Today Merle Haggard died. I came very late to appreciate what he was as a man and legendary talent. The lesson for me is that you should never let your musical prejudices keep you from discovering excellence wherever it may be.
Seeing live music is always good. It’s easy to discount the work of musicians when an ocean of music is available through a simple web search. The thing is musicians work hard on stage and sometimes magic happens. The magic exists in live performance not recordings. I remember one such performance many years ago by a single musician in a small bar in Nevada City California. I also remember a performance by Paul Cauthen in Luckenbach Texas not that long ago.
Some Saturday afternoons I ride out to Luckenbach to photograph musicians playing on the outdoor stage. That is how I happened to be present when Paul Cauthen took the stage with his new band. I have to admit I didn’t know who he was. Or that he had recently split from his success with Sons of Fathers.
When the band took the stage you could see they were nervous, maybe a little unrehearsed. Hey its Luckenbach how bad can it be? Well they got down to business and made magic right there behind the old post office. They delivered a powerful and emotional performance. Both the band and audience were drained by the end of the set. You could not ask for more.
I look forward to the next time magic happens.
