Harvey
Reid "Dreamer or Believer"
By: Donna Lee Packard, Staff Writer, Boston Live
The first time
I saw Harvey Reid perform was about 15 years ago in a small theatre in Ogunquit,
Maine. He was opening for Leo Kottke. There was something about Harvey's performance
that touched me. As I watched his hands magically move freely across the strings
of his instruments, oftentimes, it sounded as if there was more than one performer
on the stage. He held his Autoharp as if holding on to a precious love so
dear, allowing the spirit of the music to make its entrance as he strummed.
It was in those moments I first recognized the amazing gift this man holds
in his hands. The music he plays has a way of so easily tapping into one's
soul, touching upon the places within us that lie asleep and need to be awakened
by the songs of this master minstrel passing through.
In having the opportunity to attend a recent 20-year anniversary concert,
I once again was reminded that Harvey Reid has a way of touching the spirit
within us. His stories, woven as the threads of the tapestry of his songs,
stir our own stories, emotions and memories. His instrumentals have a way
of calming and stirring the soul. He has a way of making the most complex
fingerings seem so easy. He simply seems to step aside and allow the gift
of the music to flow through him as its vehicle.
Harvey Reid is a true independent musician, a forerunner in the field, living
his dream. He has followed the heart
of the music that flows through him, rather than falling prey to the games
the music world often demands, where oftentimes one sells their soul for the
fame and forgets the heart of the music itself.
Harvey Reid captivates his audience with his authenticity and his awe-inspiring
skill that qualifies him as a master musician. He has touched the lives of
many with his music, his stories, his words, and with his presence. He can
best tell his story:
BL:
Tell me about how you started in the music business.
Harvey Reid:
I had no plans to be a musician, but played guitar constantly
when I was a teenager, and played
at parties and then moved on to street corners and passed the hat in coffeehouses.
I played my first paying gig
around 1976, in a bar in Washington DC. I played bars and every other gig
I could find for many years, and gradually pulled myself out of that life
into a world where I play concerts and festivals. I learned a lot during those
years, but it was hard, especially since the late 70's and early 80's was
about the worst time imaginable to start a career playing acoustic guitar.
Except for a few month stint playing Telecaster in a country band in Virginia
in 1980, I have made all my living playing acoustic guitar. All progress has
been gradual, and there have been no "lucky breaks."
BL:
You seem to be a forerunner in the field of the independent musician. What
made you choose that route?
Harvey Reid:
I didn't have any choice. At the time I decided I needed
a record, labels were dropping people
like Bonnie Raitt, and when Rounder and Flying Fish and Tacoma rejected me,
I decided to do it myself. I had
been playing only bluegrass for some years, and in that world it was not unusual
to put out one's own record. I didn't feel like a pioneer. Now that everybody
has figured out what was obvious to me, it is no longer unusual to do it yourself.
I always had a feeling that I wanted to be in this for the long run, and every
time I studied what happened with a well-known artist, I saw problems. I guess
I saw that when you play "unpopular" music, and make records that
are just a guy playing a guitar, they don't go out of fashion because they
never are in fashion. My love for the music I make has always felt larger
than the changing trends of fashion, and I suppose I may have consciously
avoided chasing any trends. It sort of helped that I just didn't have a voice
that could imitate well-known performers, so I had to find my own voice and
my own way. Making it in showbiz has a lot to do with luck and trends, and
for me music is much deeper than that.
BL:
What is your advice to someone starting out in the music business and who
is taking the route of an independent musician? Have there been advantages
to that? Disadvantages?
Harvey Reid:
Having never done it any other way, I am not sure I
can compare the two. What I have not done is compromise myself, and I am proud
of the fact that nothing I ever released has any elements of passing trends,
and I have always looked inward for my art and not imitated. When the music
feels strong from within, then you try to find an audience for what you do.
You must stick to your vision. If you change who you are to chase a market,
then you have two dangerous possibilities: 1) to fail by doing something other
than what you felt was really you and 2) to succeed at it, and be stuck doing
something you're really not. I have never been interested in designing entertainment
for the masses, and have been content to be a fringe artist, and that has
led to more satisfaction than disappointment.
Don't build your business plan and your future around a dream or around winning
the lottery, which is sort of
what music biz success is like. Build it around things like finding a regular
gig where they want to book
you or finding a radio DJ who likes to play your music. And always be gracious
and take time for your listeners. They matter more than anyone and if they
want to talk to you, there's no harm in that.
They'll remember if you learn their names and treat them like real people,
which they are. And they are your
best bet for being fed in your old age. Your record company generally doesn't
care, but your listeners do.
The whole "star" thing is bogus, and it is not good for the star
or the fans to get into those almost toxic relationships.
Other people fix cars and plant gardens and do other things well, and just
because you are good atmusic does not make you superior. It's a blessing to
be a musician, where you can do your work in front
of a crowd and get applause. Woodworkers don't get that, but they are just
as worthy as artists.
I started
out listening to popular music in the 60's, and gradually learned about the
lesser-known artists as I
started to explore more. I owe a lot to the "underground radio"
FM stations in the 70's, where you could hear
all kinds of music, and very knowledgeable DJ's had large record collections
and played whatever they wanted. The last 10 years or so, my learning has
not been about music or business, but about how to keep doing it. I figured
out that the people who matter most are the survivors and the ones who don't
quit or burn out.
When I spend time with someone who is further up the ladder than me, I am
usually studying the way they don't complain about the food, or the gig, or
the travel. Once you have learned the music and made the commitment to it,
the final step is to not lose your desire. I believe that it is easier to
remain steadfast when you run the show
as an independent, and easier to get mad at other people and waste energy
when you are signed to a label.
BL: Any stories that stand out of your musical
journey over the past twenty years that you might want to share?
Harvey Reid: Got three hours? The music
life is never boring. The scariest moment as an independent businessman was
the year I re-released my Christmas tape as a CD, and sold a lot of them in
the weeks before Christmas that would be listened to first on Christmas Day,
and then got a call on December 24 from a fan who had bought one and it had
some BBC radio program on it and not me! The CD plant was closed for 2 weeks,
and I had no way of knowing if a thousand of them were defective or only one.
It turns out there was only one,
but it was a nervous 2 weeks. The day my first CD arrived in 1988 was an exciting
one-- I have always feared being like Blind Man Arnold, a terrific bluesman,
who made some 78's, but not one of them has been found
intact. LP's warp and scratch and break, and the master tapes to my first
LP's are things I don't even have the machine to play back. A CD is like a
spore from which more can be made, and I felt like my art and my
statement had new and exciting chance of surviving and establishing itself.
Each time I make a new CD and it
is replicated and there suddenly are thousands of them that get spread all
around I feel great relief, and always
fear a fire or lightning bolt hitting the studio right before the CD is done.
BL:
Tell me more about your anniversary CD "Dreamer or Believer".
How did choose the songs to be included?
Harvey Reid:
It turned out to be really hard to do the 20-year compilation.
It took months of hard work digging through, listening to and transferring
a lot of old tapes to digital. Some years I had 20 good cuts, and it was hard
to pick one, and other years I had almost nothing to work with. I also wanted
the record to be balanced and to show the different sounds and instruments
and styles, so if I picked a slide guitar cut from 1988 then I didn't want
one from 1990 also. I also had to make some choices based on song length.
I ran over the 80 minute limit, and had to re-do the line-up with shorter
songs. It was also really hard to put the rough, 20-year-old stuff at the
beginning, since I like to think I am improving still and I generally like
the later stuff more. But sticking to the concept forced me to release some
things, especially live tracks, that I never would have done otherwise, and
that is good, since they show a different side of me.
Harvey Reid is a leader in his field and an outstanding musician. His CD and a schedule of upcoming events are available at his website: www.harveyreid.com
Donna Packard, staff writer for Boston Live, can be reached at dpackard@bostonlive.net
