3 Chords and the Truth!

One of the surprises in my life has been that old news is often new news, and those old, worn shabby cliches (at least some of them) that you have heard a million times actually are true. Now this does not mean we should look at the world with "tired eyes," we should not stop looking at the world, we should not assume that we know everything already, we should not become blasé or jaded, we should always be on the look-out for the new, the unconventional, and we should always be open to the idea that "everything we know is wrong."

So really the surprise is that, yes, a lot of those old cliches are true AND everything you know is wrong!  Case in point… "Three Chords and the Truth!"  It's a tired old phrase, and a new album just released by an old bluegrass master named James King. This came out at the same time I've been working on some old rock and roll songs. And yes, well the three chord thing is absolutely true.  The best of blues, bluegrass, rock, rockabilly, country, punk - three chords is more than enough for sure. Anything beyond three chords is jazz or classical or some kind of avant garde thing!

And well, it's songs about "truth" that make the biggest impact. I guess I mean some kind of emotional truth. Those are the songs that really resonate. There is a universe of music and emotion in three chords and "the truth." And you learn that playing less (less chords, less notes) is more all the time.  You delve deep into the essential, and you find that the essential really is everything...