Who is Jon Black

This isn’t my quarterly “I’m quitting music” post.  In fact, I’m far from it right now.  I’ve never felt more encouraged to continue doing what I’m doing and I’m thankful for friends, old and new, that have shown me that what I’m doing does matter.  

I live in a world of tension, two forces pulling me in different directions, and I’m quite sure I’ll never be able to shake either of them.  These two forces are: creating what I feel vs. being too concerned about if people like what I’m doing.  Unfortunately, to continue playing music for a living people have to like what I’m doing but I don’t have to play music for a living.  It’s a reality I’ve come to grips with recently.  What I have to do is create music because I believe I was created to do that. 

As I gave up and cut a specific string on the side that makes me mostly insecure, I found freedom that I’ll never forget.  A freedom that helps me sleep at night.  A freedom that makes me want to write more songs.  I watched the string float away with the wind tonight in Birmingham.  It danced down the sidewalk towards the entitled people drinking cheap beer and listening to awful “country” music.  I turned to talk to my friend Brian and then I turned back to look at it… it was gone.  Out of sight.  A thing of my past that will probably haunt me occasionally.

Thanks to everyone that came out to Sloss Furnace tonight and thanks to Brian T. Murphy and Clint Wells for joining me on the stage and, without them knowing, helped me let go.  Mark Kozolek complimented me tonight… once to my face and once to the talent buyer.  That’s enough fuel for a while.  His music was really great and I’m going to enjoy diving into it.

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