Chick & Biscuit & Sean of the South

What did you want to be when you grew up?

A firefighter? A ballerina? President of the United States?

Or maybe a rock star? A singer on the radio, in front of a crowd, belting out lyrics with everyone swooning – doesn’t that sound great?!

Me, too.

And I still do; some dreams never die. I love to sing. I’ve memorized so many songs, I can sing for six hours at a time without running out of material. Only one problem:

My voice.

That’s ok; I’ll just be a groupie.

I’ve followed bands before, a little too closely – touching their guitars, wide-eyeing them and inching ever closer at the after-party, screaming like a howler monkey when my favorite song begins. It’s not pretty; I’m not proud. But that won’t stop me from doing it again.

My most recent opportunity to live vicariously through other musicians came in the form of a husband-wife duo, Chick & Biscuit.

“Chick” is Emily Carter, whose blog “A Chick’s View,” continues to strike my southern-loving heart in all the right ways and make me think as much as it makes me feel. Her April essay, “Homecoming,” is a favorite; I am right there with her in that uncomfortable pew and scratchy dress, itching for that heavily laden potluck table.

“Biscuit” is John Carter, whom Emily calls “Smoking Hot Love Biscuit.” He doesn’t mind; what man would? John plays guitar and sings in a band called Old Age & Treachery with another fella, Dave Livesay.

Together, Emily and John have been writing songs. One of their songs, “Made to be Played,” won 4^th place in the Nov/Dec 2022 American Songwriter Lyric Contest. I have been blessed enough to hear them play it a few times now. I cried both times.

“Made to be Played” describes an old guitar and its desire to be strummed, not shut away and forgotten, like our own desires to live out our passions, not keep them locked in a closet – our own childhood dreams, yearning to see daylight.

“Made to be Played,” is so Townes, so Prine, so folk-country, so Sean of the South.

I’m new to all things Sean of the South, and I’m late to the party. Sean Dietrich is a writer, singer, guitar player, and really nice guy. He’s a newspaper columnist and author of a handful of books. He has a novel coming out; I don’t know when, but I’ll be reading it. He’s prolific – I’ve joined his email list and am getting essays daily. They are all 10/10 on the heart-string scale; they are all great writing. I don’t know how he does it. I’d give you one of my favorites, but I CAN”T CHOOSE. There are too many good ones.

I’ve been reading all of his newspaper columns, which stretch back to 2014. In “The Streets of Decatur,” from February 2020, Sean describes his old (1919) guitar, which he found broken. A carpenter friend pieced it back together, and Sean got to play it on stage. I hear he’s even been on the Grand Ole Opry.

It reminds me of Chick & Biscuit’s song, and it reminds Sean of another carpenter, who put the pieces of his broken life back together again. What do I want to be when I grow up? Sean of the South.