Talking Bluegrass With Shepp . . . .

29 October 2013

Shepp called me late again. I really didn't mind - always an interesting conversation. You can learn to appreciate how certain men's minds work. Some men are just boring - no other way to describe it. They're empty, it seems. No life in them. No guts. Engineers have always bored the hell out of me because of their pragmatic view of the world. Doctors and scientists can sometimes be the most boring men in a room full of strangers. I once got cornered in a room with a professional concert pianist (very well-known; he shall go un-named.) we got off the subject of Chopin and on to the subject of bluegrass. I sat amazed. He knew his stuff. He had this longing look on his face, like wouldn't it be great just to get with a bunch of guys and do bluegrass music. I could tell by the look he wasn't having much fun in his life.  One of the most amazing conversations I ever had with such a highly placed musician. Shepp called just to say he was on a roll.
"Hope you don't mind me calling so late. We're on a roll!"
"That's nice," I said. "what's going on now?"
" More gigs. More shows. Folks are crying for a CD.
"Which tells you what?" I intimated.
" Maybe we're not ready for that yet."
"Timing is everything, but when do you ever know you're ready for that, I mean who decides that?"  I said, trying to interject some sense of logic to an illogical situation.
Illogical because the whole music - entertainment profession is illogical, whether you're struggling to become a popular bluegrass band or an in-demand concert pianist. 
"I guess we need to get cracking." Shepp never had much trouble seeing the light.
I like talking to guys who see the light. The light of what they're doing. The light of what they want out of life if they're willing to work for it. They might work for years and see nothing of their productivity and then suddenly it all falls into place. Recognition along with financial rewards.
"When you've got a good product people will want to buy it." I said. "Look at that CD Danny Paisley recently produced. It's selling like hot-cakes."
"But everybody says CD sales are dying on the vine." pondered Shepp.
"Who's everybody? Besides, you have to lay down a track record of work eventually, or you'll be playing weekend gigs in beer joints for the rest of your life." I said, trying to add some weight to the discussion - a discussion that I knew was going to go on for another hour.
"But sometimes we sound so stale. And then other times when we sound so slick. Tonight's gig blew us all away. We thought we were terrible and the audience loved it. We had to do two encores!"
"That's because you care about the performance." I said. "Most people don't even know if you're stale or making mistakes if you're pouring your heart into it."
"Well, we care about what we're doing. And we care about how we sound. We have to keep up the momentum sometimes."
"I know that. I know it because it comes across when you're on stage. A lot of other people sense it too, or you wouldn't be working so much. So that's why you got to strike when the iron's hot and lay down that CD." I said.
"Well, I think we got commitment. We've only been doing this for 6 months now and we're working nearly every weekend, somewhere, so I think we got commitment."
"The momentum is tough. The commitment is tough. But somewhere along the line you decide whether to go whole hog or not and go for the bright lights - and try to make money at it. Now that's commitment." I added.
"We're barely paying for the gasoline right now. And baby needs a new pair of shoes as the old saying goes. All of us sat down and tried to figure this out and we laughed a lot about what we're doing!"
"Welcome to the world of bluegrass," I said. "You've got the first rule about succeeding in bluegrass down pat - have a sense of humor about what you're doing!"
Shepp concluded the conversation as I predicted: about an hour later. He rambled on about going coon-hunting and getting the Vet to look at one of his prize-hounds. It might shock you to know that Shepp has a degree in Theology and has written some serious articles on Martin Luther and the German Reformation. But when it comes to singing about Life-Matters, like alcoholism, convicts, chain-gangs, and killing your wife's boyfriend, Shepp is just about the best.