How come so-called musicians don’t actually listen to music?  I know many people who are in bands or play music for the public who never set foot inside music shops.   This is not something that can be attributed to online music or their dislike of a particular store.  There is actually a large percentage of musicians who really don’t listen to any music but their own.  I can imagine what it would be like to be on tour with a band full of these types of people; “what do you want to listen to?” (while driving across Wyoming empty lands) “I don’t know, whatever.  Did you bring anything?”  Then they dig around and find a Chili Peppers cd someone lost under the seat 10 years ago.  Great, now you’ve got some indie rockers listening to some obsolete hasbeens, and they’re probably wishing they’d picked up that new Black Crowes album they heard was just like the early stuff.  They don’t even know what to look for if they find a music shop in Cheyenne! 

Fortunately most bands have one member who is a music fan and can provide a soundtrack for band outings.  Unfortunately that means there is one person who is influencing the rest of them, and it might or might not be the songwriter.    What to do?  Well if I had my druthers I’d be earmarking a part of any royalties to that person just for keeping the band from starving in an artistic desert. 

Music made by people who don’t know or care about their own artistic heritage is almost always boring and unlistenable to anyone with more than a passing interest in the art form.  Musicians open your ears!  You’re not ever going to reinvent music or songwriting, you belong to a tradition and you have sources to draw upon and build upon, you just have to put yourself in a position to be exposed to music and be ready to study the music you hear when it turns you on.  Pay attention.

Until next time…