Could You Speak French? I Can't Understand Your English.

I have had the privilege of hanging out in Orange Beach all week with Beverly Jo Scott, Sirius Plan and the Belgian film crew that has been filming a documentary about BJ.

I've known BJ for years. I have hung out with Sirius Plan for most of their visit, And I did interviews with the film crew (well i knew Francoise and Virginie. the guys were new to me. But very nice) during my visit to Belgium earlier this year. So I was basically hanging out all week with my good friends and colleagues. It was great.

In addition to being super nice people, all the folks I talked about above speak French (not surprising since it is their native tongue).

For those of you that don't know I love the French language and enjoy any opportunity to practice. This week provided ample opportunity for that.

I must say Thank you to all my new French teachers for their patience. Im sure it was annoying but they were all so nice and helped me.

But as I hacked my way through French all week, I was reminded of a funny trip from my past.

In 2005 Dale Drinkard Jr , Jay Hines and myself went to France and Italy. During our trip there we had a couple of long train rides.

This train ride was from Florence to Rome. We find our compartment. It is a small room with 3 seats on one wall facing 3 seats on the other wall.

These other 3 seats were filled by the time we arrived.

Upon getting situated we struck up a conversation. After a little engagement we realize that the 3 men are Italian. One speaks English very well, the other two speak Italian only. So its obvious that the bilingual guy will be our Rosetta Stone.

After a little conversation we realize he also speaks French.
As I said above I take any opportunity to try (wretchedly) to speak French. So I began speaking horrible French with the "translator". His face lights up.

He says I can understand when he speaks (pointing at Dale)

He says I can understand when he speaks (pointing at Jay)

But I can't understand unless you speak French.

This made me feel great and bad simultaneously.

On the one hand my French must be ok enough for him to understand because he is insisting I speak only in French for the remainder of the trip. This is a big pat on the back. My French must be better than I thought (NOTE: my French is highly rusty at this point but during the 2005 trip I had practiced a lot and brushed up on a lot of vocabulary and grammar. So it was much better then than it is now. Hopefully my hanging with my Belgian friends in America and in Europe will help me get better at speaking French)


But on the other hand , the Italian man was letting me know that I mumble and under enunciate English so badly that he couldn't understand me. Hahaha wow.

He had unknowingly insulted and complimented me. But since the purpose of language is really just communicating , he was actually trying to facilitate the transferring of information. Which is the goal.

It just made me laugh.

I had been focusing so hard on using the correct words with the correct pronunciation in another language that I lost focus on my own language.

We had an enjoyable trip with the Italians. I wish I had recorded the trip though. It would have been strange to listen to I believe.

Italian from the Italian only speakers to the "Rosetta Stone" guy
English to us.
English from Jay and Dale back to Rosetta Stone guy
French from me back to him.

Repeat for about 2-3 hours.


That trip always pops in my mind when other languages are flying around me (as they were this week). I Unfortunately have let my French slip but I plan to fix that situation and be more proficient by the time I return to Europe.

Luckily my next trip overseas is to Australia. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to understand them. Of course the Italian train scene reminds me that I may want to work on my English before I leave so they can understand me. Hahaha

Cash Can't Buy Autograph Bread (My Friends are Cooler Than Yours)

I'm a musician. It's what I've always done. I believe it's what I'll always do. I'm a "lifer" as they say.

Being a musician typically means living a life that is full of long nights, longer drives, poor cuisine, miniscule pay, inherently rocky relationships, hundreds of missed birthdays of loved ones, nephew's piano recitals, ........

Sounds pretty bleak huh? Well, those aspect are decidedly bleak. There is no way around that.

So how does there continue to be people (like myself) who are not only willing to suffer this existence but sacrifice so much and work for decades to have a chance at this existence?

Well, there is obviously an "up side".

That up side is the joy of creating music, performing music, and connecting with people. The joys that accompany those aspects of the musician's life out weigh all the negatives (at least they outweigh the negatives in the mind of the wouldbe musician enough to keep him/her striving for it).

Those are the more apparent , obvious bonuses to being a "lifer" musician. One that is a little less obvious is the fact that after years and years of struggling along side similarly minded musicians , you realize your friends are cooler than everyone else's friends.

Before I went to Belgium I was well aware of the tremendous careers both my friends, Beverly Jo Scott and Rick Hirsch, have had. I even realized that they were stars. But after my experiences in Brussels I realized that they are legitimate, bonafide, sho nuff, no way around it stars. Again, don't misunderstand, I knew the great things each of them had done. I could list their accomplishments for you. But these people are my friends and dare I say........colleagues?

So to see children in the mall clamor to get a picture with BJ, or when the clerk of the clothing store ran to the window and started clicking pictures of us, was odd. I knew that I had severely talented and accomplished friends, but they were still my friends. Not in Belgium, Beverly Jo and Rick are of course still my friends but they truly are celebrities.

Beverly Jo is a super star in Belgium. She has adoring fans every where from her 10 albums and infinite high profile gigs. Recently she has become even more famous due to her being a judge on The Voice Belgique and her radio show. It was fun yet amazing to see the ripple of excitement she would cause by just walking down the street to get lunch. One day while we were attempting to buy bread the cashier was such a fan of BJ that he wouldn't let her pay for it. She autographed a couple things for his wife and again tried to pay for the bread but the cashier wasn't allowing it (of course we jokingly called that loaf of bread "autograph bread" for the rest of the evening). This is my friend from Bay Minette, Alabama we are talking about. It warmed my heart to watch. But I had knowledge that Beverly Jo was a big deal in Belgium before I arrived so I had been trying to prepare myself.

I had not prepared myself for the level of celebrity Rick Hirsch has there too.

Rick has been a phenomenal friend to me for years. He also produced and played on my album, "My Brother's Keepers". Rick also happens to live in my neighborhood. So to see Rick cause some Belgian folks to get star struck too, made me doubly happy.

Beverly Jo had a dinner party at her house one of the nights we were there (no frog legs or magic. But lots and lots of food, fellowship and music).

As the evening began waning we quit singing and picking and began telling stories (enhanced with youtube clips from BJ's computer where applicable).

One of BJ's friends Alain (an incredible musician and BJ's luthier) said his favorite guitar solo ever was one Rick Hirsch had played at a live concert with Joan Armatrading at Rockpalast in 1980.

Alain had been waiting 32 years to meet Rick. Alain cued up the youtube clip (if ya wanna see the exact solo it's at about 2:50 on this clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_GTQUfENq8)

To watch Alain enjoy Rick's solo 32 years later and have the same child like fascination with it as I assume he did the first time, was great. Alain air guitared every subtle nuance of this 2 min solo. It was apparent that he had studied and restudied and played and played and played this solo himself.

This celebrated, experienced Belgian "lifer" was geeking out over Rick's solo. (I must admit after hearing the solo, I was geeking out myself. Rick always plays with heart and soul but it came across impressively so in that solo).

( as a side note: I asked Rick about the solo. He didn't remember it. He of course remembered the gig, but he didn't remember the solo specifically. He had just played what he felt at the moment. And 32 years later this accomplished Belgian musician was able to mimic every subtlety.)

It gives you perspective when you see an event like that. Every person (musician or not) has had that part of a song, whether it be a vocal line, a solo, a piano riff, or any other part of song that moves them so deeply that it is almost like a sonic tattoo. It stays with them til their dying day. I have many of those tattoos. So it was excellent to see this great musician turned into a kid again while listening to Rick's solo. Rick's solo had very deeply left its mark on this man's life (and being as Alain is a professional musician, Rick's solo influenced his career as well).

My friends Rick and BJ are stars. There is no denying it.

And of course Rick and BJ are two of my many many many cool, famous friends. But seeing the response people had to them on this trip just solidified what I already knew. I have cooler friends than everybody else.

So kids if you feel like you wanna be a musician let me give ya some helpful advice.

When you are a musician the conditions are usually very very rough. When you are a musician, you will likely live life uncomfortable and broke (in the traditional sense).

But that is because when you are a musician you get paid in a different kind of currency. Musicians get paid in experiences. One of the greatest of all these experiences is making friendships with incredible musicians whom you admire.

So before you shlep down to the crossroads and sell your soul, do a little soul searching.

If you are getting into music to make money, turn around, go back home, and choose ANY other career. I promise you, the workload of a musician is more than the corresponding pay check.

However, if you can value experience as currency....if you enjoy making music for the sake of making good music.......(and as I have shown you here through one example, namely, my recent trip to Belgium) If you want to have the coolest friends of anyone you know..............well .....welcome...come on in.....

"this first one's in B flat.......1,2,3,4"

Gabby Shack for The Win

Last night I played an acoustic show at the Gabby Shack. 

Gabby Shack is kind of a community hang out on Roi. The Gabby Shack is 10 ft from the water. It has a fully stocked bar, a couple of rusty old refrigerators, and its own island cat. The air there is salty and thick. The people there are unbelievably laid back and as hospitable as can be. 

What I am trying to tell you is, it felt like home. Playing all night for a group of genuinely nice people while we all sat on a deck by the saltwater and drank.

I'd say this one was in my "wheel house".

There probably would've been way more people had it not rained. But I think the party was actually better for it having rained.

One interesting phenomenon in the Marshall Islands is the way it rains. 

Every single day, the Marshall Islands has crisp perfectly blues skies. Everyday the Marshall Islands also has rain. And I mean the good old Gulf Coast torrential down pour rain. The difference is that here the rain lasts a total of 10-15 minutes. So you can be hanging in the most picturesque weather imaginable, be in a severe rain, and then back to the perfect weather all in the amount of time it takes to walk to the store and back. 

I joked with the folks and said "yesterday was the best week of my life". 

I meant it mostly because we had done so many things in one day that it literally felt like many days, but this quickly changing weather played a role in that. I think when my body had been through two pretty harsh storms and three extended periods of perfect sunny weather it subconsciously drew the conclusion that days must have passed. 

Having experienced this weather change so much while we were here before and during the three days we've been here this time, we knew the routine. 

Well last night at the Gabby Shack show, it was different. It rained and rained and rained. It was an unusually long rain. It also had lots of lighting, which the locals tell me is a very rare thing. 

Anyway, you would think all that rain would have lessened the gig. And you'd be wrong. 

I think the show was enhanced by it. The rain caused all 20-30 people to have to be more tightly packed in because they had to all get under the roof. It gave it much more of a "listening room" feel than a bar feel.

The rain helped in another way too. I told you this island feels a lot like home. That includes the extremely hot and sticky salt air and the incessant insects. Because it rained all night there was a cool breeze coming through which made it the perfect temperature and also kept the flies away. 

With this nice set up and the rain helping, the show was amazing for me. I got to tell stories and play songs up close and personal to these folks. I love playing in environments like that. They were all very very receptive and interactive, but when I was playing they were attentively listening and quiet. It felt good. 

I played a while, then Dale played a while (and sounded great of course) and then we played the last hour together.

Gabby Shack definitely has a special place in my heart now. I'll always remember that show.

Today'a agenda: run across island to upload this blog, pack all my stuff, then head to the dock to sail 9 hours down to Kwajalein. Oh my god. I'm excited I can't stand it. I'm a sailor at heart and never had the opportunity to have such a large extended excursion (definitely not in the South Pacific). I'll tell ya how it goes later.