Hamell’s Song A Day Blog #2: The Happiest Man In The World

THE HAPPIEST MAN IN THE WORLD –or- HOW MUCH TRUTH CAN YOU HANDLE?

Just got back from a cross country tour with my eight-year-old son. 14 gigs in 15 days, from New York City to Hollywood and back, 7,500 miles. This was a profound voyage into the Rock and Roll backroads that resulted in performances in indie record stores, house concerts in both affluent and gang-riddled sections of California, Texas Swing road houses, death metal scenes in Louisiana, Anti-folk in Mississippi, fine hotels in Carolina, not so fine hotels in Nebraska, and sleeping in the car on three occasions. Fireworks in Truck stops, several swimming pools, plenty of skateboarding, comic books, Nick Cave, Johnny Cash and Lemmy, boatloads of songwriting and appreciative crowds, cactus, rock formations, joy and exhaustion.

I don’t know how much this has to do with songwriting but let’s talk finances. Let’s face it, there’s a good possibility that every one of you deals with the art versus commerce problem. Do we work a straight job to pay the bills? Can we “supplement” an income with songwriting? Are we one of the lucky ones that can do it with the art alone? I guess I fall into the latter category. And believe me, I don’t take it for granted. It took a long time, working every line level job imaginable to get to this position. Bottom line: the tour came back with a substantial profit. Hooray! I was able to pay all my damn bills and even catch up on a few strays.

Bear with me while I deviate a bit. Often my thinking isn’t linear but hopefully this will come together at the end. I’ve been listening an awful lot to Johnny Cash’s Live at Folsom Prison album. It’s an album that I listened to a bunch even as a child, although it was pretty much rock and roll all the time for me. Took me awhile in my later teens to appreciate folk, blues, jazz and country, but I always returned to that Johnny Cash album. Recently I had yet another “epiphany” regarding it. The song choices he made for that record were brilliant. This is a tough crowd. They will accept no bullshit. Woody Guthrie once said that he hated a song that made a man feel “worthless.” He’s referring, I think, to a song being “condescending”. These were honest songs about love and death, murder and laughter that spoke down to no one. Try it as a template for your own songwriting.

I, personally, am not inspired by metaphors, as good as they may be. Perfected craft doesn’t move me. But this Cash album, again and again, in plain speech, resonates year after year more poignantly. So when I suggest you use it as a gauge for your own songs I’m saying can you play that original song in front of a group of lifers in a Federal Prison? Try it. They’re not that tough as long as you’re 100% honest.

So after paying all the bills and getting caught up you’d think I could relax right? Nooooo….plenty of hustle for the next gigs. I recently, (last year), went through the toughest time of my life emotionally. Split up of a 25 year marriage, dropped both my management and agent. It’s taken a bit to get back on track. Now with a new great agent, the continued support of Righteous Babe records, a book deal and a documentary being made of my life and work, it’s pretty darn great. That’s why I had mixed feelings when I bounced a $10 check yesterday. Fuck it…..should I write about it? Hell yeah.

If you check out my website you’ll see I’ve been writing a song every day. Song #352 titled: “Happiest Man in the World” deals with the above mentioned issue. I’d like to think that I turned a potential plunge into despair into a credible song. As honest as I could make it. With a little work, some crafting and editing maybe I could play it at a prison.

Hopefully not a debtor’s prison.