About Last Night

Last night provided some great moments on the Charleston music scene...In town were The Eagles ( at one venue), Mountain Stage had a host of fiddlers for their mostly Celtic program, and snow was everywhere and then some.
After all the respective shows, people made their way to the club for nightcaps of music hoping to maybe get a glimpse of someone famous ( I was actually told that by a woman in the club).
Truthfully, I wanted to tell her that I thought she was clueless because right in her own backyard you have some of the finest players anywhere.
One of the songs that we do is entitled "You Don't Miss Your Water ('til the well runs dry),"it's one of those I played, you stayed, til you had enough, and left me dazed songs ( you know the type). As I listened to this woman go on and on about the Eagles, I thought what would she do if there were no music scene in this town. Now don't get me wrong even the MOST critical of musicians has to respect major bands, it takes alot to do what we do...entertain/schmooze/BS/hope you'll buy our CD/manuever through the mire of other people with the same dream, but even great legends once in a while can be overtaken, every now and then there are other folks who are just as talented, but you won't know that unless you venture out of your narrow realm...Freebird ain't for everyone.Sometimes I wanna take Mustang Sally and drive her butt right outta town to sweet home Alabama, or wherever the heck she lives.
It's really disheartening to feel as though you won't even be given a chance if you don't play it like the record...people there's more to life than Mickey D's and Burger King. Occasionally eat a burger from somewhere else; it'll still be hamburger and you might find out that it's actually good at other places.
One of the greatest joys that I've experienced with this band is that we geniunely love to play music together, we don't worry that there are times that the band outnumbers the audience...if there are 2 or 2,000 we show up and play like it's the last concert we'll ever do.People go home after a night of the Carpenter Ants and know they have been thoroughly entertained from their souls down to their soles.
A few years ago my wife told me a story the next day after a show that we did in which Blues legend Luther Allison was in the audience.Vickie told Luther to " jump up on stage and have some fun with the guys," and he told her "those guys are tooooo F...ing good for me to fool with, I'm stayin' right here in my seat and enjoy."This past year the Reverend Jesse Jackson asked me "where in the heck Mike learned to play guitar like that."
About last night, all I can say is America we're waiting for you, catch up.We're humble, we're decent, but we need you to see it, just give us the chance you won't be disappointed.To paraphrase an old deodorant commercial, listen to The Carpenter Ants with your right ear...it'll convince your left.