Mule

My wife dropped me off at the staff entrance to the festival. A man got out of the van in front of me with a lunchbox and stopped and turned to wave to his dad. His dad was probably 70, the man was probably around my age and had Down syndrome. He walked through the gate and turned and waved to his dad again. Independent, strong, vulnerably smiling with everything he had as he walked into what will be a crowd of 140,000 people. He walked through the metal detector and taught me to just be there, not anxiously expect something, be there, be grateful. The moment is enough and you are enough for it. I wasn’t going to force it… which is why when Greg Goldberg introduced me to Darrell Scott it landed so hard. When Darrell was telling me about how he lets an instrument be what it is and not mess with it and inspire him uniquely I grinned and shook my head to keep from fainting. Why when I met long time superfans Emily and Moh at the booth and they were so happy to finally play the guitars it made my day. Im their fifth YouTube subscriber- I found EmandMoh before all y’all. Which is why @kenny_audiotips_kaiser making time to come by the booth during one of the most intense two ay travel schedule I’ve ever heard of meant so much. Which is why my wife and I being walked by security past multiple cities worth of people during Duran Duran, under the stage, then up on stage next to @thekillers to see @ronnievannucciphoto play his soul out was so powerful. One of the most difficult intuitions to develop is when to try and when to let go. Success is the balance between two opposing ideas. Im not going to try and figure it out. Im just going to be grateful and say thank you to the man at the security gate, Greg and Kenny and Ronnie, and Em and Moh and everyone who somehow cares about these strange heavy guitars and why we make them.

-Matt