How The Musician Made The Most of His Inner Lawyer

How the Musician Made The Most of His Inner Lawyer

From Perry Mason to LA Law to Boston Legal, the entertainment media has given plenty of attention to the legal profession. The stereotypes shown on television bear little resemblance to the kind of law I practice as a public defender in Eugene, Oregon. Think of me as the lawyer equivalent of a plumber showing more buttcrack than you care to see.

Public defenders tend to work in the trenches of the law doing the dirty work most attorneys shun. Underpaid and glamorless, public defenders represent the folks many consider the dregs of society. Even worse, they commit themselves to a task many see as despicable and certainly immoral when they try to get people charged with crimes off scott free (have you ever wondered who Scott was and how he evidently became famous for never being found guilty of anything?). Never mind that some of the accused are actually innocent. Or that circumstances largely beyond their own control led them to become involved in some form of crime. Or that the founding fathers embedded in our constitution certain inalienable rights which benefit the accused as much as the accusers. Or that our government at the highest levels seems perversely committed to denial of basic human rights and currently refuses to condemn torture. All of which leads me to conclude one thing: blessed are the public defenders.

At this point in my life, I’m just as passionate about social justice as ever, but I am also determined to write, record and perform my music. And I am thankful as can be that my years as a public defender give me a unique perspective from which to create meaningful songs. For one thing, I’ve met some colorful miscreants, people with bizarre and outlandish attitudes, folks who have said and done things a universe removed from society’s mainstream. Talk about great fodder for storytelling---my work as a public defender has delivered an embarrassment of riches of material I can and do use in developing song ideas.

More than that, my work frequently puts me deep inside the minds of an unusually diverse and troubled population of tormented souls. Sure, we are all troubled in some ways but try to consider how different life must be for those who suffer the combined disadvantages of having no money, no education, no resources and no way to rise above their wretched circumstances. To add to their misery, folks in these circumstances include many victims of abuse and neglect together with a large group mentally ill. It is only natural that such individuals view the world in a way that is beyond our ability to comprehend. In the process of learning their stories and feeling their pain, one gains greater appreciation of nearly everything.

I try to bring those thoughts and feelings into my music. In fact, I can’t help myself. Sometimes I explore the depths of human despair from this abysmal perspective. Of course, there are plenty of genuine criminal losers too, and not being a sap, I know these many of these people simply lack the will to make responsible choices. I write songs about that too. The world inhabited by this diverse group is one in which I never imagined I would willingly spend any time, and yet I’ve spent the better part of a career there. As it turns out, one of the many rewards of this service is that it has become the birthplace of poetry and songs which resonate with personal meaning. As for TV lawyers, I can do without the glitzy high rises and the insufferable egos. My view from the trenches suits me just fine.