My Valentine’s Day Vow to the Muse
Before the Muse and all who love her, I hereby solemnly declare that I will never compromise my art in any way:
* I will never write according to someone else’s “formula” or another’s “recipe” for what constitutes “a great song”
* I will never write solely in order to gain popularity
* I will only sing from my heart what my heart cannot keep to itself
* I will never set out to write a “hit”, knowing well that mostpeople apparently cannot distinguish a song from the heart from a turd in the street
* I will never shorten my songs so they conform to a “soundbite” mentality and become less than what I have to say. I will trust in the Muse and her lovers to show me how not to be unnecessarily verbose and how to avoid gratuitousness in song
* I will never follow the direction of the prevailing wind but will go where the Muse directs me
* I will forever believe in the unshaken, unquenchable, unmitigated, unadulterated, bubbled-up, volcanic cry from the individual heart as the essence of the song
* I will willingly learn from others but I will never be a clone or a protégé
* I will only listen to the advice of those who themselves have vowed before the Muse never to compromise their art and never to be blown by the winds of popularity
I swear all this before the Muse on Saint Valentine’s Day today. May she desert me forever if I compromise one iota.
The Naked Troubadour 