My mother likes my music!

I'm not one to rest on my laurels or toot my own horn; I figure if I'm any good, people will seek me out and such. But today something happened that made me reconsider my whole outlook on music.

My mother, likes my tunes.

Let me give you some background. My immediate family (my mother and I) are immensely practical people. It's all about the ends. While I enjoy writing tunes, and performing- I'm looking to make it my career, not a hobby. When I first talked about being a musician, my mother and my uncle both tried to steer me into more "profitable" fields of study. "Why don't you minor in music and major in something else?" was something that I heard a lot when I considered getting a degree in music. And while my mother has been a good supporter (as well as the rest of the family) of my craft, let's just say I wouldn't say she enjoyed the music I did.

I gave her a CD to listen to. Rough cuts, I did on a digital recorder and badly miked. I wanted her to listen to it. I gave it to her about a month ago. I fully expected she'd listen, and say "that's nice" and that'd be the end of it.

I get a call from her this morning. We're talking about the usual; getting a watch fixed, the place I'm playing on August 22nd. (read more about it here: http://www.facebook.com/jamesrobinsonparran#/event.php?eid=233624725216), other stuff. Then she tells me she'd listened to my CD. Oh boy, I think, here it comes.

She genuinely liked the music. One of the songs she'd listened to was "Mistake" which she enjoyed a lot, and every song she had something positive to say.

Color me flabbergasted. I'd been back and forth about what to do with music since it's not really panning out so well for me as of late, but that was a shot in the arm for me. Suddenly, I had validation. I've had people tell me before that they like my songs, or that I was talented- I take all of that with a grain of salt. People will say things like that, to avoid saying things that might be hurtful or harmful. My mother doesn't really lie to me. Nor will she spare my feelings about things. If it were bad, she'd tell me. I appreciate it, because it's nice to have one honest opinion in this world.

So that was it. There's no great coda for this entry. No lesson learned, or thoughts deeper than maybe, just maybe- I might have something good going on here.

And if you want to listen, you can at http://facebook.com/jamesrobinsonparran