By Leah Ingram
Contributing Writer
David Webb can be found at the PSU Plaza or the corner of Yamhill and 6th with a grin on his face and a flute in his hands. Webb, who is also known as the “Flute Man,” likes to serenade passersby as he sells the paper and wishes everyone he sees a Merry Christmas.
Webb says he has been self taught at the flute for two years now, and that it has helped him to “renew” himself and reconcile his past with his future. Webb grew up with a self described tough childhood, but in a loving home. He and his two siblings were raised Christian by his parents, who came from a long line of pastors and preachers. Webb’s father is an assistant pastor and one of his aunts even runs a church from her home, despite the fact that she is blind.
Webb says that the happiest time with his family was spent in Alaska, where his father sold newspapers and where Webb worked in a fish processing plant. There, he got to see landscapes face to face and experience the awe of looking at mountains and glaciers. “It might be pretty in a picture,” says Webb. “Wait ‘til you see it face to face. It’s like a post card but a million times better.” Webb enjoyed nature and learned mechanics from his father in Alaska, and he recounts one adventure where he got to visit the North Pole — North Pole, Alaska, that is. He got to see “Santa’s House” and giant igloos.
When Webb turned 16, he began to experiment with recreational drugs, and regrettably progressed to meth and cocaine. He began a 20 year struggle with drugs, despite his frequent attempts at recovery. “I tried treatment; I was in the jail system for a while. I tried writing, I tried piano, I tried guitar- none of it worked,” says Webb. Two years ago marks the start of a treatment that did work- the flute. Webb does not read music, but he says that picking up the flute was like “second nature” to him. “I pour my heart out into it, and I’ve never done that with anything in my life,” says Webb. Now whenever he feels stressed or angry, Webb picks up his flute and simply plays. He says that without it he would not have been able to overcome his reliance on drugs.
Webb says that he now notices music in his everyday life and does his best to share this with others. “I can be walking down the street and I will be playing and a bus drives by and I hear the motor.” says Webb. “I hear notes coming out of things.” Whether it is the steady cadence of cart wheels on the pavement or the wind in the trees, Webb says he has been made aware of hidden beats and melodies. He takes this talent and brings it with him to the Bridgetown Ministries under the Burnside Bridge every Thursday night. He has instructed ten people on the basics of flute playing and he uses his story of recovery to inspire others struggling with drug addiction.
For the rest of the week, Webb lives at Transition Projects Inc. He keeps in contact with his family and plays the flute over the phone for his mother, who is terminally ill with cancer. Web will move into more permanent housing at the beginning of the year and hopes to attend formal schooling for mechanics. For now, he aspires to play his flute and to keep hearing the music in his life.
