I've probably had 101 jobs in my life, none of which would be considered jobs in the conventional sense of the word job. I have an undergraduate degree history and and MEd in psychology but never worked in either field. Most of my work comes from doing short term research (6 month- 1 year) projects funded by various private foundations promoting the arts.
The Smithsonian job was an entry level job but because so many of the great musical historians like Mike Seeger, Harry Smith, Sam Charters, and Barry Lee Pearson worked at the Smithsonian it was a great opportunity for me. Moses Asch ran the Smithsonian Folkways label from 1948 until 1986 and during that period over 2100 field recordings sessions were released on the label and probably another 3000 or so are in the archives at the Smithsonian on tape. I had just completed a tour of duty in the Peace Corp and saw the position announced in a routine government service posting. It was still during the era when the American goverment spent some money perserving it's own cultural folkways. All of that ended during the Reagan era along with my gig at the Smithsonian.
For the past five years I've been writting full time and doing a weekly radio show at a local college radio station here in St. Louis.
I'll soon be doing a internet radio show for Perspectives.com, the internet's largest forum and since the show has a global reach, anyone on Music Banter will be able to hear my show. I'll supply details as soon as I get them in about a week or so.
Making a lot of money has never been a big career priority for me which frees me to follow my own path. Bob Dylan once said freedom is waking up in the morning and doing pretty much what you want to do all day long. No amount of money can purchase that kind of freedom.
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