What role did music play in your growing up years? What, if any, music do you associate with early childhood? What music style or songs were popular when you were in high school? How did you listen to music - on the radio, albums, etc. Did you have a stereo in your room? Did you attend concerts when you were a teenager? Did the music you liked cause conflict with your parents? What song or songs take you back to a certain place and time of your youth?
Music was everything when I was growing up. I sang my first solo in church at the age of 3. My grandfather taught me to play the guitar by the time I was 9 and I was heavy into Karen Carpenter, Carole King, JT, and any other kind of music by my early teens. New Dawn was our church youth choir and I loved singing in it. My BFF, Carol and I used to dress up as the Beatles and put on little shows for our parents. Poor dears. When I was 15 I was offered a chance to study music in New York....and I turned it down because I was 15 and stupid....and in love and just did not want to change my life. I am not a big advocate for people moving my cheese. I had a radio alarm clock, stereo, radio...and even now...I own an IPOD, have XM radio in my car, own over 200 CD's and records(you know the black vinyl kind)...and countless cassettes...and would still have about 200 8 tracks if the ex husband had not sold them....along with my 8 track player to someone on a whim.....I threatened to sell his bass boat after that one. He was afraid....very afraid. (The group I sing with, Still Magnolias, wrote a song about that.) Music has always been in my life. I grew up thinking everyone sang...when my family got together...we always had music....I was stunned to learn....that was not the case for the rest of the world. Music was always playing in my house. My mom, her sister, my cousin Amanda and I always loved singing "Sentimental Journey." I sing with a group based out of Columbus called Still Magnolias (Amanda is one of them too), I have sung with the Arbor Praise and Worship band at First United Methodist church, I sing in the choir now, I sing at other churches.....if I were to have to go to a Singers Anonymous meeting....I would have to say, Hi! I am Karen and I sing. I can't imagine life without it. I have to say...it is one part heredity....my mother performed in USO operetas when she was younger....and my dad had a beautiful baritone voice. I can't count the number of concerts I have attended in my life. I have heard Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians on New Years Eve, Liberace, and the Grateful Dead....my friends all laugh at me when I hear a song...my usual response is, "Oh! That is my favorite song!"...and to be honest it is true....they ARE all my favorite songs....Kansas and "Dust in the Wind" is one of my most favorites. "Never My Love" by the Association takes me back to an early love....as does "I'll Say Goodbye to Love" by Karen Carpenter. Music lifts me up....gets me over bad times....soothes the savage beast. Is calming...and now...on my hour drive to work in the morning...sets the tone for my day. It would be safe to say that music is the glue a lot of times that holds my life together.
No comments:
Post a Comment