Not long after I pulled over for the Bomb Squad van, I tuned into the Village, channel 15 on XM.<\/p>\n
Last week, sick of fighting the rap wars, I had the epiphany I was only going to listen to folk music.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe country, that Wreckers album is really good.\u00c2\u00a0 But is that really country?\u00c2\u00a0 Do I want to listen to all those right wing shitkickers twanging to show their roots?\u00c2\u00a0 No, maybe I should go where my roots are, in folk.<\/p>\n
Yes, prior to the rock era, we even had folk TV shows.\u00c2\u00a0 "Hootenanny!" being the biggest.\u00c2\u00a0 Not that I watched that.\u00c2\u00a0 But I sang a shitload of folk songs at summer camp.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s right, you can sing folk music.\u00c2\u00a0 There are verses, and choruses, and certainly melodies.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the basics.\u00c2\u00a0 And rather than explain that not loving rap does not mean one is racist, I figured I’d just retreat.\u00c2\u00a0 Into my own private backwater.\u00c2\u00a0 Like the jazzbos.\u00c2\u00a0 And the classical fanatics, even.<\/p>\n
And the XM readout said Christine Lavin.\u00c2\u00a0 Whom I distantly know as a singer herself.\u00c2\u00a0 But beneath her moniker was that of one Jeff Daniels.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, Christine Lavin seemed to have her own show, she was INTERVIEWING Jeff Daniels.<\/p>\n
Why, I couldn’t figure out.\u00c2\u00a0 Isn’t Jeff Daniels an ACTOR?<\/p>\n
But I listened.\u00c2\u00a0 Because I’ve seen "Something Wild".\u00c2\u00a0 And if you have, you love Jeff Daniels forevermore.<\/p>\n
So, they’re b.s.’ing, and it appears that yes, like every other celebrity with a profile, Jeff Daniels has made a record too.\u00c2\u00a0 But he’s not promoting it in the usual way.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s being self-deprecating.\u00c2\u00a0 And then they spun a track.\u00c2\u00a0 Entitled "If William Shatner Can, I Can Too".<\/p>\n
Yes, we know from Rhino, William Shatner makes records.\u00c2\u00a0 If you haven’t heard Captain Kirk do "Mr. Tambourine Man", you’re in for a treat.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s so bad, he’s GOOD!\u00c2\u00a0 Insiders love his music.\u00c2\u00a0 And I must admit a fondness for it too.\u00c2\u00a0 So I was intrigued.<\/p>\n
Jeff’s number cracked me up.<\/p>\n
Turns out he can play the guitar.\u00c2\u00a0 And even sing, too.\u00c2\u00a0 And when he started making fun of Jennifer Love Hewitt I got the kind of smile on my face you get when you feel like you’re just a little bit hipper than the mainstream.\u00c2\u00a0 And that USED to be the essence of radio.\u00c2\u00a0 In its free-format days.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re here, we’re not burdened by the system, we’re only interested in testing limits, being adventurous, FULFILLMENT!<\/p>\n
And as I inched along the 405, I was transported.\u00c2\u00a0 I no longer worried about my day slipping away.<\/p>\n
Turns out Mr. Daniels has a theater in Michigan.\u00c2\u00a0 Legit, not a movie house.\u00c2\u00a0 Called Purple Rose something, like his breakthrough movie.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s got a $500,000 budget.\u00c2\u00a0 And to raise money, two weeks a year, he does shows every night.\u00c2\u00a0 For 170 people.<\/p>\n
He instructs everybody to shoot their photos in the first number.\u00c2\u00a0 Then, he does a tune within which you’re supposed to make your cell phone call.\u00c2\u00a0 You know how everybody’s talking at the show these days.\u00c2\u00a0 Well, he’ll just play in the background and let you do your business.<\/p>\n
The insight, the sense of humor, I was ENRAPTURED!<\/p>\n
And then, Jeff played a number live.\u00c2\u00a0 About being shot by Clint Eastwood.\u00c2\u00a0 How, to a man, being shot by Clint in a film is as good as sex.\u00c2\u00a0 Christine said she and her distaff brethren didn’t agree, but she wanted to hear the number anyway.<\/p>\n
There was a whole story.\u00c2\u00a0 About being phoned up by Clint.\u00c2\u00a0 About one of them dying.\u00c2\u00a0 The only problem was I was nearing my house.<\/p>\n
If Felice wasn’t picking me up for a trip to Malibu, I would have sat and listened for the rest of the hour.\u00c2\u00a0 I lamented moving on.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t feel this good hardly ever.<\/p>\n
You can’t buy Jeff’s CD on Amazon, only on his Website.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s not working it.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s just cottage industry.\u00c2\u00a0 Which accounts for the appeal.\u00c2\u00a0 How very sixties.\u00c2\u00a0 When it was about servicing the niche, and not breaking big.\u00c2\u00a0 God, you broke big by ACCIDENT!<\/p>\n
I don’t know if I’m gonna become a folk music addict.\u00c2\u00a0 All I know is trying to appear hip no longer works for me.\u00c2\u00a0 And if this allows me to discover fulfilling music like that of actor Jeff Daniels, I’ll be all the richer, all the HAPPIER, for it.<\/p>\n
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