Mission Statement - April 9, 2001
The
following is my Musical Mission Statement:
-To seek and find within myself the musical expressions that stand at attention and exclaim, "YES!" I have come to know these gems as the Truth. They are a pure manifestation of what I know to be true on a level that I cannot express with words.
-To reveal my inner truths to my listeners, as purely and as skillfully as I can, without calculating response or reward, only regarding my responsibility to tell the truth as I know it.
-To seek beauty.
-To confront dissonance when it appears, and to try to find the beauty and the resolution within it.
-To learn life lessons through music, to learn musical lessons through life.
-To know that I am a human being, an artist, a musician, and a guitarist, in that order.
-To remember that music is a lifelong journey, not an end result.
-To always keep my sense of humor. Without it, I am lost.
-To simplify as much as possible without being simplistic. To say no more than needs to be said, but never to settle for the obvious when more digging will reveal greater riches. To strive toward saying exactly what I want to say, rather than approximately.
-To maintain my own course, unswayed by the currents of trend and fashion.
-To not try to be different for the sake of being different, but to know that if I follow the above resolutions, I will find my own voice.
-Always to handle music with love, nurturing, respect, and honesty. Always to remember that the gift of art is a responsibility, because each artist has his or her own little window into the bigger truths that we all struggle with. To have the opportunity to see and express what no one else can see and express in quite the same way is indeed a gift to be loved. With that gift comes a mandate to pass it on.
