Stan Hitchcock-View From The Front Porch-August 26, 2013

Light fog gathered over the Sycamores by the creek, this morning. Again, a hint of Fall in the Tennessee air.

Nobody up but me and the Mockingbird this morning. He is amazing, he sits here in the tree by the side of the porch, starts singing as soon as I come out…and the volume he is able to sustain is awesome.

So it goes, me quietly drinking my first cup of coffee, the bird on his limb, singing at the top of his voice…and I am reminded, the mockingbird and I have a lot in common.

How many times, in the 53 years of music, did I sing at the top of my voice…singing to be heard….singing for the love of singing….singing because that is what I am. Probably I should have been singing, with a plan, a career building plan, a calculated plan to make a profit, a desire to make the singing take me to the top of something or other…sadly, I never learned to do that. No, I was always like the Mockingbird, singing for no other reason than the simple love of singing. He, on a limb, me on some stage, singing at the top of our voices, even if it is only one person sitting with a cup of something or other…who cares?

Little Jimmy Dickens tells the story of one time when the curtain opened, and in the seats in the auditorium, there was only one man sitting, watching him. True to his own love of singing, Jimmy started the old Show Biz adage of entertaining no matter the size of the audience, singing his songs and telling his old jokes…the man sat there, never clapping, just staring at the stage. Finally, Jimmy stopped and asked the man, “Sir, do you have a request?” The man thought a minute, and then said, “Yeah, how long is it gonna be before I can start cleaning up the room?”

So, it is all in what your driving force is, I suppose. The smart entertainers realize, early on, that the title “Show Biz” means just that, Show Business. Bill Anderson told me, “Today’s entertainers make more money in one night, than any of us did in a year”, and of course, that is true. And, if money is your driving force, then that is your success.

But, to me, and the Mockingbird, our reason for singing remains the same. The Robin is out early searching for a worm, the Crows, down by the creek are doing whatever it is they do, Nature’s plan continues, as always….but, the Mockingbird has no plan, other than to sing, and bring a sense of joy to one person, sitting on a front porch having one cup of coffee, on a misty morning in Tennessee.
stan