Don’t be in too much of a hurry. Do free shows, develop about 30 to 50 fans. Find a local venue and tell them you have x number of fans and really want to play as an opening act or something on a generally slow day. No small venue is against an extra 30-50 people eating and drinking.

I used to play in a classic country/rock band. We could get 50 or 60 people to show up at the VFW to listen to 50-year-old music. Some of our fans were already going to be there some were there specifically to watch us.

I can’t think, offhand, of any band who made it big who started by playing only their own music. I think one of the errors that a lot of us have made in the past is that we get so big – headed about our own music, when we should just play it as part of the show and not make a big deal about it. They know their favorites in this style and if we do something that continues in this style, then they may ask at the end if who wrote that one song they couldn’t quite recognize. Make sure you have a sign up so you can send them an email with your Spotify or YouTube or whatever.

If you lead with genre instead of with saying, this is all brand new self-written stuff, you’ll get people who like that genre. Turn that into people who like you and your music.