I spent last Saturday night out at the Braham Hall Pub in Portland celebrating my birthday. My friend Sean Mencher played out with a big ensemble of great musicians. It was an incredible performance. They are a swing/rockabilly band with Sean leading on guitar. There was no cover charge. It was one of the very best shows I have attended – ever. The music was tight but free flowing with each musician taking solos and going off into creativity based on the emotion of the moment. Freedom within the context of the song.
Over the past couple of years I’ve realized just how important it is to support our local artist. Whenever I hear the radio, I hear a record company trying to produce a product to make money. I hear radio stations playing what they are told to play based on investment instead of playing what the audience wants to hear or playing something the DJ discovered that is simply magical. They sell product.
Our local artist are better than most every band you hear on the radio. There are a few exceptions and I am so glad that we do get to hear music from around the globe via the internet and CDs. The indie movement via the web is very exciting. Still though, there is no substitute for listening to live music. And the best musicians are the ones that haven’t “made it” and they live right in your neighborhood.
“Music is not a noun™
“. It isn’t a product. It is an experience that transcends the words to describe it. We use the word “music” as a metaphor for an experience that can not be captured by words. Music is living. Even when we hear a great recording it is nothing compared to the sheer energy and excitement of being there, feeling the vibrations from the amplifiers or from the voice of an opera singer. It carries us to a new place. The records and videos can not come close to the feeling of being at one of those early Elvis Presley concerts. You just had to be there to get it. We can only imagine it now.
The experience of listening to and creating music isn’t something we should let be reduced to a product. It is part of our human nature. The playing of music is the completion of the a cycle of creativity and that is at the very core of my spiritual path. So while it is great to buy a CD (especially of our local artist), it is more important that we go hear live music. It is also vital that we not allow the fact that we may not be a great musician or performer, from playing and singing on our own. Our own music may be “bad” music but it is music none-the-less. It is part of being a complete human. The recording of music has stolen something from us. It has allowed us not to be creative ourselves. Without recordings, we would natural fill our life with music. And it would be our own voice along with our community that created it.
So anyway, get out and hear some great music and support those amazing artist in your own community. And also when your favorite tune comes on in the car, sing like it is the last thing you will ever express. Not to be morbid, but who knows what lies around the corner :>) So let your soul vibrate with the sounds of music. Express yourself without the worry that people won’t like it. It is the act of creating that is important, not the end result. Hey, it isn’t like you are charging people $100 for a ticket to a tightly controlled corporate sponsored concert that promises to sound exactly like the record did thirty years ago. It will just be you that is flowing along the currents of inspiration. And that my friends is the way to live a great life.
# 1, how dare you tell me it wasn’t your birthday 😉 I still get to spank ya though!
#2 I assume you know about music from 207 on WCLZ. I miss this station but thank the gods for the Web. It is all about local artists and that’s how I discovered some of my favorites including Peter Montagne