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A brief brush with history ...
Sometimes it amazes me how you can be living day to day with no real excitement and then all of a sudden out of the blue lightening strikes ... and you find your self in a situation you never dreamed about but will cherish forever ...
A long time friend of mine and I get together on a more or less regular basis to pick guitar and sing purely for the enjoyment of the fellowship and the joy of making music ... I am forever grateful to my mother for insisting that I take guitar lessons when in the 5th grade because they decided I was clumsy
and needed something to improve my coordination ... that single decision has given me more pleasure in my life than I can measure ... and it lead me to an incredible experience this last Saturday night.
One of our long ago business colleagues wife it turns out has a 90 year old uncle that was an original member of Hank Williams Sr. Drifting Cowboys band. This gentleman, Clent Holmes, and his wife Mayme would be visiting over the weekend and my buddy and I were invited to come over Saturday evening and meet Clent and pick and sing with him. I have to tell you that for me this is a lifetime highlight ... I'm not a rabid fan of Hank Williams per se, although I do like many of his old songs, but to actually meet with and talk to an individual that 'was there' with Hank Williams, literally a piece of American history and part of the fabric of American music was something I never dreamed of doing.
I arrived and was introduced to Clent and Mayme and the other folks around (mostly family members) and Clent and I engaged in a very entertaining (to me at least) conversation about Hank, the music they played, the places they saw and basically how things came to be. For example, I mentioned to Clent that in all of the old movie/video clips I had ever seen of Hank playing it seemed to me that he wasn't really much of a guitar player... Clent laughed and said "... **** no he was always more interested in how his slacks fit than how he played the guitar ...".
Clent and Mayme currently live in Saraland Alabama and perform (by the way as I said Clent is 90 years old and Mayme is 84) in the "Hank's Drifters" band with PeeWee Moultrie another member of Hank's Drifting Cowboys band. Clent is a 2006 inductee into the "America's Old Time Country Music Hall Of Fame" and performs on all of Hank Locklin's recordings. Hank Locklin is a long time member of the Grand Ole Opry.
Later in the evening the folks there were all clamoring for some music so we gathered in the spacious living room and Mayme pulled out her Martin 000 guitar and Clent drug out his battered and rhinestone decorated Epiphone A style mandolin and my buddy and I were honored to play along on several old Hank Williams songs (Your Cheatin' Heart, Jumbalaya, I'm So Lonesome I Could Die and several others). It was fun to watch these two elderly people really enjoy the music they have played for sooo many years and the few very lucky people there to hear them be so appreciative.
I drove the 45 minute trip home almost in a daze thinking about how fortunate I had been to have this all too brief but almost magical experience in my lifetime ....
You just never know what will happen if you just hang around long enough ...
Thanks mom for the guitar lessons ...
A long time friend of mine and I get together on a more or less regular basis to pick guitar and sing purely for the enjoyment of the fellowship and the joy of making music ... I am forever grateful to my mother for insisting that I take guitar lessons when in the 5th grade because they decided I was clumsy
and needed something to improve my coordination ... that single decision has given me more pleasure in my life than I can measure ... and it lead me to an incredible experience this last Saturday night.One of our long ago business colleagues wife it turns out has a 90 year old uncle that was an original member of Hank Williams Sr. Drifting Cowboys band. This gentleman, Clent Holmes, and his wife Mayme would be visiting over the weekend and my buddy and I were invited to come over Saturday evening and meet Clent and pick and sing with him. I have to tell you that for me this is a lifetime highlight ... I'm not a rabid fan of Hank Williams per se, although I do like many of his old songs, but to actually meet with and talk to an individual that 'was there' with Hank Williams, literally a piece of American history and part of the fabric of American music was something I never dreamed of doing.
I arrived and was introduced to Clent and Mayme and the other folks around (mostly family members) and Clent and I engaged in a very entertaining (to me at least) conversation about Hank, the music they played, the places they saw and basically how things came to be. For example, I mentioned to Clent that in all of the old movie/video clips I had ever seen of Hank playing it seemed to me that he wasn't really much of a guitar player... Clent laughed and said "... **** no he was always more interested in how his slacks fit than how he played the guitar ...".
Clent and Mayme currently live in Saraland Alabama and perform (by the way as I said Clent is 90 years old and Mayme is 84) in the "Hank's Drifters" band with PeeWee Moultrie another member of Hank's Drifting Cowboys band. Clent is a 2006 inductee into the "America's Old Time Country Music Hall Of Fame" and performs on all of Hank Locklin's recordings. Hank Locklin is a long time member of the Grand Ole Opry.
Later in the evening the folks there were all clamoring for some music so we gathered in the spacious living room and Mayme pulled out her Martin 000 guitar and Clent drug out his battered and rhinestone decorated Epiphone A style mandolin and my buddy and I were honored to play along on several old Hank Williams songs (Your Cheatin' Heart, Jumbalaya, I'm So Lonesome I Could Die and several others). It was fun to watch these two elderly people really enjoy the music they have played for sooo many years and the few very lucky people there to hear them be so appreciative.
I drove the 45 minute trip home almost in a daze thinking about how fortunate I had been to have this all too brief but almost magical experience in my lifetime ....
You just never know what will happen if you just hang around long enough ...
Thanks mom for the guitar lessons ...
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