From ccmacdon@rogers.com Sat May 18 08:43:38 2013
Subject:OT - Re: Jim Alfredson's New Project - Tribute to Big John Patton

Just want to add my 2 cents here.. I have two observations on this one.. First of all I don't know Jim personally, I only know him from his online presence, but from my perspective Jim is a pretty good guy, very generous and helpful with his time and he willingly shares his knowledge and experience (and his experience and knowledge of Hammonds and clones is pretty deep) . . He's devoted hours and hours to creating his tonewheel sets, writing reviews, recording demos, etc, etc, etc.. None of which actually results in any $$.. Which brings me to my second observations... I do believe that unlike some of us, Jim is a professional musician, who makes his living playing and performing, and also as acting as a sponsored artist for Hammond.
 
That said, all of this is a balance for him.. balancing all of the things he wants to do to help others, because he's a nice guy.. vs making money in this business to support himself and his family..  This is a very tough line to balance, and the music business is pretty tough these days, especially for artists who's genre of music may not be mainstream, and/or particularly lucrative. Most of the advice he's provided to date has been for free, and only recently has he begun to ask for donations for his tonewheel sets, and from my perspective given all the time he's invested, he deserves it, and more power to him if me makes some $$.
 
All that said, I don't think we should say NO to a post of this nature when one of our forum members (and I believe that Jim is also a forum member) is promoting a CD for sale OR looking for "investors" to help to fund a project. However since it is OT, but yet of interest to many of our members, I would suggest that we handle it in the same manner that we handle equipment for sale.  A one time FYI notice posted in the forum, with appropriate information and links.  The post should be polite, not be deamed to be putting pressure on anyone to contribute or participate, and last but not least, like equipment for sale it should be identified as Off Topic.
 
That's my thoughts..
 
Craig 

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