LIVING IN A WALMART IN NASHVILLE
This is an old country western song I wrote about my friend Count Dracula who wanted to make a music career in Nashville. However, as fate had it in store, poor Count Dracula was reduced to living in his hearse in a parking lot at Walmart. Incidentally, I got my wife Dasha to sing backup harmony. There is a morality tale told here somewhere between all the empty beer cans and late-night tailgate parties for those desperate folks trying to make it in the country music scene. As Kenny Rogers says, “You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold'em, know when to walk away, know when to run...”
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Yup, country westerns are hurtin' songs, and you can feel the pain in my voice. That is... when my tongue isn't firmly planted in my cheek. I think it depends on what gods you whorship. You can be gifted in music, but if you disdain the god of commerce then you are beggin' for trouble. The god of music is a different god than the god of money and many people think if you have the god of music in your back pocket then you can do anything. Not so. Just look at Orpheus and the terrible troubles that befell him. Usually, musicians have no power. They are like children or like Blanche Dubois in Street Car of Desire... relying on the kindness of strangers. That is why patrons are important, even in our non-aristocratic age. Bill had a patron in John Peel and these people are very significant to get the ball rolling. I say the two things you need in the arts or in a general undertaking, are money and people, and if you don't know the right people your money can buy them. Yeah, so I actually wrote this song in a Walmart parking lot in Nashville while noticing that many musicians do the same when visiting Nashville. You can park overnight in Walmarts all over the states and that saves you a lot of expense when traveling from point A to point B. You briefly stay the night, and then you're on your way. You can't do this in Florida or the further south you go, because Walmarts won't allow it – if they did there would be permanent cities in every Walmart parking lot.