Some Fun and Useful Observations at the Nick Reynolds Tribute

Had a wonderful experience last night at Jimmy Duke’s Dark Thirty House Concert Series in Lakeside, California.

He co hosted a tribute to the late Nick Reynolds, one of the founding members of the Kingston Trio.  The other host was Nick’s witty and talented son, Josh, who served as emcee.

There were about fifteen of us performing in various configurations and one of the most wonderful things about the entire affair was the complete lack of ego.  Everyone just pitched in, or sat it out with no weirdness, just music that played during my much younger days.

It was remarkable how many of the Trio’s songs were ingrained into our consciousness.  The entire audience sang along with almost every song and I realized that their impact from 1957 to 1964 must have been enormous.

I can’t even begin to estimate how many people they brought to acoustic music or how very many Martin guitars they sold during their run.

George Grove, who took John Stewart’s place in the group was also on hand to provide some steady direction on the tunes, which hold up remarkably well.

It made me realize that when you are writing a song, you really should decide who your audience is before you write it or record it, as the more esoteric and complicated you make a piece of music, the narrower the field of appreciative listeners.

I am not putting forth that you should only write for the masses, only that to reach the masses there are some things that must be not only acknowledged but employed.

Simplicity is a big one.  

As a solo performer, I tend to make the progessions and the guitar parts complex as that keeps me amused and challenged…and that’s great for me, but what does it do for my audience?

The trick is to put into your music the things that make you you, your style, your preferences, but also leave a wide enough opening of accessibility to allow anyone who hears it to be intrigued enough to come and be a part of your audience.

There can develop a weird kind of expertise snobbery that can only hurt you.   No matter what level of performing you are at, you want to keep growing, but you also want to keep your audience with you.   You don’t want to lose that power base just to show off how very much you know of and about your instrument.

Steely Dan always accommodated their penchant for complexity in the verses and then gave us a chorus that could not be denied.   That’s what helped get the  uninitiated into the recording, the song, and the band.

Make accommodations for your audience to go along with you and they will follow you anywhere, just don’t lose them in your own ego chops.