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At 7:49 AM -0800 11/29/06, Travis Hartnett wrote: > >Both sides are missing out on something valuable from the other side >of the fence. > >But to me, if I look at a cooking Keller Williams show, I see a >performer and an audience who are experiencing a joy at the event >which greatly exceeds the joy factor of any Derek Bailey show I >could imagine. If the combination of "joy" and "music" are >important to you in assessing musical events, then KW wins out. If >there's something more important than "joy", then he may not rate so >highly. > >For me, there is no "wrong sort" of joy generated by a musical >experience--the purpose of the musical event is to use whatever >tricks and techniques the performer has available to transport him >or her and as much of the audience as possible into a glimpse of the >divine. That is my standard for a successful musical >performance--not whether I played anything new or challenging (while >not excluding those possibilities either). Well said, Travis. Last night I saw Richard Thompson play a solo show that satisfied as deeply as any performance I've witnessed in years. I could have say there for hours. Just RT and his guitar and a stomp box or two. Every song a gem, and every one worked on numerous levels: you can just listen to the story he's telling, feel the emotions in the drama he's revealing; or you can note that every one of his songs has something unique and new in it, some musical problem that he solves ingeniously. There is a depth of feeling in RT's performance that I've never seen Keller Williams, or Phish, (etc.) come anywhere near to. The man is a true genius, and what he has done is something we all should aspire to: he has become someone in particular. He's created a musical persona and a body of work that appeal to a modest but devoted following, and he delivers the goods to that audience with genuine passion and power. Keller is someone in particular, too. Not as fiercely passionate as RT by any means, but he has created a persona and a style of music that very obviously works for him and for his audience. He'll never make you cry onstage, but he's delivering the goods and keeping his customers satisfied. I've come to the conclusion that the "herd" problem is a problem for every artist. You begin by making the music you really want to make, or need to make; you attract an audience of people who get what you're doing and, if you're lucky, evangelize you to their friends and community. More people come to hear you play, and your audience grows. Eventually you will start drawing some people who don't really understand what you're doing, but they're there because their friends are into you or because they think it's cool to be seen at your show. And the bigger you get, the greater the percentage of fans you'll have who aren't on the same page with you creatively. You'll feel some pressure to play the familiar stuff and you'll chafe because you'd rather do the new music. You'd better hope that happens, because anyone whose audience consists entirely of people who are right beside you on on your creative journey is playing for a very small audience and probably won't be quitting his day job any time soon. -- David Gans - david@trufun.com or david@gdhour.com Truth and Fun, Inc., 484 Lake Park Ave. #102, Oakland CA 94610-2730 Blog: http://logblog.gdhour.com Web site: http://www.dgans.com