Big Crowd Tonight

I have always had a passion for music and started studying it in my public school band programs. It was in high school that I knew that I wanted to be a singer/songwriter entertainer so I continued to be actively involved while in college by playing with various bluegrass and country bands. It was after graduating from college and landing my first day job that I put together my own band and began performing my own written music and started my serious music career journey.

I began performing in front of audiences as large as 30,000 people while opening for a number of nationally known country acts, including Lee Ann Womack, Kenny Chesney, Terri Clark, Clay Walker, Bryan White, Ricky Van Shelton, T Graham Brown, Gene Watson, Exile and others. Along the way I started growing a fan base of wonderful and interesting people. And many more have joined in on my journey when I released some of my music for airplay in Europe. I have really enjoyed meeting all of the different folks at the concerts that I have performed at.

It really hit home with me at a show where I was opening for Kenny Chesney. Me and the boys in the band had arrived at the club ahead in plenty of time to get our personal gear on the stage and get somewhat of a sound check. I was a bit nervous about the gig because we didn’t get to sound check for very long and we were limited on the amount of channels left on mixing board, as a the sound company told me that the headliner act required the channels that they were using not to be adjusted. This meant that we couldn’t use the microphones that were on their amps and drums and had to make due with the unused channels left on the board. And we were not able to adjust the monitor mix either, as it was already set for the headliner. Here I was opening for an act like Kenny Chesney and I was concerned how we were going to sound in the mix with the sound situation as it was. It came time for me and the boys to hit the stage and when we started jamming into my first song, I could feel the effect of not getting to have an adequate sound check or our own monitor mix. But my nerves started calming as I looked out into the audience and saw the reaction from the crowds faces. It was a packed house, and they were loving the lyrics and the melody of my song. They were even bopping their heads and dancing in place to the beat that my drummer was giving them. When I saw that happening, all of my worries just went away. I knew I was entertaining them and that they loved it. After doing my last song of the show and thanking the crowd for enjoying my music, we had to get our gear off of the stage for Kenny’s performance. I was making my way down the ramp of the stage to where I had left my guitar case back stage and there standing in his black hat and stage attire was Kenny Chesney waiting to be introduced for his performance. I looked at him and pointed with my thumb back toward the stage and said “There’s a big crowd out there tonight”.

After I had put my equipment up I wanted to catch some of his show, so I made my way back out to the side of the crowd. That’s when it happened, people started coming up to me and asked me to autograph their arms and hands. Some wanted to grab a t-shirt or CD or just wanted to snap a quick photo with me. Some even wanted to express how one of the songs that I did that night had touched them. It was then that I came to a full realization of why I enjoyed making music. It is the fans of my music that makes this journey worthwhile, and I’m hoping that I meet and make many more fans along the way.

Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to my music, and I would love to add you to my list of fans.

Dwain Messer