RSS Feedlike summertime when we were young – noses kissed by golden sun
on the edge and looking down
we held our breath and closed our eyes, leaped into the deep blue skies
and plunged into the great unknown
We’re on the edge. We’re looking down. And it’s a scary, exhilarating place to be. It’s a little like sky diving – “you got yourself up there, now there’s only one way to get down.” The waters are swirling. Nobody knows how deep it is. OK, here goes.
The music industry is the wild west. Everybody’s making up their own rules as they go, and it’s a race to find out whose rules are going to wind up on top. Like most of the rest of the country, record companies are trying to put food on the table for right now – perhaps at the expense of their future selves. For the first time, the average Joe with a guitar and a lyric can compete. BUT, there are a LOT of Joe’s that want to compete so it becomes a game of “rise through the noise” and be the only act that does what you do. I think it’s a good thing for creativity. The formula has been broken. It no longer works because it’s the swarm effect – when everyone is doing the same thing we crave something unique. We’ve always had a love affair with acts that break the conventions and rise above. After a gluttonous infatuation with the formulaic “hit machine” of the past 15 years, the market has changed – we want artists again. We want music that is never satisfied with its previous attempts – amazing as they may be. I think that’s what makes the best musicians and artists in a league of their own – they’re still reaching for the brass ring, they feel like their best is still in there somewhere, they just have to find it.
I want to learn. I want to be taught. I want to be friends with people who blow my mind and who approach music from a different angle than I do. A theologian commented that the closer you get to God, the further away you realize you are. I think in a lot of ways the same thing applies to music. The more competent an artist and musician I become, the more my inadequacies are revealed – and the more my thirst is stoked.
Sorry to be vague, but we’re closing our eyes and taking a breath…who knows what’s at the bottom of this 
–jonathan
September 18th, 2010 at 9:16 am
One thing I wanna say,all of you guys are amazingly talented from what I’ve seen at a Sara Evans concert in Kissimee, and if the music world can’t see that it’s their loss. Plus, yes what you’re doing gets very, very scary but you just have to dive into it. If they surprisingly don’t like you all, they don’t but I have a good feeling.