Grateful Blog: Day 42: Tonight I went and saw Gretchen Peters and Martyn Joseph at the AlbertaRoseTheaterhere inPortland. It was a church back in the day, that’s been converted back into a nice, intimate theater. The sound was great, the staff super nice, and the music was fabulous. Gretchen Peters swore we’d met before and I honestly felt that way too. Martyn is a one of a kind Gentlemen: a gentle man. I think we hugged 3 times and he left with my new CD, vowing to listen to it on the plane back toWales. There’s this funny thing when you’re a kid that your music heroes are on some weird pedestal of sorts, you know: Dylan, Garcia, Cash, Jagger, Springsteen, whomever.
It’s funny as I’ve gotten older, and specifically since I more or less accidentally became a musician 6 or so years ago, my hero’s have changed: Morrissey, Carter, Snider, Shindell, Foucault,Cleves, Byrd, Schmidt, Carll, Russell, and Joseph. They’re often guys I’ve gotten to meet or play with or know a little bit and the thing is they’re by and large NOT the rock star type. They’re just great people that happen to write great songs. I dig that more than you know. It’s kind of like politics in a way. I have no use for presidents of anything anymore. Give me the local guy you can relate to who will look you in the eye and tell you how it really is. Or swear you’ve met before and mean it. Or give you 3 hugs and know right where they’re coming from. I don’t think I’ve lost faith in heroes, not by any stretch, but they’ve changed into real people as I’ve gotten older. Sometimes that’s complicated and sometimes it cuts right through the BS. The way a good hug generously given does. That might be oversimplifying things but somehow tonight it felt exactly right, to hug a hero or sorts and wish him safe travels. And I’m truly Grateful for that…
