I've always been a music lover. When I was a little kid with a toy record player I would go through my parents' album collection along with my own Disney records, reveling in the sounds of The Singing Nun, Arlo Guthrie, Johnny Cash, The Aristocats soundtrack, Dumbo... anything that I could drop a needle onto thrilled me. A friend of mine, Roy (he was actually a friend of my parents, but he and I bonded over music) helped introduce me to a world of country and western, bluegrass and folk, so much of which has shaped my music appreciation. Roy was blind and had all his records marked with Braille, and although I still can't read it (after having tried for years), I run my fingers lovingly over the Braille tags on the albums that he'd pass on to me when he culled his collection, or weeded out duplicates.
My parents argued over my musical education. My mother's tastes were eclectic and had been shaped drastically by my older siblings' musical tastes. She raised me on the Woodstock album, Queen, the Beatles & the Stones, Santana and Ozzy Osbourne. Dad was not a rock fan, and fought valiantly against her influence, supplying me with Doc Watson, Luciano Pavorotti and anything non rock & roll he thought I'd enjoy.
There were other influences. My Dad's best friend's wife babysat me a lot, and we would go listen to their daughter practice with the symphony. One day when I was six I heard them doing Rhapsody in Blue and a lifelong Gershwin fan was born. I sent my mother out the next day to get me an album of it, and she came home with a version by Andre Previn and Andre Kostelanetz. I still have that album, and although I do have the same version on CD, I still sometimes listen fondly to the album version with all the pops and cracks from having been played thousands of times.
As I got older I listened to more and more music. If I have to profess a favorite genre I'd say classic rock, that by no means keeps me from loving all kinds of music. I'd be hard pressed to say there's a single genre I don't love at least some of. I don't discount much except for some of the very poppish bubblegum stuff that's come out in the past 20 years or so, but I never discount anything out of hand without listening to it first. There are gems to be found almost everywhere you look, if you just look.
Now my life is full of live music. My husband is a semi-professional musician (he played out for years, and although he doesn't do as much of it now, he still plays with a hobby band and does concerts now and then in different places). As I type this they are practicing in my living room, and I'm soaking it all in happily. It's an incredible experience to listen to these guys, to get to sing with them and sometimes jam along. Some of the musicians in our little group of friends are professionals, some of these people are *incredible* musicians. One of our friends is a cello player who can jam rock & blues & jazz like nobody's business, and she has a voice that would melt butter. We have bassists, drummers, guitarists, mandolin players... the range and richness of technique, style and background is stunning.
One of the greatest parts about this is that I'm in many ways living my dream. All my life I wanted to sing and play live music, and now I'm doing it. Granted I'm only a decent singer and not much of a musician, but I get by and I'm getting better. I own a dulcimer (actually one of each kind, mountain and hammered) and an autoharp that my husband got me for my birthday last year. I'm trying hard to get better with the 'harp in particular, and one of these days he's going to modify it so I can jam with the rockers a bit better.
Our son is, at three, a budding musician. He loves the drums and is quite appropriate with them. His father holds the guitar and frets it while the Bundle strums and they both sing. Bundle also loves to play the piano, and he's very appropriate, playing carefully with fingers and never fists. He has always seemed to understand that instruments and voice go together, and he tries very hard to sing while he plays. He holds a tune very well for a kid so young. I have a feeling I've given birth to a little rock star, and I couldn't be happier.
Every month we have parties where people come and share their songs, jam with each other, laugh, talk and just generally enjoy life. Often we go to science fiction conventions where we play and sing with our friends in the "filk" circles. Other chances to play and sing crop up from time to time and we take them joyfully. Music is a huge part of our life now, and it makes it that much richer and sweeter.
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