We continue our series on highlighting what is good in music with this article from Brevard, NC's Dave Desmelik. Dave is a wonderful talent and a person with great warmth and integrity, and we wish him great success with his new record, Deep Down The Definition.
Your thoughts about the topic are welcome, and please drop us a line if you'd like to be featured in this series! Whether you would like to talk about something as straightforward as a great piece of music, live show, or something broader like the music community or good ways to make a living with music, we invite you to join the conversation.
Here is a video of Dave playing at The Grey Eagle to get you primed for his article below. - Joe Kendrick
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I was recently asked the question “What is good in music now?”, and took a couple days to chew on this. I think there are a number of answers, but keep coming back to one thought. The same things have always been good in music: the feelings and emotions that music invokes in someone’s soul. The sensations and impressions made not only by music, but with music, are as important and as impactful now as they ever were. And they will continue to be just as powerful in the future. There is no substitute for music and music is good.
I may be turning the question around a bit and giving an answer that is not what the person asking intended for a reply, but I think there are no real boundaries for an inquiry such as this. I could have possibly responded with some angle on social media and how it is helping the “small potatoes” artist or how the opportunities for recording a great quality album in the comfort of one's own living room seem to grow everyday with new equipment and technology. Perhaps I could point to the fact that many musicians aren’t having to rely on major labels to attain a level of financial stability and are having more creative freedom than ever. But I kept coming back to the question “What is good in music now?” To me, what is good in music now is the good in music now, before, and later. What I mean is the feeling someone gets when they turn on the radio and hear a song that they haven’t heard in years, and for an instant they revisit an exact and touching moment in their life, or when a lyric fills the corners of the eyes with tears and the heart literally drops just a bit in the chest. I believe music is not just for listening along, dancing with, singing to, or blasting in the car. It is a friend in the truest sense, a therapist who accurately knows you, and a distant stranger waiting to meet you.
-Dave Desmelik