Remembering Mondays at Wallys with the Boston Music Circus (2015)

As most of the small music venues close, not just in Boston but all over the world, I’d like to imagine that when they reopen, either as themselves or with another name, that they’ll fix the various problems that went overlooked for so long.

Maybe that’s biggest positive of Covid and we have yet to see it, the improvement that will be made on things, and all around.

“Poignant lyrics that reflect the sign of the times. Evan Goodrow continues to share his soulful voice and intricate guitar playing with us. Accompanied by strong, percussive riffs by Derek Hayden and bass line by Greg Toro, this album will leave the listener wanting to hear more. FuturePlaneta gives us hope during a period of uncertainty and makes the new normal feel livable.”

This was messaged to me by a friend/fan/supporter and a joke about it being a “Rolling Stone” style review.  I jokingly put it on my facebook page titled as a “Rolling Stone” review to which I received much enthusiastic response, the congratulations swept in.  The “world” had missed the joke, not unlike how the “online world” is becoming more devoid of humor and “tone” in language, and it’s becoming more and more like that especially on social media.

Getting into Rolling Stone magazine is a lot like getting on Oprah or Ellen Degeneres -it takes a lot of money and a very small “in-crowd” (record label, manager), and there’s more Trump stories in it these days than music.  Which brings me to another point, -why care about being in something like that?

The dream of “making it big” or being a “music celebrity” …these ideas were overblown decades ago, and unless you’re just trying to be famous…for the sake of being famous…or to be really rich….you’re kind of fooling yourself.  You can in fact make money, and you can be a certain kind of famous yes, but not in the “Kanye West” category to which I’m speaking of.

I’m happy to live in a time where I don’t need Rolling Stone to live as an artist (it wasn’t that long ago that it wasn’t the case and you in fact needed “the system” that I speak of above), and my crew, my friends, my supporters, have stepped up to support me in every way they can through Covid times and I’m happy to get back to work and make even More Music.

This song is my love letter to wall street.  No matter your point of consciousness on the subject, you do in fact forfeit your financial wealth when you die, and indeed “can’t take it with you when you go.”

The Edge

All we have is our hands
our hands help us understand
All we have is our hands

They forgot what it’s like to be human
dollar signs is what they got in their eyes
and on their minds
Greed’s been around for a long long long time

you got to give it all back in the end
every dollar that you stole my friend
Every lie that you told
so you could hold onto the gold
while your brothers are living on the edge

they forgot what it was like to be children
using toy guns to learn the competition
a real gun will make you understand
they can try to take us from the land
and they will if they can
that’s why we got to care
care for one another

You got to give it all back in the end
Every dollar that you stole my friend
Every lie that you told
So you could hold onto the gold
While your brothers are living on the edge

All we have is our hands
our hands help us understand
All we have is our hands

You were standing on the the edge of your life
I was just an observer
And when you jumped I couldn’t stay there and do nothing
You already had me
You had me

All or nothing at all
Will leave you with empty hands
Searching in darkness
For something to hold onto

I was waiting for you to wake up
Told myself it was a matter of time
You change your mind so fast
And I don’t know what you’re thinking
Are you done here?
Are you done with me?

All or nothing at all
Will leave you with empty hands
Searching in darkness
For something to hold onto

We say things we don’t mean
We clip our own wings
We stand on the edge
But we can never see the bottom

All or nothing at all
Will leave you with empty hands
Searching in darkness
For something to hold onto

My teacher, or mentor might be a better word for him, Charlie Banacos, was specific with his idea that music is a high powered form of medicine disguised as entertainment, and was quick to dismiss people who might study with him under the idea of becoming better “entertainers.”

“Art for art’s sake” was one of his more popular mottos.

I’m a studied jazz musician and I’m an entertainer so I did find some inner conflict around this thought because at some point they clash.  There’s a line between the two: Are you playing for yourself or for your audience?  It’s the one point I can remember not completely agreeing with him on.  And yet, I did somehow at the time try to believe it might be true.

Ten years after his death and in the wake of covid, I’m in full agreement.

When I see people responding to musicians outpouring of live concerts and broadcasts during the lockdown, regardless of the quality of the sound or the musicianship, the evidence is hard to overlook.  I’m reminded of the new age book movement of uncredited authors quoting the healing powers of the harmonics of vibrating crystals and the sacred chanting of buddhist monks (not necessarily untrue it seems).

On the other side of that, the people I notice who don’t listen to music as much anymore seem to suffer as well, in complex ways that they don’t even see.

And while it might be easier to talk about the physics of vibrations and harmonics (science) it might prove a leap of faith when relating to an amateur musician singing the lyrics wrong to “Smells like teen spirit” with an out of tune guitar from his bedroom, there must be a connective thread somewhere to be found.

And if we’re not playing for ourselves first we can’t really be heard by anyone else, but the magic in the medicine is in the sharing of it with others.