I hope everyone had a great Easter…I know my 3 year old did.
I was in San Antonio for a good portion of last week on business. I took my Weber mandolin and got in some good playing time, including an impromptu concert for a maintenance worker. Mr. Valderron came into my room to fix my internet connection and saw the mandolin….well, he thought it was a fiddle at first. He was so besides himself at the beauty and exoticness of the instrument that I couldn’t help but play some chords and an Arkansas Traveler for him. He really appreciated the effort, and admitted that he had always wanted to learn to play an instrument. He then went into a very detailed and gruesome account of how he couldn’t play an instrument because he had severed both of his hands in a saw mill accident when he was a lad. I put the mandolin into his hands, the strap around his shoulder and let him hold it. I gave him the pick and encouraged him to strum the instrument. You could just see the dreams and longing going through his head. The experience reminded me of how blessed I am to play an instrument (or at least lug one around everywhere pretending to play). It was also one of those random memories that makes life on the road fun and interesting.
In the airport I picked up a copy of Fretboard Journal. This is a great magazine. If I had the spare change then I would definitely subscribe. I went over to the website to check out them out, and apparently they have a pretty cool blog. They are going on my blogroll.
Otherwise, I had a great jam session with my dad on Sunday. We plugged in and played some jazz really loud. The police never showed up, so I guess the nieboors weren’t that annoyed. Hopefully I will get some good practice sessions in this week.
Filed under: Music & Mandolin Meditations, My Journal, Traveling Man , blessings, Blogroll, travel log
