Experimental composer John Cage once said, “it is useless to play lullabies for those who cannot sleep.” Summing up Dixie Duncan’s music in words is just as useless. The shadow of a thing rarely represents the form of the thing itself. It is less reflection, but a distortion made by the lens of the sun. Similarly, Dixie distorts his own experience of the world. He is the lens. The music is a shadow which he warps by manipulating whatever instrument he’s holding at the time: a guitar, a set of drums, a trumpet, peering down into the throat of a saxophone, the earth hum of a bass. Sometimes, he reinvents the instrument. The guitar, for example, might have to perform the work of a drum, like a dream in which the laws of physics cease to apply.

His album, LSD (acronym for Lost in the Shadow of a Dream) is “about staying beneath the dream in order to keep it. If it becomes reality, I might stop chasing it,” he says. He isn’t playing lullabies for those who cannot sleep. The concept of the album is just the inverse. The album is a map to the uncharted and intangible terrain of a lucid dream. Don’t wake up; this isn’t sleep.

But don’t let that fool you. Dixie isn’t just dreaming. Since 2005, Dixie has played over 300 shows a year--except in 2007, when he he only made it to 294--and chimes in, “I was slacking.” He has been ranked the #1 bassist (2005) and #1 acoustic guitarist (2007) worldwide by Emergenza. He has been voted best instrumentalist by Atlanta’s Creative Loafing five times.

Having played with Echovalve, Eye Empire, and The Dreaded Marco, Dixie has been playing and touring solo to promote LSD. His upcoming album, “Kingdom of Nothing” will be featuring a full band, including vocals and lyrics, and of course another year of performing almost every night. Lift your heads from your pillows. Hear the music.