RUNAWAY HOME
They say, “You Can't Keep A Band
Together!”
They say, "You can't keep a band together." Raw words fly out in anger, unlike their refined
lyrical counterparts. Egos collide,
guitars fight, mandolins, basses and drums conspire and voices off stage
whisper and sometimes scream utterances of descent. They say, "You can't
keep a band together." Copyrights
compete for fans’ affection and writer's pride 'till the meaning of the song
beneath is the least note heard. The bio
defies the actual; the actual defies the dream and the dream is deferred.
They say, "You can't keep a band together." The singer quits, the bass player finds a
better gig, the new retreats, the old reclaims.
The venue goes under, the van breaks down, the station changes format, the
demographic narrows and “oh no, the gig is really in Eastern Time Zone!” That
naive vision formed in basements, garages and around kitchen tables grows jaded
on tired platforms, in empty rooms and across long stretches of highway. The solo stage beckons, the "real
job" boxes you in and the girlfriend, the boyfriend, the husband, the
wife, the children, the bills, the bank
account, the sacred spaces and the much needed time alone - they all beckon and
at times they stalk.
They say, "You can't keep a band together." The grown-up world mocks. The unsold CDs whine. The club owners’ shenanigans steal and then
there’s the wrong date in the newspaper as the posters and hype lose
out to the one thing that could sink your heralded gig! You know, like you might be playing a big
Arts Center in Wisconsin the very night that OJ Simpson is out driving his
white Bronco while your entire audience stays at home to watch. Reality TV
really is the bane of live music! All would be a complete disaster if not for
the much maligned chutzpah that allows you to say, "the next gig, the next
record and the next year....we're gonna' make it!
They say, "You can't keep a band together." "You're too old," "you're too
country," "you're too loud," "you're too boring,"
"too crude," "too early," "too late,"
"cheap," "expensive," "original," "derivative,"
"demur," "demanding," and a personal favorite, "you're
too good!"
Yep! They say, "You can't keep a band
together." Ok, ok, it’s true - sad,
but true. Except....this band is still here! We’re
still together! Maybe we're just lucky,
but quite frankly we haven't had enough of that smirking Lady Luck to show
proof. Maybe we've got a cushion, but
only if bloated visa bills, dwindling savings accounts and family mercy count as
cushion. OK - maybe we're just plain stubborn,
desperate or tough-as-nails. Yeah....those
who know us would say, "Lose the word ‘maybe’ in that sentence."
Well, I know that you can keep a band together. You can keep a band together because singing
in harmony bridges all doubt and writing songs truly from the heart and soul
penetrates the deafened ear. You can
keep a band together because some nights the cross-picking guitars give birth
to overtones that rush the heavens and lift the weight and because the fiddle,
bass and cajon have your back while you do it.
You can keep a band together because the one CD you sell is to the fan
who was not a fan before the show and that two-hour set just felt like five
minutes - and you'd do it all again the
next night for free (well, after expenses anyway)!
I think when all is said and done, you can keep a band
together because as artists, that's who you are and that’s what you do. You do it night after night when there is no
money, no audience, no angle, no reason, no nothin', and on those seemingly
rare occasions, when the stars rise instead of fall and the universe seems to
align......well, you do it then too.
Please join Runaway Home as they celebrate their debut CD at World Music
Nashville June 9th. @7pm. Call World
Music for details and tickets at (615) 425-0256. Free CD with every ticket purchased.
-
Mark Elliott, Runaway Home –
www.runawayhomemusic.com
