I Guess He'd Rather Be In Colorado

My rendition of "I Guess He'd Rather Be In Colorado" by John Denver

My Elusive Dreams

This song is called My Elusive Dreams. It was written by Curly Putman and Billy Sherrill, and released in 1967. It has been covered by several country artists, including Roger Miller and Tammy Wynette and George Jones. My daddy used to sing this song and I think it is actually his version I remember.

 I have always liked this song.

The May Song Quiz

Joining up with Kwizgiver for the last of the song list.

A song that:

• makes me think about life would be American Pie, by Don McLean.
• has many meanings to me would be Nowhere to Go, by Melissa Etheridge.
• has a person's name in the title would be Aubrey, by Bread.
• moves me forward would be Unwritten, by Natasha Bedingfield.
• I think everybody should listen to is Where Have All the Flowers Gone, by Peter, Paul, and Mary.
• is by a band I wish was still together is Money for Nothing, by Dire Straits
• I like by an artist no longer living is We've Only Just Begun, by the Carpenters.
• makes me want to fall in love is Killing Me Softly With His Song, by Roberta Flack
• breaks my heart is Seasons in the Sun, by Terry Jacks.
• is by an artist whose voice I love is I Will Always Love You, by Whitney Houston.
• I remember from my childhood is Coat of Many Colors, by Dolly Parton.
• reminds me of myself is All By Myself, by Eric Carmen.
• I love to sing loudly is Band on the Run, by Paul McCartney & Wings.

Play Me

The song Play Me, by Neil Diamond, performed by me.

Thursday Thirteen

Today, a list of female singers who have influenced me in some way. They're not in any order of preference.


1. Pat Benatar - I first heard her songs when I was in high school. She was among the first women to "rock out" and gave me hope for doing so myself (although I went in another direction). Patricia Mae Giraldo, known professionally as Pat Benatar, is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and four-time Grammy Award winner. She has two multi-platinum albums, five platinum albums, three gold albums, and 15 Billboard Top 40 singles, including the Top 10 hits "Hit Me with Your Best Shot", "Love Is a Battlefield", "We Belong", and "Invincible". She was nominated for a 2020 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.



2. Joan Jett - I had just finished high school when I first heard Joan Jett singing "I love rock and roll" and doing it with joy and a growl. Joan Marie Jett is an American rock singer, songwriter, composer, musician, record producer and occasional actress. Jett is best known for her work as the frontwoman of her band Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, and for earlier founding and performing with the Runaways, which recorded and released the hit song "Cherry Bomb". The Blackhearts' version of the song "I Love Rock 'n Roll" was number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks in 1982. Jett's other notable hit songs include "Bad Reputation", "Crimson and Clover", "Do You Wanna Touch Me", "Light of Day", "I Hate Myself for Loving You" and "Dirty Deeds".




3. Dolly Parton - The queen of country music has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I watched her on the Porter Wagoner show. My parents listened mostly to country music when I was younger, so I know most of her early hits. (Once I could change the dial, unless a song of hers, such as "9 to 5" went to the Adult Top 40 charts as well as country, I rarely heard her.) I have a lot of admiration for Dolly Parton now, aside from the plastic surgery and botox stuff which I do not like. Still, she's got a good heart and has been quite the influence on younger musicians. Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, actress, author, businesswoman, and humanitarian, known primarily for her work in country music. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Parton made her album debut in 1967 with Hello, I'm Dolly. With steady success during the remainder of the 1960s, her sales and chart peak came during the 1970s and continued into the 1980s. Parton's albums in the 1990s did not sell as well, but she achieved commercial success again in the new millennium and has released albums on various independent labels since 2000, including her own label, Dolly Records.




4. Chrissy Hynde - I am not sure when I first heard The Pretenders, Hynde's band, but I noticed her more in the 1990s than when I was younger. She can rock a guitar. Christine Ellen "Chrissie" Hynde is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She is a founding member and the guitarist, lead vocalist, and primary songwriter of the rock band the Pretenders, as well as its only constant member.




5. Sheryl Crow - I first became aware of Crow with her hit, "All I Wanna Do" and then followed her career for a while in the 1990s. I have several of her albums but as she turned more toward country, I stopped listening to her new work. I listen to her first four albums all the time, though. Sheryl Suzanne Crow is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and actress. Her music incorporates elements of pop, rock, country, jazz, and blues. She has released ten studio albums, four compilations, two live albums, and has contributed to a number of film soundtracks. Her most popular songs include "All I Wanna Do", "Strong Enough", "If It Makes You Happy", "Everyday Is a Winding Road", "Tomorrow Never Dies", "My Favorite Mistake", "Picture" and "Soak Up the Sun". She has sold more than 50 million albums worldwide. Crow has garnered nine Grammy Awards from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.




6. Melissa Etheridge - I became aware of Etheridge about the same time as I did Sheryl Crow. Etheridge is more rock, although some of her ballads and slow songs are incredibly beautiful. She's also quite a musician and guitar player. Melissa Lou Etheridge is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and activist. Her self-titled debut album Melissa Etheridge was released in 1988 and became an underground success. The album peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard 200, and its lead single, "Bring Me Some Water", garnered Etheridge her first Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female. In 1993, Etheridge won her first Grammy award for her single "Ain't It Heavy" from her third album, Never Enough. Later that year, she released what would become her mainstream breakthrough album, Yes I Am. Its tracks "I'm the Only One" and "Come to My Window" both reached the top 30 in the United States, and the latter earned Etheridge her second Grammy award. Yes I Am peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard 200, and spent 138 weeks on the chart, earning a RIAA certification of 6× Platinum, her largest to date.




7. Celine Dion - Everyone likes to make fun of Dion, and I have never understood why. I seem to lack the "make fun of" gene. I like her music, especially her work in the 1990s. She has a beautiful voice. I thought the theme from the Titanic movie that she did was lovely. Céline Marie Claudette Dion CC OQ is a Canadian singer. She is renowned for her powerful, technically skilled vocals, and remains the best-selling Canadian artist and one of the best-selling artists of all time with record sales of 200 million copies worldwide. Born into a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, she emerged as a teen star in her homeland with a series of French-language albums during the 1980s. She first gained international recognition by winning both the 1982 Yamaha World Popular Song Festival and the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest, where she represented Switzerland. After learning to speak English, she signed on to Epic Records in the United States. In 1990, Dion released her debut English-language album, Unison, establishing herself as a viable pop artist in North America and other English-speaking areas of the world.




8. Stevie Nicks - What can I say about the wonderful, witchy Stevie Nicks? She rocked it as the lead singer in Fleetwood Mac and she is still rocking it. I was aware of Fleetwood Mac when I was in middle school, I think. I remember hearing a song with Christie McVie singing instead of Stevie and not believing it was Fleetwood Mac. The last CD I bought was a Stevie Nicks solo album. Stephanie Lynn Nicks is an American singer and songwriter. Nicks is best known for her work as a songwriter and vocalist with Fleetwood Mac, and her chart-topping solo career. She is known for her distinctive voice, mystical stage persona and poetic, symbolic lyrics. Her work both as a member of Fleetwood Mac and as a solo artist has produced over forty top 50 hits and sold over 140 million records, making her one of the best-selling music acts of all time with Fleetwood Mac.




9. Linda Ronstadt - I saw Ronstadt in person when she toured in the late 1980s. It was a great concert. She certainly had a set of pipes on her and I was sad when I learned she has Parkinson's and can't sing anymore. Linda Maria Ronstadt is a retired American singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, and Latin. She has earned 10 Grammy Awards, three American Music Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, and an ALMA Award, and many of her albums have been certified gold, platinum or multiplatinum in the United States and internationally. She has also earned nominations for a Tony Award and a Golden Globe award. She was awarded the Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by The Latin Recording Academy in 2011 and also awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by The Recording Academy in 2016. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2014. On July 28, 2014, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts and Humanities. In 2019, she received a star jointly with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for their work as the group Trio. Linda Ronstadt was among the five Honorees who received the 2019 Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime artistic achievements, at the annual event on December 8, 2019, in Washington, D.C., at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.




10. Anne Murray - I know, you're wondering why she's stuck in here, aren't you? Because she has a beautiful voice and I love her sound quality. Morna Anne Murray CC ONS is a Canadian singer in pop, country, and adult contemporary music whose albums have sold over 55 million copies worldwide during her 40-year career. Murray was the first Canadian female solo singer to reach No. 1 on the U.S. charts, and also the first to earn a Gold record for one of her signature songs, "Snowbird". She is often cited as one of the female Canadian artists who paved the way for other international Canadian success stories such as k.d. lang, Céline Dion, and Shania Twain. She is also the first woman and the first Canadian to win "Album of the Year" at the 1984 Country Music Association Awards for her Gold-plus 1983 album A Little Good News.




11. Aretha Franklin - I don't know that any list of female singers and musicians could leave out the Queen of Soul. I was in my 20s before I realized how important and influential she was. Aretha Louise Franklin was an American singer, songwriter, actress, pianist, and civil rights activist. Franklin began her career as a child singing gospel at New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, where her father C. L. Franklin was a minister. At the age of 18, she embarked on a secular-music career as a recording artist for Columbia Records. While Franklin's career did not immediately flourish, she found acclaim and commercial success after signing with Atlantic Records in 1966. Hit songs such as "I Never Loved a Man", "Respect", A Natural Woman", "Chain of Fools", "Think", and "I Say a Little Prayer" propelled her past her musical peers. By the end of the 1960s, Aretha Franklin had come to be known as the "Queen of Soul".




12. Ann & Nancy Wilson (Heart) - It took me a while to appreciate Heart, but after some study I have come to the conclusion that Nancy Wilson is one of the best female guitar players in the world and Ann is probably one of the best singers. Of course they are aging so that may not be true as the younger women move onto the stage, but they can rock out. Heart is an American rock band formed in 1970 in Seattle, Washington by Steve Fossen, Roger Fisher, David Belzer, and Jeff Johnson. It evolved from an existing band, White Heart. Since 1973 the vocalists for Heart have been sisters Ann Wilson and Nancy Wilson.




13. Cyndi Lauper - Lauper is another singer who has grown on me as I have aged, mostly for her activism and common sense. Her songs in the 1980s did not stick with me then, but as I have learned more about her, I find I admire her for constantly moving forward. Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and activist. Her career has spanned over 40 years. Her album She's So Unusual was the first debut album by a female artist to achieve four top-five hits on the Billboard Hot 100—"Girls Just Want to Have Fun", "Time After Time", "She Bop", and "All Through the Night"—and earned Lauper the Best New Artist award at the 27th Grammy Awards in 1985. Her success continued with the soundtrack for the motion picture The Goonies and her second record True Colors. This album included the number one single "True Colors" and "Change of Heart", which peaked at number three.





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Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while and this is my 657th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Song Quiz Again

I really am bad at these daily things. But it's my blog and my life and if I want to do them in clumps, so be it.

A song I like from the 1970s would be  . . . pretty much any of them since those were my high school years. I'll go with this one, though, because I think it is fun: Mockingbird by James Taylor and Carly Simon. I think it was a hit around 1974-1975.



A song I had played at my wedding was Longer Than by Dan Folgerberg.



A song I like that's a cover by another singer would be Piece of My Heart by Melissa Etheridge, originally sung by Janis Joplin.



A song that's a classic favorite would be Stairway to Heaven by Led Zepplin. (I can play a passable version of this on the guitar.)



A song that I'd sing in a karaoke duet would be You Don't Bring Me Flowers, by Neil Diamond and Barbara Streisand.



A song from the year I was born would be It's My Party, by Leslie Gore (the number one song on my birthday).

Song Quiz Again

Join up with Kwizgiver if you want to play along and answer queries about songs.


A song that makes me happy is Uptown Funk, by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars because it has a great beat. It is one of those songs that makes me squirm around in my chair doing a butt dance.

A song that makes me said is Vincent, or Starry Night, by Don McLean. This song has always made me sad. Oddly, I was listening to Melissa Etheridge last Thursday singing Neil Diamond cover songs, and she sang and played Play Me, and I started to cry. I was surprised at my tears. She did a really great job with it to move me like that. I may have to learn Play Me. I don't know too many Neil Diamond songs. I already know how to play Starry Night.

I never get tired of hearing Landslide, by Fleetwood Mac, sung by Stevie Nicks. It is a lovely song. I think I actually prefer the version on The Dance album (which I think is the video I linked to) to the original.

A song from my preteen years that I still remember and sing would be The Night the Lights Went out In George, by Vickie Lawrence. It is a spooky song, really, and kind of scary. It left an impression. I could probably throw Ode to Billy Joe in there, too. I like songs that tell stories.

Song Quiz #2

Obviously, I am incapable of answering a single question every day, but I think it's ok to bunch them up.

A good song to drive to is Radar Love, by Golden Earring. Listen to that beat, man. How could anyone listen to this song when they're behind the wheel and not move around in the seat?

A song about drugs and alcohol would be White Rabbit, by Jefferson Airplane. One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small. And the ones that mother gives you don't do anything at all. Classic, simply classic. How could that be anything but a drug song?


One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you, don't do anything at all
Go ask Alice, when she's ten feet tall
And if you go chasing rabbits, and you know you're going to fall
Tell 'em a hookah-smoking caterpillar has given you the call
And call Alice, when she was just small
When the men on the chessboard get up and tell you where to go
And you've just had some kind of mushroom, and your mind is moving low
Go ask Alice, I think she'll know
When logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead
And the white knight is talking backwards
And the red queen's off with her head
Remember what the dormouse said
Feed your head, feed your head

Link up with Kwizgiver and her May music meme.

Song Quiz

I meant to link up with Kwizgiver and her May music meme, but I am late. Here it is May 6 and I haven't done the first one.

So I shall do 6 in a row here and try to catch up.

A song I like with a color in it is Song Sung Blue by Neil Diamond. Actually, one of my AOL user names comes from this song.

A song I like with a number in the title is 99 Red Balloons by Nena. It's an anti-war song. Did you know that? It's about a bunch of balloons that go up and set off an alert. A pilot goes to check it out and shoots at them. The neighboring nations go berserk and "the war machine springs to life." All over 99 red balloons. It's a great allegory for the folly of war.

A song that reminds me of summertime is Black Velvet, by Alannah Myles. "Mississippi in the middle of a dry spell . . . Momma's dancin' with baby on her shoulder, the sun is sittin' like molasses in the sky." Those are great lyrics.

A song that reminds me of someone I'd rather forget is Live and Let Die, which was originally by Paul McCartney, I think. This version is by Guns & Roses.

A song that needs to be played loud is I Can't Get No Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones. The older I get, the less the words seem to apply to life, but the beat and music is as classic rock and roll as you can get. I mean, I can name that song in the first two notes.

A song that makes me want to dance is Stayin' Alive by the Bee Gees. Yes, I am a disco nerd. I can't even sit still in my chair when I hear that song.

The Marks on My Guitar

Recently I heard a new Melissa Etheridge song called Suede, and on first (or second or third) listen I thought, I like that song.

You can hear it here at this link, if you're interested.

I like many of her songs, and even play a few of them on my guitar (which isn't marked. At least not much.). I own most of her early albums but I haven't bought a new one in quite a while.

I downloaded a version with the lyrics off of a guitar music site, which has it in Em (not sure that's quite accurate, but it sort of works).

I listened to it again and played it through with the song. I like the melody, but I don't like the words. I'm not even sure what this song is about, to be honest. Falling into suede? What does that mean? Going back to the 1960s? Is that when suede was popular?

The only words I like are these: the marks on my guitar.

And that's not enough to make a good song. It does pique my interest in writing a poem about MY guitar, though. Or maybe instead I could write about music, and what it means to me. How I like to feel the strings beneath my fingers, the quiver of the string, play with the sounds. How I like to sing when I'm angry, or sad, or happy.

I haven't written said poem but I am thinking on it. I would like it to be a form poem - I like to try those - something like a villanelle or a sonnet or even a sestina, although I'm not sure about that as sestinas are rather long (they have 39 lines). I've only written one sestina in my lifetime and it was about roses, so I suppose one could get 39 lines out of music.

Or maybe I would simply write free verse, a love letter to the sounds that have been mine since I was 11 years old and first started learning to play.

It could be that this is all I write, this little blog post, which talks about five words in a song that I thought I liked but upon reflection I find I do not. It's not a bad song but other than those few words I don't find myself feeling much about it.

At any rate, I think I shall go make a little music. It's been a long morning.

Impulse Purchase

I do not often purchase on impulse or whim, but Saturday I did.

A neighbor was having a yard sale. She posted it on Facebook. Front and center was a picture of a violin.

Now I once played the violin, a very long time ago, and not very well, if I remember, but well enough for say, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or some such. She only wanted $10 for the entire thing - violin, case, etc.

I hopped in my car and went and bought it.

There was, of course, a reason it was $10. The neighbor said she never learned to play and it was taking up space. I briefly examined the instrument - it was missing a string and the bow had loads of broken hairs on it - but I paid her the $10 and brought it home.

The strings are for my guitalele, not a violin, but I think I'll put an old string on the violin when I change the strings.

The first thing I noticed was that the case smells like animal. There is a reason I seldom purchase things at yard sales; everyone has a pet. The case is not a hard shell case, so I can't wipe it off. It's Carhart-type material and I'm not sure how I could clean it to get the pet smell out. I left it out in the garage and brought the violin in the house.

I reasoned that even if it was not playable (which, it turns out, it likely isn't), I could hang it on the wall. I have a space that needs to be filled.

The violin is not old; it was made in China; the bridge is loose and that's not a good thing, and it has a fretboard. Violins - good violins - don't have fretboards.

So basically I bought something to hang on the wall, not something to play, but maybe one of these days I will find a decent violin and learn to play it. This is a full-sized violin, and I would probably prefer a smaller one (they do make them littler).

Sometimes common sense does not prevail. I have thought about sending the thing off to Goodwill (and I suppose that is where the case will end up) but why not use it as décor? It will look pretty on the wall. I already have two dulcimers hanging up.

Books and musical instruments. Two things I can't seem to say no to. Something in my genes, I guess.

Sing a Song

Volatility is the word of the day. We've had tornado watches and warnings all over, with strong storms moving through and a tornado touch down in Franklin County, only 40 minutes away. Scary stuff when you're home alone and you have no basement.

The song that comes to mind today is Weather Channel, by Sheryl Crow.



Weather Channel
By Sheryl Crow

Sunny morning
You can hear it
Siren's warning
There is weather on both sides
And I know it's coming
Just like before
There's a black dog
That scratches my door
He's been growling my name saying
You better get to running
Can you make it better for me
Can you make me see the light of day
Because I got no one
Who will bring me a
Big umbrella
So I'm watching the weather channel
And waiting for the storm
It's just sugar
Just a pill to make me happy
I know it may not fix the hinges
But at least the door has stopped it¹s creaking
I got friends
They're waiting for me to comb out my hair
Come outside and join the human race
But I don't feel so human
Can you make it better for me
Can you make me see the light of day
Because I got lab coats
Who will bring me a panacea
While I'm watching the weather channel
Waiting for the storm
You won't want me
Hanging around the birthday pony
Even though it's just a game
You know we are the same
But you¹re the better faker.

Songwriters: SHERYL CROW
© Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., RESERVOIR MEDIA MANAGEMENT INC

For non-commercial use only.

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Linking up with Kwizgiver's April Challenge. You can find the prompts here.

Thursday Thirteen - Stairway to Heaven

Since today is the day that Led Zeppelin released the album with Stairway to Heaven on it, here are some facts about that song and the band.




1. Every guitar store I've ever been in has a sign up that says, "No playing Stairway to Heaven" or some derivative thereof. (I have been known to play it anyway. Softly. Nobody's ever said anything.)

2. Led Zeppelin has sold more than 100 million records in the United States.

3. Stairway to Heaven, which is arguably the most famous rock song of all time, was never a hit on the charts because it was never released as a single to the general public. However, on Tuesday, November 13, 2007, all of Led Zeppelin's back catalogue became available for download in the UK, and the track made the singles chart for the first time.

4. Led Zepplin has received Kennedy Honors, been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and they received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (the latter in 2005).

5. Robert Plant wrote the words to the song. The song is basically about a woman who accumulates money, which she thinks will get her into heaven, but she finds out that is not the case. Plant called it, "a woman getting everything she wanted without giving anything back."

6. Plant had to defend the song in court 2016 as part of a plagiarism trial over this song. He said he wrote the song and first played it for his band at Headley Grange in Liphook Road, Headley, Hampshire. This is also where they recorded it, using a mobile studio owned by The Rolling Stones. Headley Grange was a huge, old, dusty mansion with no electricity but great acoustics. (The jury in the plagiarism trial ruled in favor of Led Zeppelin, deciding that the chord progression in dispute was common to many other songs dating back decades, and therefore, in the public domain. However, the case this year was sent back to trial on appeal.)

7. Plant wrote the lyrics in a flash of inspiration. "I was holding a pencil and paper, and for some reason I was in a very bad mood. Then all of a sudden my hand was writing out the words, 'There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold/And she's buying a stairway to heaven.' I just sat there and looked at the words and then I almost leapt out of my seat," he said.

8. After the song became famous, many people decided it was inspired by Satan, and that there were messages on the album if you played it backwards. Plant, in Musician magazine, said that Stairway To Heaven, "was written with every best intention, and as far as reversing tapes and putting messages on the end, that's not my idea of making music. It's really sad. The first time I heard it was early in the morning when I was living at home, and I heard it on a news program. I was absolutely drained all day. I walked around, and I couldn't actually believe, I couldn't take people seriously who could come up with sketches like that. There are a lot of people who are making money there, and if that's the way they need to do it, then do it without my lyrics. I cherish them far too much."

9. The song is 8:03 minutes long. It is still thought to be the most-played song on American FM radio.

10. It has sold more sheet music than any other rock song, selling about 1 million copies total. About 10,000 to 15,000 copies of the sheet music are still sold each year.

11. This was the only song whose lyrics were printed on the inner sleeve of the album at its initial release.

12. There is no bass guitar in this song. Instead, it has a string section, keyboards, and flutes. There are also wooden recorders used in the intro.

13. There are no drums in this song until 4:18 minutes into the music.

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Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while and this is my 577th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

My Little Guitalele

A while back on a whim I purchased a soprano ukulele. It was overpriced and it wouldn't stay in tune and it took me all of like an hour to figure out how to play it.

Basically a ukulele is the first four strings of a guitar at the 5th fret. So you're using the same chord configurations for a guitar if you had a capo at the 5th fret and were only using the first four strings. Easy peasy, except for trying to remember that G is really C and so on.

I told my husband that if I were still fiddling with the ukulele in a month, I would buy a better instrument.

The month came and I started looking around for a better ukulele. During my search, I discovered that there is a six-string instrument called a guitalele. It's basically a guitar except tuned at, again, the 5th fret. So your strings are running A to A instead of E to E.

Only one local store had a guitalele listed in its inventory, and when I called it actually wasn't there, so I couldn't see if I would really like one. I listened to several different brands online and decided the one that sounded the best to me was a Gretch (G9126) guitalele. You can here what I heard at this link.

Anyway, I ordered one.

Here is my little Gretch guitalele with my Taylor GS Mini guitar. The guitar is smaller than a parlor-sized guitar, so the guitalele is much smaller than a big ol' dreadnaught guitar or even a regular parlor-sized guitar.

These call these guitaleles "travel guitars" because they are so small that they can be stowed away very easily. Great for taking on vacation, for example.

The Gretch guitalele has a flat fretboard, much like the fretboard on my Takamine classical guitar. Since I play alone and not with anyone, I haven't had to worry about transposing and I simply pick it up and play it like a guitar. The only issue is my singing - I generally sing in D or A which means if I play in D or A then I'm not in the right key; I need to drop D back to A and A up C or something like that.

The overpriced ukulele, meanwhile, is scheduled to become a wall decoration.

Music Shuffle

Put your music player on shuffle and write the first three songs that play and what your initial thoughts are.

1. Talking to My Angel, by Melissa Etheridge
      (Don't be afraid. Close your eyes. Lay it all down. Don't you cry. Can't you see I'm going where I can see the sun rise? I've been talking to my angel, and he said that it's alright.)

2. Into the Dark, by Melissa Etheridge
       (There were stairs they were steep/I was falling falling deep/You were there you were small/
There was screaming down the hall/I've been here sleeping all these years/There comes a time we all know/There's a place that we must go/Into the soul into the heart/Into the dark.)

3. Home, by Sheryl Crow (The video for this song is incredible.)
      (I woke up this morning/And now I understand/What it means to give your love/To just one man/
Afraid of feeling nothing/No bees or butterflies/My head is full of voices/And my house is full of lies/[Chorus] This is home, home/And this is home, home/This is home.)

My initial thought was this should be a pretty plain list, because I only have a couple of albums on my cellphone, and what I have are by only three artists - Melissa Etheridge, Sheryl Crow, and Fleetwood Mac.

Upon listening to the first two songs, I'm struck by how the lyrics of the songs reflect my life and how I feel about a lot of things. Into the soul, into the heart, into the dark - places we must go. Introspection and inner growth, something I think many people do not do enough of. So many people reach a certain point and simply stop thinking their own thoughts and instead parrot the news or their preacher or whomever. I value originality, but the world doesn't, does it? It doesn't seem to.

And then there's Sheryl Crow's Home, which is full of incredible longing and a song with a video that maybe Democrats should watch. They might understand why Mr. Trump won the 2016 election if they look closely. The video was made in 1996, I think. Not much has changed.

These are rather melancholy songs, full of longing and loneliness. These are the songs I listen to when I'm feeling sad and contemplative. They aren't dance tunes, they're thinking tunes.

I think I do a lot of thinking. Maybe even a little too much.

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Linking up with the April challenge from Kwizgiver. April 20 done!

Thursday Thirteen

Last Friday I went to hear a famous guitar player. He was telling jokes, and I immediately thought, "There's my Thursday 13 topic!"

So here are 13 jokes for musicians.

1. Q: How do you get a guitar player to play softer?
   A: Give him a sheet of music.

2. Q: What does a guitarist say when he gets to his gig?
   A: Would you like fries with that?

3. Q: What is the difference between a guitarist and a Savings Bond?
   A: Eventually a Savings Bond will mature and earn money!

4. Q: What is the difference between a guitar and a tuna fish?
   A: You can tune a guitar but you can't tuna fish.

5. Q: What do you get when you drop a piano down a mine shaft?
   A: A flat minor.

6. Q: What do you get if you run over an army officer with a steam roller?
   A: A flat major.

7. A note left for a pianist from his wife: Gone Chopin, (have Liszt), Bach in a Minuet.

8. Q: What is the difference between a banjo and an anchor?
   A: You tie a rope to an anchor before you throw it overboard.

9. Q: Why do so many fishermen own banjos?
   A: They make great anchors!

10. Q: What is the difference between a banjo and a South American Macaw?
     A: One is loud, obnoxious and noisy; the other is a bird.

11. Q: What do you say to the banjo player in the three piece suit?
     A: Will the defendant please rise.

12. Q. What's the difference between a bagpipe and an onion?
     A. No one cries when you chop up an bagpipe.

13. Q. What's the difference between a bagpipe and a trampoline?
     A. You take off your shoes when you jump on a trampoline.
________

Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while and this is my 491st time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

Tommy Emannuel at The Harvester

Friday night my husband and I went to see Tommy Emmanuel perform at The Harvester Performance Center in Rocky Mount. He is a guitar player.

The Harvester

The Harvester Performed Center is about an hour and 15 minute drive for us if the traffic is light. This was the first time we had been to a show there. The Harvester seats 460 people - Tommy Emmanuel had a sold-out show. Some performances offer "gold seats," which basically means you get to sit anywhere you want in the first 10 rows. We had those and it was worth the extra money.

The chairs are very comfortable; however, the sides are not slanted toward the stage and the best seats therefore are in the middle of the venue. There are only a few poles to block views and the aisles were comfortably wide.

You can buy beer and wine inside ("adult beverages"), along with bottled water and a few things to eat. There was some kind of food truck parked outside for the early arrivals.

Parking, however, is not readily available and I saw no handicapped parking spots whatsoever. We found something close because we arrived at 6:20 and the doors opened at 7:00 p.m.; even then, there was already a line at the door. Most of the parking is on-street or perhaps a bank parking lot; there is a note on the venue's website that notes a few places will have your car towed if you park there.

The sound was great; the acoustics were good even though we were sitting to one side of the stage.

The Harvester stage prior to the show.

Tommy Emmanuel

I have been watching youtube videos of this guy for a while now. He is a fingerstyle guitarist who bills himself as a one-man band. He beats on his guitar for the drums, place the base notes on the upper two strings with his thumb, and managed to do the rhythm and melody lines all at the same time.

I have never seen anyone play guitar like he does. Here is a video of his version of Classical Gas, which seems to be his signature song. The crowd broke into applause and cheers as soon as he started it.




Emmanuel has been a soloist for a long time, but in the 1970s and 80s, he was a "sessions" guitarist (played on records of multiple bands/singers) and he toured at one time with Tina Turner.

Because I am still on the media/release lists, I had earlier received a press release request from Mr. Emmanuel's publicist. She sent me these stats:

•         He is arguably the greatest living acoustic guitarist. Known for his unique fingerstyle playing, he frequently threads three different parts simultaneously into his material, operating as a one-man band who handles the  melody, the supporting chords and the bass all at once.

•         Has been nominated for two GRAMMY Awards, and two ARIA Awards from the Australian Recording Industry Association

•         One of only 5 guitarists in the world who was named a Certified Guitar Player by guitar legend Chet Atkins

•         Has averaged over 300 shows per year all over the world, including sold out shows in North America, Australia, Europe, South America, and Asia, including recent tours in Russia and China 

•         Voted “Favorite Acoustic Guitarist” in both Guitar Player Magazine and Acoustic Guitar Magazine reader polls

•         YouTube channel has over 31,000,000 views and 192,000+ subscribers      

We were not supposed to take photos but I had my Nikon Coolpix 3200S with me. (I have never been very good at following the rules, I'm afraid.) I hid the lighting from the back viewer on the camera with a piece of paper so I am lucky I managed to get any pictures at all, since I was basically guessing at the shot since I couldn't see what I was aiming at, but I did take a few that turned out OK.

Getting ready to head into Classical Gas (I think).

Doing a little singing. He also told jokes.

The only quibble I had with the show was near the end, when he took out a drum brush and was showing how he used the microphone and guitar as percussion instruments. During this time, the lighting switched off and on to each beat, and I knew as soon as he began to speed up that this was not something I could watch. Lighting like that sets off migraines (and epileptic seizures in some people) so I shut my eyes and eventually had to take off my glasses and cover them completely with my hands because I could still see the lights going off and on through my closed eyelids. It is frustrating to run into things like this because people either are not aware of sensitivities like that or don't care. I was glad I realized what was happening before I ended up with a major headache.

He played for about two hours, doing a wide range of songs, including the first time I'd ever heard The Entertainer by Scott Joplin played on guitar instead of piano. Many of the tunes were his own arrangements.


Joe Robinson

Joe Robinson is a young man that Tommy Emmanuel is mentoring. He opened the show. 

Here's a video of him playing and singing:



He was an excellent guitar player, too, though I had a hard time understanding the words to his songs. I don't know if that was because of where I was sitting or because I have slow southern ears.

He liked to do tricks, like play two guitars at a time:

Joe Robinson playing acoustic and electric guitars
simultaneously.
 

He could lose the hat, I think.

All in all, an enjoyable evening. Will I ever play like that? I doubt it. I'm 53 years old and have let too much time slip through my fingers, literally. But maybe I can get a little better . . . if I practice.

More Martin Guitars

If you want to hear current owner Chris Martin give a tour of the Martin Museum and offer an explanation of how Martin Guitars came to be, check out this link, which has a video tour in numerous parts. If you have any interest in learning about guitar history, this is an interesting video series.

Wednesday, September 28, 2016, we visited the Martin Museum, located at the factory, after we toured the factory. With the guitars behind glass, it was difficult to obtain decent pictures.

Many well-known people have played Martin guitars, including Joan Baez, Eric Clapton, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson, Kurt Cobain, Gene Autry, Sting, Paul Simon, Jimmy Buffet, Jimmy Page, Tom Petty - the list goes on. Most well-known musicians apparently own or owned a Martin guitar.

A wall of musicians who have or have played Martin guitars.

 

Some newer guitars.

 


I think this was the 500,000 Martin guitar but I am not sure. If so, it was built in 1990.

 


Older guitars looked like this. Not much
different than what you see today, eh?

 


A story of how Martin came to Nazareth, PA.

 

Being a female guitar player,
I found this content eye-opening.
Apparently guitars were originally
 a woman's instrument. By the time
 I was a teenager, guitars were considered
 men's instruments. I do not know what
 changed, but I suspect the introduction
 of the heavier electric guitar played
 a role in changing guitar from a female
 to a male instrument. Additionally, this says
 that Martin expanded his markets to take
 in the rail lines so that his product
 went west. My guess is its portability
 led it to become the instrument of
 choice among rail road builders
 and others who traveled to the other
 side of the United States.

 

More guitars owned by famous people.

 

This is the one millionth guitar,
produced in 2004. It took three years
 to build. Its value is $1 million.

 

This is the front of the guitar.

To see better photos of the one millionth guitar, check this link for the back and this link for the front. 

More guitars played by famous people.

 

This was Andy Griffith's guitar.

I would guess the company should be coming up on its 1,500,000 guitar soon, if it hasn't already surpassed that.

Guitars are lovely to look at, and beautiful to play. Music is a wonderful hobby and it's worth playing if only for yourself. Don't ever let anyone tell you that picking up a guitar is a waste of time. Do it for yourself. After all, it's your life. Make it sing.