I mean, you don’t, like, even have a style
I mean, you don’t, like, have a style…
I have heard this for the entirety of my professional musical career, even before then. I can recall very clearly Chris Reid and I putting together an acoustic medley of Ozzy Osbourne, LA Guns, Metallica, and Garth Brooks songs to play at hometown, high school beauty pageant as entertainment between programs. We kept the medley idea close to the vest and I, like Chris, knew we were going to blow everyone’s mind and we were going to see the amazement of the crowd. We performed as perfectly as we were then able. Our parents were proud. Our close friends were amused and impressed that we strung all of those songs together. We were so elated when we got done. We nailed it, we thought. Vividly I remember the dumbfounded expressions on almost everyone in the crowd. We thought we would get adoration and high praise. What we got was the first of what would become a lifetime of “well, that was something” comments and expressions.
Chris could, and can still, play any style of music. He is versatile on many instruments and styles of music. However, he has the dedication to play one style of music for a full show. Me? Well, I can not seem to play two songs in a row of the same genre. Why? I don’t know. My initials are ADD and I get easily distracted. Maybe that is why? Maybe it is because I don’t like one music genre over any other. Maybe it is because I grew up with an extended family that played all kinds of instruments and all kinds of musical styles. Maybe its because mom and dad both love music and our home and car rides were full of music that ranged from the far left side of the radio dial all the way to the farthest reaches of the right side. (I think you would have to been born before 1985 to understand that reference.)
Music has been every where in my life since I can remember. So many songs have been huge part of landmark memories. Some memories of family long since gone from this world, some with friends that we thought would never grow apart, some with first loves, first dances, first kisses, first dates to the Pensacola mall in a car full of young teens and mom driving us. So many great memories tied together with music. The best memories are the ones with my family, sitting in the dark, listening to Otis Redding. Everyone was quiet and in their own thoughts but we were all together. We still do this when we are all together.
Each one of these encounters grew my love of music. However, it was never just one style of music being played. I have had as many important, life changing memories listening to Hank Williams as I have listening the Thriller record that Ginger and I got for Christmas in 1982. INXS holds as close a memory for me at twelve years old as The Beatles or The Beach Boys or The Fat Boys with Chubby Checker. Yeah, that’s right, you know you danced to that horribly fantastic version of The Twist. Public Enemy, SRV, The Cult, Run-DMC, Danzig, Slayer, Randy Travis, Anita Baker, Van Halen, Billy Ocean… all accompanied me through my coming-of-age years. So many different styles of music tied to so many important memories over a lifetime.
I know I am not the only person to experience this. So, how on earth can a person be expected to just play and write in one style when they fell in love with music, not a musical genre? I can’t do it.
I know the songs I’ve been putting out make it seem like I am lost or confused. I am not. I do know that sticking with one style will make the songs more marketable and give me “a sound”. Guess what? I can not do that. I just don’t have it in me.
If I just wrote in one style then I would be denying all of the other memories and experiences I have enjoyed throughout my life a chance to be heard. There is memory and friendship in every song I write even if the subject matter of the lyric doesn’t directly correlate to the memory. No song is without a smile from a look back and a grin that looks forward to making more memories.
When I get done writing, which I hope is not any time soon, I hope that all of those friendships, first times, lonely days, nights of laughter, late night parking lot conversations, early morning fishing trips, evening drives, and all the other stories will make their way into a song. I also hope those songs get out in the world for you to make memories while listening to them. That, dear friend, is why “you don’t have a style” is the nicest thing you can say.