Sunday, October 10, 2010

Jam sessions

It's been a long time since I've had anybody with whom to "pick and grin".  It's really fun to sit down with a group of folks playing assorted instruments and strum along if you feel like doing so, or just sit back and listen if your fingers get sore.  My singing and playing, these days, is a solitary activity.
One of my readers long ago alerted me to a blog called "The Blind Pig and the Acorn".  Each time I visit there, I'm greeted with the kind of singing that used to take place in our kitchen on Saturday nights.
I don't know why it never occurred to me before.  All I have to do is tune my guitar, turn up the sound, and pick and sing along with these folks!
I love my guitar, by the way.  I'm pretty sure Martin guitars are known as the best in the world, but I chose the Gibson Dove because it's pretty.  If I were a millionaire, I'd also have a Gibson Hummingbird.  Because it's pretty, too.  Good guitars keep their tune well, and their tone makes a three-chord-song hillbilly like me sound a little better.  I notice one of the guys on Blind Pig's Youtube channel plays a Dove like mine.  
These folks have given me someone to pick and grin with, and I'm loving it.    
My sister winters in Mission, Texas, in a park geared toward retired senior citizens.  There are scores of parks like hers within a ten-mile radius of where she stays.  Every park has a jam session once a week, some in afternoon and some in the evening.  Anyone who plays an instrument is welcome to join in; if you'd like to sing a song, you get a turn at singing.  Maxine says that if a person wanted to, she could go to at least one jam session every day.  Last time I was there, we went to two different locations and watched; a lot of the same people performed at both of them.  
It would be so much fun to join in those sessions.  
But since I'm not a winter Texan, I'll be singing with my Internet musician friends on Youtube.

4 comments:

  1. It's been awhile since you mentioned playing your guitar. I remember when you'd go out to your cabin and sit by the fire and play. I get together with friends once a month and play dulcimer with them. It's always a lot of fun. Alone or together I know playing an instrument brings hours of pleasure.

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  2. I'm so glad you're picking along with us : ) And you're lucky to have a Gibson Dove. The one Paul plays-was Pap's. Pap bought it back in the early 60's I think. Somewhere along the way-he and Paul switched guitars-so Paul now plays the dove.

    Thanks for the shout out!

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  3. Lindie11:00 PM

    I have a dear Texas friend who used to sing with her band all over Texas. I am visiiting her during the Thanksgiving weekend and we're going down to the coast.Hope I can find a jam session near by so I can hear her sing!

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  4. Thank you for posting that link! I saved them to my reader. It sounds like what I used to hear in our kitchen when I was growing up and then later got to participate in. Seriously, if I closed my eyes, I could imagine I was hearing my uncles.

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