ADD A GUITAR

 

Okay, so it’s a banjo.  It’s still a stringed instrument and the player was very talented.  My husband’s grandfather, Harry Brasier, while on a camping trip with friends in the late 1800s.  

My husband with his guitar.  He played with a bluegrass group whose leader went on to play with Bill Monroe in Nashville.  Why he had his guitar positioned this way I’m not sure as he is left-handed, strums left-handed, and the guitar is strung that way.

Husband holding his guitar in the correct position, and our son with his wind-up ukulele.

Our son with his Dad’s guitar pretending to play. He’s right-handed so his Dad’s left-handed guitar wouldn’t work for him.

Son with his own guitar.  He could strum a couple of chords fairly well.

Yours truly with my guitar which I bought second hand in 1968.  I could play two songs and not really all that well: “Where Have All the Flowers Gone”, and “Blowin’ in the Wind”.  That was it!

My youngest sister and me strumming together.

Singin’ in the rain.  I took my guitar to a pawn shop within a year of acquiring it & traded it in on a nice little typewriter which was much more useful to me.  Sis, however, continued to play her guitar.  Here she was accompanying the family singing on the beach while hunkered under cover during a summer rain shower at Lake Tahoe.  The rain had just let up and we were starting to spread out from crowding under the canopy.

My sweet little Corona portable typewriter.  I got much more use and enjoyment out of it than I ever did, my guitar.

Youngest daughter playing air guitar at her 12^th birthday party. J

There is a picture I wish had been taken that I could share with you about an unexpected experience I had with guitars one summer evening at Lake Tahoe.  It would have looked something like this except there were six guitars and no fancy costumes . . . although there were some sombreros.

A lovely extended Mexican family was camping at Lake Tahoe one summer and every evening they would get out their guitars and play and sing for a while.  My mother and I had just come up to the lake and a friend was telling us all about the wonderful entertainment the family provided each evening and told us we had to come listen, so we did.

At one point the friend decided to tell the musical family that I had a wonderful voice and should sing something with them.  I was embarrassed at the friend’s leading suggestion, but when those playing the guitars asked what I’d like to sing I couldn’t very well pass, so thinking rapidly about what they might know, I said “Granada”?

Oh boy, did they know “Granada”!  Six guitars began with a huge introduction that was almost a cadenza ending in expectation of a dramatic beginning with the lyrics.  Those of you familiar with the song know it is very dramatic.

Luckily, I didn’t disappoint – receiving applause and “bravos” from the family and the audience that had gathered.  But those talented guitar players were with me every note of the way – pausing in sync with me whenever I did.   It was as though we had rehearsed the number several times.  If they were impressed with my singing, I was totally impressed with their playing and ability to accompany so perfectly.  It was quite an experience - one I smile over every time I recall it.

:->

La Nightingail

To see a neat performance of "Granada" on youtube, go online and key in (or block & copy):

Andre Rieu Granada youtube

It's a fun recording but it's sung in Spanish, so here are the English words:

GRANADA 

Granada, I’ve fallen under your spell

And if you could speak what a fascinating tale you would tell

Of an age the world has long forgotten

Of an age that weaves its silent magic in Granada to day!

~ ~ ~

The dawn in the sky greets the day with a sigh in Granada.

For she can remember the splendor that once was Granada.

It still can be found in the hills all around as I wander along

Entranced by the beauty before me Entranced by a land full of sunshine and flowers and song

And when day is done and the sun starts to set in Granada

I envy the blush of the snowclad Sierra Nevada

For soon it will welcome the stars while a thousand guitars play a soft Habanera

Then moonlit Granada will live again

The glory of yesterday, romantic and gay.