Age - anybody else play this song?

[tree]

I first heard this song at my last mandolin lesson, back in September (I don't get out much). The Bluegrass Album Band version is in F, and my teacher was showing me how symmetrical (and visual) the F major scale is in first position, and had me experiment with it while he played and sang Age.

So, after listening back to the lesson a few times, I had no choice but to seek out and buy the song off iTunes. I've made it a mission to learn this and take it to the band I play with, even if it means memorizing the lyrics and singing it. I've almost got it down to that point. Also, I pretty much have the fiddle intro transposed to mandolin, it works out really nicely.

One of the things I love about this song (other than the melody and the lyrics) is the crooked bit at the end of verse 2. And the various instrumental solos by BAB members, and Tony's singing. What's not to love?

Just learned today that Jim Croce wrote the song . . . I had no idea. Anyway, I'm having fun with it, and like many of my musical adventures, it is a marvelous obsession.

Carry on.

[EdSherry]

I originally learned it off a Jim Croce LP back in the 1970s. One of my favorite Croce songs; for some reason, it's largely been overlooked in the CD reissues of Croce's work ("Greatest Hits" and suchlike).

And the BAB version is, as you say, first rate.

[mandolirius]

Our bluegrass band does it. It's a nice addition to the repertoire.

[Fretbear]

It makes an excellent bluegrass number, as evidenced by it's inclusion by The BAB, as one of the very few non-traditional songs recorded by them in the series.

[tree]

I reckon it'll get similar treatment from us as Mama Tried: "And now it's time for a number from that great bluegrass songwriter, The Hag."

Love those nontraditional BG songs . . .