Release Notes: "No Time Left for You"

We purposely waited just a little bit to announce the release of this song. We did that because we wanted to see what the streams looked like if we didn't announce the release to our friends on Facebook, or David on his other various social media platforms. (I'll list David's social links at the bottom of the page). As of the time I started putting this page together, we have 235 views and gained another subscriber. I only announced the premier of the video a few hours in advance of the release, then I removed the link after the viewing. So, in short, without the help of Facebook, and other social media, and  with just the 595 current subscribers on the Chris Hughes Texas Music YouTube channel, we got to 235 streams. That is kind of a cool victory to us. Will it net us any money? no...... but that never was the point of all this. 

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THE POINT OF ALL OF THIS -

That is REALLY what I wanted to write about here. And I really hope that I say things correctly.

Wailin' Gnash, (David and myself) at the heart of this, are in this project solely to express our original music in whatever fashion or form that takes. We HOPE some folks will like it, but if they don't, our doing this is not for an outcome, or a result. It's just to do it, because it's ours. It's OUR ART. It's not "paint by numbers". Covering other artists is great. We have both played covers for years, we are both currently playing in cover acts. That's how many players make their money, so it isn't a bash to anyone. It's just that when I was thinking of a career in music, the natural progression was always, naturally, to wind up doing your own thing. Of course, what my recording career looks like now, is significantly different than what I had originally envisioned it might be as I was coming up. But to that end, I am very happy that technology has come this far. It allows me an opportunity and an ability that I otherwise would not have had. Or maybe, for me, it gives me the ability to continue doing something I thought I may have pissed away. At any rate, I will say, that if I couldn't do original music in some form now, I would most certainly hang it all up. And we have figured out a way to get the job done, and that's all that really counts in the end.

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Another reason for this is sobriety. I am in my 7th year of sobriety, and David isn't far behind me. Friendship, and remaining accountable to one another in sobriety is important. Wailin' Gnash is a project, and partially a product, of our mutual sobriety. Sobriety hasn't really made life easier for either of us, in and of itself. But it certainly has helped us rebuild relationships, and deal with things clearly and honestly now. We just knew that there was no way we would see any of this to completion if we were still acting like addicts. And we were both at the point that there had to be a change. Having a vision, and a friend who shares your Faith in Christ has helped us both immensely. If there is anyone out there that thinks in the back of their mind, "man, I could use a change", you are probably right! 🤣We all can in one way or another.  

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FINALLY, for ME, one of the biggest reasons that I continue to do this, is to hopefully motivate other musicians to focus on THEIR OWN writing, and recording, and releasing songs and albums. I don't believe that any motivation I spread to other musicians will come in the form of people wanting to emulate my playing, or songwriting, or even the quality of the recordings. I'm not that good of a player, songwriter, or engineer, or artist, or publisher, or anything else. But honestly, more in the line of, "well if HE can do it ANYONE CAN". And THAT IS THE POINT. 

IF WE CAN DO IT, ANYONE CAN! And for the 999 billion musicians out there that are more talented and skilled than me and Dave, JUST THINK how good YOU could do if you started now! 

The landscape of the music business has changed drastically in the last 20 years. It's hard to be profitable, and getting a "recording deal" is not nearly as accessible or lucrative as it used to be. Being independent is a viable option! And let's face it, you will never get to play your stuff in front of a bangin' audience unless you write good stuff. And the only way to get to writing good stuff, is to start by writing SOME stuff. 

Maybe it's just a pipe dream, but I would love to see the live music scene change from 3 hours of the anticipated cover songs a night, to bands being expected to play SOME ORIGINAL material because everybody does it. But hey, a man has to have a dream, right?.......... and for the doubters that say you can't play originals in bars. I say, let's have that conversation another time. Because it's valid. I would just like to see writing and creating and recording be a bigger part of what the average player does. So, I try to write, and record.   

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These Wailin' Gnash recordings aren't perfect. The songs aren't perfect. There are things I would change on earlier stuff. But that is growth. We didn't really strive for perfection. The songs were really just supposed to be demo songs in case we found some folks that wanted to jam, we would at least have some original tunes to kick around. As things progressed, I figured, "why not release this stuff?" In the end, our philosophy on these recordings, and trying to develop our style has been to just keep things pretty simple and try to make each one better by learning from the last one. ​

Since 2020, We have put back together a respectable home studio, a nice PA, and both started gigging again.​

And for all practical purposes, it really doesn't mean squat, but to date we have released a homespun, covid inspired 6 song EP with our friend Zak, we have done six Wailin' Gnash singles, we do our own recording, mixing, mastering (for the time being), publishing, we do our own artwork and videos, and issue our own ISRC sales codes, and our stuff is distributed to like 40+ platforms all over the world via TuneCore. We administrate our own website.

We went from being 2 older players who had retired from music, and having nothing but an idea, to where we are now in just 5 years. 

And that is not meant as a boast. I really, really hope you don't take it that way. We are blessed and fortunate.

But trying to keep my focus and develop a streamlined way to release my music effectively is THE primary reason I am not in a band. I had to prioritize what I wanted to accomplish. 

I wanted to take an opportunity to share my thoughts a little bit, and I wanted to do it outside of Facebook, or the normal social media platforms that I (we) are a part of. We hope you guys have a great day, and a blessed week. Thank you for reading. ✌️🙏​

Chris Hughes 4/27/2025​