Friday, January 13, 2012

Musicians


I might not ever take another picture in my life. I might just steal all of my images from Hank's blog.

Good morning!

So this morning I was lazing in the bed because I woke up earlier than I had to get up and I was going over my dreams, you know, and I realized that I dream about musicians A LOT! Mostly ones I know in my real, waking life. I have always been attracted to musicians. This is the truth. My first real boyfriend played bass. The kind that stands upright. The boy I moved to Tallahassee for played violin. My first roommate in Tallahassee whom I adored was a classical pianist. She still is. I married a guitar player. Lon and Lis are musicians. One of the first people I met in Tallahassee and a guy I am still friends with is a musician.
And there is no real pattern here. Classical musicians. Rock and roll musicians. Blue-grass, folk music musicians.

And me? I can't play a lick of nutthin'.

My parents weren't musicians although supposedly my old dead, drunk daddy played guitar. I have no memory of this. I hear that my mother gave him a sweet little Martin guitar as a wedding present but he eventually pawned it. I do remember his father playing piano and singing. He was a merry little old soul and generally in his cups. He was an attorney and must have been smart- he went to Harvard and Yale and he clerked for Oliver Wendell Holmes. He may have been a drunk, but he sure was a functional one. I think in his heart, he truly wanted to be a musician but that just would not have done. When he was at Yale, he and Cole Porter collaborated in the composition of songs for college shows. According to my granddaddy's obituary, anyway. And so Granddaddy grew up and joined his father's law firm and worked hard and played piano when he could.

So maybe he had something to do with my love of music. I have no idea. And maybe it's not even music that I love so much as it is the people who play it. And I'm in awe of them, mostly. To me, people who can make music whether with instruments of wood or string or their own voices are creating magic. When I go to hear Lis play, I feel shy around her during her breaks. As if by the very fact of her being able to do what she does onstage makes her a different person than the one I am so very blessed to be such good friends with.

It makes my heart incredibly happy that Jessie can play music and it is a wonder to me at the same time. When she decided to go to nursing school, bad mommy that I am, I asked her- "Are you sure? Are you sure you don't want to be a musician?"

Ah-lah.

Or, perhaps Tra-la, as the case may be.

Okay. This day is slipping away from me and I have things to do and here I am, musing on musicians with no point whatsoever except that I have always loved them and the way they dress and live their lives in service to music and HAVE to play it, no matter what and how grateful I am for that.

They are part of the reason I love humanity on the days I do love humanity which is not all of them, but on the days when I don't, the music they play helps me get through it all.

Damn. I wish I knew Keith Richards.

Happy Friday, y'all.

Love...Ms. Moon

5 comments:

  1. I've always thought I would rather be able to sing beautifully more than anything else in the world. More than being pretty, rich, skinny, or anything.

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  2. I love musicians, the music they play, and the uniquenss that surronds them.

    Music fills my life from all directions and I love it. Starting with my parents who spent a lot of time picking out my name, which means the patron saint of music.

    Thanks for sharing, I enjoyed the post.

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  3. I understand that feeling that when someone makes beautiful music they are elevated up and away from so many of us who don't have that great talent.

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  4. If there were a Make-A-Wish Foundation for middle-aged women who've done a fine job raising four children and are currently helping with a grandchild as well as acting and raising chickens and cooking really, really good good, you could apply to have that wish come true. Keith would come through your front gate and onto your porch and sit a spell, maybe play some music, laugh a lot, eat your good food -- heck, I don't know.

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  5. Rubye Jack- I have had that same thought. Yes.

    Simply Me- Musicians are angels. Sometimes they are pretty funky angels but still...

    Syd- You NAILED IT, boy. Exactly.

    Elizabeth- Oh god. I love you for that comment. And for everything else. (Maybe he'd flirt with me. Wouldn't that be fun?)

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.