When I think about the caliber of musicians I’ve been fortunate enough to play with over the last seventeen or eighteen years it kind of blows my mind. I remember when I was in The Drew Johnson Band I would always worry about what would happen if Steve and Dino ever figured out that I was actually not much of a guitar player. But high skill level is not what made DJB stand out. The thing that made that band great was a passionate commitment to musicality. Three guys focused intently on a singular purpose. Brotherhood.

One thing we used to hear a lot at our shows was “I can’t believe there’s only three guys in the band and you’re able to have that big of a sound.” You know how we did it? No really. Do you? Because I never thought we sounded all that huge but it always made me feel good to hear people say that.

Of all the bands I’ve played in, the ones that I enjoyed the most and am most proud of weren’t necessarily the bands with the best players. The bands that I think of most fondly are the bands that had sincere camaraderie. That was always my favorite part of being in a band: the brotherhood. That will always propel a band much farther than skill.

There used to be a really great band in St. Louis (around the time that The Drew Johnson Band was in existence) that shall remain nameless but the band name had a flower in it. This was one of my favorite local bands at the time. Wicked players, great tunes, great show. But when I found out that the leader(s) of the band paid the other members like hired guns instead of equal shareholders (as it were) I was stunned. Not that it was even that big of a deal. It’s not like it was a secret. But it just bummed me out because it killed the illusion of brotherhood and camaraderie for me.

Now that I’m older and slightly less naive I can see the advantage of running a band that way. “I wrote the songs. This is how I want them to be played. Yes, I’m willing to pay for it. No your sister can not be in the video.” The dynamic is certainly simpler this way but it just doesn’t trip my trigger. For me, the essential element is missing. Brotherhood.

More to come.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 2nd, 2007 at 8:50 pm and is filed under By Drew, Day to Day. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.