That was cool, Sir Henry!!!
Thanks for that! We may have a new anthem here...... I really like a good story sung well. John Prine kinda comes to mind.....
I hope it's okay to spin a bit of a story about Western music, Western Swing in particular........
I began taking guitar lessons from a man in 1967 at a place in Tulsa, OK called "The Guitar House". Still in the same place last I visited a few years ago. This man taught me basic open chords, and how to play the "popular songs" us 11 yr. old kids listened to-The Beatles, The Monkees, & etc.. At that time, and as I progressed a bit more on the guitar, I personally got into Hendrix and others similar, but especially the Blues. Johnny Winter, BB King, (all the 3 Kings, really) as I got to be 13-14 yrs. old. My primary interest was in the Blues, but I liked and recognized good guitar work, no matter what style.
Now, I was essentially "forced" (not too hard though) into liking Country & Western Music, being from Oklahoma, having parents that liked the genre (my Mom however, had a thing about Buddy Holly; some of his original vinyl albums are still in the family), and living about 2 miles from some AM radio broadcast towers in east Tulsa, KVOO. When you drove a car by there, you listened to a very static filled country song of some sort, regardless of what station you
had been listening to. You just rolled with it for a mile or two.
And a lot of it happened to have some "good guitar work".
As I got older and played with other folks in small-time bands, and played worship music at church, my tastes in music went all over the charts, one interest of which was Western Swing. I noticed that kinda music kept people on the dance floors, and kept many musicians employed playing that style of music. So, I learned a bit of it...... Done right, it can be very technical, and still sound Great!
By the time I reached my late 30s I had quit playing in bands except for worship music at church. And my parents sent me a newsapaper clipping from Tulsa about the passing of my old guitar teacher, Eldon Shamblin. The article was incredibly illuminating about the man, to me at least. He had been the rhythm guitar player for Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys for many years, and no one in my family ever knew that! He was very down to earth, never pounded his own drum, and was extremely patient with a snot-nosed 11 yr. old boy wanting to learn music he personally may or may not have even liked. Very humble, and extremely talented.
I wish now I'd been a bit older (and more mature, but I am still waiting for maturity to hit) when taking lessons from him. The things I
could've learned from him would have been incredible to know, from a guitar picker's standpoint.
NCG, and others maybe, I don't know if y'all are interested, but there is a free app you can get for phones (dunno about computers; mine is on my phone) called "Radio Garden". It's available for Androids and iPhones. I found one of the coolest radio stations while I was up hunting this year, from Madras Oregon. It's call letters are KJIV, and I
*think* it's 96.5 on the dial, as they say. This station plays a HUGE variety of music styles, genres, and ages. You can listen to it from the Radio Garden app, as well as other stations you like. It does this weird "rotating globe" kind deal, with all these green colored dots all over the earth. These dots represent a radio station, and it will zero in on whatever station you choose. I'm sure that there are other ways to listen to these stations than this, like iHeart radio or such. I'm not too much into tech, so just recently discovered this (thanks to my wife!
) a coupla months ago. It's how I listen to my radio when I reload.
And it plays really good country and western music, as well a songs from the '30s and up. Big Band music, rock music, whatever. Just not a steady diet of any one style for very long.
Added in EDIT: You can play this app on a laptop. I forgot that's how my wife listens to it.....
