To me, the most important tool I possess as a musician is an open heart. Keeping it open, (a vunerability of sorts), allows me to be in touch with the soul and emotion of the music...

Understanding that underneath all the outer "packaging" that seems to seperate people, our basic feelings and emotions are the same.

So many people don't have the ability...or luxury...of expressing and releasing those emotions as we musicians do. I suppose it's not "safe" in a lot of the busniss world to show true feelings. So, real, honest, heartfelt emotion and response begins to be buried under layers of "conditioned" reponse...("How are you?"..."Fine...and you?" ...."Fine.....").

A heartfelt song can magically link others to a feeling again...allowing themselves to be safely led through emotions of a memory and/or experience they'd forgotten about. A very private thing, indeed, but I'm sure you players have seen it...felt it. A noisy person in the audience might suddenly quiet down, close his/her eyes, and you can FEEL them with you. Sometimes it's a smile....whatever the signal, WE know it.

Talent, practice and all the tricks of the trade have their place..we certinally need them all. But, there is nothing more important to me to have onstage than an open heart. People can feel the difference...and they'll return again and again. They may never even know WHY they come back...but that doesn't matter. (Just in case you don't get what I'm saying, picture Andy Williams singing "Like A Rolling Stone"...are you grinning?? Get it???)

One more thought concerning the open heart "tool" ...it helps in keeping our own emotions and feelings healthy and sometimes even balanced! Which gives us a head start right from the beginning of even the most impossible of shows.