I started out with a goal. I wanted to write a love letter to Jazz. But not just any jazz; New Orleans Jazz. I thought I would write something about Mardi Gras and Fat Tuesday and the Mardi Gras Indians and how it all ties back in with jazz history.

I started writing and the worst thing happened. For the first time ever in my musical life I felt like a tourist. I was talking this musical culture that wasn’t my own in a way that made me feel dirty. I wasn’t trying to explain how much I loved it and how much it meant to me. I was trying to explain why Professor Longhair and Dr. John and Alan Toussaint and Kermit Ruffins made me a better musician. None of that happened I felt like I was standing in someone else’s house and acting like it was my own.

This was not the goal. So I stopped. I was watching “What Happened, Miss Simone” on Netflix, and it occurred to me why I felt like I felt. Nina Simone is the perfect example, jazz is lived. You can’t make someone like jazz, you don’t just wake up one morning with Miles Davis in your head, you have to be shown jazz, it has to grow on you, it has to be nurtured.

Thats when I had this idea. For the next 40 days (the same length as Lent) I will give you a daily shot of music. Be it jazz, soul, blues, R&B, gospel, rock or something else, everyday this site will feature a quick blurb about that days artist and a music video of a song of theirs that inspires me. Then on twitter for the rest of that day I will share more about that artist. I am calling this 40 Days of Indie and it all comes together with the hashtag #40DaysofIndie. Follow @iAm_Indie on Twitter and check back every day.

If I can’t convince you to love the music I love maybe I can at least help you understand why it matters so much to me.