Howdy Friends, how ya been? Good? We’re good, thanks. It’s Brian here again. Having one helluva time on the road (see our previous couple posts if you didn’t catch the prequel). I’m grateful that we learned relatively quick into our traveling careers that every single tour is different. That sounds pretty obvious when you say it out loud, but I think we all expect or hope that things that we do regularly in life will yield predictable- hopefully positive- results and that any unwelcome surprises (or “teachable moments” in corporate-speak) will become fewer. For me, this tour has provided a lens that I might not have really picked up and peered through ‘til now. Seems to me, as a small fish in the big music pond, that the ups and downs we all experience in life are very much reflected in the ups and downs we as musicians in “the biz” experience. Maybe I feel that way because our lives and relationships and careers in NCD are so hopelessly entangled. Maybe it’s my own experience of the spotlight effect, which I don’t believe I can ever entirely remove myself from. Or maybe it’s just the Universal Nature manifesting itself in all ways, as it tends to do on all scales and timelines, and I just happened to tune in this time.
What am I talking about? I’ll try to be succinct but brevity has never been my strong suit. We get tossed curveballs all the time in life. Oftentimes you do/do not get what you think you do/do not “deserve”. We expect the unexpected, but not THAT (Dear God, not THAT). Expectations being the thieves of joy, we form coping mechanisms. We avoid or we attach ourselves to people and ideas, or we become indifferent altogether. We entrust our egos with the dubious task of daily damage control on so many fronts. How do we navigate hardship without becoming hardened? How do we kill the ego finally, not just temporarily, and without the need to periodically ingest a heroic dose of some novel tryptamine? How do some folks always manage to roll with the proverbial punches? In life, as in music, the magic is really in improvisation. That’s where my money’s at anyway. The way I see it, improvisation is the most direct path to novelty. Novelty is the antithesis of habit, and novelty yields beauty whereas habit does not (grossly oversimplifying Terence McKenna here, but I think he’d more or less agree). Habit turns to decay. Grooves become ruts. Over time, we might find ourselves doing the same old things because that’s what we’ve always done. But what about those times before we did those same old things and formed habits? We were trying something novel. Novelty has always gotten us where we are, and habits have always kept us where we’re at. Novelty breaks us out of our own traps, we grow, we try new things and we practice and train and toil so that they become effortless and we can forget we know how to do them. Through surrender to improvisation, generating beauty becomes effortless. If you don’t believe me just watch this video.
That there is Michael Cleveland. The Flamekeeper- most of y’all probably already know all about him if you’re into this kind of music. But listen to that solo. Look how FREE he is! His feel and tone and ear for the music are breathtaking. I’ve never heard this cat repeat himself musically- but I’d wager he’s spent countless hours playing the same thing over and over again. That’s practice. This is play. When he plays, he only astounds. He’s an infinite well of ideas and probably the kindest person you could ever meet. He hung out late after a show in Denver and all he wanted to do was pick tunes. Seems like that’s all he ever wants to do- I’ve seen him on a few occasions in green rooms, etc. while our tours have crossed paths and pretty much never seen him without the fiddle in his hands unless he’s walking to or from the tour bus. It would appear he’s still hopelessly in love with music and life…hardship and roadblocks be damned. That to me is another life-music parallel. The people who are really great, love doing it and engage fully with it ALL THE TIME. No retreat, No surrender. Don’t let the bastards get ya down. Indomitable Spirit. All that jazz. Anyway, if we ever wind up interviewing heroes here at Road Scholarship, I’ll be sure to try and have a sit down with Michael, first thing. His take on the merits of those lil cupped vs. the traditional flat pepperoni on pizza is worth at least a paragraph alone.
Ya know, while I’m waxing nostalgic, I gotta say the show at Mishawaka Amphitheater we just played out in Colorado with The Fretliners (very cool new band, look out) and Yonder Mountain String Band wasn’t too shabby either! Again, awesome musicians, all very kind, we’re once again humbled. This was probably one of the most fun shows we’ve ever played (photo courtesy of Jay Strausser, a new old pal with the eye of an eagle). It’s funny because I think to casual observers, what we’re doing all appears very easy breezy and fun AF (if we’re doing our jobs right it that’s how it looks anyway). Hey, what we’re doing is very fun don’t get me wrong. Behind the scenes we’re kind of at this interesting point in our careers where we’re learning a lot and spending a lot of time working on things that are only tangential to the actual music, but we’re getting more of these really cool opportunities. That all said, we are still very much rooted in where we started…we’re still an “unknown quantity” in most circles and pretty much the whole world, by and large. That’s cool, we’ve always been cool with that. Definitely did not start playing the banjo because I thought it would make me popular, get me chicks, or earn me much if any cash. We’ve never banked on anything to happen other than hoping to fall more in love with the music and with the people who are in love with music. But at some point for any career to flourish you gotta start spending time and resources (financial/mental/spiritual) you might not think you have. You gotta start making these big decisions like “Can we finally take a sound engineer on the road with us and pay them what they’re worth”? Nothing worse than not being heard at a show because the sound person just doesn’t get what you’re trying to do. “Do we focus on building a tour in Europe or making an album”? Both sure to drain the bank account before the endeavor is even underway, both rad options, definitely can only swing one of ‘em this time around. “Do we need a lawyer”? Probably about as bad as we need an accountant but who can afford either until ya really really need one? and even then... The whole thing starts to feel way bigger than you expected than when you were just jamming with your friends in a bar every Tuesday. I’m sure there are at least a few folks reading this who have been at it way longer than us, smirking and nodding right now.
We’re finding ourselves in these heavy duty hangs with established cats (with actual music catalogs for Jeebus’ sake) that have been around way longer than us and you look around and pretty much everyone is cool. Seems like “cool” is as much an asset to staying on the scene as any. When I say “cool”, I think what I really mean is “humble”. All the really great ones are so damned humble. That we were invited by the McCoury’s to play Del Fest this year and welcomed so warmly just humbles the ever loving sh*t outta me. We’ve been lucky enough to hang out with veterans like the McCoury’s, like Michael Cleveland, like the folks in Yonder, and they all pretty much seem to say the same thing even if they don’t actually say it out loud: Hang in there, stay true to yourself, hold to a dream, be cool. This is my own formula, these are my own yarns to spin, don’t quote me or anyone else on any of it. Most of the time this just feels like a waking dream honestly, and we’re glad to have you along for the ride. Thanks for reading and as always…
Thank You For Being a Friend,
-NCD
Beautifully written. Things I needed to hear, thank you... Y'all never cease to inspire (and humble) me, love getting these glimpses into the adventure!
Dude, that was utterly profound. (I want to hear more about the pepperoni.)