When a musician tells you that 'music is my life', it is never more true than with me: I have been making music since before I was four years old and through some very, very dark times, music and words are my light at the end of a long, long tunnel and my comfort during years spent entirely alone and in bad health.
Many friends know of my story, or at least small parts of it, but to tell it in full would take a very long time and would tire me and probably bore any readers, so let's just say that the past few years have been a downward spiral of health issues that are incurable and the resulting loss of so much that means everything to me - my piano, my recording studio, my security, most of my sight and often even the food on my table.
From time to time, wonderful 'angels' in my life have helped me enormously to even be able to carry on at all, but I am at a point now where, despite having complete albums of music to release, and several books of poetry to publish, I have no means to deal with any of that, unless a major miracle occurs. And I think I have probably had my share of miracles already in my life.
I am hugely thankful to so many who helped and have done my absolute best to fight my way back to health and to the life I used to know. But........just getting through each day is as much as I can achieve at present. I long to be home in the place where I belong, I long to have a piano to hear all the new music that is just in my head or written on score sheets, I long to have the chance to record it all, sing it all and share with anyone who will listen.
But - I now must rethink all the things that have been on hold for so long. I have not for several years used Facebook, although there is still a Music page there kept going occasionally by a good friend. I don't intend to be back there.
I can just about manage Twitter on a good day, so that's my window on the world for now.
And ..........Reverbnation and I must now part company.
My adventure on Reverbnation started 11 years ago, when I uploaded my first blues release
'Can't Leave You Alone' which took me straight to the number one position in my locale and kept me there almost continuously until this year, 2018.
This period in my life was blighted by very serious illness and an ensuing struggle that still
continues, but the music never stopped and I succeeded in releasing two blues albums, a
mixed genre album, a spoken word album and several singles, all of course original work,
composed, played, sung and produced by me.
Music has been my life for the whole of my life and always will be.
Desperate times come with desperate health situations and finally I had to sell my beloved piano and all of my very treasured studio equipment, leaving me with a wealth of music that I cannot record, nor even play. I live in hopes of better times.
In the midst of all this, I watched the machinations of Reverbnation as it moved from being a
rewarding and enjoyable place to be for any musician, to a formulaic moneymaker; from
encouraging real interplay between musicians to encouraging 'collecting numbers' and having
everyone on the same treadmill, preferably paying a subscription for the privilege.
I have never paid a subscription; have thought about doing so from time to time, but then being in a situation where putting food on my table became the priority, I literally starved for my art, but not prepared to do so for promotion.
I successfully promoted myself on all the social media sites sufficiently to make my music
noticed and fortunately a lot of people purchased it, for which I am truly grateful.
However...........
at a point now where I see no benefit in being on Reverbnation any longer, much as I see no
benefit on being on Facebook as a musician - unless of course paying dollars were involved - and I am in the ludicrous situation where Reverbnation's 'system' is now telling me that my 'new' single 'Can't Leave You Alone'
( remember, this is where I came in, 11 years ago???) now has its
very own page and is being 'promoted'.
I asked if I could change this as it is entirely ridiculous and untrue to say this is a 'new' single, but am told that the 'system' does not allow for any changes, so if I stay at Reverbnation, I'm stuck with presenting a false message.
So, with some regret, I will now delete my profile and all my songs and bid Reverbnation goodbye. I prefer to have control over themusic that I create and the way in
which I reach those lovely people who have supported my efforts over the years.
'Tis quite sad in many ways, especially to lose the contact with so many who have been friends and contacts for those 11 yearsand who have left me very kind comments about my music from time to time. Thank you if you did that.
I wish everyone peace, love and music.
Tommie Brewster
tommiebrewster.com
twitter.com/tommiebrewster
You can still purchase my music at
https://tommiebrewster.bandcamp.com and
https://store.cdbaby.com/artist/tommiebrewster