Style and Substance
by Mike Moutoux, Western Entertainer & Cowboy Poem

Our long-awaited house concert for Juni Fisher finally arrived and I was very, very impressed with her show. I think everyone there was. Too often we get just glimpses of an artist’s talent or ability when we see them at a venue where they are given 15 or 20 minutes on a stage. This was our first chance to see Juni up close, personal, and with enough time to give us some style and substance. For a performer like myself it was more than a great show; it was clinic and I made some mental notes.

One, she gave us some background for the characters in the songs. The kind of information that made us care about them because she made them real. She gave them substance and when she began her next song we hung on the words and the stories because they mattered. It’s easy for performers to be led astray by this need to share extra information. Many times I’ve endured long-winded introductions about the inspiration for a song or poem that seemed more about making the artist matter. A mistake of course, because the story is the thing.

Juni played while she introduced each song; something I’ve seen others do to great effect as well. This helped to turn the evening into something more than a concert—it was an experience. We experienced the West, past and present, as seen through someone else’s own experience. Playing all the while without stopping to announce the name of each song kept the evening rolling along; kept us engaged and joined the stories together in a wonderful seamless way. Suddenly, she was singing instead of talking and it was such a natural and beautiful way to experience her music.

It seems to me that style and substance are something we instinctively crave. We want life to be meaningful and upon close examination, worth doing over and over. We get a chance to live that way when an artist lets us live through their experiences. With style and substance, an artist delivers more than a vicarious experience for their audience. They satisfy our craving for Life. Thanks, Juni, for that. Thanks for the music, the clinic and for scratching that itch we have for style and substance. Find her at www.junifisher.com or better yet, at a house concert near you.