The Journeyman.....

It was 1993 when I took the big plunge....finally putting the final touches on the rebuilding of my parent's home and lives from the tragedy that was 1992 and Hurricane Andrew, I felt that it was time to set out and conquer the world....I had learned a few country licks, I had played on a few local recordings, and of course I was ready to be a "studio musician"......looking back on it now and knowing what I know now....oh if you only knew what a delusional state of mind I was in!!! ...........not because there's anything with dreaming but because I felt that I was ready to show up into town and have the audacity to call myself a studio musician....after many many years of researching this, I'm here to tell you that the A-List session players are not made......they're born.  The job description of a studio/session guitar player to walk into a studio that costs $150 -$300 an hour and on the spot play a song that you've never heard nor played before just by looking at a chord chart....except that it's not like piano music where it's all written out for you...you have to INVENT a part...ON THE SPOT....a part worthy of becoming a pop staple for thousands if not millions of guitar players to study for hours to try to replicate well enough to post on YouTube and brag that they "learned it note for note"........and by the way....you only get 2 or 3 takes at best, because in the studio time is money...lots of it......and then you need to invent good and fitting solos for these songs... etc etc.... Suffice it to say....this was NOT me.....the good news? there were about 10,000 other idiots who thought the same thing, so I wasn't alone in Nashville.

There was one thing  that I DID have a very good grasp on  at that time though.....one thing I HAD CHOPS !! lots of practice and intuition.... one thing that I was able to march into Nashville and demand work on........................................... a construction crew :)

I had just spent 2 years helping my parents rebuild from the hurricane damage, and not only at my parents' home but several other places in Miami, with friends, etc etc......I knew how to use my hands and work tools....so when I moved to Nashville in the fall of 93 I found construction work with a trim carpenter named John Ezell.... It was a fun (NOT) winter...Mr. Miami with his little tan and long curly hair in my first Tennessee winter.....oh boy.  I remember a day that I had to help another contractor pour a cement footer....(trim carpentry?) the high temperature of the day was 9 DEGREES!... i was manning the portable cement mixer....water hose in hand and covered in cement dust I stood there next to this little clunker....it was rusty and made this squeaking sound as it turned....the squeak and cadence of the turning mixer got ingrained in my brain....I can still hear it to this day......I'd swear it was saying..."Welcome to Nashville, Welcome to Nashville, Welcome to Nashville..."....I was so cold and wanted to literally cry and run back to the sun and mosquitoes in Miami.....but I kept reminding myself ..."no one's making you be here....you're here because you want to be....you're here because this is a stepping stone to bigger things...." and somehow the passion of youth and my dreams kept me there through the winter time until I got my first TV gig pulling cable for a camera crew....another story for another blog.

During that long winter with the trim carpentry crew I learned so so much (I should mention that I had done construction in one form or another for almost every year during the summers since middle school).....still....I learned more than I ever dreamed from those guys....bunch of crass and rowdy rednecks....and I miss them til this very day.....to put it mildly, a cultural shock for Mr. Dade County.

Around the second month that I worked with this crew I started hearing a word getting thrown around by the contractors and carpenters.......this word was "journeyman"....this word revolutionized the way that I saw myself as a musician and a person.  The reality is that growing up, as many of my closest friends will attest...I worshiped Dann Huff''s work....him, Chris Rodriguez and Terry McMillan....I wanted to be them....I bought entire record collections based on their presence on these records....to this day you might wanna avoid getting me going about Dann Huff....and to top it all off now he's a superstar producer.  More on that at the end....when I realized that I was NOT studio player material (maybe being a bit hard on myself at the time) I was very demoralized...I was ready to hang it up and go home......

it was about Christmas time and Bic (one of the site supervisors) said something about a "Journeyman".....I think the context was...."Well if he can't handle it then find me a journeyman who can...."..........my curiosity was piqued......I pulled Bic aside and said....."Hey man, at risk of embarrassing myself......what the heck is a journeyman?"  Bic, who normally would have seized on the opportunity to tell me a story to set me up for a prank of some kind actually took a moment to educate me......

"A journeyman is a term we use around here for a carpenter who has enough years in the business to not only be entrusted with most any job but to not embarrass the contractor or master carpenter by being unprofessional in front of a client....he knows enough about tools to know what's expected on the job, he knows enough about current trends and styles to field questions from the clients if  the contractor is not around, and most importantly he does not need to be a master carpenter, just a damn good journeyman.".......................I know I used quotes and although it's not 100% word for word....it might as well have been....because that explanation changed my view on playing guitar forever.

Master carpenters in the state of Tennessee back then had to take a test to prove that they were in fact masters at the craft....no faking that.  Journeymen did not have the pressure of having to prove anything to anyone other than the clients... and really to themselves...all of a sudden there was a new breath of life for my future as a guitar player.....all of a sudden the reality of all-or-nothing didn't seem as ominous to me....I wasn't even 100% sure why, but I knew that God was trying to tell me something.

It took me close to 20 years but I figured it out one day........

I'm about to be very transparent about my guitar playing.....we're all our own worst critics (if we're smart) because it's best to find our weaknesses in private and work them out, than to walk onto a stage and have 1500 people witness them first-hand.  I'm a pop-rock-blues guitar player....I'm a product of the 80s and this is at the core of what I play....blues, pop, rock....after all is at the center of most guitar music....I've been blessed with the opportunity to play on a lot of studio projects through the years....some better than others, but a "session player".....I am not......that's the honest to goodness truth...I'm not a jazz player, and although I can play the modern country stuff, you're gonna see me break a sweat in concentration......but I love the challenge.....I'll be glad to learn a jazz song, country song, or even classical if you need me to. Somewhere along the way I was blessed with the opportunity of learning to play piano, harmonica and a couple of other instruments that will hopefully help me to serve the client better....maybe make the stock a little higher? who knows? simple business practice....no ego.

The challenge is to listen to what the client wants and try my hardest to give them exactly what they want...to get out of my own way and recommend when appropriate but not insist on getting my way...I want to strive to become good enough as a guitar player that you throw me into any situation and I will make you look good....not because I want to be recognized as a good guitar player, but because I want to be recognized as the guy who you feel comfortable and safe standing behind you as you sing.  I strive to learn each day how to "serve the song" and consequently..you! ....how to not overplay nor underplay.....not to try to show every trick in my bag of tricks every time I plug my guitar in, and most importantly, when to learn to just NOT PLAY....and understand that my part in this particular moment....is absence.  I try to ingrain into my heart...conviction, that if you're paying me to play for you I NEED to spend time preparing this song for you, because even if I've played it 1000 times, you're needing me to play it imagining you singing it.... touching the strings in a way that complements your phrasing and voice timber and dynamic.....I love to look back and realize that I was stressing out at the prospect that I did not give myself enough time to get to the gig in case there was traffic...I love looking back and saying, "I should've  set 2 alarm clocks in case one did not go off"..........I don't ever want to lose the element of service, reliability and dependability.

 Does this always happen?? not often enough!...I mean after all, no one likes being told not to play here, or not to overplay there.....but that's life, especially in a position of support and service....it's not about you....it's about the end product.....and so every time that I think about the fact that I started playing guitar at the age of 12 I've trained myself to remember 2 things...."After all this time, I should be so much better than I am" and "I need to improve more".......this will forever be a work in progress...but one I'm determined to master.

The difference between the master carpenter and the journeyman is the focus on whom is served....the master carpenter has to live up to his title....the journeyman wants to live to hear his phone ring again.

Am I a journeyman guitar player? who knows, if I am, that's for others to determine, not me......and it's probably best for me to never know how far or how near I am to this undefinable goal.....lest I feel that I've arrived at a level of some kind and ease up on my desire to become better..........the truth is that out there somewhere.....there is a journeyman who's been doing it a few years longer than I have......and what's the urgency in knowing anyways?, as long as the phone keeps ringing and someone somewhere needs you then a wise man should just enjoy the ride and make memories of the journey............like a seasoned journeyman.

oh.....and  I wanted to share this about Dann Huff and Keith Urban's work together.  Enjoy the work of this Master Carpenter....Dann Huff.