First, I LOVE the Eagles. I Can’t Tell You Why is perhaps one of the best slow dance songs ever. Lying Eyes is a dark treatise on infidelity and the need for genuine love in a time when women still feel the need for financial security. They are a band that has tested and retested its members time and again to see if they measure up to their own high standards.

And, I certainly have no problem if YOU go; I’m sure you will have a memorable and enjoyable time. But, I will pass.

Why?

For the simple reason I find myself more and more driven to support local and regional talent. I’ll save the $100-$200-$300 and, instead, give big tips to bands I see at Noble Savage, Bear’s, and other venues where the scene is smaller and more intimate.

As with books and movies, we see the commercialization of art to ever more extremes where fewer and fewer artists are paid more and more while the middle ground for talent is eroding, leaving many hard-working and gifted people eking out an existence on the crumbs left behind by the masses running after the superstars.

I came back to Shreveport from Dallas three years ago and found that it and Bossier City (and Minden, and Marshall…) have made great efforts to encourage and stimulate local artists; the amazing work on the walls at viewings will make you think you’re in an exhibition at MoMA or, at least, in a much larger city.

The same goes for indie films. The low-budget, small name films can be very rewarding. While the Louisiana Film Prize has drawn more and more out of town participants, there are plenty of locals who write, produce, direct, and act in their own films. Are they all “good”? Nope, but neither are all the films from major motion picture studios. (The last line of San Andreas is so laughable it almost saves the movie…as a comedy…perhaps even as a farce.)

And literature. We have more than a few poets here with recently published work. We have novelists. We have storytellers. And, we have work that hasn’t yet found its way to a bookstore but which is a read that can engage you more than a washed, starched, and pressed Gone Girl.

But our local and regional talent isn’t packaged and easily available on the shelf, as are General Mills food-like products. Rather, like organic and local produce and meats, you do have to expend a little energy to seek them out.

Henley et al have their bazillion bucks and, while they can turn out new pieces, I’d rather encourage new entrants into the music field who can make valuable contributions. (But, I have to admit, I’d be sorely tempted if you invited me to a houseboat loaded with margaritas and sitting in the bay for a Jimmy Buffet concert!)

Photo by Steve Alexander