Ain't No Popularity Contest

Asheville, NC June 2003 

One of the goals I had in mind when I began writing these Notes From The Road was to demystify the concept of being a professional musician, and songwriter. On one hand deconstructing a mystique that actually serves the artist might be detrimental to a career, but on the other hand I’ve always strived to make the act of songwriting and singing accessible to those who are curious about how it actually works.

When I give songwriting workshops I stress the fact that writing a song is not a complicated and mysterious thing and that one only need spend time in the process of writing to come up with something. The amount of time spent in the desire and effort of writing a song is proportional to the outcome.  I think the real challenge in this busy world is just finding the time to do these things. I encourage people to do this because I believe that, essentially music is food: we all need it. We all need a measure of letting go into creative expression to open up our lives to a realm of possibilities that are otherwise closed to us. It’s a door, an uncomplicated door. This is my philosophy.

In northern Vermont the “Bread and Puppet” community founded by Peter Schumann in 1962, presents social conscious theater with larger than life puppets. One of their mottos that I love is, “art is cheap”. Meaning anyone can do it. It means make your own art – sing, dance, and draw, play an instrument! And don’t let the brainwashing media tell you that it’s the exclusive property of those who have money and can afford to do it “perfectly”.

I see that much of the singer-songwriter world is absorbed in a sort of popularity contest. It’s a survival of the fittest where the person with the wittiest, the most riveting, and most funny or poignant song wins the contests and gigs. The hot pickers and the young starlets tend to attract the attention of those in the position to catapult them into the limelight. Playing this game is a great tool. To advance one’s career, and to compare one’s abilities to another’s tend to create an atmosphere that is cutting edge, but I think it is all besides the point of creating great and original art.

One of the big phrases of wisdom that goes around to aspiring songwriters is “to be yourself”, which is a quest in of itself. That path for most of us leads away from the popularity contest and into the gray area of how to be creative. People begin writing songs because they feel the seed of something miraculous inside of them. From that place goes the search, where our individual genius is seen if it is delved into long enough to uncover.

It’s always interesting to me when I look at where I am and how I got here. I know I’m a product of all my choices. Being a professional songwriter now is less of a quest and more a study in the motion of life.  I am less attached to scoring a magazine review and radio airplay, and more concerned with simply writing a song that’s true to what I care about. This, I think, is freedom. Strange clothes to wear actually, but it’s something popularity can’t buy.

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See you soon! 

- Dana