Derek Duplessie and the Desert Poets a Review

Derek Duplessie and the Desert Poets

I don’t look to music for anything approaching an answer anymore. When I was young a crowd in any kind of agreement seemed comforting. Now the crowd is cold and distracted. Either that or dissolute and drunk. Life today is a randomized anger at something unspecified. There is no comfort to be had.

Why start a music review this way? Because it nearly impossible today to stroke a common emotion except anger. The only way to succeed in the music business is to work a formula for the corporate guys who know this. They want to hit the dollar demographic: the most mindless sheep who will buy anything if they believe someone else bought it. "Making it" with the big companies gives you an opportunity make enough money to feed yourself. If it weren’t for raw ambition and greed would anyone embark on such an unlikely and potentially miserable journey?

So why did I even listen to the CD? Well, Dave asked me to … and the cover shows one of my favorite guitars: a sweet little Rickenbacker: at least one thing that I like from the get-go. I found all the tracks very easy to listen to. The band is tight and competent and the instruments support the lyrics instead of overwhelming them. I didn’t look to see who wrote the songs. All the songs went together well and the CD had a feel of unity and completeness.

Later as I’m looking at the song list I’m a bit surprised by the mix of Duplessie songs and the covers of some fantastic song writers. That puts Derek’s songs in proximity to great songs and his are not out of place. Not bad for a young guy.

It is at this point that I’m again depressed by the state of the music world. I struggle with encouraging a young man to spend his youth and maybe the rest of his life chasing such phantoms. Should I tell him to finish school and become a computer geek? He’s probably smart enough to take on any number of professions and live comfortably.

For good or bad, though, I think Derek Duplessie is a song writer and therefore cursed/blessed to experience a heavy dose and life and share that experience in songs. I like his music, but he needs to understand that I am not a money demographic and an understanding of living lean may be necessary. Nearly all the great writers have been heavily scuffed by life. Anyway, it is not my fault that he is a song writer. That’s the way it is and I can’t do anything about that. So I’ll just wait and enjoy the songs as they come.

One thing for sure. I won't be waiting to hear anything from doctors, lawyers, accountants or computer geeks..

To download Derek's song, "L.A. Standard Time "Click Here
To Return to Artvilla's music files Click Here

Andy Derryberry

8-1-2004

 

 

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