Category Archives: Music

Are there any skills you’ve picked up in the last year?

Posted on August 23, 2011 | 1 comment

Guitar, at age 50, but I quit lessons for several reasons. I think piano, not guitar.  I may even remember violin, not guitar.

I had a band at age 12 with two gals who couldn’t play or sing.  Now I’ve a lovely guitar, a Seagull Artist Folk and hydrate it twice a week.  I need to play again.  Not that I’ll ever be good.  But I know I haven’t played for a while because I don’t have calluses on my fingers.  Now’s probably a good time to take it in, as a veteran guitarist advised me, to a local shop for several weeks to have a little work done.

She’s beautiful, though.  Perhaps if I named her I’d give her a little more attention.  I rebelled at my private lessons.  They weren’t giving me what I wanted, or what I needed.  If I get back into it I need to choose my teacher very carefully.  Thanks, WordPress, for the question, Dee

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Posted in Editorial, Music

Blue Skies

Posted on December 1, 2010 | Leave a comment

Just as I’ve always loved Frank Sinatra, I always wanted to sing like Rosemary Clooney. My parents had an album of hers, Mono of course, that I had to bring to school for some kind of project. Mom saw a hint of cleavage on the album cover so covered it up with masking tape with my name on the tape.

My favorite moment on screen was in White Christmas with Bing Crosby, talking about liverwurst and buttermilk and singing about counting your blessings instead of sheep.

I didn’t know that 80’s pop icon Debbie Boone was married to her son until now, and as she and her father have wonderful voices I can’t wait to hear her tribute to her late mother-in-law. Rosemary Clooney, I met her once in Four Girls Four with Rose Marie and Helen O’Connell. When I think of her I’ll always see her at the piano with Bing singing White Christmas. So, get your decorations going, we expect a tree and a red velvet gown with white fur trim for caroling. Let’s get this holiday season rolling! I’ll start by counting my blessings instead of sheep, Dee

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Posted in Education, Music

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Yodeling

Posted on November 30, 2010 | 2 comments

Dad recently told me that my grandmother and her brother were accomplished yodelers. I never knew that. My family was always musical and violin and accordian and concertina were what Dad used to talk about when we were kids.

I stopped into Wal-Mart today and the checker knew I’d lost my voice (pharyngitis) and advised me to rest my voice so I can sing Christmas carols later on. What a sweet thought!

Dad still plays the violin. I’ve only made sure my beautiful guitar is hydrated, not played for nearly a year. Sorry Korky and Conservatory staff! Music is so important and to let it slide is a shame.

Especially when we have talents like Wylie Gustafson and Juni Fisher in the neighborhood. Yodeling Fool is a song I downloaded this past weekend for the kids to hear. Buffalo Gals is also a favorite. Also Juni’s new CD, all about the Pendelton Roundup. I need to get one of those for my bud PDX Knitterati.

There are snowflakes on my screen. Out here it’s too cold to snow. I’m about to light the fire. Right now I can’t speak much less yodel but I will get your yodeling book, Wylie. Some family traditions need to be maintained. Cheers, Dee

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Posted in Editorial, Music

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Cool Music

Posted on September 29, 2010 | 2 comments

I took up acoustic folk guitar last year because I knew it would be a long winter and no-one was around and music had always interested me from violin to piano to dance. Both my instructors were more comfortable teaching grade school students but found raw talent even if it came with an adult mind and body.

My first private instructor taught me basic chords mainly via childrens’ songs, Johnny Cash and others. My second was a rock & roll drummer and we were all over the place. For both, I brought in songs I wanted to learn, just to be able to strum with family and have a sing-along. I don’t think any song I chose to learn was written after the 70’s.

Then one day I was driving home from errands, turned on the radio and “Hey There, Delilah” was playing. I loved the tune. A few weeks later I was able to download the lyrics and vowed to figure out the chords for a beginner guitarist. I do that. But the best thing was being able to tell my teacher that I finally found a song from this decade, this century, that I want to learn to play!

Quit guitar for a while but bought a nice one and keep it in shape and hydrated. My husband told me weeks ago about a work function we have to attend and I kept it in the back of my mind, but tonight he told me it’s a concert. Plain White Tees! I jumped up and down (ask him!) and told him this story. I hear Delilah in my head but have to put it to paper before Friday and the private company concert. I’m going to do it without listening to it and make it work for beginner guitar. That’s my challenge. Aside from heating up my butternut squash and carrot soup, making sharp mac & cheese and a green salad, all I have to do is wash the dog and 12 other things. I’m best under the gun (figuratively, of course).

I hope you’re doing what you want in your life. It’s probably cooking. These days you may be one of the few to eat Concord grapes freshly picked. I ache for those days when I had them fresh off the vine. I need to find the site where they’re freezing the pulp and winnowing out the seeds. If I could get frozen Concord grape pulp, I’d learn how to make a great pie and use it for savory dishes as well. Cheers, Dee

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Posted in Education, Music

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A Little Bit Country

Posted on March 21, 2010 | Leave a comment

OK, I grew up in the Northeast, and married a Texan. We’ve been together nearly ten years so I feel I can speak my peace without violating any North/South treaties or etiquette.

It is a fact that I grew up listening to what is now classic rock, eating foods derived from Germanic and other local fare, and attending a plethora of ballet, piano and violin classes.

Years later, I’m listening to the soundtrack of Crazy Heart, trying to figure out the music on my new guitar (took up guitar at age 50), eating sushi and shopping whole foods with eco-friendly bag, with an educated palate from cooking school, and have a blog.

Yes, I stumbled a bit on guitar, wanted too much too soon (Eleanor Rigby, Horse With No Name) without knowing the basics then the lack of atmosphere here, literally, shredded my fingers and I had to take some time off.

Same with cooking. I just found out today that setting the oven at 275 means it will be 300 degrees according to the new oven thermometer. Setting at 300 initially resulted in a temperature on the gauge of 400 degrees, which would have burned my ribs. So, let’s just say our oven is a bit off. I made it work.

I can’t say I know anything about rap or other music that isn’t music or poetry to me. When it comes to rock or country or any variation, it’s inevitably about love and loss. We may hear a line about not being able to pay the rent, but that’s not the theme of the song. Or the wife leaving or dog dying. It’s all a part of a story.

If you like the story and melody, you like the song. If you like the ingredients and the way they were cooked, hopefully you’ll thank the cook and ask for the recipe. This is for you, Patsy Cline, Dee

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Posted in Editorial, Music

What Goes Around…

Posted on November 7, 2009 | 2 comments

Yesterday was my birthday. I heard from family as I settled into regular household duties, including making my birthday dinner. Today, we plan to attend a local music festival and perhaps go to an old-fashioned lunch counter in a drugstore for a burger. Is this heaven or what?

A couple of months ago I contacted the living music teachers I’ve had who have inspired me to take up guitar at an advanced age. I played American Pie by sight, all the way through, at my lesson on Thursday and hope to expand my musical horizons with Cowboy Poets this weekend. Out of the blue, my grade-school music teacher (a true-blue relic of the days when public schools supported music as well as sports) called. Why? There’s a new book in Chautauqua County about cooking with grapes!!!

It’s in the mail and I look forward to reading it and sharing it with you, perhaps interviewing the authors. This is very special to me, because it’s my home, where I grew up, and I know the context and hope in mere words can convey it to you. It’s this blog, it’s magic!

If someone told me to write a 500-word paper I’d have balked in college. Now I write one nearly every day. It’s not a research paper but at my age I should be able to opine on writing, cooking, music, relationships and dogs. Oh, the cats said add them too. Yes, I speak cat.

So, we’re not car shopping tomorrow, I hope, and are going to enjoy a quiet day together listening to cowboy music. Yippee! Dee

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Posted in Editorial, Music

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A Night Off

Posted on October 24, 2009 | 4 comments

Jim and I had to go all the way down the hill to get our dog Zoe frozen raw food, and then, only enough for 2-4 weeks depending upon if we can find a current version of her dry food. We did, at a western clothing store, and we checked the date on the 40# package and it’s good for a year. I think her old dry food made her sick.

We’ve a lovely gal staying with us this weekend, a cowgirl poet, songwriter, singer and guitar player who has changed our lives over the last year. I’ve even taken up guitar but by the time I’m 70 I won’t be as good as she. Luckily she likes good food so I’m able feed people and hang out.

Today, I did a minimalist meal of Jim’s favorite components. Spaghetti, meatballs and tomato sauce. He was very pleased and so was I because I cooked up a storm yesterday. We also bought both of us a few country shirts and jeans (for Jim) today. They’re mostly in the back of the car ready for the cleaner before being worn. I may send some photos after they’re cleaned and pressed.

Menu for tomorrow is TBD but I think I know. We’ll see. Jim and I had fun today downtown and he may have even found a car for the winter! That’s always good news as I can’t wait to stop talking about all-wheel-drive cars as he has one to drive in snow pretty soon.

We love our family and friends and already miss you over the holidays because we’re so far away. Making a meal is a treat for one and one’s guest. While we will miss Jim’s family over Thanksgiving, depending upon where we are (home) and anyone at work who is absent of family or friends or from another part of the country or who’s just started work we’ll invite them. That’s what we do.

Yes, I need a night off every now and then, and with minimal larders I can’t serve 20 with 2 hours notice. I could, perhaps, in an emergency but if it’s entertaining that’s a different story. No, I could in an emergency, especially if we had the Hurricane Kit Jim has assembled… and is in storage 1,600 miles away.

We’re thinking of snowstorms and perhaps a station wagon for Jim. It’s been impossible to find him the used car (better headroom and no loan) he wants so now he’s thinking station wagon which brings me back to the old days when my parents’ Olds Vista Cruiser was my college grad gift. Without kids, that may be tough for a real guy to handle. Luckily with Jim, it’s a matter of effectiveness, not grandeur, a piece of machinery that gets him up and down the hill safely. Did I say “safely?”

As Scarlett said, “tomorrow is another day.” Who knows what tomorrow will bring. Thank y’all for reading and please let me know what you think about food or anything else on your mind. Cheers! Dee

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Posted in Editorial, Music, Utah

The Bird Man

Posted on July 8, 2009 | 2 comments

Hopefully we’ll stay a while and will have new neighbors in the empty place a few doors over.  He saw my photos today and confirmed that I got a rare blurry photo (because I was taking it inside through a dirty window and looking for the bill for identification).  Sometimes shopkeepers look at identification for the bill but I was looking at the bill of a bird at the time.

So now they won’t let me see the photos before I preview or post this, like it’s wasting paper.  OK, I’ll have to say that there’s a woodcock, which is not rare but rarely photographable as you can see from this shot.  Also two glossy ibis, which a birder emailed me to say never come to Utah.  They do.  The photos I saw were from Utah and these were taken outside our home.  The Bird Man confirmed it.  Otherwise we have the Greater Sandhill Cranes, two were here for a couple of days but I didn’t see or hear them today so they may have headed north.

What photos I take of area wildlife don’t compare in any way to looking at them in person, and for the birds in the preserve, using binoculars. What a beautiful country we live in.  I see the land here, look at my new guitar, and right now it’s telling me “This Land Is Your Land…” and if we protect it by saving our environment, it will be in the future.  Hey, I’ve yet to cook from my organic surprise package.  Too busy with emails etc.  Keep on cooking.  Dee

PS The middle photo is a fully-grown marmot (prairie dog) next door.

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Posted in Editorial, Music, Utah

Missing Things

Posted on July 4, 2009 | 1 comment

I didn’t remember how big music was in my life, in my family’s life.  I gave it all up at age 12 and never took violin or piano again.  I did get a guitar for Christmas that year and played it for a few months with no lessons but C, G, D and E were all I could coax from it with no music or mentors.  So I led our little three-guitar band out on stage in eighth grade when 2/3 of the band was tone deaf.  How, I don’t know.  Perhaps with the grit I needed to get out there in my last school and sing the first stanza of “Bridge Over Troubled Water” solo.

I’m sure to be making my new teacher bonkers, because I pay him (aka I’m not a kid on the parent’s dime) and could do what I want.  He tries to do otherwise and succeeds often but that’s because I need to learn.  Every lesson I learn something new and remember songs I want to learn how to play.  So I download lyrics during the week and like to figure out and learn the chords myself.  He knows that so challenges me in other ways, every week.

Much better organized than my life or our receipts is my notebook.  It includes scales, chords, lessons, items in progress and a library.

But I didn’t tell you that this  week I played Dylan and Cash at our lesson.  My interest is in folk et al, country, acoustic guitar.  These songs are about love and life and loss.  When I’m at a loss playing one I think of the author/artist sitting at home with Mama eating pie or whatever Mama cooked.  Sitting there and wanting to play music with voice, guitar, mandolin, violin, or piano.  All to thank her for this wonderful gift.

I’m dedicating this blog entry to my guitar teacher, Douglas.  He plays bluegrass gospel, electric guitar.  Talented guy.  Sorry Bob D. but I have to give your man his due.  Same to Johnny C. for what comes next:

In the end “you gotta serve somebody.  Might be the devil, might be the Lord, but you  gotta serve somebody.” Cheers, Dee

** I believe Bob Dylan wrote this but it took hours to find it and his version and I finally have it on iTunes, along with two other singers.  Interesting journey.

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Posted in Editorial, Music