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How to survice being a musician
No matter what motivates them, local singer-songwriters find a way to balance performing and everything else
BY RYAN MILLER

	Amazing grace: Gina Alston lets her love of Jesus shine through in her original songs.
PHOTO COURTESY OF RYAN MILLER

“[Playing the guitar is] not an easy thing

They have to play music.
They have to.
If they’re not strumming their guitar or singing, it’s because of an unavoidable situation: They’re either eating, earning money so they can continue to eat, or are making sure close family members can eat.

Then, it’s back to the music.

Though some “make it big,” most singer-songwriters tend to package their CDs in homemade paper slipcovers, recruit friends to help with publicity, perform to audiences that sometimes swell to more than 100, and are quite happy—though occasionally hungry—here in Santa Maria, where the biggest problems aren’t cancelled tour stops or fickle drummers. Typically, their troubles are more domestic, but they make it work by juggling soccer practices, Sunday morning worship services, 9-to-5 jobs, and tight budgets.

They make it work. They have to.

“For one thing, I’m a mom, so I can’t just go out there and promote myself like I’d like to,” said Gina Alston, who regularly plays and sings at the Higher Groundz coffee shop.

Many musicians share Alston’s complaint, noting that performing takes more than just buying a guitar, writing a song, singing it, and going home.

“Today’s musicians have to be the manager, writer, promoter, engineer,” said Victor Valencia, another Higher Groundz regular. “You become everybody in one nutshell. Unless you have an inside connection, it’s pretty tough.”

Then there’s that little matter of money: earning enough to pay rent, buy groceries, take care of the basics. Singing to 50 people once a month—or even once a week—doesn’t pay very well, if at all, so many musicians have to hang up their guitars and enter the “real working world.” However, even outside jobs can translate into an outlet for talent. Alston teaches music and sings part-time at Alice Shaw Elementary School. She started there when her daughter, then in kindergarten, asked her to come in and sing to the class. It was a popular visit, which turned into an 18-classes-a-week gig. Alston became a regular volunteer. Now, with her daughter in third grade, she’s got a paid position and is mobbed by groups of 20 or 30 kids for hugs when she comes to campus. At the school, she performs songs she writes herself, cheerful tunes about characters like Johnny Appleseed. Later, off work and on mic, she still performs original work, most of which she wrote when she was a teen-ager. Last year, she completed writing the song “Come,” which she started when she was 10, a year after she became a Christian. Now, recently turned 40, she says her faith comes through in her lyrics; she calls some of her work prayer turned into song.

“I don’t even really know how many songs I’ve written, because I don’t always write them down,” she said.

And music can pay off. Alston performs her songs at coffee houses and at conferences and retreats, loading her sound equipment and guitars (a “cheap one from eBay” and a ’77 Gibson) into the back of her van. But her favorite part of what she does, she said, is sitting down on a stool, plugging in her guitar, and singing from the heart, a sentiment she believes helps her connect with her audience.

She pulls her lyrics from her life, she said, and her love of Jesus. If she can help somebody see the value of who they are, then she feels she’s doing her job.

Sunday January 25, 2004
by Victoria Terrinoni,

Her Calling, Music a vocation for Santa Maria Woman

For Gina Alston, music is more than a career, its a calling. The 40-yr-old wife, mother, and singer/songwriter is on a mission to encourage people to keep after their dreams because you never know when its going to happen. She also wants to show people through her Christian music that they are important to God. Alston, of Santa Maria, began writing songs at the tender young age of 10. Although most of her songs were written when she was 16 & 17years old, one song, Come, was started at age 10, but Alston said she didn't finish it until last year. Her ideas come from all areas of her life and often come to her at odd times. Its not uncommon for me to wake up in the middle of the night, grab my guitar and start writing, Alston said. She writes both the music and the lyrics, even though she can't read music. Most of her music is Christian, even though she sings secular music, too, in her performances. Music Alston believes, helps her to spread her message. I hope someone can hear the Gospel, if I can steer someone in the right direction and show them they are valuable, I feel that is my mission in life, she said.

Alston, a member of Evangelical Free Church in Santa Maria, has been a Christian most of her life, She remembers being saved at a tent revival when she was 9 years old. My mom was saved the night before and she dragged our whole family, including visiting relatives from California, there and everyone was saved that night, she said. Its not always been easy, but I have a heart for people who don't know Christ, she added.
Bringing people into worship, especially women, is part of what Alston sees as her mission. If you can get the woman of the house, you can reach the rest because she is kind of the heart of the family, she said. I just want people to see Jesus in me. I want them to say, What is it about this woman? She has something different Alston added.

Alston, her husband Steve, her son, Chris and her daughter Lindsey have lived in Santa Maria for 11yrs. She is originally from Klamath Falls, Oregon near Crater Lake Nation Park. Chris, 20 is in the United States Coast Guard and is stationed in North Carolina, where he will be working on C-130 transport planes. Lindsey, 9, is a third-grader at Alice Saw School, Steve, her husband of 21yrs, works for Exxon/Mobil in Gaviota.
Alston describes her husbands the wind beneath my wings to quote the famous song. He's my support. He knows that my heart is in the ministry. I appreciate that support and that he is giving me that blessing. He is the silent one, but he's my rock upon the Rock, she said.

Alstons music also supplies the family with some added income. Until this past Christmas, she taught music at Alice Shaw Elementary School, but now she does it on a volunteer basis since the money donated by a local organization to support the music program has been used up. Alston said shed volunteered at the school for four years, when Lindsey was in kindergarten. She describes herself as a parent/performer/someone who likes kids. When Lindsey was a first grader, she needed a song about Johnny Apple seed, so Alston wrote one. The children will always remember songs. That's one reason why I like working in the school, she said.

Another gig includes playing the second Friday and last Tuesday of every month at the Higher Groundz Coffee House in Santa Maria and sometimes at the same coffee house in San Louis Obispo. She would like to see an open mic night held at each of the Higher Groundz to give people an outlet for their music. If someone has a song, often they think is not good enough because it doesn't sound like the one on the radio. But if God gave you that song, let it out, Alston said, promoting the open mic idea.

She also performs at conferences, retreats, seminars and community events.

Another avenue of musical income is teaching beginning guitar. The students are so excited they want to learn . Some are too young . They take a few lessons and realize it is too much work, she said. The exception to the rule , however , is a first-grader she taught last year who picked up the skills right away.

Besides being musically involved, Alston is also involved in community activities including serving as chairwoman of the Santa Maria Christian Women's Club. And all these activities keep her busy. Juggling it all an her family can be a problem, but is keeps her in Santa Maria. If I didn't have my 9yr old, where would I be.... traveling. But I'm grounded in her, she said.

That hasn't stopped her from recording and promoting her music. Alston recently recorded a CD of five songs, which she sells at Higher Ground and conferences she attends. The CD is not a finished product, she said but because it costs about $1,000 to record three songs she has to take it slowly. And so far, Alston is happy with her career and calling. She said if she never makes it to the big time and plays outside the local venue, it will be okay with her, because maybe she will help someone else make it big. She likes the accolades she gets right at her home. I may never make it to the big time and That's all right. When I walk on campus (at Alice Shaw School) and get the hugs, I feel like I am in the big time, she concluded.