The singer in our band has written about a dozen originals, and the band recorded them on a cd, as a favor to him. He sells one once in a while at a gig, and gives a lot of them away. He paid for the entire project, so we in the band had no say so in it, other than donating our time. The tunes are mediocre at best, with no commercial value at all. Unstructured and "random thoughts" as I call them; just mainly songs about his views on things. We are a party, bar band. We do a wide spectrum of tunes, from Alan Jackson to ZZ Top. The dance floor is usualy full most of the night. Now the singer is having us play a few of his originals in the setlist at every gig. Bad thing is, the dance floor may be full and the crowd is pumped, and then we do one of his originals, and the dance floor clears out and people look at us like we had two heads or something. No response other than some polite clapping from his friends. What's it gonna take for him to see that his originals are killin the mood? Granted right now it's only 3 or 4 songs of his a night, but I feel more is on the way in.

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Life is like a sh*t sandwich. The more bread you have, the less sh*t you have to eat.

Time for him to stop stroking his ego. Your crowd will eventually dwindle and you'll start losing gigs. He should try his stuff at an open mic night and gauge the reaction from the crowd. You will eventually lose your audience and your gig, I've seen it a hundred times. If nobody's heart is into it except the singer it's time to stop. There's a lot of good singers around. If you don't have a draw, a club won't hire you. The club wants to sell drinks, food and whatever, and make money. Just tell him you are hired as a cover band and don't run an original show at the club owners expense.

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

I second 63Supro's opinion. If he absolutely must play his songs, save them for the end of the last set if the place has mostly cleared out and just his friends are still around. It's best for his "originals" to be played in a different environment.

I remember when you got stuck recording this guys stuff. I surprised he's still in your band.

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

I agree. I remember the whole CD fiasco, and I am surprised that you are still working with this person...

There has to be a time where someone has to tell it like it is, no matter how much someone may get hurt or upset. Some people hate Simon Cowell on American Idol because they think he's mean, however, he's just telling it like it is many times. Friends and relatives are often polite because they feel they have to be, or they may just be blind to or unaware of their friend or relatives lack of talent...Eventually, someone has to tell this person what the real deal is...

If you don't want to do this, videotape one of your performances, and make sure to get part of the audience in the shot. Then have the member in question watch the performance. If they don't see the difference in the audience between original and cover songs, point it out. If they still don't see it, don't get it, or don't react kindly to criticism, cut off all ties...If you have visual proof, he can never say you fired him or parted ways over nothing. If he's as good as he thinks he is, he'll be able to find people who are interested in playing with him, and not just people who are just doing it to be nice. People often need a bigger or harsher reality check than others...

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RAMA LAMA FA FA FA

I've been in a similar situation.

I was in a band that did mostly covers and a few originals. The main problem was that our lead singer was not very good (no front man image or singing ability). I finally put it all on the table.

I said, "We need a front man and none of us are it."
The band did not survive the conversation let alone another gig. The leader singer’s ego too fragile to get past the idea that he wasn’t a front man. He was however a good song writer and bass player. I really liked playing music with him.

The truth is that the band is about the band and not just one person.
I’ve had to dump my own stuff that I realized wasn’t working for us.
For instance, I wrote a few songs for the band. A few were very popular and people loved them. One was not. I really liked the song and meant something to me, but it was dead in the water. People clapped for most of the stuff I wrote, but it was crickets for this song.

So one night during an after gig meeting I said, "We need to take my song out of the rotation." Everyone was shocked. They liked it, but I cared more about my band then my ego.

You don't have to listen to me, but it sounds like your buddy needs to open his eyes and see the truth.
I always tell people, “If I can’t sing please tell me to shut up. You’re not doing me any favors by lying to me.”

Good luck with the band.

I would always make it a point to introduce the song as "this is one our singer _____ wrote...we hope you like it."
The lack of response might tell him something you haven't been able to get in his head.
Good luck.

Use Diplomacy to have him understand that as a band, you are actually selling a product, (live music) to a consumer (the audience).
Evidently when the product isn't selling, you have to adapt, otherwise there will be no customers.
If that doesn't work than all band members must have a meeting to decide a course of action, change in set list, or personel change. Do get this resolved immediately otherwise the band itself will disintegrate from escalating internal conflicts.
Good Luck.

Our set list is 75% originals/25% covers (and 50% of those covers are so obscure nobody knows them!), but we bill ourselves as an "original" band, not a cover band.

As main songwriter (and frontman), I can (admittedly) get a little precious about some of my songs, but I have the sense & humility to know that if a song doesn't make the people want to shake their collective booty, it doesn't need to be in the set list...

...we can always record those songs, but we don't have to give live performances of every song I (or we) write.

+1 on kicking out your jack@ss lead singer; unless this guy has the pipes and/or charisma of a legend, he needs to go!!

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

+1. And I would limit it one original per set.

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“All music is folk music, I ain't never heard no horse sing a song.” Louis Armstrong

you have to do the covers. I mean i would take his side if he said "guys we have never done an original i want to see what can happen" i would say sure why not". But they are clearing the floor and that says "we dont like these songs"

I think if he write a song, and you guys like it give it a try but if they clear the floor that the last time you try it.

I say stick with the covers unless he writes something really good.