Some say…good music comes from misery. One local musician has never had to pick cotton or work on a chain gang. But his work would still be hard for many of people. He generates mutations within DNA fragments in test tubes. If that’s not helping him play good music, then factor in two other things. He performs in a safe place where there are no cars. And, hundreds of other people can listen as they walk by him every day. Michigan Now’s Chris McCarus reports from Ann Arbor.
Most days, he’ll come out of his lab at around 4 in the afternoon and sit on a cement bench.
“My name is Tom Goss. I’m a university employee that after work I come out here to manage my stress level by playing harmonica on the diag with my washboard.”
The washboard he’s playing on this day has the words ‘Elbow Grease Miser’ on it. A bell is on one foot. He’ll play originals and cover tunes. This one is called ‘San Trope’ by Pink Floyd.
“I work in a research lab. And you really get emotionally involved with the experiments you’re doing. You walk out of there feeling all bummed out because the experiment didn’t work and your theory must be wrong and have to rethink things. Then you walk in the next day and you look at it again and say it was upside down. Everything’s right. And it’s this manic depression thing. You just kind of detach yourself and leave it at work. And this is a good way to unload all that baggage so I don’t agonize about it my whole day.”
Goss’s features are hidden underneath a sports cap, glasses and a grey mustache. He’s 52. More than twice as old as the University of Michigan students walking by. Some come to listen and appreciate. Others think he’s homeless. Here he’s playing Turkey in the Straw, from the 1820′s.
Then he sings Turkey in the Straw with different words.
Get this if you can– Tom Goss studies the causative agent of cholera. He specializes in protein-DNA interactions. He’s generating mutations within the control regions of genes involved in the expression of cholera toxin and other virulence factors. This is commonly known as “promoter-bashing” among molecular and microbiologists.
“Oh God it’s horrible. I think I spend my whole day pushing around little teeny drops of fluid with parts of living things in there or entire living things in there. I need to wear reading glasses all day long. I know everything about little things and nothing about reality. It’s weird.”
Goss says the brain wracking inside a lab drives his music. And he also likes playing to the hundreds of people that recognize him in the same spot every day. David McCarty is also sitting down in the diag, within earshot of Tom Goss. McCarty is getting an MBA at The U of M with a focus on real estate and urban planning. He’s from suburban Atlanta.
“So growing up in such a community that functions so poorly and had such little sense of community and no public space, the only social space was at the mall. I have very little connection to where I grew up.”
Washboard and harmonica player Tom Goss is helping create new connections for David McCarty and any other people walking by.
Audio MP3: Washboard Player Thrives as People Walk By