An impromptu jam session ensued on Tuesday at the Copyright Alliance’s EXPOnential between two musicians: Jonathan Ifergan and Margot MacDonald.

Photo credit: Renee Bouchard

The two had met for the first time just the day before to deliver the artists’ letter to the White House. Upon meeting, they found they had some areas of common interest. Besides their love of music and the range of talents each possesses, they chatted extensively about the challenges of building a solid fan base and how that affects decisions regarding giving music samples away versus selling music.

Margot belted out the first song while Jonathan played backup guitar for her. As her powerful voice carried through the Cannon Caucus room, heads turned and many of those chattering stopped to listen. Even the catering and event staff pulled out their phone cameras to snap a picture of the young, talented musician. And, I heard at least one person say, “Wow. Where is she from?”

“Right here. DC,” was the reply.

That’s right, Washington, DC’s very own rising star who writes her own songs, has produced three albums, and designs her own cover art and publicity materials. As she signed autographs at the BMI booth throughout the evening, attendees called her the “red-headed Taylor Swift.”

As Margot ended her tune, Jonathan took up the lead guitar and sent chuckles throughout the crowd as he performed an improvisational Bob Dylan-style song. As a first time visitor to Washington, DC, Jonathan sang about his impressions of the city, the events over the two days, and all the people he had met.

Jonathan is co-founder and lead singer for the band Color Radio out of Chicago. The unsigned band, whose influences include Radiohead, has already put out two albums. They have played in gigs all over Chicago and the Midwest and are in the process of booking an East Coast tour. Wherever you might be in the country, keep an eye out for this band on the rise.

While Margot is mostly a one-woman show, from writing to composing to creating graphics, Jonathan tends to focus on where he knows his strengths are best. He writes each song’s lyrics and encourages his band members to help write the musical composition during practice sessions.

While listening to the duo on Tuesday, one would have never guessed that they approach creating music differently, and that they hadn’t always played together. As Jonathan launched into Yellow Jackets, Margot easily matched the guitar chords and the chorus harmony. As the session drew to a close, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one in the room wishing they could continue playing late into the night.

But, alas, all good things must come to an end, including this blog. (That is, if you’ve been enjoying it). Before I sign off, however, I’d like to emphasize that I have come to know both Margot and Jonathan through my work at the Copyright Alliance. They are both hard-working, talented musicians who are trying to make a real living at writing, playing, and recording music. They aren’t rolling in the dough. And though they have a lot of good times doing what they do, I’m sure there are moments of doubt and uncertainty of what the future might bring.

They are passionate individuals who care about the rights to their work and look to maintain those rights so they can live off of what they do best.

A lot of people have this misconception that artists are these alter-beings out there who can somehow survive off of some intangible thing. As if all artists couch-surf, strum mindlessly on the steps of clubs in Greenwich Village, and eat crumbs left for the pigeons.

That false picture is what helps people justify the desire to reduce the rights of artists to virtually nothing or to take their music illegally. Yet, if you’d spend the time to talking to artists like Margot and Jonathan, you’d begin to understand why they support the Copyright Alliance and why they signed our letter to the President. You’d see that they are just like most everyone else: they work hard, produce great work, and want to be compensated for that.

So, if you haven’t talked to an artist recently, I encourage you to do so. It might help give you a good perspective as to why their rights are so important to them.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 4:41 pm by Lucinda M. Dugger and is filed under Obama, copyright law, creators, culture, events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.