15 Bytes Celebrates Music

Thanks to my parents, I grew up exposed to the joys of a variety of styles of music.  From my mother, I was exposed to the classics and the desire to play the piano. My father? Well, I would have to say that his was the biggest influence on my appreciation of different genres of music as well as some knowledge in its history.
Music has that magic ability to open up a flood of memories to each of us. For myself, those memories go all the way back to my earliest years. I can recall listening in the morning to the sounds of Peter, Paul and Mary as well as Ray Charles and Louis Armstrong. In the evening, one would find us all in the family room playing the various instruments that sat on the bookshelves while Trini Lopez and others would play different styles of salsa on the real cool stereo (the speaker came away to be placed across the room).  But mostly, I remember the weekends and the sounds of the Big Bands. Images of my father in the kitchen making deep-fried doughnuts (with our help) was accompanied by Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Duke Ellington or Ella Fitzgerald.
My mom taught piano and so all us kids sat through summers in front of the keyboards banging out the wonderful tunes from those learning books. Music was quite important in our home and on my eighth birthday I got my first guitar. The piano wasn't as important all of the sudden!
My first electric guitar came when I was twelve. A little drugstore combo with amplifier. I remember pestering my folks for months for the $30 set at Greenwood's Pharmacy until I got it. A Fender Jazzmaster came when I turned 14 and the rest is the usual teenage rock and roll story. I include this tidbit of history only because it was my father who helped my desires along. In fact 4 of us 5 kids received guitars of one kind or another during our teens.
I still spend many Sunday mornings listening to my dad's music reminiscing in the love of music he and my mom taught me to have. Today, my tastes are as diverse as they could be. About the only types of music you won't find on my shelf are country and opera.  Thanks mom and dad.

So the years have gone by and the only constant I've been able to keep in my life is the comfort the music gives me. My guitar playing has deteriorated in unison with my body ~ but I can still be found hacking away on my guitars (the Jazzmaster is still active and the Gibson Paul sounds oh so sweet and the poetic tones that grow from the Martin acoustic can make my hair stand on end).

The power of music is overwhelming. Take a moment and think of a time and place. Whenever and wherever it is, the friends and principle players might be a bit fuzzy to your memory, but within seconds a song will fill your brain I bet. And with the song comes a flood of emotions you've perhaps have had locked away for years. At that instant, the event comes back to you as if it happened only yesterday.

Of all the drugs I've played with during my life, there has never been anything as exciting, seductive, soothing or even as hallucinogenic as music. Without the fear of a "bad experience", music can take you anywhere your mind and heart desire. It is something to be enjoyed as recreation or counted on as medicine for your soul.

I think I've made my point here.

And how 'bout some links to some of my all-time favorite artists
and favorite music sites.