Build Your Career From The Bottom Up

Cris Cohen: You guys (John McCutcheon and Tom Paxton) are outliers in a profession that’s not known for having longevity for the bulk of people who try to make a living in it. What would you say is the key to the two of you enduring throughout the years?

John McCutcheon: We didn’t rely on hits to make our way in. I was a dozen years into my professional life before I had a song that everybody went, “Ooh.” In this line of work, you build your career from the bottom up. You have relationships with your audience. In the folk music world, which I’m proud to say I’m a part of — a lot of people run away from that term — you walk in and you immediately have audiences who are listening to you. You’re not battling a jukebox or a pool table. You’re not in a bar. People come to see you to hear you, and it makes you pay attention to what you do. I think it makes you a better writer.