a0 All of the people working at the airport have been very kind.<\/p>\n Jeff:\u00a0It gives me an audience for new music and to keep my chops up when gigs are thin. It is good to play in a place that has high traffic and one of the perks is the air conditioning and the security. \u00a0I might add that it’s gratifying to see smiling faces passing by when I am doing an original tune or an old standby.<\/p>\n![\"IMG_1261\"](\"http:\/\/flyjacksonville.com\/jetstream\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/IMG_1261.jpg\")
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