“Bluegrass is Born”

I saw Lyle Lovett in concert at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, CA two weeks ago, and in the middle of his two and a half hour set with his large band, he said “bluegrass is born.” Now, if you’ve ever listened to the words of his songs, you know Lyle Lovett can be a bit of a strange guy, so I was paying rapt attention to hear his explanation for this stimulating statement. He was apologizing in advance for his soon to be attempt at a bluegrass tune. Lyle went on to explain that true perfection in bluegrass isn’t learned “you’re born with it.” He, evidently, believes he was not born with the bluegrass gene.

I find it fitting that I’m in Austin Texas this week, “Lyle’s home town” and muddling about being “born” with the channel gene. We talk to hundreds of technology companies in a year and it is always amazing to me how easy it is to pick out a company that has channel DNA: and how difficult it is to connect with those organizations that are faking it.