It didn’t take a lot for drummer Billy Conway to make a big impression
Billy Conway, 1956 - December 19, 2021
The appreciation is a start, but the youtube below is a philosophical riff, wide ranging, with elegant off the cuff metaphors and similes that make it sing. Responding to the interviewer, Conway strings together exquisitely specific responses that, like his intuitive, spare drumming, are never showy and always in service to shaping the narrative that his interviewer is seeking to elicit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm9XIETEzBo
Billy Conway, a totally engaging human being...erudite, humorous, perceptive, self-reflective...this is a master class in music, bands that produce it, and a musician who lived it and left a singularly defining legacy when he died, a legacy that will shape the next time I listen to live music.
As a cancer survivor, I am in awe at Conway's response to the interviewer's question about his cancer diagnosis. Conway's response is so inexplicitly dispassionate, matter of factly describing his spreading cancer and the ravages of chemo on his body with nary a trace of self pity. His slightly hoarse, charged voice evokes vitality, wisdom and a sly charm.
A quote I read recently, "Pain is inevitable, suffering is not," comes to mind.
Conway, 1956 - December 19, 2021
By his example, I've had a clue how to engage life when my next battle looms over the horizon. Thank you, Billy. Losing you is a blow to every man, woman, and child who has ever been in, and felt, your sage, gentle presence.
I haven’t viewed the YouTube yet - it’s pretty long - but your tribute to him is masterful.
I don’t know him at all. Sorry to have missed him.
Thank you.
Posted by: Susaan Straus | December 28, 2021 at 01:09 PM