

YOU DIDN'T ENJOY THE DAVID ALLAN COE CONCERT



a Top Ten list of complaints received by Author, in person and otherwise, and Author's response





"Your/his guitar is too loud!" You're right. It is. My father has hearing loss and refuses to hire (or heed advice given by) professional audio technicians because that would make it much more difficult to pretend there is a problem with the sound, which he would do, without fail, every night, for reasons ultimately known only to himself. His guitar amp is the loudest thing I've ever heard. Some people will tell you that my guitar amp is the loudest thing they've ever heard. That would be because they were standing directly in front of my amp, which was at a volume sufficient to allow myself to be able to hear it beneath my father's. "Everything sounds distorted!" That'd be the volume again. The man you saw running around the stage putting his head in front of various speakers was doing his best to make things sound okay but he was not a professional sound tech. Even if he was, he was being asked to perform an impossible task. A "band" comprised of three electric guitars and a drummer is just not going to sound like anything you're used to, especially in "country" music. I developed a technique of playing bass notes with my thumb and cranked the lows on my EQ but there's only so much that can be done. "He didn't play his own songs!" This is and isn't a valid complaint. I don't want to spend a lot of time on it. Briefly: I loved playing all the Waylon Jennings songs that we played. They are great songs and Waylon isn't around to do them anymore. Conversely, I hated playing songs by, say, Toby Keith, because there was no reason for us to be doing that. It was frustrating but ultimately a life lesson on what you can and can't control. "He only played pieces of his songs!" Same as the last. The medleys were a lot of fun when the transitions felt organic. Other times, they felt like a deliberate attempt to keep the show from going well. I know this could seem to you as if I'm bitterly saying these outlandish things but ask anyone who's ever played for David Allan Coe and they'll confirm what I'm saying. Too, I am so emotionally detached from everything being discussed on this list. They weren't my decisions. "He didn't play any songs!" While an obvious exaggeration, yes, there were nights it seemed he took the stage only to rant and complain about never having received his just rewards from critics, etc. I probably found this more annoying than anyone else because as it happened I was standing on stage, in front of everyone, doing nothing, like an asshole, with a heavy Gibson SG hanging from my neck. "It's hot!" I know. My father's skin and vocal chords are sensitive to the sudden changes in temperature found in air conditioned environments. I seem to have inherited this from him so I can say it is a valid requirement for him to perform. "He only played an hour and they said it was a two hour show!" They lied. "He's late!" I know. "That vocal effect he's using sounds terrible!" I know. "That woman sounds terrible!" I know.

So, okay, you deal with all of that for years because it's your father and family is family. And I would have kept dealing with all of it. I would have fought uphill until my father said, "Enough." So, okay, you deal with all of that for years because it's your father and family is family. And I would have kept dealing with all of it. I would have fought uphill until my father said, "Enough."





Now.



I try to be nice and consider the feelings of others. It's what has kept me so evasive on this subject until now. The dilemma is that I've been put in a situation where my personal reputation and the weight of my word is being called in to question. Some may say to let the truth be known eventually and that there is dignity in remaining silent in situations such as these. Problem is that I'm no martyr.





A Lesson in Subterfuge

[Despite my clarifications within this article, many people seem to think I'm lambasting my father and criticising his career. That is not the case. I'm a bigger David Allan Coe fan than you are - hands down, no question. I've posted my Top 50 DAC songs . Click that link. You'll probably learn some things you don't know.]Today is my birthday. I've been breathing for 29 years, of which this last has brought monumental change, the type that brings about reevaluation of those preceding. There is, though, one thing I am asked about every single day: why am I no longer playing guitar for the DAC band?So this is what happened. My father told me I was a member of his band when I was 15 years old. We were in the back of a stretch limo on the way back from his picking me up at the Orlando airport. I'd been visiting my mother in Tennessee, not having seen her in the year since I left home after finding brochures to military schools in our mail.'Yeah.'