"THE WAY I AM"...by LSG

 

I start just about every solo gig I play with this song as a reminder to myself of where I was destined to be in everybody's mind but mine as a young man.

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"You would be such a handsome young man if you would shave that beard and get a haircut."

"No one will hire you looking like that!"

"Music! You're not good enough to make it in music!"

"On the road?!" "Where are you going to live?"

"What kind of life is that?!" "That's not what God would have you do."

"Don't try to justify your bad choices to me, you're going to have to explain them to God on judgement day!"

"God gave you that talent to play for His glory not these drunken sinners on Saturday night!" and so forth and so on ad nauseam.

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I was having one of those "it's a beautiful day but feeling too Southern Baptist guilty to enjoy it" due to 20 years of cult-like conditioning. I was staring out of the backdoor of the Caribbean Club, across the backyard and out into the bay on an absolutely gorgeous, sun soaked Sunday morning. I ordered up a shot and a beer because I could.

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I couldn't help but realize I would have just been another miserable hypocrite if I didn't play music for my fellow sinners and free thinkers. Just then the "Hag" came on the jukebox as the "bait" song like a message from the universe. It's basically a song about a guy stuck at work making a living for his family but all he wants to do is enjoy the respite of some simple cane pole fishing.

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Chasing my dreams is being the way I am, I don't know any other way to be. If bringing people joy and giving them a break from a mediocre day is evil then something is out of balance in the human perception of things.