Unless you're holding an RSVP to a friend's wedding (that's the only reason someone asks for my physical address anymore), "mailing it in" is usually a bad thing.

As of next month (May), I'll have been doing music full-time for 5 years. Although I only began incorporating the mailing expression into my commonly used phrases about a year ago, I am very familiar with the concept:

You're tired. You've played 4 shows this week already, and you've got one tonight and you have to drive 9 hours back to Chicago to catch a flight to return to your hometown where you've got a meeting at 7am the next day.  You think to yourself, for a brief moment, that it might not be too bad if you just did the same set of songs from last night, take everything down a half-step, and just go on auto-pilot for the show tonight...

NO. 

I understand the need to preserve voices and health while out on the road, but once we as artists get comfortable with (I hate this expression, but) the status quo, our singing, playing, songwriting, promoting, and ultimately our art form suffers, and so does our audience.

I encourage all of us (and I say this as a corrective rebuke to myself as well) to feel as stretched as we can as far as making music that is challenging, accessible and enjoyable.  Also, remember the ancient habit of practicing our instruments? We should all be striving to learn more about how to play them, and how to play them better. 

Let's not forget our listeners - they are spending their time, energy, and money to come watch us display our art...and we need to be grateful to them.  Artists like Angie Stevens (www.angiestevens.com), Guy Forsyth (www.guyforsyth.com), and even John Mayer (www.johnmayer.com) are all examples of artists that continue to push the envelope creatively, and always provide their audiences with an amazing show. Whether you are playing for 5 or 5,000 people, each person there gave up their night, the opportunity to do something else, and is paying for a good show and a great time. If we don't provide it, they're going to look elsewhere for it.

So, for the sake of not letting music become a watered-down version of itself, when the temptation comes to "mail it in" tell it that you're going paperless...

-TRMJ