Connections...

For the non-musician, the intricacies of the live stage performance is an onlookers’ game. It is sights and sounds, fun and interaction with the artist. As I learn more about what putting together a show involves, I am aware that it doesn’t just happen even though it may seem spontaneous and innovative.

My musings were prompted by a question blogcritic Sherry Lippman asked Taylor Hicks recently.

“My husband and I saw you when you played Seattle in 2007 and we were surprised by parts of your set-list - such as combining "Another Brick in the Wall" with "Hell of a Day". How do you come up with those ideas?

Taylor responded, “Well, I think it's just comes from years and years of playing live music. If a song has some space where you can perform another song within it - and it fits the style of the song you're already playing - there's a creative aspect to that. That's the spontaneity, and there's a creative outlet for all of that. And that's what I love. I enjoy being able to have songs within a song. I just think for me, I try to put myself outside and look inside. I know I would want to go to a show where that type of spontaneity and creativity were present.”

No, it doesn’t just happen. It’s taken “years and years of playing live music.” I went back to an interesting thread created originally on Whomp Swamp and now on TTHC message board about Taylor’s covers and tags to look at some of the combinations. It’s impossible for the non-musician to understand the puzzle of fitting these musical styles, sounds, keys and tempos together. The musician would be impressed with that aspect. I only know that from the audience you are delighted to be into one song and there you are suddenly hearing “Brown-eyed Handsome Man”…not where you thought you were! The easy seque is impressive and brings freshness to every performance. It creates that setlist that is taped unceremoniously to the stage floor with duct tape. It doesn’t just happen…there is an art and skill and years of learning that went into every performance.

There is so much to this business. We have recently heard about the creative process of writing the music, producing it, and getting it out there. That’s only the beginning. Taylor has learned to do all of that very well. Taking his music to the people and making it “his story” is what Taylor Hicks has excelled at on the live stage. Whether it is carefully rehearsed sponteneity, or true adlibbing with the audience, he’s learned that craft. I think it goes beyond a craft. His music offers him the comfortable connection with people. I have wondered if Taylor Hicks takes his harmonica with him when he goes out to dinner with friends. He so often pulls it out of his pocket. It seems like a “smooth stone” ….a touchstone to which he is grounded—his music.

I realized how much I don’t know about the shows I go to see and how much Taylor does know about making the stage home. It isn’t that I am just impressed. I am getting to know what Taylor Hicks is really about. Music, yes, but more. He is about reaching out to people with his music…on stage. That is where the connection is easy and real. We may put on the headphones and connect to a degree with the sounds and emotion of the recorded music. On stage it becomes a dialogue of artist, music and listener—the final connection. This is when the man and the music touch its intended receiver and each grow in the experience.

The more I learn about music and Taylor, the more I change my priority list. In Las Vegas in 2007, I watched Taylor come out of his sound check and walk through the busy casino with three uniformed security guards. I thought…how cool is that! He’s getting the rock star treatment! It WAS cool! I am taking a word out of the Taylor Hicks equation….”star.” I am realizing that he did not dream of being a “star.” He aspires to be the best songwriter, musician and entertainer that he possibly can. For many years he has been working very hard, learning, and evolving to make that happen.

It becomes less and less important to me whether or not Taylor Hicks is a singing star topping the charts. It is more important to me that he continues to be a songwriter and working musician living his dream on the live stage. I think that is what’s really important to him too.

The more I know, the more impressed I am at Taylor’s mastery of the art of music and performing. And the stage is where it all comes together. Would Taylor write music only for himself? I guess that artists may do that sometimes. I think Taylor Hicks writes music to share. It is the connection he makes with people. That’s where we come in. The final part of the equation. The circle and connections are complete.

And we each grow in the experience.

(Source credit for quote: Sherry Lippman, Blogcritic.com)


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