We met last October at the taping of the ”Woodsongs Radio Hour” in Louisville, Kentucky. It was the one where Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile were there, also. They did the show after ours? Anyway, I just wanted to tell you something…
I spent the better part of my college years listening to a lot of MMW. I actually had to willfully cut myself off because I was absorbing a bit too much of Chris’ style, in my youthful opinion. I hadn’t really listened to much in the several years since then, but it was still a bit of an intimidating treat to be on the set of this nationally syndicated radio show with Chris Wood and Edgar Meyer. My bass teacher in college used to drag us to master classes down in Hickory NC, and Edgar’s was one of them. It was mindblowing, but I digress. I went out and bought your album, Loaded, the day after the taping.
The point I’m getting at is that we, as professional musicians, have been taught through many generations of unfortunate Pavlovian training to view the worth of our art through the lens of commerce. How many units we sell is how good our record is. Of course, we know that we’re creating art and that the value of our work can’t be quantified as simply and as greedily as that, but if your record doesn’t move that many units, it’s harder to stay excited about it as a work of art, isn’t it? It’s certainly harder to keep our record label excited about it. That fact is quite likely the fundamental cause of the mess that we find our “industry” in, wouldn’t you say? That it’s an industry at all is part of the problem. Irony.
So, I just wanted to take a moment to tell you, in public, what a profoundly great record it is. It’s moved me to tears more times than I can count, and almost every song on there has at one point or another perfectly summed it all up for me. I haven’t heard music as good since probably the first time I ever heard Gillian Welch. I’m not sure how many units it’s sold, maybe “not many”, but it’s one of the finest albums I’ve ever heard. So, thank you.