"Livin' The Dream!"

 Danny Paisley and Southern Grass at Port Deposit, Maryland, May 2013

17 August 2013

"I have my dreams, Mr. Starbuck, they may be little dreams, but they're my dreams!"
                                                                                  Lizzie, from The Rain-Maker

       Anyone who thinks the bluegrass life is easy needs to talk to Danny Paisley. He's popularized a  well-worn, tongue-in-cheek life-phrase here in our neck of the woods. The first time I heard it I fell out of my chair with laughter. One of his band members made a comment about an uncomfortable situation and Danny responded with "You're livin' The Dream now, Buddy!" In other words, suck it up and like the fact you're able to get up in front of people and entertain them. Danny's got a sense of humor I can appreciate. He's always got that smile on his face that lights up when all his musicians are running full-bore on synchronized pistons. I've written previously that he may have one of the best configurations in bluegrass music. Danny's "Livin' the Dream" attitude has a lot to do with it. Every time I hear him say it I have some deep thinking to do about how hard it is for a few of the better entertainers to work a room - and then get maybe just enough money to cover their gasoline expenses for the day.  The life of hard work and little recompense goes way beyond the guy up on stage or the band cranking out old time music just to bring a little enjoyment to a room-full of beer-drinking dancers. Recently, at Jumbo Jimmy's (Port Deposit, Maryland) I watched for the umpteenth Sunday afternoon, as the manager handled a big crowd of people who had come out to enjoy AcrosstheTrack Bluegrass. The beer flowed and so did the steamed crabs and sandwiches, she got people seated, and took care of the usual customer whinings. What I didn't know, is this person also does all the entertainment bookings and handles all the relations with the entertainers. Her sense of modesty prohibits me from mentioning her name. She's a hard-worker and she's "Livin' the Dream" of running (single-handedly) a clean, well-lighted place that takes people away from the hum-drum for a few hours out of their work-week. She makes sure the bands get paid. She's part of the process that keeps musicians employed.
       I talked to Rick Miller last night. Much recognized in Maryland for his life spent in the music business, he's busy trying to establish another new group. Actually, up to this point, they're doing well as far as new bands go. The gigs are steadily building. What I like about Rick is his honesty in dealing with a new situation and his total honesty in dealing with a strange, obscure part of the music world - bluegrass. You almost have to be crazy to think that it will make you rich someday. Our conversation was like a dream sequence flipping from (Father) John Michael Talbot to Molly Hatchet to Pope John Paul, II. I studied this kind of literary form in college - it's called Stream of Consciousness. We laughed a lot about Danny's turn of phrase because Rick realizes what he's up against in trying to make it in the bluegrass music business. It's OK to dream, Rick.
       Without dreams you're a dead entity in a dead world of non-creativity. I've been fortunate in my life to be around dreamers. They want something a little more out of life than struggling with an  8 to 5 job and paying a mortgage. I'm happy when I see a Dreamer get his or her just-due. Their dreams bolster our dreams, they become the stuff of novels and movies and pop-culture. Watching PBS one night, I heard a scientist make the remark that the only thing that separates humans from the rest of the animal world is our ability to dream, and thus create from that process. Here's to the Dreamers. Here's to all those practitioners of the bluegrass trade who are out there trying to get better at what they do by steadily working, steadily practicing, and steadily growing. If you hang around long enough, you see the good ones fulfilling their dreams, reaching at least some level of their perceived goals. But it's that way in any art-form, propelled of course by a huge shot of luck and making the right connections. At the basis of it though, is "Livin' the Dream." Success is hard work.