No foolin'

April is going to be the month for nostalgia.

When I was growing up, my dad played guitar and banjo a lot. He sort of has a PASSION for stringed instruments. Quite similar to my passion for jams and jellies actually. He has built and learned to play all of the following: banjo, electric and acoustic guitar, electric and acoustic bass guitar, mandolin, fiddle, and dulcimer (okay he built the dulcimer from a kit, but still). He's written songs, some by himself, some with my mom; he's dragged the whole family to bluegrass music festivals; and he dragged my mom to a mandolin/mandola workshop where she did nothing but read the entire time so it probably wasn't all that much of a hardship. He has a recording studio attached to his workshop (where he does all of his instrument building and other carpentry). He tutors/teaches fiddle and guitar. He has far more instruments than he actually plays just because he can play them all and likes them so much. The acoustic guitar and mandolin are probably his favorite instruments. I think he'd make and play instruments for a living if not for the fact that turning a hobby into a job tends to ruin the fun of it.

My point is that I grew up in a pretty musical household. It only recently occurred to me that not everyone has that same opportunity: hearing old folk tunes and occasional murder ballads, listening and dancing to bluegrass jams on holidays, at family reunions, and at bluegrass festivals, lugging guitars and mandolins to and from the car, or hollering at your dad to please stop playing so you could watch your Saturday morning cartoons. I suppose you kind of take for granted things that were always around, things that you'd never even think about missing unless they had never been there. That's why I made a playlist of some songs that I grew up hearing my dad play over and over, some of which I didn't even know the names and just happened to find while browsing through youtube. I could honestly list dozens of songs, so let's just say this is the SHORT list.

1)Early Morning Rain
2)Uncle Pen
3)Cripple Creek (3 finger/clawhammer here, but I believe my dad just plays 3 finger)
4)The Darkest Hour Is Just Before Dawn
5)Freight Train
6)Wayfaring Stranger
7)Pancho and Lefty
8)Matthew
9)Old Man
10)Where the Soul of Man Never Dies
11)Ole Joe Clark
12)Shady Grove
13)The Riddle Song
14)I'll Fly Away
15)Will The Circle Be Unbroken (for a long time he sang it to this tune but several years ago he started singing/playing it to the tune of House of the Rising Sun, another folk tune. I asked him why he changed it and he said he just thought the tune was sadder and went better with the lyrics about the mother dying)
16)Rocky Top
17)Green Pastures
18)Wildwood Flower
19)Midnight Special
20)Foggy Mountain Breakdown
21)and of course, the song I was named after Amanda, which I have always intensely disliked and to this day I will still stop him when he tries to play it in front of me. Blech! Another song I always disliked was a Kenny Roger's song (Cake's cover of it) that he used to play when I started wearing makeup.

People are always impressed when I tell them he plays all these instruments. I guess it is kind of impressive, but he's my dad so I can't be too impressed, you know? Wouldn't want him to think he knows everything. And despite all this musical ability, he still could not dance to save his life. Even though I complained a lot as a kid, this music is now very dear to me. I'm not sure if I'd love it nearly so much if I hadn't grown up hearing it all the time.