Musicians are coming in the windows. It seems like no matter what I do, I run into musicians. The one thing in common is that they aren't making a living doing music.

This morning, my wife, son and I went down to Home Depot to rent a floor sander and get all the supplies for refinishing the floors. My son Pasha was listening to the music being piped into the store, and started playing "drums" on some cans, and the many who was waiting on us asked if he was a muscian. Pasha said thqat he used to play drums, but I am the musician. The started a long conversation (basically a monologue) about all the years the man who was waiting on us had been a musician. He's probably in his 60's, I'd guess and first got excited about music listening to rockabilly in the 50's. Then, when he heard James Brown, he got in to soul music. He plays electric bass and for many years was in an 8 piece soul band. Now, he plays bass in a country band. He's played with the Drifters and a few other "name" groups, and I told him I had a friend who'd been in the Flamingos and the Coasters, and have met Fred Paris, the lead singer of the Five Satins.

There is a basic fabvric of music that runs through this country. There are countless people who have had their lives enriched by music. Only a small handful of them have made enough money out of it to support themselves. And yet music remains an important part of their life. Not just us folkies.

Today, when we took a break from working on the floors, I told Pasha of a tape I made, and encouraged others to think about. It was a Soundtrack Of My Life tape. If someone made a movie of our lives (which is highly unlikely) what would I want on the soundtrack? What would you... that's a separate thread, but I could see Pasha getting in to it.

I know that Poppa's Got A Brand New Bag would on his soundtrack... :-)

Jerry