"YOUR LOCAL STAR" (Back-story, Lyrics, and Link to Song on YouTube)

 

“Your Local Star” (Back-Story, Lyrics, and Link to song on YouTube)

Back-story:

When you play music, as with most ventures, there are many important decisions you need to make.  Just to name a few, you need to decide what style of music appeals to you, what kind of audience you want to attract, what venues work for you, the number of shows you want to play, and how far you are willing to travel.  Regarding such decisions, I have followed my heart over the years, and it has brought me to an extremely comfortable place with music.

With an acoustic guitar, acoustic bass, a harmonica, and vocals, Siobhan and I deliver a considerably basic presentation of folk, country, bluegrass, rock, blues, Caribbean, Irish, and original music.  We do not try to target any specific audience.  If you enjoy listening, we enjoy playing for you.  For us, the music is merely a mechanism we use to have fun with people.  While we enjoy playing a variety of venues, we are the most comfortable performing in a small bar, winery, restaurant, coffeehouse, back yard, or small concert.  It is in these settings that we have our best results at establishing an intimacy with our audience.  Singing and bantering with the patrons of any local neighborhood pub is something we live for.  In our earlier years, we played two or three times a week, but “Father Time” has forced us to slow it down a bit now.  Most of our gigs have been and are within an hour of our home. We have appeared in venues from Maine to Florida, but most of those shows resulted from being in areas where we were visiting family or friends.  Keeping it simple, playing for mostly the locals, and staying close to home has always been the Meyer and McGuire philosophy, and this should help explain how “Your Local Star” developed.

In the late 1980s I started playing music for Bill and Robin Mallwitz at The Trolley, a little restaurant/bar in Shortsville, New York.  At the time Siobhan ran my sound (eventually joining me on stage with her bass in 1992).  We had many great nights with the patrons at this awesome little pub.  In 1990, Bill and Robin needed to expand because their dinners were getting too popular.  They left The Trolley and moved across the street to a bigger restaurant, The Whipple Tree, which they renamed Buffalo Bill’s Family Restaurant and Tap Room (now known as Sidetrack Bar and Grill).  All the regulars followed them, and soon many new patrons were appearing at their door.

 Buffalo Bill’s had a great little stage area for its musicians.  It was a raised area in front of the windows at the front of the bar.  It faced both the bar and the dining area and placed the musicians about ten feet from the patrons, making it quite easy to interact with them.  It was on this stage that “Your Local Star” was born.

One night, after an incredible time of having fun with the regulars, Siobhan and I were packing up our equipment, and I started thinking about the satisfaction I received from playing music for people.  I speculated that my music heroes must feel a similar contentment when they play their big shows.  While they were national and international stars, I was just a local one.  From here, my mind started playing around with the words guitar, bar, and star, and in a short time, I completed the chorus of the song.

When I got home, I tried to figure out where I could go with this chorus.  After analyzing my feelings, I identified three things that brought me pleasure from playing music for people.  Hearing people sing with me, bringing smiles to their faces, and shaking their hands or hugging them at the end of the night were the events that contributed to my great sense of fulfillment.  From these events, I carved out the verses of the song.

The song is a slow country waltz.  With a guitar, fiddle, harmonica, bass, drums, and backup harmonies, John and Joe Dady, now Rochester Music Hall of Famers, help me create one of those good old country songs from yesterday.  It is far from being a Hank Williams or George Jones tune, and my voice is a younger one, not the more seasoned voice you hear when we perform now.  Hope you enjoy it.

 

Lyrics:

Chorus

I go out on the weekends to play my guitar

You see I'm driven to play all these small country bars

And I know that you know that I won't go far

'Cause I'm so content to be your local star

 

Verse 1

Well it brings me great pleasure when I hear you sing

It confirms a truth money don't mean a thing

And when this bar fills up with your harmony

We all become one with my melody

 

Chorus

 

Verse 2

The smiles on your faces make it so clear

Why the Old Boy up there done sent me down here

He said, "Hey, Buddy, for you I've got one simple goal

"Go out there on the weekends and ignite their souls."

 

Chorus

 

Verse 3

The handshakes and kisses and the hugs mean so much

Ain't it funny how our stress disappears when we touch

And of all the things in life that I've learned to do

The best one of all is to share songs with you

 

Chorus Twice

 

Here is a link to the song on YouTube.  It’s an auto generated video created by CD Baby, our distributor.  If an ad appears when the link opens, click to dismiss it, and the song will start.  Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9SoTpNrXuo

 

If you Prefer, you can stream this song on all the major platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Prime, etc.