The hot topic with one of my music groups, a female singer songwriting organization known as Indiegrrl, is how to keep yourself marketable as you get older and have to compete with the young gals in the music business.

Ahh Yes. The body parts going south, the hair going white, the wrinkles in your face and neck starting to look like raisins, the hot flashes are like tropical vacations, and your joints so stiff that you walk like you just got off a bucking horse. I'll hit the big 50 this year and I have earned every wrinkle, white hair, and less than perky body part. Here lately I have felt like I was 100. So how can we age gracefully to stay in the game with the younger gals or should we just accept what is.....is what is.

It's hard for older women in the music industry business unless you were an established very well known artist in the days of "Yore". Especially hard for independent artists not signed with major record labels. But you can't lose sleep over it and worry yourself to a stressed state. What you will have to do is find the niche that you can market yourself. It may sometimes mean doing more exercise and watching what you eat more which is hard when you are on the road. It may mean less alcohol to relax after a show and more herbal teas. It may mean that you have to have that 8 or 9 hours of sleep instead of that 5 or 6. Although my band and I can rock with the best of them it is hard to get clubs to book a more than middle aged, short chubby gal that doesn't wear tight jeans or mini skirts and shake her "groove thang" at the crowd. I didn't get started in this business as a solo artist until I was 45 so I was a very late bloomer. Got cancer and got busy living my dreams. My advice to those middle aged or older women in the music business or any business that is male dominated or dominated by the more youthful crowd, is to be honest and promote yourself as close to the picture of reality as possible. I personally tell night club agents or theater personnel when working bookings that, yes I am not your young twenty well built, gorgeous marketable female, but if you have a crowd that likes true to gut vocals and heart felt lyrics with some kick ass musicians that accompany me on stage while I rip at my guitar, then we are your band. If that is not what you are looking for then I'm not wasting your time or mine. I've taken so much prednisone over the years that I am as well rounded as the "Great Halloween Pumpkin" Charlie Brown but it all boils down to being comfortable with yourself. Personally I think Emmylou's long white locks are just as pretty as her long dark locks of days past. And Stevie Nicks may have packed on a few extra pounds over the years but oh how her eyes still sparkle with mystery. It is the true fan that will know when a woman has character with her body and her music.