Jaci Dawn

It’s hard to come up with suitable subjects. I think of things during the day and trash them by the time I sit down to post. Today alone, I came up with these subjects:

1. Stopping for Pedestrians (from the POV of a sometimes Ped who APPRECIATES drivers that obey the law and stop and wait). Sadly, I flipped off the jerk who nearly ran over me today and that’s not a good commentary on my character. He was still a jerk.

2. Chanukah and Arwen. Chanukah starts tomorrow and I think I will save that post for tomorrow when I light the menorah. It’s a story about accepting other faiths and how I came to light a menorah before it was “trendy” in Christian circles.

3. My love of music, especially bluegrass and folk and 70’s rock.

Music won out because I found a nice download of Hoyt Axton songs on eMusic tonight. They could offer more Hoyt Axton, but since I own several LPs, I will forgive them.

I need a turntable. Ours died years ago and we have never replaced it. So my collection of Hoyt Axton languishes on vinyl. I once had a collection of Marty Robbins but I foolishly sold it all to a collector in 1977. His LP “Gunfighter Ballads” was my favorite.

The Internet has done wonders for my music collection and since I discovered eMusic and the ease of downloading… I have begun collecting music again. I can’t believe I let it lapse for so long.

First: a confession. I cannot sing. My voice is hopelessly flat. I can’t even follow someone who can sing. This handicap is not to be confused with “tone deaf”. I am not tone deaf. I most certainly can hear that my voice is flat. I can hear when someone else is off-tune or their instrument is off-key.

I cannot play an instrument. I played clarinet for four years in Middle School and High School. I was an acceptable player. My downfall was marching band. The high school I attended had an amazing marching band that was invited to the Rose Bowl several times before I was a member of the band. They were dedicated. The problem for me lay in the early morning practices on the streets of Ely, Nevada. It would be -10 degrees Fahrenheit and ones’ fingers froze to the metal. Reeds froze. We had to wear dorky uniforms with spats on our shoes.

I took to playing hooky from band (often with my older brother: we got in his Jeep and went exploring White Pine County). My sincerest apologies to William Krch, Band Teacher. Mr. Krch once told me I was a promising clarinet player. I think he was just being nice.

My children can sing and they can play instruments. Arwen has an untrained soprano voice that is quite beautiful to listen to. She picked up the saxophone her first year in band and quickly switched to the clarinet. She made me wish I had kept my clarinet. She was good. She also played percussion at college. Levi picked up the violin and never, ever made a screechy sound with it. Never. Listening to either of them practice was a pleasure.

Listening to me practice was torture.

My lack of talent has never hindered my love of music or my desire to collect music. I want to surround myself in music.

I cannot begin to list the music I love to listen to. I would do the genre a disservice by listing musicians. There are too many. They don’t get radio time, they don’t get Top Billboard press, they don’t get nominations to awards ceremonies. Gillian Welch is great but she isn’t Holly Near a capella (The Mountain Song). Some of the musicians I listen to are known in small circles. Some get air time on websites like http://www.folkalley.com. I sometimes tune in to the Facebook radio station called “Range Radio.” Most don’t make a lot of money. They just make my life enjoyable.

From Brian Grover to Jim Pipkin to Steeleye Span to Danu and Dave Stamey… They make my day. And, hey, throw in a little Jethro Tull and I’m good.

I just want to thank all of the musicians who work so hard. I really appreciate all of you! And trust me – I really can NOT sing but I am not tone- deaf despite what my children think.

(sidenote: when my oldest was 4 years old she declared that I was banned from singing. That is how awful my voice is. And how good her ear is…)

(sidenote #2: when at my family reunion this summer, all my female cousins broke out into spontaneous song. It was awful. It was flat. It was off-tune. I felt at home. It’s genetic…)