I was listening to The Gerry Ryan Show the other day and Kenny Rogers was on. He was talking about the business of music and specifically, performing. He explained that when you're performing, the audience expects to hear your biggest hits. You can play your new stuff or the stuff you want to play but you have to intermix that with your big hits. He said that's how you connect with your audience. They know the song and join you for the ride whereas a "new" song which might not be as popular requires the audience to listen a bit more and pay attention rather than sitting back and enoying the show. His method for coping with the "new song syndrome" is to speak to the audience and tell them something about it like "I wrote this song for my wife" which piques their interest and audiences tend to be more forgiving.

I wish more performers would take his advice. There's nothing more annoying than the performer that refuses to play the one or two songs you expect them to play. Not doing so might make the artist feel relieved that they don't have to play that damn song again but leaving your audiences dissatisfied is not a good way to keep your longevity.

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