Fun_People Archive
18 Feb
Music is Good! - Danny Barnes

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 100 10:08:55 -0800
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Subject: Music is Good!  - Danny Barnes

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From: Kevin Johnsrude <kevinj@roguewave.com>
Excerpted From: http://www.dannybarnes.com

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Folks come up to me at shows all the time and say, "I sold all my Misfits
vinyl and bought a banjo, but there's nobody to play with." I go, "Dude!
I'll wager there's a cool old person, within 100 miles of every living soul
in America, sitting there with a fiddle and a repertoire as long as your
arm, thinking, 'Wish I knew a banjo picker.'"
 -- Danny Barnes
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Once I was in the airport with my banjo case, coming home from Holland,
and daydreaming about how happy I was going to be when I got home, slept
for a day, and then worked in my yard for about a week. Drinking tea with
my wife, watching the sunset, all that kind of stuff. Anyway, a guy in a
suit comes up, and says, "So, you're a musician." He then began a type of
interrogation to find out if I had Made It or not. I assured him I had not
Made It, and maybe he should get back on his cell phone and talk loudly to
his broker again. The point I'm making is, here I am, doing my thing, and
here comes this poor fellow, foisting his own negative energy on me. It
probably really ate him up that I was having fun. Just the sight of me
there with my banjo, grinning, caused him to stop what he was doing and
come over and give me grief.
 -- Danny Barnes
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Remember. Music is Good! If you write a cool piece, play a good gig, put
out a cool record, you win. The music industry doesn't really have any
ideas, they just want to screw with yours.
 -- Danny Barnes
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Let us support and thank God for:

-the knowledgeable record store employee. I'm thinking of one in particular.
This guy knows so much, it's astounding. I've heard him carry on three
conversations at once, about three different obscure records. Total fan.
It's easy to find information, hard to find good information. It's great
having these guys around.

-the cool band/artist playing in your town on an off night. Probably there
will be no promotion for the show. You'll have to really pay attention.
The club owner just wants to hump enough booze to not eat the guarantee.
The artist is hoping to get from point A to point B without too much red
ink. In between, a lot of cool music gets made. Sometimes, there can exist
an entire audience of only music fans. I'm thinking, like 10 people in
Omaha. Able to utter the cry of the music fan, the day after the show,
"DUDE! You MISSED it!" Each guy bought two CD's.

-the person at the label and/or distributor thinking to him/herself, "You
know, I actually like this CD! It's really good. I'll work really hard to
get the word out."

-the club owner, saying to the band, at closing time," hey, I'm really
sorry we didn't have a better house for you guys, Monday, and all that.
But you played some great music. Here's your 300.00 bucks. We only had
240.00 come in, but shit, you guys drove eight hours to be here. Hey
dinner's on me. "

-the audience member. The one that said, "Hey, cool music! " And walked
away quietly, and told their friends it was a cool show.

-here's to the journalist that actually listened to the CD. Or talked about
some band that he liked. Or presented an idea regarding music.

-the musician/artist/anyone that generates ideas. The folks with a vision.
I keep hearing all this great music! Much of it, by "unknown" artists. On
small/no labels. On radio stations manned by volunteers, or in 'zines.
Sometimes cool shit squeaks by in the mainstream. This always calls for
great rejoicing on my part.

-the guy at your local left-of-the-dial radio show. I constantly hear cool
stuff on these shows. These guys are volunteers. I'll be in the mood to
hear something, and one of these guys will get on a half hour burn of that
very groove. Music is good.

-the sound guys that do good work. Most of these guys work for peanuts and
all the abuse they can stand. If everyone in the room thinks they can play
the guitar, imagine how many think they can run a mixing desk. A handful
of the house guys I've worked with are badass. They don't get much
recognition because if they're doing their job, you don't notice them.
Music fans know them, however. I was standing next to this soundguy once,
an audience member said, "I like coming when Gary mixes. It always sounds
good." I thought he was great too.

-the music fan. The people that talk about strange, interesting records
they've found.

There are very few of these people. Let us give thanks for them all.

I'm finding, in my research, that there's a smaller number of effective
people, than commonly thought. Fortunately, this smaller number of people
make up for it, by being very productive. And dedicated, and open.

Music is good!

© 2000 Peter Langston