countryroad

Country Road

by Bob on March 28, 2008

They had a graduation last night. I was invited.

I am also now fully moved into my new residence. It’s kind of lonely. But I have my old Martin D-28 and old Fender Stratocaster, no amplifier, and a radio, for now.

They asked me to play a song at the graduation. It was packed full of people, including luminaries from the Boston Public Health Commission.

I used the Martin D-28 and no microphone. I played "Country Road" by James Taylor -- I had been a hired-hand studio musician way back when. But just a garden-variety hired hand on an Epiphone 12-string guitar.

Nevertheless, I was scared a bit more than usual, but performed and everyone got into it and I got a nice ovation. Despite the fact that I was not on a raised stage or a stage at all and the place was packed with a hundred people standing room only there for the graduation and I could not hear my guitar. But I made it through. An old musician who hadn’t played live in years.

I couldn’t mic anything because there was only one microphone at the podium. So it was either the guitar and the voice wouldn’t be heard or the voice and the guitar wouldn’t be heard. So I did it 60s style -- folk. No microphone.

I am humbled.

Music, like Sir Robert Burton wrote in his "Anatomy of Melancholy" in the 1600s, is the curative for illnesses, especially of the mind and soul. He was so right. It moves people if done properly. And you don’t need a whole room full of electronics either.

Just a mediocre voice and a full bodied Martin D-28. And a good tune like James Taylor’s "Country Road".