Magic & Luck

M

agic and luck.

I was listening to a podcast yesterday. The host was chatting with Mike Campbell. In case you don’t know his name, he plays guitar very well. So well, in fact, that he is a founder of the Heartbreakers with the late Tom Petty. He played in the proto-Heartbreakers band called Mudcrunch. When the Heartbreakers came to an end with Petty’s passing, Fleetwood Mac reached out to him when Lindsay Buckingham was asked to leave the band.

He’s founded his latest band, The Dirty Knobs, in order to play his own music. It is an old fashioned rock n’ roll band. It is successful. They’ve released one album and are getting ready to record another.

Man, that was a long background without even coming close to the point.

The host was asking how to record a good song. Campbell said that the song has to contain good lyrics and melody, you have to have put the time in — on the song, on rehearsing the song, on learning to play your instrument and then he added the most important thing.

Magic and luck.

Get that?

Magic and luck. Magic and luck. Magic and luck.

Where have you heard that? I talk about learning your art, practicing your craft, learning your gear so well that you don’t have to think about using it. And, as Campbell added quieting your mind so it is empty when you are ready to play.

I talk about a certain kind of magic. I also talk about photographer’s luck.

There you have it.

Magic and luck.