A.P. Carter died before I was a year old. I was 19 when Maybelle Carter died and it was the first time that I just skipped class at William and Mary sat in my dorm and played a guitar all day. Grand Pa Jones is gone and I just watched a memorial tribute to Charlie Waller. Before Lester Flatt died I saw him perform at a festival when he was not strong enough to stand and played sitting down.
When music had meaning,when music could be heard as clear words telling an important story, they were all there. And now they are all gone. Today's bluegrass instrumentals usually feature jazz influenced riffs and today's country music comes with all the trappings of cheap pop bands from the 1970's. Too often in modern country songs one could insert the line, "I'm sitting here in this trailer court and I can't pay my child support, " and no one would notice because it would fit right in.
Bottom line, so far this has been a sorry excuse for a century.
(Some of my riders and their family members are seen above playing music from a time when music had meaning, in the shot above.)
2 comments:
I love it--the trailer court line... :)I'm laughing out loud...
-E.
The music that has made it down to us from previous generation is well culled. The forgettable music from those times has been forgotten. I am confident there is good music being written now as well - just don't ask me to name any of it. Meanwhile, there is nothing wrong with sticking to the tried and true.
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