Since May of this year, Morgan Tyler Davis, 23-years-old, has been traveling from state to state on a mission to visit all fifty. He’s supporting himself entirely off his music and novel. He busks, plays for tips, sells books, trades books sometimes for a meal and survives off people’s kindness and his own brand of intrepid enthusiasm.
“My goal,” Morgan says, “Is to draw people in by having something that they can connect to. I’ve always liked traveling, and traveling has always been part of my life.”
I met Morgan in New York when we both played at The Goodbye Blue Monday. I approached Morgan after his set. I could hear it in his music, he had “it.” He possessed that uncompromising belief in self that few people foster. He was unafraid of setting off on The Road with nothing more than a guitar, copies of his book and a belief in himself and people.
We exchanged numbers and while he was on a bus headed to Tennessee, and I was in a tour van headed for Saint Paul, we spoke about how he is chasing dreams across America.
Morgan Tyler Davis on Chasing Dreams
Morgan’s novel, Prescribed Life, is science fiction novel about a teenage girl who has anxiety and trouble sleeping at night. She’s given medication that plunges her into a dream world where people help her through her troubles. Part of the theme deals with our society’s reliance on psychiatric drugs. Some of the inspiration from the book came from Morgan’s personal experience with people and the havoc he’s seen prescription drugs wreak in their lives.
He says, “I’m constantly observing what’s going on in the world around me and trying to sum up different situations in my songs and writing.”
People like Morgan never cease to inspire and encourage me. He’s still got a decade of youth on his side and has learned to listen to his inner voice instead of the voice of society’s expectations. In my own path to writer-hood, more than a few people encouraged me to hold off on my dreams. Wait, they told me. First do some other job. Make money. Pay off your student loans. Buy a house. And then, when I had a pile of money squirreled away, was when I was supposed to give writing ago.
Likely most of those people dispensing the advice will always drive a nicer car than me, but I can’t help but feel sorry for anyone in a corvette espousing the idea that life is: diapers, then free school, then school you pay for, and then work that you’re not thrilled about for money. How many exclamation points does it take to spell RUN AWAY!!!!
“Basically,” Morgan says, “I wanted to go on a trip and I wanted to get out as many books as possible. But I wanted it to be more intimate, more involved with people who were reading my books. I wanted to be part of the world of my art.”
Part of the world of my art. What a lovely turn of phrase. Morgan sees the world as a large community. He doesn’t draw the lines of community at the edge of his city, but at the edge of where happiness live.
He concludes our conversation by saying; “I want people to really feel involved and good about what I am doing. This is about community.”
Whether Morgan knows it our not, it is also about inspiration. Though it drips with poetic candle wax to say so, let’s agree that following dreams is contagious. Let’s say then that with each new acquaintance Morgan makes, he is reminding people all over America to do nothing less than that which makes them spring from their morning beds, throw the curtains, and sing the mantra of their heart whilst dancing the Charleston in their undergarments. Happy trails Morgan.
Don’t be surprised dear reader if you see Morgan dancing the Charleston in your town. If you do, buy him a sandwich and I suspect he will give you a book and sing you a song that will brighten your day.
