We recently connected with Chris Long and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Chris , thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
I get my work ethic from my family. My parents and grandparents have always been hard workers and it just seemed natural that it was what you do. It was always, do what you have to do and do it to the best of your ability before you do what you want to do, and do that a the best of your ability as well.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
My family is always first and foremost for me in life. That takes precedence over everything. My career has two lanes of travel right now. The first path is my career as a history teacher. I have always truly loved the study of history, and left a previous career in television to pursue teaching in public school. As with everything in life, this requires passion, hard work, and effort to continually grow. The worst thing in this field is becoming complacent and lazy in the work. Take the time, make the commitment, and take pride in the work you do.
The second path is my music career as a singer songwriter. I am considered roots rock, heartland, and Americana in my style, but a local DJ referred to it once as Appalachiacana. That designation struck home, because it represented my Southern Appalachia roots in my music style.
I perform over a hundred booked shows a year regionally around Virginia, Tennessee, and the Carolinas. These show range from theaters to coffee houses. I try to write daily and record occasionally. Playing shows and finding time to record can be difficult. Especially working fifty hours a week with my career as a teacher.
This path allows my creative side to come out. I put a lot of work into my music, and it has rewarded me greatly over the years. I have had the pleasure of performing on stages that I would have never dreamed of playing when I was younger, met artists that have inspired me and my music, and been privileged to perform on television, radio, and the internet.
This also takes dedication, practice, thick skin, and patience. In our modern world people want to be a star over night. They expect instant gratification. This has never been my mindset. It takes time, work, and a lot of miles to make it happen. Even when it does you cannot slack off and expect it to continue.
My dad is also a musician, and that helped to shape my course and direction. Never be something you are not on stage or in your music. Remember, that not every audience is your audience, but play your heart out every time you play. Play to ten people like ten thousand.
I hope to see both of my paths continue to grow. Where that will be I can only dream.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I believe that my love of history, music, determination, humility, and work ethic were essential for my journey.
For a time, I had lost direction of who I was and what I wanted. Not to say I was not happy, or at least I didn’t realize I wasn’t. Then I changed careers and picked up a guitar again, now I cannot imagine life being any different.
My advice to people is to find yourself and what makes you happy. Work for what you get and appreciate everything you do along the way. You will make mistakes, hit roadblocks, and fall down along your journey. Don’t let this stop you. Get back up, dust yourself off, learn from your mistakes, and move on to do it again. Most importantly, never act above your raising, act like your are more important than you are, or try to be someone you are not.
Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?
Currently I feel like things are changing faster than some of us can adapt to them. That is a huge obstacle for me. I am a creature of habit and I honestly hate to talk about or hype what I do. Even doing this interview is challenging, because I hate to talk about myself. However, to be successful today you have to to a certain extent.
Contact Info:
- Website: chrislongtunes.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chrislongmusic?mibextid=LQQJ4d
Image Credits
Photos by Jerilyn Williams Long and Scotty Arnold
