<i>. I am absolutely committed to every part of being a great musician … except for the part where I’m actually a great musician.</i>
I'm not a very good musician but I've been a serious fan of a variety of musical genres since I bought a 45 of the McCoys' Hang On Sloopy (with a young Rick Derringer on guitar). I have over 500 LPs, about 700 CDs, and about 400 hours of live shows on cassettes and CDs, including some shows that I recorded myself.
As a writer I've been fortunate to be able to meet and interview a number of world class musicians, names that people would recognize. I've also invented and developed an electric harmonica called the Harmonicaster and in connection with that I've interacted with many, perhaps most, of the greatest harmonica players currently working as well as other world class musicians. At the Summer NAMM show I was literally standing next to Tommy Emmanuel as he put a Martin through its paces. Many people consider Tommy to be the best acoustic guitar player in the world. Just in the last few months I've seen, in fairly intimate venues, Jorma Kaukonen and David Bromberg, two disciples of the legendary finger picker, Rev. Gary Davis.
It's fair to say that I'm an informed music fan who can tell good from bad.
I have a friend who has excelled professionally in both technical and creative fields, simultaneously, no little feat. He's also a music lover with pretty good taste, a fine stereo system and a well thought out guitar collection. I was at his comfortable suburban house once, in a room filled with musical instruments that wouldn't look out of place at Daryl's House, and he was noodling on his carbon fiber acoustic.
I said to him, "You know, you're a good enough guitar player to be a professional musician." He replied, "That's probably true, but to do that I'd have to give up doing the things that make all of this possible," gesturing to the room, its contents, and the house surrounding us.
