The Gig

Just listened to the latest installment (#11) of the Pedal Steel Podcast from Bryan Daste in which he interviewed Jon Graboff. After talking about good days and bad days and good gigs and bad gigs and their unpredictabilty, at one point, Jon told a story about the first time he played at the Ryman. While on stage, he realized that Jon Hughey was across the way at a watering hole, playing for drinks and tips. Jon said it was an odd feeling, it was a bizarro world, backwards, meaning, I take it, unfair somehow.

He then went on to say that Jimmy Crawford gave him a perspective on it. Jimmy told him, "Well, Jon, it's just your turn." Jon said it was a beautiful way to demystify things.

And then, Jon said something in passing that rings true on many levels: "Everybody has a different gig. You take the gig that you got."

It's true of playing gigs but for me the real ring of truth is that it's a metaphor for this entire project. I'm no fatalist, but past leads to future. The first currents and eddies in the stream where you find yourself wind up taking you places you'd never arrive at had you started at some different arbitrary point. And with each new position, the new forces in play take you somewhere else.

If I hadn't heard the pedal steel back in high school and taken it up (a kid from Long Island playing PSG?), if I hadn't wound up a software developer (not something I ever imagined), and later, if the Internet weren't in place, if processors weren't so powerful and certain technologies weren't yet developed, among many other currents and eddies, the OnePSG would never have ... visited itself upon me.