I was TRANSFIXED!

I’m still tingling. This is exactly what music is all about. Direct expression from one human being to another, with no committee, no filter messing up the message.

And that’s why we’re living in a new golden age. Distribution has been flattened. Everyone can play. But are you any good?

I now know why the CEO of Guitar Center flies in a private jet. Sure, he’s got to get to out of the way venues, but the point is everybody wants to play, they need instruments to do so, and it might be a lousy time to own a record store, but it’s a brilliant time to be selling musical instruments.

And that’s what Folk Alliance is all about. Players. Making what David Crosby famously called "wooden music".

Folk Alliance is the epicenter for folk music. And it’s making a comeback. It was pushed down by the man, the major labels fighting for hits. But now with hits diminished, all the music pushed down to the bottom of the river is resurfacing. Running around the Memphis Marriott you’d think folk music rules the world.

And maybe it does.

So there’s a plethora of rooms. And during the early evening, curated acts are playing in all of them, half an hour at a time. You don’t sign up and get a slot, Louis Meyers makes sure you deserve the attention, that you’re good.

And what’s funny is there are household names, assuming your house is filled with music. Steve Forbert played. As well as James McMurtry. Jonatha Brooke is performing right now. I can’t wait to see Malcolm Holcombe and Steve Poltz. It’s like being injected with a hypodermic of adrenaline. Eureka, this is it! This is music!

It’s coming from everywhere.

And I’ve seen no plastic surgery. I’ve just seen regular people, Americans. Some with lumpy bodies, some with oversized features. Because that’s what human beings are, diverse. If you can’t accept me because I’m imperfect, I don’t want to know you.

And you know what?

We less than perfect people are inheriting the world. We’ve now got the power.

Now I’m gonna let you in on a little secret. It’s very easy to learn how to play. But it’s almost impossible to learn how to write.

You can spin records, buy books, you can master the notes. But can you rearrange them in such a way that we’re infected?

Very few are able.

But when you can, we pay attention. We’re startled. It’s like your favorite uncle come back from the dead to tell you what it’s like on the other side.

Only great songwriters tell you about this side. Life. Complicated, messy, exciting and even sometimes boring.

No dancing, no melisma necessary.

You don’t even need to be the best player.

You’ve just got to be able to get your message across.

So I go to see this guy Tim Easton. Met him once, liked his music.

And I find I can’t stop paying attention. To the stories, to the words.

And then he starts playing this song "Next To You".

That’s where we all want to be.

And it’s so hard to get there. And stay there.

Sure, hit and run sometimes works.

Then again, so many are afraid to ask, to take a risk.

Can you get up your gumption to be honest, to approach another human being, to get close, to let your bodies touch?

That’s what makes the whole world go ’round, that’s what makes life worth living. Life without intimacy is death.

And Tim’s singing his song, picking the notes, playing his harmonica.

And there’s nowhere I’d rather be.

I needed to tell you.

Spotify link