A lot of the music I listened to as I was “coming of age” I believed really meant something. I was fueled and fired with angst and passion and not any damn idea of what the hell to do with it. Like James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause I was rebelling against whatever you got. I would listen to the radio and watch MTV and hear songs and think, “this is real, this is art”.
Then I grew up.
I started realizing that my belief structure was badly constructed. That there was a reason the “songs” and “artists” played on the radio and MTV were continually pushed on me. More and more the “artists” resembled actors, paid to be whoever the studio needed to fit the bill. But, the problem was that the bill was then being passed to us, the listeners.
So I refused the bill, and shut them off.
Then I heard the music of Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt. Pure Poetry. Honest. Painful. Real. You can tell when listening to the songs that they put all of themselves in. Ray Wylie Hubbard recently wrote, ” if you were to cut their words…they would bleed”. And he’s dead on.
So I went down to Texas.
My father and I were lucky enough to get a chance to see Guy perform live and we also were blessed with meeting the openers that night, Noel Mckay and Brennen Leigh. In talking with them after their set (definitely check them out, great people) the name Gurf Morlix came up.
Then the dam broke.
Gurf Morlix, Blaze Foley, Sam Baker, Ray Bonneville, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Mary Gauthier, Slaid Cleaves, Tom Russell…and Grant Peeples.
Which brings us to why I brought you all here today…
I’m asking you to get on the bus.
What the hell are you talking about, you ask? Watch this while i go get a drink.
Okay, I’m back.
Getting on the Bus is about being a part of it all. Supporting good music. Real music. Giving somebody a little more gas to get going. Grant just needs a little push to help get it out there. I’m on the bus and I’m asking you to at least check it out. It’s worth the ride.
