Added on Wednesday 11 Nov 2009
Inspiration is an important thing to any writer. Where does the inspiration come from though? That's a hard question. I admit to writing being something of a compulsion for me but I have also to admit that there are times when my writing is actually good and there are times when it plainly isn't. It isn't the words either for they are simply the result of education and exposure to literature. The missing link is the emotion for the point of all writing is to convey something that mere words on their own cannot.
Anyway, I had a brief chat with Bob Cheevers before he played at the Liquid Ship with Dominic Finley, Jim Byrne and Alex Gardner the other night. He was telling me a bit about his new album "Tall Texas Tales" - it isn't a shameless plug if I tell you about it, by the way - and I was telling him a bit about the Bluesbunny. I made the remark about writing being a compulsion and he smiled and said that he knew what I meant. He had spent many a decade churning out songs for the Nashville Music Mincer and, when he had had enough of that, he moved to Texas and starting writing songs again.
Listening to his songs, the words he uses aren't big or complex but he weaves them into sentences that are imbued with warmth and humanity. The simple fact is that he writes songs that you and I can relate to. Songs that make you feel good. How does he do that? It's true that he has learned his craft well but I think he still takes pleasure in what he does. Maybe he still looks at the world - as a child does - with wonder? Or at least as a child used to do before the times made them as acquisitional as adults.
I was talking to my muse the other night. Let's call her Azure. Azure smiles. Azure tells me time and time again to write from the heart. Bob Cheevers writes from the heart. I've got the sat-nav out and I'm looking for the postcode for the Yellow Brick Road. I need to get a heart.
Bob Cheevers - www.bobcheevers.com
Jim Byrne myspace
Dominic Finlay myspace
Alex Gardner myspace