Stave Magazine: Editor's Desk

Celebrate who you are

Posted on February 27, 2010 with 7 comments

Celebrate who you are

Tell me a musical biography of yourself. We all come from some musical heritage that makes us the musician or fan that we are today. Sometimes it's about rushing away from something we felt was oppressive only to find that, indeed, we are good at what we do as musicians because of that very thing. I'll give you an example.

My friend Stacy is a product of the Church of Christ where musical accompaniment is not allowed. No guitars or pianos lead the hymns. It is strictly voice.
"Well, that's no fun," many say.
Stacy is a good guitar player today.
She is open and accepting. She isn't preaching the exclusivity of entry into "heaven." She's not a church goer.
But let me tell what she couldn't shake from her musical past.
Harmonies.
You need a good harmonizer or someone to score vocal parts for you?
Stacy's your girl.
Part of my family are also Church of Christ. We have Preachers in my family!!
We don't go to their churches. My immediate family doesn't believe that way, so we don't go there except for funerals, and my mother - in her slyly irreverent way - will tell you that she always looks forward to the singing at one of those funerals.
"The harmonies are amazing," she says.

My personal musical heritage is, of course, the bread and butter of South Texas 1960's & 1970's style.
Country.
My first live music memory is sitting on the courthouse lawn, in Edna, Texas, waiting excitedly for Faron Young to headline the street dance at Texana Days. Unfortunately he never made it out of the performer's trailer before I had to go home and go to bed. All I knew was the famous man who told me to "Take a powder! A BC Powder!" on t.v. was gonna sing so that I could dance with my six year old suitor, Allen Berryhill. I didn't really understand my mother's explanation of why Faron Young wouldn't play before my bedtime because I didn't know who Candybar was. I didn't even know about John F. Kennedy or Jack Ruby! So all of that was of no importance to me. I just wanted to see a famous Country singer.

Worn out Johnny Cash and Tammy Wynette albums follow me around today. I still have those childhood records, and I occasionally play the tracks that my sister and I didn't completely destroy from slamming the needle down for the millionth time.

My aunt was younger and hipper (as if my 26 year old mother wasn't young...), and she had Sgt. Pepper and Simon and Garfunkel. So mix that all up and I have a musical heritage I absolutely cannot break. It doesn't matter that jazz, new wave, rock, classical, alternative played huge roles in my young adulthood. It's my childhood influences that mold me as a songwriter. It's the place I always go back to. I can't harmonize like Stacy, but I can play a country rhythm guitar and do a vocal slide into tune as good as any Country queen without even thinking about it.

After years of denial and a permanent inability to actually listen to country radio, I no longer try to deny where my musical influence comes from.
I celebrate it.

How about you?
Leave me your story in the comments section. I can't wait to meet your six year old self.

Scott Stahlecker

April 3, 2010

I was listening to a radio program that spoke about a woman (forgot her name) who was killed by her brothers because she was a singer. This was in Taliban controlled Afghanistan. Imagine that . . . Later the show had interviews with other Afghanistan tribes people who were traveling as far as Pakistan to hear and dance to live music. They interviewed one man, who spoke proudly of his training as a Taliban, who secretly attended live musical concerts. Can music save the world?

Ann Klein

March 2, 2010

I had two brothers who were 7 and 10 years older than I was. So, I listened to what they were listening to: Beatles, crosby stills, nash and young, steely dan (oh boy, i loved can't buy a thrill). I also listened to what my mom listened to: Harry Belafonte (LOVED HIM) and she liked my brothers' records too. So it was pretty diverse. one of my brothers was into Pure Prairie Leage and Little Feat. There was one record he had that was called "The In Sound From Way Out". Electronica! This was one of my faves. I highly recommend it, it's so much fun.

So there was a lot of diverse stuff spinning, plus what was on the radio. I think what they all had in common was good pop composition. Good hooks, clever changes, good lyrics. And I think this is deeply rooted in how I perceive music both as a listener and a writer.

i think what I always go back to is "form". I play guitar but I get bored with really long guitar solos. I like playing them, but that's a different thing! I like really well composed solos, like Pete Anderson's stuff on Dwight Yoakum's songs. And again, I think that's just a reflection of growing up liking great pop tunes.

I have a few vivid memories of listening to music as a kid/teenager. I loved the song "I'm Your Venus" by Shocking Blue. I was driving up to Canada with my father, and that song came on the radio seven times because i kept changing the station to find it again and again when it ended. I think the seventh time, we started losing the signal and i was desperately trying to get it back, i just had to keep hearing that song!

Another time was lying in bed i think in the morning and hearing Mockingbird by James Taylor and Carly Simon and just LOVING it. It was a "SNOW DAY". We had those back then! I loved listening to the radio. And as a 16 year old, driving on the FDR and hearing "Roxanne" by the Police on the radio and thinking "WHO WAS THAT?".

fun thread Christy!

Jean Synodinos

February 28, 2010

Mom loved musical soundtracks, and I loved to sing along to them (e.g., Sound of Music). She also used to find these odd 45's of kids songs, several of which were theme songs to shows we watched. My favorite was the theme to "Astro Boy"; my sister preferred "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt."

All the while, my father was listening to Ian & Sylvia and serious folk music. I don't believe he could stand to be in the same room w/ us when we sang our ditties.

And I suppose this prompted him to come home one day with a gift for me -- my first LP, Meet the Beatles. "Here," he said. "Listen to this--I think these guys are gonna be big."

I was in kindergarden, and that savvy guy knew it would be a life-changing experience. With one listen, I became a teen waaaaaaaay too early. I started singing w/ a hairbrush as a mic in front of the mirror. I started playing air guitar. I started to hear harmony.

I also started drawing hearts on pictures of John & Paul and horns on Ringo. And listening to the Monkees and crushing out on Davy, too.

My dad not only started my LP collection, he started me on guitar lessons. The 8th birthday present was my first guitar, along with lessons, every Tuesday night, downtown Lancaster, PA.

This was a really big bonding thing for us. I wasn't crazy about the lessons themselves. My teacher, Mr. Goff, smoked like a chimney inside this little practice room in the back of a music store. I was rarely prepared, and he was frequently frustrated.

As much as I really didn't like lessons and showed very little progress, I loved the ride into town w/ my dad, listening to the radio together. And I loved that each lesson ended with my favorite ice cream sundae--chocolate marshmallow peanut--at a local diner. I have no idea what we talked about week after week. I really can't remember. But I can tell you that these are my favorite memories of being with my dad.

lawrence j. clark

February 28, 2010

When I was six, I remember standing on my bed with a rolled up pair of socks as a microphone, singing to the top of my lungs to a 45 rpm copy of The Archie's "Sugar, Sugar," which my mom had cut out off the back of a box of cereal. Whoo-hoo! :)

Indy Fan

February 27, 2010

It's really interesting to hear about people's musical experiences in different regions of the country. This is a good thread.

My musical experiences growing up in the northern part of the country were very different from what those of you living in the South experienced. Like the South, Country was and remains the dominant musical genre (except in my household). We had our dance halls, too, but most of the performers at these shows were cover and Country bands. It was less about the music and more about the partying. The quality of the music was nothing like it is in your part of the country. Good music just oozes in the South, it seems. You're all very lucky down there.

When I was really little, my dad made us watch Lawrence Welk e v e r y Sunday night. His father was in a Jazz band and his grandfather was a violin player and had an orchestra that played at the silent movies downtown. I'm sure that's where Lawrence came from. I appreciate that form of music (Big Band) much more today than I did when I was little. On Saturday mornings, of course, it was all Soul Train. (Nice combination-my parent's marriage was doomed from the beginning! lol) Polka was also part of the musical culture in our area. My uncle and his father had a Polka band for years. Polka is all about dancing and having fun. The music is very upbeat, so we loved attending their shows. Almost every wedding reception I can remember had a Polka band. The last Polka radio station died out here not too long back.

Your CD reviews are great, Christy. I really enjoyed Leah Smith. Right up my alley. I always know where to find great music out here.

Finally, a FB comment:

Specialty communities, like Stave, are so much better to frequent and support then Facebook. When these type communities get too big and commercial they just become one big mess. Example, I played one of those little applications on FB and ended up receiving unsolicited text msgs and cell phone charges. I had a heck of a time getting to the source to get rid of it. Here at Stave you can build a community with similar interests without the extra hastles.

Glad to see to see Stave growing. Keep up the great work, Christy.

Do you guys know of any good places online to find good new Indy music these days???

Sheryl Cox

February 27, 2010

When I was in middle school, my favorite song was "Downtown" by Petula Clark. I remember a time when I was already in bed (8pm--do kids do that now???) and the song came on--my mom opened my door and turned the radio up so I could hear it. That's one of my favorite memories...

GLYNACE

February 27, 2010

From GLYNACE:
I grew up in Louisiana listening to Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Red Foley, Rosemary Clooney, Frank Sinatra, Frankie Lane, Frankie Carl, and the Glenn Miller Band (he'd been gone for YEARS, but they still played his big band music!) on the radio in Mama's kitchen.
I loved to sing so much that Mama put me in the "Cherub Choir" at the First Presbyterian Church in Baton Rouge starting when I was only three, and there I learned to love harmonizing.
My Aunt Pat and her friends would take me out to their dorm at LSU, and they'd play the UKELELE, sing, and harmonize to "Let the Rest of the World Go By," "Blue Moon," and "My Blue Heaven!"
Weekends I spent in North Baton Rouge where I watched (somewhat unwillingly) The Liberacce Show with Lee and his flamboyant ways, costumes, and wonderful music that was so much better if I closed my eyes and just listened! The first time I saw ELVIS dressed up in one of those sparkly costumes, I thought of Liberacce!
My grandmother Mama Pearl played guitar and piano-by-ear and had a neck rack for her harmonica so she could play that while she played the piano! I'd sit beside her on the bench, swinging my legs in time to the music on Saturday afternoons while she played; and we sang at least half the songs in her Methodist Hymnal!
My Mama knew the tune to every nursery rhyme in existence, and when those ran out, she'd sing songs from the radio while she washed dishes and I dried, standing on a chair and dressed up in one of her starched white aprons.
EVERY night when my Daddy came home from work, he would grab my Mama in the kitchen, and they would dance to his singing Hank Williams' "Hey, Good Lookin'" while Mama squealed with delight.
My Daddy's voice was just like Eddy Arnold's and I KNEW it! He was a WWII Veteran, and he used to tell me about how he and his buddies would sing at night before going to sleep when he was stationed in England during the War. He didn't play an instrument, but he LOVED to see and hear ANYONE play piano, and he wanted to play. If he were alive today, I would pay for him to take piano lessons. (He would only be 89.)The only time I ever saw him cry was the day Patsy Cline died.
In the 60's my friends and I knew every word to every Motown song and every rock-n-roll song and every song from the American Musicals, because all we could do in the blazing or sultry hot Louisiana afternoons was stay indoors and sit on the floor in front of an oscillating fan and play Canasta or Rummy and listen to music on the stereo or the radio! It was too hot to move around outside!
Louisiana's heart, like the heart of Texas, throbs to the underlying beat of it's music; and nowadays, every time I hear a young band like "Band of Heathens" strike up one of those "swamp rock" numbers, my own heart jumps right in! I can't HELP but LOVE it!
Every huge event in my life has a musical milestone--the Christmas my 3-month-old baby sister died from a nurse's mistake in the hospital was the Christmas the Harry Simeon Chorale published "Little Drummer Boy"--lots of emotion attached to THAT every time I hear it,
Still, MUSIC is to me synonymous with "pure joy," and that's where all the original songs on my "SUGARBABY" cd all came from---a heart filled with a lifelong love of music!! GLYNACE (Eastham)