PLANTING A MUSICAL SEED

When I was in my late 40s and other people my age were going through their midlife crises and buying little convertible sports cars, I bought a banjo.

I come from a very musical family, but I hadn’t played much. When my relatives started playing bluegrass music on their instruments of choice, I started filling in with my new banjo. After losing a loved one and becoming a single mom, this new adventure helped me get through some tough times.

One night I decided to venture out on my own and went to a nearby bluegrass venue. I ran into an acquaintance who played guitar. We exchanged phone numbers and agreed to let each other know about upcoming musical events. Then one evening, he called me and asked me out to dinner. Our musical interests drew us together, and we became inseparable. A year later we were married.

During our courtship, my husband introduced me to some folks in the northeast Georgia mountains who played “oldtime” music. Different from what we think of bluegrass, this music struck a familiar tone that carried me back to my childhood. Some of the tunes I heard were the same my grandfather would play on his fiddle when I was a child. I didn’t pay much attention to his music growing up. It was just what my grandfather did after a hard day’s work on his farm in rural Michigan. By age 50, just a few years after buying my first banjo, I had fallen in love again—this time with a musical style that went back generations.

“Old-time” music largely consisted of tunes from early Irish and Scottish settlers migrating into the Appalachian Mountains. Today in many mountain communities you can hear a guitar, fiddle, clawhammer banjo and an upright bass carrying on the tradition in the form of an old-time string band.

When my grandfather died, his fiddle was by his side. He had the same passion for making music that I now do. Apparently he planted that seed in me. It flourished, and today I play oldtime music in various groups. But the one thing I wish I could do most is pick up my banjo, with my grandfather at my side, and play a little tune with him. Maybe one day.