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Bryan Duncan
Bryan Duncan is arguably
one of the most talented musicians and singers Christian or mainstream
music has witnessed in the past thirty years. During the past year, Bryan
Duncan’s passion for music has been reawakened by his association with
the Neho Soul band and the production of his funky blues style CD and DVD
“Music City Live.” Prior to one of his recent concerts, Duncan was gracious
enough to take the time to reflect on his career, his music and his personal
life. Unlike some musicians who have trained themselves to respond to formula
questions with formula answers, Duncan is a delight to chat with because
he takes the listener away from the world of a mere interview and allows
one to participate in the disappointments, the joys and his still unanswered
questions. His frankness and honesty challenge the listener to not merely
accept what others tell you are right but to dig deeper to find your own
answers.
“It was like I came back
to life! To hear other players, good players bring something to your music
that you never thought about or that you forgot about and put teeth into
it in places where you never (he stops)it’s the difference between
walking a road by yourself and then suddenly getting a motorcycle.
Suddenly you just twist the little grip and you are off to the races.”
he says in speaking about his association with the Neho Soul Band.
Duncan talks about performing with the band on stage, “It’s all I can do
to keep up. It’s brought back an inspiration to me that I can’t even
explain.” He remembers the first time he heard them play a funky
song, “After the first verse and chorus I started tearing up. It was like
worship music to me. It’s my version of worship music. Screaming
funk music with all the passion you can find in your soul.”
Duncan met the Neho Soul
Band while performing at GMA week last year. He says it was,” right
at a time when I thought I should be preparing for a retirement community.”
He says, “The bass player with the Neho Soul Band just reintroduced me
to the stuff I loved all along.” Duncan accepted the band’s invitation
to go to Seattle and play some gigs with them, reliving some of Duncan’s
songs that they counted as their favorites. “They were all the funk songs
and stuff you kind of lose track of over the years because you spend all
your time trying to predict what Christian music wants to hear. I lost
a little bit of passion for music generally because it became such a cardboard
cutout. Just finding this band and playing that gig in Nashville at GMA
week last year was just a matter of recognizing that there’s some passion
that I lost somewhere down the road.”
It wasn’t that many years
ago that Duncan was frustrated with his career, “I almost needed to tender
my resignation. I was so wrong in my own heart. I felt so out of
touch with whom I was to begin with and what God wanted from me and how
He sees me. I was so busy cutting and pasting for other people that I wasn’t
even sure if I was honest. You start to feel that you are starting to present
a package that makes everybody feel good. It becomes a Christian world
view rather than a passion for a personal relationship.”
He says never again will
he compromise and walk that path of wanting to merely give people what
he thinks they want to hear. He then quotes scripture, II Timothy
4:3 “They will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what
their itching ears want to hear.” (NIV) “We’ve got a bunch of songs for
future records with the Neho Soul Band where I’m just going to go back
and revisit what I’ve always loved.” Then he adds, “I won’t sacrifice
again the passion for the music in the name of popularity or we need to
do this because it won’t be a hit.” In typical Bryan Duncan candor he adds,
“I’ve had enough hit songs to know it doesn’t float your boat in the long
run.”
Duncan is all about candor
and good quotes. He remarks about his thirty-year tenure in Christian
music, “I never planned to be this old.” About golf, a game
he took up after a serious mountain biking accident, “It tests the possibility
that you could lose your salvation.” While talking about loneliness he
says, “You are aware of your uniqueness and the fact that you are one of
many and that you were born into the world and you might have had some
people around, but when you die you do that by yourself.” In talking about
his divorce and what he sees as mistakes he made in his marriage, “I think
you can crush someone’s trust to the point where they just can’t let you
back in.” More telling is his comment on his website and his special
section “Road to Redemption Encouragement for Recovery,” Duncan says “There
is a God and you’re not Him.”
When you sit and talk to
Bryan Duncan for awhile you begin to realize his candor comes from burning
questions still deep within, still unanswered questions and because he
has learned some painful lessons and been through some difficult times.
He battled what he describes as “addictive behaviors” for a period of time
several years ago, which contributed to the eventual collapse of his marriage.
He also endured a time when he wasn’t really happy about who he was and
what the music world seemed to be demanding of him in order to fit the
title “successful”. Duncan, the son of a North Carolina Pentecostal
pastor, says there are times when he still reads the Bible defensively,
looking for what he describes as the shame and the sense of guilt. There
was a period of time in his career when he felt the burden of having to
be all things to all people and the need to “save" everyone. He was a product
of growing up in the church and learning to mimic the answers everybody
else wanted to hear. He says later in life he learned that even his father
had doubts and questions of his own.
Duncan’s career has been
rejuvenated and he is not about to turn the clock backwards to a time when
he simply tried to fit the mould. He says of the music industry
and how he bought into the system for so many years, ‘There’s no balance
to the music business. I mean you are careening off the guardrails all
the time. Like, I really like doing this but that’s not going to fit and
I imagine if you second guess yourself enough you lose your passion for
what you love the most. I don’t know if it is a fair tradeoff just
to be successful and not enjoy what you are doing and I’ve certainly had
success with songs that I didn’t even like.” Bryan Duncan is back and this
time he is going to do it his way. He is going to play and create what
he describes as his funky worship music.
Bryan Duncan’s Music
City Live CD and DVD are distributed in Canada by CMC Distribution.
Bryan Duncan’s website is one of the best artist sites in the industry
and has a special audio section entitled “Road to Redemption Encouragement
for Recovery”. This segment consists of 48 on half hour programs
featuring Duncan speaking and some good music. www.bryand.com
By Joe Montague, exclusive
rights reserved
This material may not be
redistributed without prior written permission from Joe Montague.
Joe Montague is a
freelance Christian journalist / photographer who has been published in
a variety of community, daily and Christian newspapers coast to coast in
Canada and the United States. Joe Montague's ministry of journalism
is dedicated to the memory of his late son Kent David Montague who went
to heaven far too early at the age of 18. |
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