At Thanksgiving time

[bones12]

On this very dark and raw November day I am thinking of all that surrounds Thanksgiving and what I have to be really grateful for. Aside from a wonderful family, friends and job, I am thankful for the love of listening to and playing music that stokes my soul and invigorates me. My late father loved all types of music and played both the violin and the Sousaphone. He encouraged my siblings and me to appreciate all good music and to enjoy making music by playing an instrument that would be fun and fulfilling. He suffered through the usual James Brown, Rolling Stones loudness in the house and always had time to listen to New Lost City Rambler records, Skillet Licker tapes and multiple guitar and mandolin players. He loved opera and Sigmon Romberg songs and made certain we were exposed to all types of good music. For him I am truely thankful that music has been such an integral part of my life.
In the third grade a singing cowboy came with his guitar selling TB stamps and promoting health. I remember little about the tuberculosis talk but I was overwhelmed by the sound from his acoustic guitar so close to my ears. From then on live music, especially non-amplified acoutic music, has driven me. From my first mando-banjo in 1971 to a broken
Harmony mandolin in 1972, that special sound has kept me going . My vintage and new mandos all still give me a shiver when I play them. I have a lot to be thankfrul for. Doug

[bjc]

I thank my Dad who turned me onto the Beatles...and the rest is a blur

[mandoman]

There was always music playing in our house growing up. Mom and Dad didn't play but the music was always there. My Granny (Mom's mom) played about anything with strings on it and piano. While my parents listened to a lot of music, my Granny gets the credit for my love of making music. I can still remember her trying to teach me to play the autoharp in the kitchen.

Precious Memories!!

[J. Mark Lane]

My Mother. She played piano and sang. Throughout my childhood, the house was filled with the sound of music -- her music. She also forced me to start taking music lessons at a very early age.

Scene: [Summer afternoon, group of young boys playing football in a yard across the street. Mom pokes her head out the door]

Mom: [Shouts] Mark, come in. Time to practice your piano;

Mark: Awww! Not now.

Mom: Yes now.

Other boys: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Mom [once Mark is inside]: Some day you will thank me for this.


Indeed. Thanks, Mom!

[phynie]

My pappy turned me onto the blues at a young age. I am VERY thankful for that! the blues got me into all sorts of roots music, rock and roll, and jazz. He was a great piano player. As a kid, I remeber hearing beethoven followed by gershwin followed by monk , and I thought these different forms of music all fit together very well. I feel lucky that he showed me to be open minded about all music. to just "listen". It has helped me tremendously as a musician. for that, I am thankful.

great topic!

[glauber]

My Dad. He never played anything, but was always futzing with recorders, harmoniums, electric organs, harmonicas, flutes, whatever he could get his hands on, even a clarinet... he once described an occarina in such a way that it seemed to be a magical instrument to me, and i just had to get one -- it took me years to find one. God, i wish he was still around.

[seththedude]

My parents both played in blugrass bands in TX when I was growing up in the '80s (I'm a kiddo compared to most of you old ##### http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif ). My dad played mandolin in a great band called Saltlick and my mom played guitar and sang in an all female group the Dixie Dewdrops. The bands were pretty much husbands in Saltlick wives in the Dixie Dewdrops.

Most of the them had kids about the age of my sister and I and we all used to just play and goof around at all the shows and festivals we would go to. Saltlick even had a song call Daynce of the Peckerwood about a bird. They also had a helmet mask type thing that the kids would take turns wearing and dancing around onstage whenever thay played the tune.

So i had blugrass in me from the womb you could say.

When I started playing i first started on guitar whil trying to keep up practice at the piano lessons my mom forced on me. I really regret not taking advantage of that but oh well, I wanted to rock and roll. Eventuall dropped piano altogether and played drums and guitar in various bands through school.

Got to college and bought a mandolin in winter 2001. Unfortunatly it was set up wrong so I didn't really get into until late 2002 early 2003 (memory is hazy around those college years) when I got it set up correctly. Mando has been my main thing ever since.

So I thank my dad and mom for both exposing me to the wonderful sounds of acoustic music.

[ira]

my dad- exposed me to bigband music and ragtime, gilbert and sullivan (his passion), israeli music, klezmer and folk (he was a huge weavers fan).

my mom- classical, baroque(spelling?), opera, the beatles (i remember when she bought sgt.pepper), the beachboys, and popmusic
both of my parents exposed me to traditional jewish music as well.

my brother-turned me on to rock-n-roll, and most importantly the grateful dead, which led me to old and in the way and the new riders- and in turn to blues, freeform jazz (because of blues for allah), blue/newgrass and country.

my friend john- turned me onto punk, and alot of the better late 70s stuff- clash, pretenders, elvis c., talking heads, police, etc...

my friend ron- for turning me on to zappa, capt beefhart, old genesis, jazz fusion through weather report and spyro gyra, which in turn led me to miles davis, which led me to-etc...

finally, all of you folks from the mandolincafe- too many amazing mando (and other) musicians and genres (had never heard of fado, choro,gypsy jazz, etc...), and the turn on to soooooo many jugband bluesmen who played many of the orig. versions of songs that the dead played.

i am truly grateful,
ira

[jaco]

My dad who didn't play a thing but even with a small military salary allowed me to attend Berklee College of Music in 1973. God Bless him,

[sean808080]

i thank my parents (who were totally deaf) for indulging me with music even though they couldn't hear. now that's a gift that keeps giving.

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[JEStanek]

My list of people I'm thankful for is as varied as many others. My parents always had classical or jazz on. My middle and high school band teachers who let me get my feet wet musically (even if I never learned any theory (probably my fault)). My best friend in high school introduced me to Coltrane, Monk, Davis. College radio expanded me into Hendrix, Sex Pistols, Public Enemy, Billie Holliday, Squirrel Nut Zippers. After College when we came to PA my wife got me to volunteer at the Philly Folk Festival. What a great experience. I discovered Old Time and Klezmer in addition to bluegrass and world music. It's been amazing. The folks on the Cafe inspire me alot too.

So, to all the living and the dead. Thanks.
Jamie

[jmarshall58]

My dad, who introduced me to the music of Bill Monroe, Roy Acuff, Ralph and Carter, Hank Willims, Reno and Smiley, Flatt and Scruggs and so many more. And what a tenor voice! And kudos to Mom for Benny Goodman, Django and Stephane, Glenn Miller etc. Uncle Chap for Charlie Poole and Jimmie Rodgers and his own wonderful clawhammer playing. Our little 78 record Victrola could have the Carter family and the Andrews Sisters in the same stack.

If when my grandfather brought my first guitar home from a business trip he had known I would eventually play at varying levels guitar, mandolin, fiddle and banjo he would have been thrilled to death. Thanks to all in hillbilly heaven. ( And to Mom up in Augusta.

[8STRINGR]

My Mom, who has been gone two years now. She and her family either played an instrument or sang as kids without any lessons and mostly learned everything by ear. My Grandfather (her dad) was self taught on violin and banjo. I thank her and her family's bloodline for the gift passed on to me. I play mostly anything in the same way as well by ear. Mandolin seems to be my strong point but I think only because I spend more time with it. I'm thankful to be in a Nation that allows me to play what I want, where I want and when I want... long as I don't wake the nieghbors http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif .

God Bless America! Remember those this Thanksgiving who have fought and continue to fight to PRESERVE OUR FREEDOM!
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[mando bandage]

J. Mark,

That sounds awfully familiar. My mother also played piano and sang and railroaded us into lessons - from her - a music teacher prior to starting a family. Only difference was, practicing was the first order of the day in our house. Up before dawn and a half hour on the piano while my sister played the French horn, then we switched off on piano and I played the trombone. No wonder Dad went to work early and we couldn't keep neighbors in the house to the east. And don't even get me started on taking the instruments on vacations (which I do now with the mandolin, as does my wife with the bagpipes, and therein lies many a tale).

So, thanks Mom, the music teacher. Thanks to maternal grandfather I never met, violinist/fiddler. Thanks to maternal grandmother I never met, cellist, and thanks to great granny Baker, who I never met, but who admonished my mother and all her cousins never to forget that they descended from the Bach-singing Moravians. Guess it's in the genes.

R

[ShaneJ]

I am thankful for my parents who helped me develop a love for music. My mom sang (and still sings) in a Gospel group, His Image. She bought me a cheap guitar when I was 9, and my dad taught me how to play Wildwood Flower, Honky Tonk, Folsom Prison Blues and Pipeline. I thank God for them and all the wonderful things they taught me - and still are teaching me.

[straight-a]

My dad, mom, grandma and uncle. My dad and uncle were playing music before I was born and they introduced me to all types. My dad played bluegrass but was also a singer in a top 40 style club band and my uncle was a country performer. My mom and grandma always supported me and my dad and uncle never discouraged anything I tried, musically.

[John Flynn]

My best friend in high school and early college, who taught me a lot of what I knew at the time on the guitar, got me into my first band and really encouraged me, making me believe I could do it.

[tree]

My mother, who directed the choir at our church and forced us to take piano and encouraged me to sing in the choir in high school. #My dad, who loved jazz and disdained anything with a pedal steel guitar as "hillbilly music". My first guitar teacher, who taught me the stuff I was interested in playing. #My oldest sister's husband's brother, who had a goldtop Les Paul that I drooled over, he sent me home with ZZ Top's First Album, Goat's Head Soup, and Led Zeppelin One and Two, with the instructions "listen to these and learn how to play some of this stuff". Guy named Jim Howsmon, who picked guitar and string bass at a YMCA camp I attended in Glade Valley, NC, in the late 60s. #He was a tremendous influence on me at an impressionable time in my young life. My twin boys, who at 10 are at an impressionable time in their young lives. My patient and understanding wife, a wonderful singer and performer in her own right. #The Lord, for blessing me with a good ear and a reasonable knack for imitation.

[Big Joe]

God, from whom all good things come, and his son Jesus. #My parents were not musical, and my dad hated music, so it did not come from there.

And one last person...Johhny Cash. It was in 1961 and I was walking to the out house when I first heard the song "Katy Too" on the radio. My life has never been the same!

[Joe F]

My parents instilled in me the love of music from an early age, mainly from their large classical record collection. #I can remember sitting by the hi-fi as a kid, listening to works by Paganini, Offenbach, Beethoven and others. #Later, as the Beatles burst onto the scene, my interests shifted away from classical. #My parents grudgingly bought me an electric guitar one year for Chanukah, under the stipulation that they wouldn't buy me an amplifier with it. (I salvaged the audio board out of an old tape deck and built my own).

Years later, my musical tastes broadened considerably, and my appreciation of classical music returned as well. #Although my mandolin playing is focused heavily on bluegrass and old-timey these days, there are very few genres of music that I don't like.

My dad has been gone now for over 30 years, but I still enjoy discussing music with my mom, who is a spry and healthy 80 years young.

There have been many friends and aquaintences who have influenced me musically over the years, but I am especially thankful for my parents who planted the original seed.

[PaulD]

I'll have to send out a thanks to both my folks.

My dad didn't play, but he had (has) a great appreciation for jazz and Klezmer. He was also an electronics hobbyist and early adopter of Hi-Fi sound, building most of his own audio gear. He particularly likes the early jazz and ragtime stuff, and allowed us to wear out his Herb Alpert LPs when we were kids.

My mother has played piano and sang in the church choir for as long as I can recall. She's old enough now that she quit the choir a few years back, but still attends practices and sings at mass... not sure how that works! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif She was into Nat King Cole, whom I never took to, and Harry Belafonte, Billy Holliday, and Sara Vaughn- the latter three will always be influences. I have the Belafonte LPs at my house now, but as kids we played some of them into the ground too. I can't stand most of the "run of the mill" Christmas music, but Belafonte's "Away In The Manger" is the definitive version in my book!

Paul Doubek

[Jack Roberts]

Big Joe, I'm with you. I thank God. I actually got to love music as an adult when I started going to church and hearing those great old hymns of the faith. Just last night I was looking through old hymnals trying to find an old hymn that has been playing re-runs in my head for the last two days that I want to start picking out in double stops on the mandolin.

This Thanksgiving my elder brother will bring over his new banjo, and with my son's new Gibson guitar, maybe we will have a little jam after dinner!

[Brian Baker]

BigJoe nailed it. I too thank God for my love of music, and the talent he has given me.

Beautiful music is one of the few things in life that give me a picture of the perfection and beauty of God... Alison K's voice, Big Mon's "ancient tones", the sound of the cello... Just some preliminary hints of what the music in heaven must be like, I think.

Very thankful,
Brian
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[PatrickH]

I am thankful for :

- Jesus
- Family, church and friends
- Soren Kierkegaard
- Love of music
- Bluegrass and Fiddle tunes
- Bill Collings deciding to make mandolins

Amen

[Keith Erickson]

I have many things to be Thankful for. #Since this is a music oriented board, I will start off with that first.

I have to send a big "Thank You" to God for giving me the musical talent that he blessed me with.

When I was a small child of 4 years old, my Dad turned me into a Johnny Cash fanatic with "Live at Folsom Prison". #Since that time, I've known all of the words by heart. #It must have been alarming to mother to hear her 4 year old boy sing, "I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die". # http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif #My Dad gave me that vinal and I still have it and listen to it even today.

...but hey, that was how the seed was planted and I hope and pray that when I become a father, I can pass the love of music down to my child.

Thirty two years later, I have a few more things to be Thankful for:

-Mom & Dad for puttin' foot to a$$ when I was out of line.
-My Lil' Brother for just being the best brother.
-My friends for their friendship and watching my back.
-My 1989 Ford Escort GT for getting me here to Texas.
-My lovely fiancé who will be my wife in 6 more days.

I'm sure that this post doesn't do them justice but it's a start.

Cheers and Happy Thanksgiving to everyone here at the Mandolin Cafe. #
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[otterly2k]

I'm thankful that my parents, despite their own relative lack of musical ability and activity, were able to recognize that music was simply IN me and trying to get out from a very early age. They allowed me to pursue and explore many different instruments and styles and did not force me in a single direction - always were awed and supported whatever tangent I wanted to spin into at the time.

I think I'm a better musician (and person) for having had that encouragement and freedom.

[J. Mark Lane]

Soren Kierkegaard?

Well that required a double-take. I thought I was the only person still alive who read and loved Kierkegaard. One of the most brilliant men ever to explore (and accept) the religious hypothesis. So I'll second that -- hey, thanks, Soren!

Uh, hey Keith, congrats in advance on your marriage!

Mark

[harleymando]

My brother Ronnie..hes dead now from cancer.....i was a young boy....he had creedence clearwater revival....i thought it was so cool!.....and my buddy jimmy.......he had a mandolin tucked under his bed...so glad i talked him into breaking it out at our jam session....thanks.Ronnie and Jimmy!!!

[B. T. Walker]

Mom and Dad instilled the love of music in me. #So different in so many ways, this was one area the both agreed on totally. #Classical, jazz, and folk (in that order). #They took us kids to the opera and symphony, to the cultural events programs that came to our local university (Carlos Montoya, Helen Reddy, and Woody Herman -- different concerts, naturally), and even to "Woodstock" when it showed at the drive-in during it's first run (not that that the 10 year-old boy who saw the movie was paying attention to the music. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif ). #Dad sang tenor in Schola Cantorum in Fort Worth and played piano at home. #He played organ for his church when he was a high schooler, and knows ALL the hymns, starred verses included. #I'm thankful God made them my parents.

[8STRINGR]

Wow folks... this topic doesn't seem like for Thanksgiving but sounds (reads) more like Parents Day.

It kind of "tugs" at me a little, reading the post from folks that put aside the usual "Hoo Ha" of topics and just take a few moments (words) to thank our MOMs and DADs and how greatful we all are for them! I sure miss both of mine.


Bless You All and once again, "Happy Thanksgiving"

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[Jack Roberts]

Another Kierkegaard reader here. We ought to start a club. The MAS unto death club...

Jack

[bones12]

Oh yea, one of the best things to be thankful for is fingers that work and talented people who construct beautiful mandolins that stay intact through thick and thin, heat and cold,and in and out of cold vehicles. This really is the golden age (?Titanium) of mandolins with an embarassment of riches concerning instrument choice. I love this time. Doug

[Dagger Gordon]

A nice topic,this.

The very first post mentioned the singing cowboy coming into schools, and the effect that had. That hit home to me as for the last wee while I've been playing music in schools as part of a program in Scotland called Youth Music Initiative.

Apart from showing the kids our instruments and talking about different types of tunes - ie jigs, reels, strathspeys - we get them all playing on whatever is to hand such as glockenspiels, recorders, whistles etc and actually make music themselves.

It generally works surprisingly well, and I suppose you always hope that somewhere it will give at least some of the kids the kind of defining moment which the singing cowboy must have given Bones12 in third grade and lead to them having the ongoing love of making music which has so enriched my own life.

In my own case, there was no music in the house. My dad was perhaps the least musical man I have ever known,and I really don't know where my music came from. My own 3 kids, on the other hand, all play and it clearly means a lot to them.

I'm not a religious man but I am certainly thankful.

[mando bandage]

Another Kierkegaard reader here. We ought to start a club. The MAS unto death club...


Or a band. Our first album could be "Beer and Tremelo and Picking Unto Death."

R