Travis Buster

As they listen, I usually try to transport people to somewhere in my songs. 

Kind of like the transporter beam in Star Trec...except there's no Scotty. And no Captain Kirk. And no transporter beam. But still...

Like in El Blanco.  I hope you feel like you're with Juan as we ride into his sad destiny. 

Robert Earl Keen is really good at this and he is pretty much a saint where we come from, as Ray Wylie Hubbard says. 

His, "Feeling Good Again", is a great transporter song. 

We get to walk right along with Robert Earl as he walks into this little bar. He just takes you with him and you see everybody, and you feel like everybody there knows you. 

And it makes you feel good. 

Speaking of Robert Earl Keen... 

 

I was backstage with Robert Earl Keen after one of his shows and this young lady walked up and wanted her picture taken with me...not Robert Earl. 

Well I was feeling mighty flattered, so I said yes and Robert Earl sorta smiled and stepped aside. 

As the person was taking our picture the young lady says to me "You played really well tonight." 

Confused I say "I didn't play tonight.  It was Robert Earl Keen's show." 

"You're not Robert Earl Keen?" 

"Well, no I'm not Robert Earl Keen." 

She turned red and walked off. 

"Wait! I'm sure Robert Earl will be glad to have a picture with you.", I said as she walked away. 

She just kept walking. 

But I still smiled because for just a little while there, I was feeling mighty flattered :)

 

"I's gonna die before I sees ya again." 

That's what Denver told me one day. Several of us were camping at a ranch in West Texas. The sky was cloudy, and it was cold. We had been standing around a smokey fire. Everybody else was off chasing cows and it was just he and me and the fire. 

"Is something wrong, Denver?" 

"No nothins wrong" 

"Have you been to a doctor?" 

"Travis I don't need no doctor to tell me I's gonna die." 

Denver was getting angry.  Sometimes when I asked questions he felt he was being told he didn't know what he was talking about and Denver had been told that he didn't know what he was talking about too many times in his life. Still I had to ask. 

"Well , Denver, you're not talking about..." 

"No I's not gonna kills myself. I's just trying to tell you." 

"Ok, Ok. This kind of talk just scares me." 

"Everybody's gonna die and I just knows. I won't see you again, Travis." 

We hunched a little closer to the fire and tried to keep out of the smoke, My eyes were watering. Damn smoke. 

Denver passed away a short time later. I never saw Denver again. 

Denver was one of the best people I have ever known.  I didn't get to spend much time with him but I miss him dearly. Denver’s thoughts show up in my music. Kind of strange how some people can have such a big impact on you.

Yep, that's pretty much what we need. This is one of Wendy's doodles from reading Carl Jung. Wendy has cool thoughts. 

Carl Jung saw that the work to become a nice person has three parts: Insight; Courage; Endurance.

Psychology can bring us insight.

But having insight and knowing what to do is nothing without the courage to act and the endurance to keep it up.  

James Hollis said something like that in Living an Examined Life:  “The failure to understand this triune task — insight, courage, endurance — leads many to misunderstand the dilemmas we face in life.” 

Jung again, “Everyone goes through this mill, consciously or unconsciously, voluntarily or forcibly.”

We’re all going thru something. 

That's where music often comes in for me...whether I’m playing or listening I’m often trying to get: 

• insight to understand; 
• the courage to act; 
• endurance to keep it up.

 

“A Horse Walking…That’s where these rhythms come from.”  

Yep.  

You can hear Stevie Ray Vaughan talking about this on the recording “SRV Speaks” on the album “Couldn’t Stand the Weather”.  It’s worth the listen.  

Stevie says, "I don't know if a lot of people realize today that a lot of music that came out years gone by, I don't know that it's so much this way now, but it seems to me, that music used to be more based on common everyday occurrences like a train sound going down the track, someone walking down the street, things like that. A horse walking. You know that's where these rhythms came from."  

So true.  

You can see the rhythm of a horse as it walks. You can feel the rhythm of the horse as you ride.   

That’s why horses and music go well together.   

I love spending my time with horses and music and friends and family.   

Nothing better.

You might enjoy checking out our ranch at Valley View Ranch   (www.ValleyViewRanch.net)

 

So, here's to good art & good horses; good people & good lives.

 

Travis

 

P.S.  That's our daughter, Amanda Catherine Buster O'Brien.

Great music connects us with ourselves and with each other. 

Carl Jung was a contemporary of Sigmund Freud. They mainly differed in that Jung thought there was evidence of a collective unconscious. An unconsciousness that virtually everyone shared, Freud thought this was mysticism. I agree with Jung. I think there is evidence of a collective unconscious . 

I treat myself and others better when I pay attention to not only my conscious thoughts but also my unconscious thoughts and thoughts from our collective unconscious . 

Music helps me do that. Connects me to myself and to other people. 

 

Great music often tells me... 

  Something everybody knows 

  Something unique about the artist 

  Something only I know...& maybe only subconsciously 

 

You say "Travis, what are you talking about? Are you getting weird?" 

Well, yes I'm weird but hey that's what great music often does for me. And it's what I usually feel in music I make. Sometimes there are lyrics, sometimes not. It's what happens when I listen to great music and it's remarkably the same when I write. 

Something everybody knows - I'm told, by something that, "we're going to think about this stuff for a little while". 

Something unique about the artist (me) - I talk to myself about this stuff. 

Something only I know...& maybe only unconsciously ...This part is a big deal for me. Usually there are no lyrics for this part, Words get in the way. I just listen & or play and thoughts drift. And when they drift I think I start to understand the stuff just a little bit better. 

The psychiatrist Carl Jung said he eliminated "critical attention, thus producing a vacuum in consciousness...this led to an expression of the mood, which had the result of bringing the affect nearer to consciousness, hence making it more understandable." 

Fancy words. But that's pretty much what great music does for me. 

Great music brings this stuff up to my consciousness and makes it just a little bit more understandable. Even though I don't fully understand what it is trying to say. And sometimes, I don't have clue. It's more like say, dreaming. And like dreaming it either happens or it doesn't. I don't have much choice in the matter. 

 

For example in the song "Amen" 

• "You can say Amen".... 

Something everybody knows. Everybody knows Amen. Some times I think it means something a bit different than other times but I pretty much know we're not talking about flower pots. 

Usually the first time a song comes up I don't even know why. Something just up and tells me that this Amen stuff is what we're going to think about for awhile. 

 

• "My stepfather prayed every morning..." 

Something unique about the artist, that is me. When I think of Amen & related stuff this is some of what comes to mind. 

 

• The melody plays, no words, let's me relax and process, just sit... 

Thoughts only I know...& maybe only subconsciously - that's where the piano comes in for me. I sit back and just be. This is the magic and the mystery of the music to me

.

Somehow the music speaks or maybe it's that the music lets my subconscious talk. I don't know. 

That's just some of what great music does for me. 

The dream like relaxation from listening to great music is very similar to what happens when I write music or maybe I should say when music comes to me...but that's a topic for another time. 

So here's to internal peace, and world peace, by listening to great music.

Travis

 

 

             first off ...Bravo Maestro ! 

Our friend, Joe Illick has been named the Artistic Director of the Fort Worth Opera! 

Joe's a good guy and a lot of fun. He and his lovely and equally crazy wife, Gina introduced us to Operatic Tailgating in Santa Fe.  It's sort of like a tailgating party at a football game except, well maybe crazier.

You go to the opera early and you....have a tailgate party :)

Take a good look at that food. Now that's tailgating.  Courtesy of Joe & and his equally fun, talented and crazy wife, Gina.

 

 

that's Joe about to fight the bull ;)

                                                                                                         and the gorgeous diva, Gina

 

 

Music of many types influences my work. I've been playing some of this operatic stuff since I was 9.

 

It will be great fun to see what operatic mischief Joe arranges at the Bass in Fort Worth.

Congratulations Joe!

http://www.star-telegram.com/entertainment/arts-culture/article161259848.html

Being with Ray Wylie Hubbard is like being on a wild roller coaster ride that goes from rocking to funny to serious and everything in between.

 

Here we're talking  about...well I guess I can't really say what we were talking but anyway sometimes with his work Ray Wylie is:

Serious... 

"And the days that I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations  
Well, I have really good days" 

Funny... 

"Sometimes Ramona calls me up   
And says come on down here, it's getting warm   
She runs everybody off   
And we...you know...it's a snake farm "

Serious... 

"And the message I give you is from this old poet Rilke  
He said "Our fears are like dragons guarding our most precious treasures". 

Funny...but serious 

"He was born in Oklahoma  
And his wife's name is Betty Lou Thelma Liz  
He's not responsible for what he's doing  
His mother made him what he is 

It's Up against the wall Redneck Mother..."

 

 

 

And in songs he doesn't waste any time. He has you interested in just a few words... 

"When I was a young man  
About 21 years old y'all  
All I wanted was a stripper girlfriend  
And a Gold Top Les Paul  
Be careful of the things you wish for  
You might get 'em 

There was a night club in Dallas...".

If you want the rest of the story you need to go listen to Ray's song "Mother Blues :)

 

it's a privilege to have such talented friends. - Travis

PS & with Ray that's Lucas Hubbard and Kyle Schneider on drums. Mighty mighty talented too.

 

 

 

I've had great conversations w/ Guy but the last thing he said to me was "Just hold the *%# guitar Travis" :)   It was the last time Guy played in Dallas. I think it was sometime in 2012.  Guy was having severe health problems and this evening he could hardly walk to the stage but he did, leaning heavily on a cane in one hand and holding his guitar in the other to thunderous applause.

It was a full house.  Hundreds of people.  Guy took a seat on his armless chair, strummed his guitar and promptly broke a string. 

Let’s say it didn't make him happy. Guy said "Travis hold my *&^ guitar” and he began to put the string in place. 

Several minutes went by as the crowd sat and watched.  I looked at Verlon for an idea of what to do and Verlon slightly shook his head meaning, "Don't do anything. Just sit tight" so sit tight I did.   

I just sat holding the guitar and looked at Guy's trademark bloody thumbprint inside the sound hole of his guitar while Guy worked with the string.  Some more time went by and then I very carefully asked Guy if he would like me to take his guitar back and put a string on it. "Just hold the *%# guitar Travis", came Guy's reply. 

A bit more time went by and Guy gave a deep sigh and then left to go backstage &  change the string.  

Before long he was back on stage and sat down and began his show and what a great show it was.  He forgot some of his words but when he did the crowd would call them out to him in a beautiful sing along.   

It was a great night I will never forget.

Then last week David Card held a Guy Clark memorial and it was beautiful. Pretty amazing how many people Guy touched thru his simple songs.  It was a real privilege to have Verlon  with us sharing stories and doing songs w/ everybody.  Great day.
This is a pic of the song finale "LA Freeway"  — with Verlon Thompson, me, Michael O'Neal, Shad Blair, David Card, Rickey Wright, George Ensle and Floramay Holliday Racz and the whole room singing along.

Thank you David for putting the memorial together. I think Guy would have liked it.

And Vaya Con Dios Guy Clark. 

grit & grace...this is video pretty cool... I'm playing a Steinway concert grand piano in the Poor David's show in Dallas on 4/30/16. Hope to see you there.

Video of Pianos are grit & grace...

I'm working on adding some of books that have impacted the music. Like.. Letter's To a Young Poet by Rilke. "Can you avow that you would die if you were forbidden to write? And if it should ring its assent, if you can confidently meet this serious question with a simple, “I must," then build your life upon it"  I'd like to share great stuff like that.  We'll see :)