This afternoon I was digging through an old briefcase, looking for a photo from 1979 when I was a young airman stationed at RAF Bentwaters/Woodbridge, England. I am going to visit the (now closed) bases on my way back from Italy in May and the folks that run the Cold War Museum there are going to open it for me and give me a personal tour…how nice of them! Anyway, I was digging through the briefcase looking for a specific photo of me there (found it) and I stumbled across this one. When I was a kid my Dad had some friends who played old country and bluegrass and I am certain that’s where I got the bug. He played the standup bass and I can assure you he knew NOTHING about the Nashville Numbering System, the Circle of Fifths, never played a scale in his life, etc…but he sure could play this bass. Wish he was still around so I could play with him.
This Is Where I Got It
I. Love. This. I have a picture of some friends that my mom and dad had over, and i joined in playing the spoons. I’ll have to dig that out. I mean, look at that photo, the guy on the accordion, looks like like someone in the back who I assume is singing. That looks like it was a good day.
The hidden guy in the back is me; my sister is there too. We didn’t know any of these songs and were trying to sing along. My dad is on the bass, the accordion player was my 6th grade elementary school teacher, The guitar player was a longstanding friend of my dad’s. Not shown are a really good fiddle player and another guitar player. These guys used to get together and jam every few months for a few years. It was always fun to listen to them. Later on I used to (try to) play snare drum with them…I had no clue what I was doing and they were very tolerant of me. Great memories, for sure.