My all-time favorite line about
musician's
biographies is the hook in a Dan Connor song:
"My life is based on a true story."
My father
acted and directed in local theater, sang in chorale groups, wrote stories
and poetry. . . I learned to read music as a kid by one-noting out the
Steven Foster songs my grandmother played on the piano, and looking
in the book to see how they wrote it down. . .
A folksinger named Kay got me started on the guitar while we were at
Oakland University. . . My 22nd birthday present was finding out people
liked my voice, at Cafe Godot in Putney, Vermont. . . I learned my first
blues licks, and blues harp, playing with Dink Mantle in the old St.
Louis "gaslight district". . . One of my best songs is a re-write
(with permission) of a Randy Phillips song. And
there are so many more. . .
Hearing Hoyt Axton do his song 'Endless Road' on the dobro one night in
L.A. in 1965 is why I have one. A long list of
"big names" like Hoyt, Dylan, Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, Joan
Baez, Judy Collins and again many more have been influences too, but mostly
at a distance. Truth be told, "unknowns"-- family, friends and
acquaintances, up close and personal-- deserve most of the thanks and
credit for shaping what I do with music. I
sure didn't get where I am with it all by myself.
There's also a chunk of credit due to some less tangible influences, who live in that mysterious place songs come from. . . Ask any musician: the way we write the stuff is, we hear voices-- vocal and instrumental alike. But if that's true-- if I'm listening (and I am-- I never heard that song before)-- who's singing? Who's playing that melody running in my head that I like so much I'm going to learn it too? I mean, if that was me, I'd already know how to play it. . . wouldn't I?. . .
(God bless soundmen like John there by the lightpost.)
So I listen, and try to get the good stuff written down before it flies out the other ear, and then rewrite the lyrics, and work on the melody and the chords and the picking 'til it sounds like what I heard. . . Saying "I" wrote it ends up really just a convenience; it doesn't begin to tell you the magic in how the music happens. Truth be told, some kind of "we" wrote it-- but they gave me the song, not their names.
One more thing:
Music is called playing, and it's absolutely true. I'd rather hear an amateur
play than a "pro" work any night of the week-- and I've worked enough nights
that I'm glad you never heard to know the difference. That's not to say music
should be all fun and games-- although the music "industry" has devolved to
where cheap thrills are about all it can or cares to sell.
If you ever were a kid, or raised some, you know that playing can be serious
business. Getting a sad song really "right"-- making the audience
cry with you-- feels just as good as doing the happy ones. . .
Practicing the handcraft and the vocals is "work" sometimes,
yes; and the writing and re-writing can be too-- but it's all to make
the playing easier.
It's not complicated. Songs are my favorite sandbox, the words and melodies and instruments my favorite toys-- and the graffiti on the playground gate says:
Unless ye become as little
children,
ye shall not enter the kingdom. . .
(The dobro in surgery -- it needed a voicelift.)
