Thoughts on the Media

I often wonder what my grandparents would think if they were alive today. They most certainly would be shocked at how the world is. I know one thing for certain. My grandpa Apple would never had paid almost $4 a gallon for gasoline. He would have parked his truck and just bought enough gas for his lawn mower and that’s it.

But things were different back in their generation. They knew how to be thrifty because they had to be that way much of their lives. Going “out” to eat to them was taking a sandwich from home and taking a Sunday afternoon drive to a park somewhere and enjoying their meal in nature. My grandpa told me once when I was a teenager that I couldn’t always spend money the way I wanted to like on eating out, etc., because I’d have other responsibilities and bills and such. Boy, was he right! I don’t think my grandma ever ate out during her working career either. I remember she had some Tupperware dishes that she would fill with food from home (mostly leftovers from yesterday’s supper) and take with her to work and eat. I don’t think my grandpa took his in Tupperware dishes, but he either went home to eat or took a sandwich with him when he was working.

Life was more simplistic in many ways back in my grandparents’ day and even my parents’ days. You could trust other people much more in those bygone days than you can now. You could put in an honest days’ work and expect an honest wage. Nowadays, with the corporate culture, it’s all about how much money you can make the corporation and they’ll give you some chicken feed in return. Oh, and if you don’t like it, move over, because there’s a thousand just like you they can get to take your place.

People nowadays don’t realize just how much they’ve been conditioned. We’re conditioned to be slaves in so many ways. You have your time taken up working for other people with an unfair return in wages in many cases. People are slaves to the popular media in that they tell you what music is good. This is of course to some big executive’s benefit, because if you buy his record label’s music, it’s money in his pocket. So don’t expect the media to tell you any different-because big money controls the media. This is sad because so many beautiful art forms go unrecognized, unappreciated. But the world we live in discourages beautiful art, because they know if they cram their music down your throat long enough and tell you it’s good, that you’re going to buy into it soon enough.

The best stuff is almost always the stuff you have to dig for. So, the moral of this blog is, don’t always swallow exactly what the media pushes at you. Do some investigating, find out for yourself what is good. You might be surprised.

Music and Time

I know a lot of musicians are probably like me in that different periods of time in their lives are synchronous with music. Let me explain some. From the time I was old enough to start having memories, I can remember jam sessions in the living room of my Grandpa and Grandma Apple’s house. I remember how the old time music sounded in that little small living room with the hardwood floor. I remember summer vacation from school there also. After dinner (the term we used for lunch) Papaw (my Grandpa Apple) would often times play the banjo he had or other instruments around the house. I hadn’t yet taken up an instrument, but those sounds, sometimes archaic, surely made an indelible impression on my young mind. During those same summer days, I’d often play records on Papaw’s old turntable. That’s where I first heard the sounds of Flatt and Scruggs.

A few years later in the mid-1980s, I was listening to the bluegrass program “The Ozark Mountain Hop” on KABF radio out of Little Rock, Arkansas and heard the Virginia Squires for the first time. If memory serves me right, the first song I heard from them was “The Girl I Left In Sunny Tennessee.” I was hooked. I bought every recording they made. I had never heard someone play the bass like Ronnie Simpkins. I was really knocked out when I heard him take a solo on “Turkey In the Straw.” To this day he’s one of my favorite bass players and I’ve come to know him and his brother Rickie, who is also a great musician. One of the most tasteful fiddle breaks I’ve heard to this day is Rickie’s solo on “Hard Times In Kentucky.” Listen and see. Their fire and enthusiasm and musicianship really set my own desire to become a good musician ablaze. Around this same time I heard the Lonesome River Band’s very first recording on KABF. They were to also become an influence. I can’t end out the 1980s without mentioning that Tony Rice and more progressive sounds from bands such as New Grass Revival were also sticking in my mind.

In my next post, I’ll move into the 1990s, and the sounds that shaped that era for me.

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Friends In Great Places Concert

Howdy folks! Just had to write a post about our performance Friday, March 4, 2011 at the 3rd annual "Friends In Great Places" concert at UACCB's Independence Hall in Batesville, Arkansas. I must say I had a blast. It is my personal opinion that this was the best one yet.

Me and my brother Brandon got to be a part of the first set along with a lot of fine musicians. The Cobb Brothers from Mountain View, AR kicked off the show and really set the crowd on fire. Brandon and I followed with our set and I was overwhelmed by the great positive and enthusiastic response we got. Gary Rounds followed us and he did 3 songs with just himself and Tim Crouch and then me and Brandon and Danny Dozier joined back in. I played the bass for those guys and had a blast. I don't get to play bass as much as I'd like to in this kind of setting, but I always enjoy it when I can. My old Tune Bass Maniac never sounded better.

Ramona Jones and her band followed in the second half and they did a fine job. I couldn't help but be filled with joy and pride standing in the wings of the stage hearing the audience response to acoustic music. I thought "acoustic music is the most beautiful, moving music, ever." I think the audience response proved that.

I stood there proud of my musical heritage and the long line of tradition that I am fortunate to be a part of and carry it on for others to hear and enjoy, and best case scenario, be inspired to take it up and carry it on too.