Yes, the title is musically inspired and not a comment on life in the corporate trenches! I'm an "aspiring" guitarist...actually, I'm trying to learn several stringed instruments, but mostly focusing on the 6-string guitar...and I bought a new axe yesterday. It's a Johnson, and a copy of the old Les Paul "Gold Top" model. Very well done, tone and sustain for days, and fits into the collection very well.
I was raised in Michigan, and my folks knew a bunch of people who came up from both Appalachia and the Delta area to work the auto plants. We had (have) a large farm, and these folks would come out on the weekends to shoot skeet and play music, and eat. Consequently, much of the early memories I have of people playing music are grounded in America folk, bluegrass, and blues.
Now that I'm old(er) and have embarked on this "try to figure out how to play the guitar" journey, I'm finding that what interests me is - for lack of any better term - "roots" music. Listening to the old Delta blues legends like Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson or to the banjo/mando/violin tunes from the Eastern hills and hollows is simply incredible.
It's also pretty discouraging...until I remember that Eric Clapton said in his autobiography that he played/practiced guitar for FIVE YEARS before he ever played out anywhere...so if it takes that long to be decent, so be it! ;)
Cap'n
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One of the things that really drew me to Ki ho`alu (slack key), is the immediacy of it. You can reach critical mass and be playing songs very quickly. One might say that it's limited because you are tuned to a major key, but that overlooks the most important aspect. To play music.
Just being able to sit out on my lanai and have music coming out of me was all I ever really wanted.
Get Ozzie Kotani's Book/CD combo, loose your strings, and lose your mind.
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