Today I’m running a column I used in this space some time back, but certain things clearly need repeating so I offer it again. It has to do with a pivotal part of a musician’s life, lasting several years, when he/she is away from home, sometimes far away, playing the music in distant locations, some of which he/she may have read about but never thought of seeing. The initial point I must make is that it occurred to me recently, after a long, rambling conversation with a young musician hopeful, that unless one has gone down that life on the road, you have no idea of how very difficult, I would even say daunting, that path is. There is no formula anywhere, no how-to- book on the process, partly because every musical journey is distinct and unique with the traumas and pitfalls that obtain only from that person’s set of circumstances or abilities. The path that Sparrow took in his emergence, for instance, when I hear him talk about them, were completely different from my own; my going to him or to Dennis DeSouza in Trinidad, who I got to know in the years after Tradewinds became popular, for advice on how to proceed with this problem or that, would have been no use because their obstacles or advantages were totally different from mine. The potential popular artist is wrestling with something very nebulous, and in each case the individual must find his/her own strength and own impediments and learn by doing how to successfully manipulate those things. It is unknown territory, because the details differ widely from case to case, and behind every successful musician story I know there are very particular things pertaining usually only to that individual.
