There by the grace of God I go<\/span><\/p>\nWe’re only a motion away from personal devastation.<\/p>\n
Most are only a paycheck away from financial ruin.<\/p>\n
If you think you’re immune you’re dreaming.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the nature of the human condition.\u00c2\u00a0 No matter how rich Steve Jobs is, cancer got him and he’s having a hell of a time beating it.<\/p>\n
Which is why you’ve got to love your brother, keep an eye out for him, pray that the safety net catches you on the way down. We’re only here for a short time.\u00c2\u00a0 Personal initiative goes a long way, but not all the way.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re nothing without society, without people.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe that’s one of the reasons that Jesse Colin Young song is a perennial, we do all have to get together.<\/p>\n
And "Down Across The Delaware" is about separation\/divorce\/human disconnection.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s another thing that’ll break your bank account, put you into poverty.<\/p>\n
But before the show James told me we’re screwed as long as people keep needing so much stuff.<\/p>\n
That’s what it comes down to, right?\u00c2\u00a0 If you raise my taxes, I won’t be able to buy the stuff I need.\u00c2\u00a0 Works whether you want to buy a private plane or purchase a new flat screen.\u00c2\u00a0 Americans feel entitled, to more, more, more.\u00c2\u00a0 The concept of sacrifice is anathema.\u00c2\u00a0 But do we really need all the things we think we do?<\/p>\n
And who’s going to pay for them?<\/p>\n
I hope the economy rebounds and everybody gets what they want.\u00c2\u00a0 But it looks like the opposite is happening.\u00c2\u00a0 When are we all gonna pitch in and fix this country.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead of demonizing the government and asking what it can do for us when we want to give it nothing in return.\u00c2\u00a0 I mean how do you expect to fill the potholes if you don’t pay taxes?<\/p>\n
You think you need money to make it in music.\u00c2\u00a0 You think you need to be ubiquitous.\u00c2\u00a0 That if you’re a journeyman, you’re lost.<\/p>\n
But the journeyman gets to play forever.\u00c2\u00a0 His time comes and it never goes.<\/p>\n
James McMurtry is up there telling his stories, evidencing all the years of practice on his guitar, and his loyal audience comes to see him.<\/p>\n
And that’s all there is.<\/p>\n
There’s no front page story in a newspaper no longer being read.<\/p>\n
There’s no video on an MTV that’s all reality shows.<\/p>\n
There’s no million selling CD.<\/p>\n
There’s just the music.\u00c2\u00a0 And that’s got to be enough.\u00c2\u00a0 Journeymen can’t afford backdrops and dancers, frequently they can’t even afford a band.<\/p>\n
Songwriters are bitching they can’t get paid in the new world.<\/p>\n
Yes, you can.\u00c2\u00a0 You can put your old kit bag over your shoulder and go on the road.\u00c2\u00a0 Those radio dreams are history.\u00c2\u00a0 People find out about music online and support those artists who are authentic, who are playing to them, not the gatekeepers.<\/p>\n
Everybody wants to go back to the past.\u00c2\u00a0 Well, that’s what we’re doing.\u00c2\u00a0 Only it’s further back than you contemplated, before CDs, before radio, when you made your living live.\u00c2\u00a0 Are you up to the challenge?<\/p>\n
James McMurtry is.<\/p>\n
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I didn’t see one person I knew.\u00c2\u00a0 Either inside or waiting outside for the 10 PM show. That’s the modern music business. Yes, he played "We Can’t Make It Here", but the highlight for me was the opening number, "Down Across The Delaware". Watch the video here: James McMurtry – Down Across The Delaware\u00c2\u00a0 (Sorry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-live-shows"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-14f","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4107"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4109,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4107\/revisions\/4109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}