It all started out Sunday. My Dad's Church was having their homecoming meeting and he had decided it would be fun to have me and his sister (my Aunt) come play and sing. Well, that sounds pretty safe, right? It did to me too - at least until it occurred to me that the three of us haven't played together in 20 years. Shucks, Dad probably hasn't played guitar in 7 or 8 years. Now, back then, 20 years ago, we were playing fairly regularly, and had a "set list" of sorts.
Sunday morning comes, I carry banjo and my Dad's guitar to church. I carry them to the back and get in tune. Dad casually walks through and checks to see if everything was ready. I told him it was. He heads back out front. I follow.
Service begins as usual, and then we're announced. Dad and I walk to the back to grab my banjo and his guitar. Dad strums a chord to make sure the guitar is "close enough" - his fingers a bit clumsy from the lack of practice - hey, it's just 8 years, how bad could it be? :) I worry that he'll have some difficulty. I know he'll be there, regardless of what my aunt throws at us; I'm just all to aware of what his fingers are going to be feeling.
We meet my Aunt who's already made her way to the front with her little notebook (list of songs). She mentions something about how it's been a while. We play 3 songs, and it's just like old times. It's funny how this stuff stays in your head after so long. Everything was there. It was the same as it ever was... same same same. Other than the fact that we're all 20 years older, it was like a trip back in time.
The next day I discovered some old cassette tapes of me when I'd have been probably 15 or 16 years old. It was fun though kind of strange, listening to myself as a teenager that was just coming to terms with what would turn out to be the instrument I'd spend the rest of my life with. That said, I'll just post a link to one of those tunes.
These would have been from '78 or early '79, so I'd have been playing around a year (since I started banjo in the fall of '77).
Foggy Mountain BreakdownFox on the Run..and from a little later that year:
Long GoneThanks for listening!
As long as I can remember I've liked to take pictures. Granted, I'm not good at it, but I do like to press the button and make the camera do that clicky sound. However, in the thousands upon thousands of pictures I've taken I found a few that I'd like to share, and you can find them on Flikr.