I never once understood what It felt like to give something everything I had and get virtually no response untill I took the stage or stoop, if you will, at the local pub. Just me and my band mates, whom had already sweated over and over on the same tunes for months. Only to please the oldest drunk in the place who's tone changed when he discovered we did'nt play any Lynard Skynard. You have never been truly humbled untill you have been in those shoes, or the shoesof the 55 year old guy playing phenomenal licks in an empty club, or the duet pouring their every emotion into every note only to open their eyes to a room full of folks involved in meaningless conversation that I'm sure didn't take them years to evolve. Like a love song you discover many years after its prime or the Beattles album you did your best scratching on as an ignorant young lad are the so called musicians today. 
          First it was the jukebox, now the jukebox has evolved into DJ's (and I'm not talking about the cats doing all the mixing and scratching) and Karoake; for the most part a group of people who want to be rock stars but were to lazy to learn to play an instrument or for that matter work on there horrible rendetions of "Brown Eyed Girl". Karoake, although fun in small doses, is slowly putting the already poor musicians even further in the sewer with their powerful rants by overweight drunk women and three hundred year old x- yodelers. Hats off to the bars and clubs who have not stooped to this level and continue to support the starving musician. Hats off to the musicians in the underground scenes that continue to water the throats of a thirsty nation of music lovers, of whom refuse to have thier ears depriciated by the mechanically altered poo coming out of the mainstream.
        I have no idea what the future of music will be like, but I do know that real music will live forever in the eyes, ears, and souls, of all the faithful people of music. All the Karoake, Dj'ing, and mechanical voicing in the world couldn't hold back even a smidgen of the soul of a true music.Whether you are a vivid listener or a music thoery major, real music lovers know the value of  live music and that's all we need. There is nothing like a live performance of original music that grabs hold of somebody else.  To know that your not alone with your twisted thoughts on a twisted world is truly an awesome experience that the guy in the 5.0 wearing expensive sunglasses and listening to techno will never be a part of. So I say pity the ignorance of the musically deprived , whom have never been turned onto the ravishing riffs of Trey or the mind tingling  ballads of the Grateful Dead. Just hand them a copy of some real live music so they might to  experience The Grace In The Show.     
                                                                 Nathan Vanderlin.