Playing Favorites 2

I have loved a lot of music in my 77 years.   The truth is, the number of new pieces I fall in love with has dwindled over the years and my new music loves are often jazz or country.  Current modern popular music seems simplistic and boring, except for hip-hop and rap, which offends my ears.  I remember what my Mom and Dad thought about the Rolling Stones and Neil Young, and how I promised myself that I would always stay up with new music.  Here I am, not so much, mostly stuck in the 60 and 70s.  My tastes are fairly eclectic … classical, jazz, country and rock … but the rock n roll of the 60s and 70s gives me the most joy and provides most of my pop favorites.

Almost Eric

My love of music goes back as far as I can remember (and that, my friends, is a stretch of time). But as much as I love listening to music, I have never been proficient at making music. Oh, yes I’ve dabbled with guitars since high school and got to the point where I could play well enough to accompany myself singing popular songs. Singing wasn’t my strong suit either. Twenty or so years ago we bought a piano and the whole family started taking lessons. I lasted the longest and could play a dozen or so of my favorite songs before, inexplicably, I gave it up. Now, the piano sits quietly (and out of tune) in our living room. The same can be said for the three guitars I accumulated in my guitar dabbling days. On the shelf in my office is a native American flute that hasn’t uttered a note since the last time my grandkids were here and just had to try it.

Friday Favorites 2/28/2014

Forty years ago, my love of acoustic guitars reflected my favorite musical groups, bands like the Eagles which featured acoustic guitar accompaniment as well as electric and of a generation of singer-songwriters like James Taylor.  My tastes in jazz ran to horn- or piano-driven ensembles, although Wes Montgomery and Charlie Byrd were certainly on my musical radar.  But in the the late seventies, a confluence of musical styles, from World Music and what would come to be called New Age Music, along with something called smooth jazz, began to promote acoustic guitars as lead instruments.  Rock musicians like Craig Chaquico and Peter White began to record jazz instrumentals featuring acoustic guitars and jazz artists known for their electric guitar artistry, like Al Di Meola, began to play acoustic and gravitate toward smooth jazz or World Music.   World and New Age Music brought flamenco guitar into popular recordings in the form of neuvo flamenco, which featured flamenco-style guitar in less traditional settings like jazz, salsa and rock.  I was lucky enough to be around for the ride.

Friday Favorites 1/17/2014

Why is it that the weeks when I don’t have any work in my semi-retired life are more chaotic than the weeks when I do?  It could be that having business to take care of gives me a center of discipline around which to wrap the rest of my waking hours.  Maybe having tasks that make money satisfy that never-to-be-denied inner need to do something productive, making me less frantic about my other activities for the day.  Perhaps the total freedom of a week without work is overwhelming, making me prone to multiple games of Mole Word and Classic Mole instead of doing something fulfilling.  Maybe, with an empty day at hand, I try too hard to fill it … or fill it perfectly.  Whatever the reason, this was one of those weeks.  Posts went up with more than my usual allotment of typos (since corrected) and even a spelling error in the title (corrected immediately … how embarrassing).   Posts went up without categories and without tags … certainly not mortal offenses worthy of Blogger’s Hell but certainly some time in Poster’s Purgatory.

Friday Favorites 10/4/2013

When I was in eighth grade, I wanted to learn to play the guitar.    My parents signed me up for a music school in New Haven, CT.    Now this particular music school claimed that they started everyone out on the accordion to teach them the basics of music … they would move us on to our instruments of choice after the introductory period.    I learned to play Row Your Boat, Frere Jacques, and eventually Lady of Spain (of course).   When the introductory period was over, they had no guitar teachers and it cost $600 to buy an accordion and continue.   Thus, the world was denied one of the great classical guitarists.  I remain, however, one of the world’s great fans of guitar music, and not just classical guitar.  My playlists are littered with rock stars like Carlos Santana, jazz guitarists like Wes Montgomery and Earl Klugh, classical guitarists like John Williams and flamenco guitarists like Paco DeLucia and Ottmar Libert.  So, it’s a little surprising that a guitarist hasn’t been a Friday Favorite … until now.

Friday Favorites – 1/27/2012

Posting Friday Favorites once a week has been the most time-consuming task of the week here on Bud’s Blog.   I went back and looked …. I posted the first Friday Favorite back in August of 2010 on the Atlanta Rhythm Section’s hit, So Into You.  In describing my plans for Friday Favorites, I wrote, The intent is a short (yes, I can do short) post on something that’s a favorite of mine, be it music, art, books or whatever.   Well, they are no longer short, so maybe I can’t.   Part of the problem with Favorites is that after over 70 posts, it’s hard to come up with another favorite and Friday Things I Like a Lot just doesn’t catch the ear.  But I keep doing it because Friday Favorites is, in fact, the weekly post I do most for me.

Watercolors

Do you know how many things I have lined up to get back to in retirement?  Well, there’s writing … so far, that’s going pretty well.   There’s playing the guitar.  I even bought my son-in-law’s Martin DX with the easy action to make relearning chords less painful.  I learned the chords to Moondance, got to the point where I could almost make it through without a mistake … since then, nada.   Now, there are two guitars gathering dust, along with my native American flute.   Don’t even ask about the piano downstairs.   I bought a large (really large) art bag so I could collect all my art supplies in one place, ready for any moment that inspiration might strike.   Mr. P, our Siamese cat gets more use out of the art bag than I do … he’s decided that the top of the box is a perfect scratching post.  Bad kitty (not really).

Monday Smiles – 2/7/2011

One of my New Years resolutions was, quoting from Hereby Resolved, my New Years Day post,

Paint and play music at least once a week – My art bag, my native American flute and my Martin D-28 are languishing in my office.  It’s just not right

La Guitarra

So, it’s the last day of June which also happens to be the last day of the first half of the year.  Looking back at six months of Older Eyes – Bud’s Blog, I’ve posted 116 times so far this year.    The fifteen posts in June (not counting this one) have tended toward serious topics, from rants about my failing computer in Damn Pugers, to spiritual speculations like Parking Lot Spirituality and Being Open Minded, to subjects like the Gulf Oil Spill (in It’s a Disaster) and the effects of tribal behavior on modern society in Tribes.  The struggles with on-again, off-again retirement continued in Scheduled? Me? and Going Red.    Even Monday Smiles have been bittersweet, finding smiles in retrospect.   I notice, too, that I haven’t posted about music since March, when I talked about my love of Guitar Music.   So, in the interest of ending June on a positive note, I thought I’d post about my favorite form of guitar music, Flamenco.

Guitar Music

When I was in eighth grade, I wanted to learn to play the guitar.    My parents signed me up for a music school in New Haven, CT.    Now this particular music school claimed that they started everyone out on the accordion to teach them the basics of music … they would move us on to our instruments of choice after the introductory period.    I learned to play Row Your Boat, Frere Jacques, and eventually Lady of Spain (of course).   When the