I was born at home, Janurary 6-1952, in Greenville South Carolina, (the first of four children, three of whom are here before you now) and within the hour, I was introduced to my father's rendition of "Wildwood Flower" which he played on a then old, D18 Martin guitar. It's a sound that still rings in my ears today, as well as the sounds of a new Elvis, Hank Williams, Chet Atkins and Merl Travis, which dad studied with a great intensity, still does.
My first guitar was a flat top which was tuned to E cross tuning, I used a pocket knife to chord with because my fingers were too small. Then as I grew, dad taught me to tune and re-tune between E cross and E standard as we would pass the guitars back and forth. The guitars? D18 Martin, Gibson ES350T, 1954 Fender Stratocaster. He also built a solid body eletric guitar for me, pickups, hardware and amp. The amp which I used for almost 20 years was modified to accept an old Macintosh MC30 tube amp. Many years later on a soundcheck before opening a concert, a stage hand for "Foreigner"and "Cheap Trick" exclaimed "MAC TUBES!!!"
The pocket knife gradually gave way to a slide bar.
Dad made a 4 string bass out of an old junker six string electric guitar and taught me to play some standards. A player and friend, the late "Pee Wee" Melton loaned dad a Fender "P" bass which was taller than I was, but it was beautiful and it inspired me to try hard. Dad and I played jobs together and hung out at a friend's local AM radio station, where I observed recordings sessions and other broadcast stuff and then came....
"The Beatles".... the world stopped when those records played and it still does. It was as if every guiter playing lad in the whole world shouted in one collective voice, "I CAN DO THAT", well maybe."My Little Girl" started with an accidental blow to the head, while I was working alone in a very dark, dusty, hot, place. I lay on my back dressed in sub 0 clothing for protection, wondering if I was loosing consciousness. Soaked with sweat, the side of my head throbbing, ears ringing, no one to help and not sure if I should move, I was able to hold on, by trying to visualize the simple joys of life, like the attending of graduations and weddings of my two daughters. For a while I thought I was to suffer the humiliation of having to speak these words it to the growing darkness, that it was all slipping away for ever. A strong thunder storm going on outside set the mood and the song came pouring out along with a lot of tears. There is a verse and chours for each daughter in turn. The lead guitar plays the charactor role of my little girl's tiny voice, breaking through my solitude like the clear ringing of a silver picolo trumpet. The song has posesed me and so it has become my mission to try and re-earn their failing love for their guitar playing father who didn't have much time for them. One of the two has allowed me to be part of her life, the other has not, but both are strong, so perhaps this song has served a noble purpose. I did get to see a wedding and a graduation, and now there are grandchildren, so I am blessed well beyond my deserving. :-)
"By Your Side" is a song I heard in a dream, a simple, innocent, positive message betrayed by the guitars with a bittersweet irony of love unfulfilled. I was awakened by the sound of angels singing in my ears."Home Fires Burning" has a double life, one as it is now and another with lyrics. Based on a story of my grandmother who, during WWII, was compelled to get up in the early darkness, build fire in a wood stove and start cooking for her oldest son whom she hoped would be coming home from the war. He'd been walking through the night on railroad tracks leading through the Piedmond reigon of SC. to an old shack called "home". I wonder if the angels sang to her that morning, I'll bet it was a song filled the wail and rhythm of a locomotive. ". Opening lyric; "Things are different since you went away, I only think about you once a day"....(-; A work in progress.
More later
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