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06 Dec 04 - 11:43 PM (#1349566) Subject: Who influenced you to become a musician From: number 6 Who or what inspired you to become a musician. Me it was hearing Bert Jansch's Angie. Right then and there I decided I must play the guitar. That was 39 years ago and I'm still trying to master that song. I still feel that inspiration even now when I hear him play. |
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07 Dec 04 - 12:05 AM (#1349583) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: DonMeixner My neighbor and friend Dick Ward. Don |
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07 Dec 04 - 12:07 AM (#1349585) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Seamus Kennedy Tommy Makem, Luke Kelly, Bing Crosby and the Sons of the Pioneers. Seamus |
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07 Dec 04 - 12:08 AM (#1349587) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Peace John Niven Walsh--my grandfather Jean Pierre Cousineau--my friend as a youth |
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07 Dec 04 - 12:36 AM (#1349601) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Coyote Breath Now you may take this with a grain of salt but honestly: everyone who I ever heard making music when I was a kid. My dad in the shower, my mom at the piano, my uncle Ted who was a jazz musician, composer and arranger. All the fantastic musicians and singers on the thousands of records my dad had. I just got knocked out by all the music. I was a lucky guy. I went to after hour clubs, blues joints, nightclubs, concerts, every kind of venue you could think of. When I was stationed in France in '57, '58 and part of '59 I heard all the great American jazzmen and women in those unavoidably intimate cellar clubs that were so common in Paris. What put me on the path, though, was hearing this calm, sweet voiced young woman, in a blue flowered dress, play the guitar and sing "The Damsel's Lament" I will never forget her. I still sing that song of tradgic lost love and suicide and when I do I am back in that coffee house in Milwaukee in 1959 watching her in that circle of light. CB |
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07 Dec 04 - 12:42 AM (#1349602) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Little Hawk Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Ian & Sylvia, and Buffy Sainte-Marie. My parents and their eclectic tastes in music. The fact that we didn't have a TV, so I tended to pay more attention to information in the form of words and content...which helped me focus on good song lyrics instead of just plain superficial entertainment (which is all you generally get on TV). You see, TV doesn't influence people to think for themselves in the least. Books do just the opposite, and so do recordings if they contain material that stimulates independent thought. Folk music did that very markedly, specially the brand of folk music emanating from the 60's folksingers like Baez, Buffy, and Dylan. |
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07 Dec 04 - 12:48 AM (#1349605) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: chris nightbird childs For me it was when I was a baby, hearing the Beatles for the first time.... I was playing drums by the time I was 2. |
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07 Dec 04 - 01:09 AM (#1349614) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Cluin In the beginning, my Mom and Dad and an uncle and a cousin who I jammed with. Later, getting up and performng in front of people, my sister who needed an accompanist. And after that, to become a professional (or paid amateur, as I prefer to think of it), Clinton Hammond who said, "We could make money doing this!" And of course all the musicians I've ever seen play or have ever played with. And all the people who stuck around to hear me. |
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07 Dec 04 - 01:29 AM (#1349623) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Little Hawk Hmmm. I never figured there was much money to be made... Not that I'm saying it's impossible, mind you. :-) |
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07 Dec 04 - 01:31 AM (#1349625) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Ebbie Interesting question. I'm sure that the love of and the need for music is inborn. Brought up the way I was, I didn't have access to much music- we didn't have radio or records, until I was in my midteens. However, on Sunday evenings my father would collect all of us young'uns and we'd sit around the big library table with the stacks of black hymnals and we sang lustily- songs like Glory Gates (are ever open wide); Bringing in the Sheaves; Blessed Assurance- and a bunch of other songs I don't much care for. Even at that, it is a pleasant memory. And I loved hearing the unison singing in our church and always listened for the silvery tones of this one woman. I learned all the songs that my older brothers and sisters brought into our home, songs by country artists like Elton Britt and Montana Slim (Wilf Carter). I taught school songs to the brother who was younger than I - White Coral Bells; We are Riding in the Morning; Music in the Air; That First Love of Mine- and that brother and I learned harmonica at the same time, the only musical instruments we were allowed. With the same harmonica, no less, We were somewhat under-indulged. *G* So where did I get the idea that I wanted to make my own music? Other than harmonicas, I certainly never knew anyone who played an instrument. |
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07 Dec 04 - 01:38 AM (#1349628) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Sorcha Well, 'I' wanted to play violin, so mum signed me up. After that it was my teacher, Leoti Newland, my conductor, Howard Halgedahl but it took Stuart Mossman to help me find my true calling..fidding music. It took me over 10 yrs to stop sounding like a violinist....but I think maybe I've done it....... |
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07 Dec 04 - 02:09 AM (#1349639) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: john c One name, two people - Williamson! Roy (the Corrie) and Robin (the Incredible). Oh, and Barry Gibb........ |
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07 Dec 04 - 02:35 AM (#1349643) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Boab It all began to happen 40 years ago when an old friend tried to sell me his accordion. I did fancy having a try at it, but resisted his attempts at salesmanship. He finally gave up, but said "take it home and have some fun with it'. I took it home and burned a bloody hole in the top mother of pearl casing with a careless cigarette---and HAD to buy the thing. Och--I fell in love with it; and had one more good reason for chucking the weed! |
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07 Dec 04 - 04:03 AM (#1349670) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: muppitz I was always encouraged to sing by my Mum but my primary school teacher at the age of 6 used to find any excuse to do singing with the class so he could hear me sing, so many thanks to Dave Bury who used to teach at Newstead Primary School for encouraging me to be the singer I am today! Aside from those: All members of the House Band circa 1988, and The Wilson Family, oh and the Watersons. And my Mum has the McCalmans' "Smuggler" on Vinyl and used to play it all the time when I was little so I suppose them too! Truth be known, my Mum's been taking me to festivals since I was in the womb so anyone I listened to was an influence really! muppitz x |
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07 Dec 04 - 04:11 AM (#1349673) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: mooman My Dad initially. Then a so-called "music teacher" who told me I would never be able to do music (when I was eleven). Peace moo |
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07 Dec 04 - 04:12 AM (#1349674) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: GUEST,Greycap Hank Snow, Hank Williams & then Ramblin' Jack Elliott |
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07 Dec 04 - 04:35 AM (#1349690) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: GUEST,greg stephens Lonnie Donegan, who else? |
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07 Dec 04 - 05:07 AM (#1349702) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: s&r School music lessons put me off till I was thirty. Then a bloke called Geoff Nendick fingerpicked 'Dirty Old Town' and changed my life. Stu |
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07 Dec 04 - 05:11 AM (#1349703) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Dave Hanson My late Uncle Donald, a virtuoso mandolin player and Barney McKenna with his wonderful tenor banjo. eric |
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07 Dec 04 - 06:06 AM (#1349719) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: AllisonA(Animaterra) I was a school band dropout, but Sandy and Caroline Paton showed me that there was a kind of music that I could do, and my life was transformed at the age of 10! A few years later my dad took me to see the Spring Revels in Cambridge, Mass. Jack Langstaff became my next hero. He made the audience feel that they could sing and love it. I wanted to be like that. Jack's featured in this month's Sing Out! magazine- I'm glad for him and for the many folks who will learn about him. Allison |
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07 Dec 04 - 06:35 AM (#1349740) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: kelvin Initially, it was The Beatles, The Jam, Bob Dylan, The Clash, Kinks, Small Faces, Elvis Costello. I've gigged, written and recorded in more or less this style since mid 80s. Then about a year ago I discovered June Tabor, from the Echo of Hooves album. From that I found the Child Ballads and then thanks to various HMV sales; Sandy Denny, Fairport Convention, Martin Carthy and Eliza Carthy. It has totally invigorated my music and I've been doing an acoustic duo at a few open mics and gigs. Any listening recomendations to aid my education? Also, still a bit apprehensive about dedicated 'Folk' clubs - any friendly ones in North London? ;o) PS: Saw June Tabor a fortnight ago in Canary Wharf - What a voice! |
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07 Dec 04 - 07:35 AM (#1349771) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: The Fooles Troupe Dad. |
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07 Dec 04 - 08:31 AM (#1349800) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Vixen 1) My dad playing his harmonica, and writing songs for me when I was very young 2) My mother with all her albums of folk music, and recordings of things like the "Grand Canyon Suite" 3) My aunts MaryAnne and Nancy who pooled their resources to buy me my first guitar as a Christmas present when I was 10 4) My friend Sherry, who not only taught me basic theory, and how to play the recorder, but also gave me the confidence to keep at it 5) My husband, who continues to support my every musical endeavor 6) Charles, who taught me where my voice is 7) Every musician I've ever listened to, good, bad, and indifferent, has inspired me one way or another... V |
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07 Dec 04 - 09:28 AM (#1349841) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: GUEST,Jim Buddy Holly first of all - but no way could I afford a Strat back then. Then along came Bob Dylan and I thought "Jesus - I can sing at least as good as that, and play the harmonica a whole lot better" but, realistically, it was down to a school friend (Ron Stevenson - a great guitarist at only 14 years old back in 1961) who brought his acoustic to school in the Summer of '65 and showed me how to play Em, Am and B7 before singing St James Infirmary Blues. That was my first effort at playing/singing - and, crap though it obviously was, opened up a lifetime passion. Thanks to big Ron (RIP) |
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07 Dec 04 - 09:33 AM (#1349847) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: GUEST,Roger Rettig Lonnie Donegan! But I really always wanted to be Denny Wright or Jimmie Currie (Lonnie's consecutive guitarists) - I got a career out of it, anyway..... RR |
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07 Dec 04 - 09:58 AM (#1349869) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Mooh Primarily my father, himself a composer, choir master, and reader of all things related to church and classical music. I wasn't exposed to other musics until I was 12 or so. Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin, then Roy Buchanan in a very big way, Leo Kottke, then a blur of performers from Oscar Peterson to Tonio K. Over 40 years now of singing in church choirs has been a huge influence. Beyond that it's a compulsion, I can't help myself. Good or bad, right or wrong, it's what I have to do. Thankfully, I enjoy teaching, so there's an income to be made. Thank goodness kids (adults are a given) still want to play guitar. Sometimes the failures and obstacles make me persevere. Disc jockey dances, karioke, disco, my encroaching age and intolerance of stupid music (don't flame me on that one, just see other threads on the subject) are things to be overcome and in their own way influencial. Peace, Mooh. |
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07 Dec 04 - 11:00 AM (#1349927) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: GUEST,Weasel Books Mum gave me a love of music, but what really started my love for music was hearing Andy Irvine. When I was very little mum taped off the radio some Irish songs that I only discovered years later were Planxty (and some rare Sweeney's men). A few years later my favorite songs were those done by the Kingston Trio. |
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07 Dec 04 - 12:03 PM (#1349991) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Swave N. Deboner My mother was a singer and, My father played trombone, My sister plays the violin, My aunt plays saxophone. My grannie, she could really clog While grampa played the spoons. I got a cousin plays guitar, He picks some dandy tunes. My uncle plays the botton box, My niece can play the flute, She also taps and does ballet, And plays french horn to boot. It's clear, I really have no choice, It's in my blood, you see. It's hard to NOT be musical In this here family. I can plink on the piano keys, And play the clarinet, I want to play the bagpipes but, I haven't learnt how, yet. My forte' is my singin' voice, I'm told I really croon, They say that when I do my thing, I make the women swoon. But am I a musician? For, I've never made a dime, Oh,I just like to sing some songs And have a good old time. ****** I am inspired by any good artist who uses their natural talent. Cheers SND |
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07 Dec 04 - 12:30 PM (#1350015) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Big Al Whittle My Mum. We were pretty poor and she bought me for Christmas this autobiography of Eddie Condon Jazz guitarist, entitled We Called it Music - it was remaindered in Woolworths 1/3d. I read it like it was my bible - compulsively. Such an interesting life Wild Bill, Bix, Bud and that was only the white guys - he was the first white jazz player to record with Fats waller. There was this sentence in it "Gene Krupa's drums trickled through the piece like bourbon over ice cubes." I thought thats what I want to be..... a drunk.............okay and and a musician |
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07 Dec 04 - 01:06 PM (#1350054) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Pete Jennings Lonnie Doneghan, Tommy Steele and Joe Brown, then later Donovan, Dylan, and Bert Jansch (who in put my guitar playing back about 30 years!). Pete PS. Number 6, I used to play that song Angie and I can give you a tip about learning it - it's an INSTRUMENTAL. *BG* Sorry, couldn't resist it!). Seriously, I thought I was the only one still playing Bert's stuff so nuce to hear of another. |
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07 Dec 04 - 01:10 PM (#1350060) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: GUEST,anonymous member Who influenced me to pick up the guitar? Too numerous to mention. Who influenced me to seriously try my hand at performing? Mississippi Fred McDowell. I met Fred when I was a college student. When he came to give a concert, I was given the duty/privilege to guide him around campus, hang out, make sure he got fed, etc. We wound up staying up all night after the show, drinking gin from the bottle (Gordon's), smoking reefer, swapping songs, and jamming. Fred couldn't have been more encouraging; he told me he'd never met a white boy who really understood the blues as well as me. My first reaction was that he was, you know, blowing smoke. But the next day we were talking with his manager, Dick Waterman, and Dick told me that yes, Fred was dead serious and that I should really give performing a shot. I told him I was strictly a "closet" player (really, a dorm-room player), so he advised me to go out and get some experience and then give him a call after I established myself. Fred told his manager, "you should have booked me to make that record last week with this kid, not that guy Mike." I later learned that Fred had just come from Chicago, where he had recorded the "I Do Not Play Rock n Roll" album with Mike Bloomfield. Now, I would never claim to be in the same league with Bloomfield as a guitar player, but -- based on Fred's expert opinion -- I just might be a better blue-eyed blues singer. Within a year, I was busking for a living and playing the occasional basket house gig. I kept at it for a couple of years, had a lot of fun, but never managed to break through to a higher level of professionalism, and never gave that call to Mr. Waterman. I still suspect that I might indeed be the world's bluest white singer, but I realize that, even if true, that plus five bucks won't get me more than an overpriced cup of cafe latte. I love this story, but usually keep it to myself because I don't want to sound like a braggart and a namedropper, and also because there's no dramatic happy ending -- I don't really have anything to brag about in the end, anyway. Hence the anonymous posting. If you recognize my voice, please don't tell anyone it's me (i.e., don't respond in this thread and give me away.) Shoot me a PM if you must. |
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07 Dec 04 - 01:57 PM (#1350099) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Justa Picker This is embarrassing, but seeing Liberace on the Ed Sullivan show when I was 4 made me ask my parents for a piano. As for guitar, Doc Watson and David Bromberg. |
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07 Dec 04 - 02:05 PM (#1350105) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Once Famous Initially, my father influenced me to sing. To sing and play the guitar, The Kingston Trio Then, Waylon Jennings, Buck Owens, Merle Haggard |
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07 Dec 04 - 02:11 PM (#1350112) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: themutineer Woody Guthrie. It changed my life, hearing that voice, dusty harp-blwing and distinctive (fairly mediocre) guitar playing. Then, there was Leadbelly, Blind Willie McTell, Norman Blake, Bill Monroe and I was off on an odessey that will never end. But Woody made me instantly grab my brothers old 12 string (take 6 of the strings off!) and begin trying to play. "Jesus Christ," Hard, Aint it Hard," Worried Man Blues," and "Jackhammer John" were the first songs I recall playing. Thanks Woody! |
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07 Dec 04 - 02:12 PM (#1350114) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Ellenpoly My brother and Judy Collins |
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07 Dec 04 - 02:12 PM (#1350116) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: beetle cat I'm no musician, but yeah I make a bit of noise. I was abducted by the Folk crowd just a few years ago, initially by Frank Woerner, and Alison Kelley-Kraan,... if I had to pick names. And of corse Eric, who lent me his concertina (corrupted me forever). If you ever want to be taken in and taught well.. make friends with the NY Packet crowd. You are especially prone to abduction if you are a cat who is missing parts, or meowing at the doorstep, or just in any way a bit odd. :) ...Thanks guys. mary |
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07 Dec 04 - 02:12 PM (#1350117) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Peter T. I am not a musician, and probably never will be, but watching Rick Fielding at work gave me a sense of what being a real musician is like, which, although I spent my life listening to music and being around it, was new, and is something I can at least now understand a bit and admire. Echoing the anonymous contributor, it may have something to do with Rick's stories about being a go-fer for Son House, watching Gary Davis, and playing Lonnie Johnson's guitar. Not to mention sharing a house with Neil Young. My only claim to a whiff of that universe was walking up and down Yorkville Avenue in the same years, and lying about my age to get into clubs..... yours, Peter T. |
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07 Dec 04 - 02:40 PM (#1350150) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: GUEST,greg stephens I named Lonnie Donegan as main influence, he kick-started so many of us. But the anonymous guest a while back reminded me of the great encouragement you can get from kind words from musicians you admire. I got enormous boosts when I was wet behind the ears from Gary Davis and Alexis Korner, so I'd like to credit for that here. They were great people, and took time to give me good attention and advice. |
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07 Dec 04 - 02:46 PM (#1350161) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Cool Beans When I was a kid in summer camp in 1960 I heard Gerry Tenney, a counselor, fingerpicking "Railroad Bill" and it was the most beautiful sound I'd ever heard. That was it for me. A year later my parents bought me a guitar. By 1962 I was fingerpicking "Railroad Bill." I've never stopped playing. I just Googled Gerry Tenney and I see he's still at it, with California Klezmer. |
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07 Dec 04 - 02:54 PM (#1350168) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: MaineDog My Mom used to play popular songs on her piano, which was never moved outside of my grandmother's house, so that only happened once a year. Otherwise, I listend to r&b and pop as we all did in the fifties. In high school I started to roller skate, and discovered marches and waltzes, which led to Chopin, which led to classical music. Searching for an instrument that I could more or less teach myself to play, I discovered the recorder, and "early music", which of course is a source for folk music, which I discovered in the late sixties. After I began to dance I found that the recorder is appropriate for English Country dance music, and sometimes for Scottish country dance music. Time flies by, and now I often play in contra dance bands also, and of course, early music groups, and traditional music jams of all sorts. MD |
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07 Dec 04 - 04:57 PM (#1350294) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: RangerSteve I was planning on buying a guitar so I could be like Buck Owens and George Jones (I still have the flat-top haircut), but one night on a country station out of Hoboken, NJ I heard Grandpa Jones singing "Daisy Dean". He played guitar on that one, but I liked his voice and searched out his records, and fell in love with his style of banjo playing, so I got a banjo instead. I never regretted my decision. My older brother taught me the basics of harmonica playing, and the same radio station broadcast an hour of the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday night, where I first heard the Crook Brothers perform. They got me started on playing fiddle tunes on the harmonica. |
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08 Dec 04 - 12:56 AM (#1350641) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Briagha The Everly Brothers, Tom Paxton, The Corries, and The McCalmans |
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08 Dec 04 - 01:06 AM (#1350647) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Pauline L My parents, who had music playing at home on the phonograph or radio all the time, as I recall. Mozart. I distinctly remember hearing Eine Kleine for the first time, when I was ten years old, on the clock radio my mother bought for me with green stamps. Even then I knew I couldn't sing, but I decided that I could do something similar with my violin. I teach beginning fiddle/violin and, when I get a new adult student, I always ask, "Why did you decide that you want to learn to play the violin?" Some of the answers I get are: "I went to Ireland and heard some awesome fiddle playing." "My mother played fiddle, and so did my grandmother. I guess it's in my blood." This one frequently: "I don't know anything about music but I love the way the violin sounds." |
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08 Dec 04 - 12:18 PM (#1351036) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: alanabit I grew up listening to all the usual big names which come to mind when you mention sixties music. However, I should say that the two musicians whom I admired most when I saw them close up, were Paul Downes and Phil Beer. I admired them for their dedication, talent, eclecticism and exemplary manners. They were - and still are - everything I would like to be. |
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08 Dec 04 - 01:12 PM (#1351083) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Rapparee "You're going to learn to play something this summer and that's all there is to it," said my mother. Later, she also said, "I don't care; piano lessons start next Saturday." So I learned trumpet (and treble clef baritone, somewhat) and can do the scales on the piano. |
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08 Dec 04 - 01:14 PM (#1351084) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: burntstump Gordon Lightfoot |
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08 Dec 04 - 03:20 PM (#1351206) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: GUEST,chinmusic Early folk influences were Lightfoot, Jerry Jeff Walker and Dylan. I was also influenced by the way Tom Rush put a song across to an audience. His phrasing and interpretation were impeccable. |
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08 Dec 04 - 04:12 PM (#1351244) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: cool hand Tom THE LATE GREAT LUKE KELLY. |
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08 Dec 04 - 04:45 PM (#1351267) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Guy Wolff Playing for Girls at the dances first !!! Tude Tanquay was a local square dance fiddler , I loved trying to follow his music around on banjo .. First heard frailing .... (Steven Still playing banjo on Blue Bird) <><><>,loved ><><, Clarence Tom Ashley Robert Johnson Ry Cooder Ry Cooder ( Billy the kid) !! Martin Carthy Martin Carthy ( famous flower of serving men ) June Tabor (Rayard the fox) ...( Conga drum for samba partys at the Calder's house as a kid .. ) Taj mahal ( De old Folks at home ) .Peter Paul and Mary |
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09 Dec 04 - 09:01 AM (#1351923) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: mkebenn When I was really young my grandfather,when in his cups,would sing "Casey Jones" to me. Then the Trio, Jimmy Dean, Marty Robbins, Johnny Horton. It was The Stones and the Yardbirds that made me pick up the guitar, tho. When I was about 20 I heard a local folksinger named Ed Hart flatpick " Coal Tatoo" and "Co'dine" and that was thirty five years ago,and I played BOTH of 'em this morning!Oh yea, Little Hawk, I'd put 'em Tyson, Sainte Marie,Dylan..............Baez. Mike. p.s. I play ALOT of John Stewart |
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09 Dec 04 - 10:39 AM (#1352002) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Strollin' Johnny Hank B. Marvin, James Burton and the lead players in Gene Vincent's 'Bluecaps' and Johnny Kidd's 'Pirates' whose names I no longer remember (help me someone??). All long before I got into Folk music. S:0) |
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09 Dec 04 - 12:53 PM (#1352121) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: chris nightbird childs Well, after I started teaching myself guitar at the age of 20 or so, I became influenced by the songwriting of Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Nick Drake... I also fell in love with the blues (specifically country blues) of Robert Johnson, Son House, Willie McTell, and a lot of Delta and Georgia players... |
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09 Dec 04 - 01:46 PM (#1352161) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: GUEST Lonnie Donegan's recording of "Lost John" b/w "Stewball" in 1956. |
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09 Dec 04 - 10:38 PM (#1352578) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: GUEST,DaveC First, Kingston Trio, then The Weavers and Pete Seeger. A 60s herd-follower -- too bad the herd has thinned out as it has. Later on -- much later -- Tom Pease. |
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10 Dec 04 - 12:22 AM (#1352612) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Margo God. Can't not do it. It's part of my being. Margo |
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10 Dec 04 - 02:07 PM (#1353265) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: kendall Wilf Carter and Pete Seeger |
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12 Aug 09 - 06:21 AM (#2698398) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: GUEST,Geoff Nendick I'd really like to know who I influenced, who are you Stu? - Geoff |
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12 Aug 09 - 06:35 AM (#2698404) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Captain Farrell Buddy Holly/That`ll be the day guitar lick and also opening to Shakin All Over Johny Kid and the Pirates |
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12 Aug 09 - 06:49 AM (#2698415) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: erosconpollo First, Burl Ives, whose 45s for children (and adults, for that matter) I wore out as a six year old. I could tell then that they were several cuts above the other kids' music I'd heard. Later, the Smothers Brothers -- when I realized you could make music AND be funny at the same time, I was sold. |
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12 Aug 09 - 06:58 AM (#2698425) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: maeve GUEST,Geoff Nendick- I sent a Private Message to s&r to let him know you stopped by here. If you were to become a member (free) you could exchange PMs with him yourself. Welcome to Mudcat. maeve |
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12 Aug 09 - 07:05 AM (#2698428) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: s&r Many years ago at Rediffusion Training School you sang 'Dirty Old Town' to a picked guitar. You were on one of my courses (Colour TV? Video?) That set in motion a passion for music that chand my life/career/wife... Do you still play? Stu |
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12 Aug 09 - 08:05 AM (#2698458) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: The Sandman no one in particular,just enjoyed making musical sounds,perhaps the first person who gave me a guitar. then the ba#####,who sold me a left handed guitar strung up right handed,when i was 15,which made me abandon the guitar for a while and take up the concertina. |
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12 Aug 09 - 09:34 AM (#2698525) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Mark Ross My parents had THE WEAVERS AT CARNEGIE HALL LP on Vanguard. I was 7 or 8. Then, when I was 14 going to hear Mississippi John Hurt, Rev. Gary Davis, Brownie McGhee & Sonny Terry, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe at Hunter College(all for 2 bucks!). Guy Wolff. it wasn't Stills frailing the banjo on that recording, it was my old friend Charlie Chin. Mark Ross |
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12 Aug 09 - 12:54 PM (#2698648) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego Oddly, it wasn't a folk musician, but the sweet sound of a jazz trombone that first caught my attention. In the 1940's and early '50's, my folks shared a mountain cabin retreat in the Sierras which counted an ancient tabletop Victrola amoung its attributes. We listened to everything from "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" to Chopin to Bing Crosby on that thing. My favorite was Jack Teagarden, an early jazz/blues trombonist. I first played cornet in elementary school. My music teacher, a 70-something part-timer who had played trumpet with John Philip Sousa's Marine Band, encouraged me. From then on, it was just finding what really suited me and it eventually led to guitar. |
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12 Aug 09 - 01:00 PM (#2698655) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: bankley my older brother, Barry.... showed me my first chords and gave me my first axe, an old Kay archtop.... then cousin Dougie Trineer who was playing like Chet and Merle.. so I could see , with my own eyes, that the instrument had a world of possibilities... magic time.... it still does and is... more than ever... |
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12 Aug 09 - 01:35 PM (#2698672) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: GUEST,Tunesmith Back in the early 60s, I went for a walk on a local beach. It was a lovely summer's day and hundreds of people were taking advantage of the great weather. There were a bunch of teenagers sitting on beach towels, and a couple of them had guitars. I went and sat near them to listen. They were singing the "pop" folk songs of the day - Kingston Trio and The Highwayman material. I thought it was terrific. I had a chat with them and they encouraged me to buy a guitar and learn a few songs. I did, and getting on for 50 years later, I wonder if they are still making music. I hope so, because I am. |
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12 Aug 09 - 01:42 PM (#2698675) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: VirginiaTam My Mamma sang on radio, at weddings and church solos My brothers always picked for solos in school, older brother went on make music production and performance his career My daughters singing together and creating harmonies and winning solos, awards and scholarships Various singers, performers and composers in numerous genre. I sang different stuff and played guitar a bit half-heartedly off an on. But when I heard Odetta singing a tiny bit of Waterboy on a youtube video in late November 2008, I had not really found my place. Until then I was just wandering around tasting and trying a bit of this and that. Now I found my niche and it is down to her. |
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12 Aug 09 - 02:40 PM (#2698711) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Amos I LOVED Teagarden's old 78's. I can still hear him doing "Meet Me Where They Play the Blues". But for me the inspiration was my mum and her father, followed by Frank Warner, Huddy Ledbelly, Pete Seeger, and Richard Dyer-Bennett. More or less in that order. A |
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12 Aug 09 - 02:50 PM (#2698718) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Phil Edwards This is my cue to embarrass John Kelly (again)... But first things first. Jozeph Roberts gave me my first floor-spot, the third time I went to Chorlton FC (February 2003). I did Sally Free and Easy, unaccompanied in a long fawn mac. Afterwards Jozeph said to me, slightly reproachfully, "You should have told us you sing." That was nice to hear (I mean, 'sing', not 'can sing'...) Thanks, Joe. When I was a regular at Chorlton Kate Reigate used to be a semi-regular visitor, and was one of the few other performers who sang unaccompanied. But whereas I did whatever I felt like that week, Kate invariably did something traditional - and usually something I hadn't heard, despite my in-depth knowledge of the Pentangle and the Span. One week she did a completely different version of a song I thought I knew - that really got me interested. Thanks, Kate. Les Jones was and is a Chorlton regular, and is also the onlie begetter of the Beech singaround, which got going in December 2007. There I met a bunch of people - former Song Carriers, Saracen's Head regulars and suchlike reprobates - whose knowledge of and enthusiasm for traditional song made me feel like a thirteen-year-old with his first Steeleye album. Fortunately I didn't run screaming; the experience opened a door that stayed open. Thanks, Les. By the time I saw John Kelly do a full set, I was starting to get albums of traditional song & putting some work into finding songs and fitting them to my voice. (I was even starting to go off Anne Briggs.) So John didn't make me change direction, but he did absolutely confirm that I was on the right track - if a set of traditional material could sound like that, why would I want to mess around with anything else? Cheers, John. |
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12 Aug 09 - 02:51 PM (#2698719) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Old Vermin The musicians in the Ram Ciderhouse, Godalming [closed 1999] Ed Rennie, Phil Atkinson, Keith Calton, Kevin Gorton and many others. http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/351117. Took a few years for it to work, but I'm beginning to get there. |
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12 Aug 09 - 03:12 PM (#2698732) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: black walnut a. Grandma Moyer, playing the piano at the Baptist Church with her arthritic fingers. b. And I just had to had to had to do it, that's all. I cried as a little kid to get a piano, until my parents finally caved in. I also cried for a harp, but unfortunately that didn't happen until I was in my 40's, with my own money. :-) ~b.w. |
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12 Aug 09 - 06:35 PM (#2698941) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Willie-O There is an interesting thing going on here...perhaps someone can count up the number of folks influenced by recording stars, and those influenced by someone playing live in front of them. Now I had all kinds of recordings that influenced me...mostly my folks' Maritime folk music records (they moved to Ottawa shortly before I was born). But to speak to the actual question...I always remember a public-school talent show kinda thing, around grade five or six. Three girls in my class--Kathy Kornelissen, Karen Parker and Hannah Ayukawa, I think--got up with a guitar and sang "Four Strong Winds". I just sat there as gob-smacked as a ten-year-old boy can get, and that is pretty goddamn gobsmacked in case you're wondering. I'd never heard the song before, and it was the only time I ever saw these girls sing with a guitar...I was just plain smitten. I like to think that my reaction was "I could do that", but really it was just "Wow, that's fantastic." (subtext: "Huh? It's not on a record!") I will love that song till the day I die, just for the memory of when it carried me out of the cruddy interior of Fairfield Public School, to someplace where those winds sure can blow cold, way out there. W-O p.s. a couple of years ago the former Fairfield Public School was knocked down and replaced with 155 rowhouses. I guess the rsidents' kids will go to school somewhere but they sure won't have the acreage we enjoyed at recess..."You don't know what you've got till it's gone". |
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12 Aug 09 - 07:15 PM (#2698976) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Tootler I don't think any recording has influenced me to become a musician but they have influenced my musical tastes. The people who have really influenced me as a musician are the various people who have taught me over the years. The teacher in my final year at primary school who first taught me recorder, the tutors at a Local College where I took a music course as an adult having rediscovered the recorder when my daughters started learning it at school. The Musical director of our local recorder society who taught a recorder class at the college. The various tutors at the Folkworks Caedmon Folk classes in Gateshead. Also several others at weekend and day workshops I have been to from time to time. The feature all have shared is that they have encouraged my musical development and have never put me down, so I always felt encouraged to keep going. |
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12 Aug 09 - 07:33 PM (#2698988) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Commander Crabbe My self and Ralph McTell CC |
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12 Aug 09 - 07:55 PM (#2698996) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Jerry Rasmussen I was born one. Best answer I can give. It was many years after I'd fooled around with ukelele, harmonica and mandolin before I heard someone who influenced my music. No one influenced me to become one. Plenty of musicians influenced over the years, but they were in many genres, from jazz to popular music to folk (once I realized it was called folk music.) Frankie Lane, Frank Sinatra, Clancy Hayes, Lonnie Donnegan, Tal Farlow... hard to characterize their similarities other than that they sounded like they loved the music they played. |
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12 Aug 09 - 08:19 PM (#2699007) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Smokey. My mother, with a wind-up gramophone and a piano. |
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13 Aug 09 - 04:13 AM (#2699216) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Acorn4 An album called "The Paul Simon Song Book". |
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13 Aug 09 - 05:05 AM (#2699234) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Backwoodsman Alan "Pop" Morrow, my music teacher at school, 1958 - 1964, who showed me that there was more to music than Hank Marvin and Buddy Holly (great though they were). RIP "Pop". My mum, who sang all day long and had the voice of an angel. I can still hear her singing "Too-Ra-Loo-Ra" to me as she cuddled me on her knee before bed. Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! :-) My dad, who could only play the gramophone - but what great stuff he played on it, The Ink Spots, The Andrews Sisters, Glenn Miller, Sinatra. The gramophone had a strange 'hot' smell when it was playing (it was one of the modern 'electric' models!), I can recall that smell even now, >50 years on. And a guy who played the accordion for our sing-songs on the coach that used to take us on the annual outings from the factory my dad worked at. I always wanted to play the accordion, never made it. |
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13 Aug 09 - 06:05 AM (#2699268) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: GUEST,Mr Red Well, as a drummer can I call myself a musician? As a singist I guess I can include myself on that score loosely. Well it was the dear departed ex-wife. She gave me the freedom not to embarrass her - or let her be embarrassed on my behalf. May she forever stay departed. And I - for my part will never stop singing - just to prevent such good fortune deserting me - I've changed the locks anyway. |
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13 Aug 09 - 06:24 AM (#2699279) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: kendall My friend, Gordon Bok encouraged me to go on stage and perform for audiences. |
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13 Aug 09 - 08:12 AM (#2699329) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: olddude My friend Harry Chapin and I still miss him everyday |
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13 Aug 09 - 10:21 AM (#2699411) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Jerry Rasmussen Gordon Bok has always been an encourager. Many years ago I booked Bok, Trickett and Muir for their very first ever concert together. Gordon stayed overnight at our place and we spent well into the night playing music after the concert. What moved me was that he just wanted to listen to me. I hadn't started performing concerts back then, with no expectation of doing a record and yet Gordon made me feel that I was important. That is one of his finest gifts. Jerry |
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13 Aug 09 - 10:45 AM (#2699417) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: GUEST,Paco Rabanne Nick Griffin. |
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13 Aug 09 - 11:15 AM (#2699434) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Art Thieme This is not a facetious post! ALL of the people in this music of ours who have influenced me musically and intellectually have been spoken about ad-infinitum here at Mudcat in hundreds of my posts. I will let those stand for themselves as they are eminently findable here in this forum. My mother, my aunt and my uncle are the three people I wish to mention in this thread as being extremely influential in having me turn out to be a musician. They fought me at every turn by expressing their disapproval of this sincere and heartfelt choice of mine!! None ever heard me play my music before they all died. Art |
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13 Aug 09 - 11:25 AM (#2699439) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Wesley S My brother brought home a Gibson 12 string guitar and a banjo from his time in the air force. And lots of records by Joan Baez, the Brother Four , The Kingston Trio and Peter Paul and Mary. It rubbed off on me. I'm still grateful. Thanks Jeff. |
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13 Aug 09 - 11:33 AM (#2699444) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Bee-dubya-ell The rock guitar gods of the '60s and early '70s (Hendrix, Clapton, Duane Allman et al) made me want to become a musician, but they've actually had almost no influence upon my playing. While I made a stab at learning guitar during those days, the stuff those guys were doing was so far above my understanding I more or less gave up. The person who most influenced me to actually become a musician was my best friend during early adulthood. He was a good enough electric guiatrist to master some of that stuff I liked but couldn't grasp. I'd listen to him play, but never attempted to join in. Then, a few years later, he gravitated toward acoustic guitar and I thought I could handle some of what he was doing, so I decided to give it a try. He taught me enough that I could keep my head above water in jam sessions, which is where I've really learned most of what I do. Of well-known musicians, the one who's most influenced my actual playing style is probably Norman Blake. |
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13 Aug 09 - 04:03 PM (#2699667) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: John P I can't remember when I wasn't a musician. I was a relentless drummer by age 2, and started finding my way around on the piano not long after. I don't think anyone influenced me to start playing music, and I don't think I had any choice in the matter. |
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14 Aug 09 - 05:42 AM (#2700047) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Howard Jones Me too. I always wanted to play music from my earliest days. I can still remember the excitement of my first music lesson at primary school, and my disappointment at being made to play triangle when I wanted to play the drum. I learned recorder at school, because you do, but I wanted to play guitar because that was what the pop stars played. However, by the time I had taught myself to play 3 chords pop music had gone all psychedelic and didn't work on an acoustic guitar. I found "Burl Ives' Book of Australian Folk Songs" in the local music shop, with tunes I could play, and that led me to folk music. |
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14 Aug 09 - 07:34 AM (#2700097) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: SharonA -- My parents, who insisted that all their kids take piano lessons. My father had been a guitarist when he was able to play (pre-rheumatoid arthritis) and my mother was an elementary-school teacher (with a mental library of a bazillion children's songs), so there was no getting away from music in my family. -- My two older brothers, whom I idolized as a kid, and who were playing brass instruments in the junior high school band while I was struggling with the piano. I especially adored my eldest brother's trombone (I was fascinated with the concept of a sliding tone and the way it freed one from the restrictions of pressing a key) and I wanted to learn to play trombone as well, but when the time came for my rite of passage to a second instrument, my arms were too short to deal with the trombone slide. I was handed a clarinet instead; I had virtually no choice in the matter! But I took to it in a way I never had taken to the piano, and I loved playing in the school band, which was an invaluable learning experience. Don't know that I would have considered risking the ridicule from my junior-high classmates (band was not exactly a "cool" activity) if my brothers hadn't done it first. |
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14 Aug 09 - 03:03 PM (#2700358) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Johnhartford hi Like others here I seemed to have been born just loving any kind of music. However it was Lonnie Donnegan that actually influenced me to buy a guitar and actually learn to play so that I could achieve my ambition to play and sing in public. My old man had a couple of Donnegan records and although the skiffle wave had started to fade into memory I bought an old Hofner guitar and started to teach myself to play along with Lonnie. I have to be honest and say that I wasn't a great admirer of Lonnie's music but it got me playing. So I will always be thankful to Lonnie. By some strange chance I actually met up with Lonnie some years later. He was visiting some people who he stayed with as an evacuee many years earlier in my home town in Cheshire, though I was unaware of this. The guy who he stayed with by this time was the Mayor and Lonnie came up to do a set for the Mayor's charity. I was playing with a band on the same show. We had a beer together and talked about Jazz. Cheers John |
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14 Aug 09 - 05:52 PM (#2700480) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: GUEST,Bruce Michael Baillie The Dubliners and a bit later Planxty, Andy Irvine and Christy Moor. I still regard Andy Irvine as my all time musical hero to this day. But also my mother who played the piano (self taught) in our house while I was growing up. Many's the duet we did together at family parties back in the 60's. Old traditional songs and also her filthy version of Old King Cole (was a bugger for his hole!) She gave me a love for music that I still have AND it all seemed so normal. Making music at home, how many people do that these days? |
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15 Aug 09 - 06:01 PM (#2701227) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: deadfrett Dad and all those others |
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15 Aug 09 - 06:07 PM (#2701230) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: SPB-Cooperator Michael Black |
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16 Aug 09 - 12:29 AM (#2701415) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Fidjit Quote Greg Stevens Lonnie Donegan, who else? And George Melly Chas |
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16 Aug 09 - 07:10 AM (#2701485) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Kosmo My Taid who's an opera singer who taught me to read msuci and play the piano - he also plays the accordian. My parents, who've sang and played folk around me since I was wee. Queen, because I really love them. ACDC, why not? Luv Kosmo |
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16 Aug 09 - 08:13 AM (#2701502) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Fidjit Pity they didn't teach you to spell Chas |
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16 Aug 09 - 10:07 AM (#2701550) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: GUEST,Gabe Dean Martin as incedible as it may sound. When I got my first guitar, "That's Amore" was the #1 tune on the hit parade. With it's 2 or 3 chords, I played it until I was almost exiled from home. Gabe |
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16 Aug 09 - 12:33 PM (#2701622) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Stringsinger Music has been a journey for me that's covered a lot of territory. My mother was a piano teacher during the Depression. As a small child I would hide under the grand piano as she taught and practiced Chopin, Scriabin, Schumann, Mozart, Beethoven etc. At four years of age I would wake up a 6:00 A.M. in the East Side of Los Angeles and tune into KMTR, the voice of Tijuana Mexico and listen to Mariachi groups such as "Los Trabadajores de Mexico". My step-father brought home 78's of Danny Kaye, Burl Ives, Leadbelly, Josh White, Dwight Fiske (a name you don't hear any more), Gilbert and Sullivan, Lily Pons, "The Lonesome Train" (Seeger, Ives, etc.) and an odd assortment of specialty songs such as "There are Lilies In The Bottom of My Garden", "Walter, Walter, Lead Me To the Altar" "Suzanne is a Funny Old Man". My step-father Phil sang to me a song he had learned hopping the freight cars from a Black hobo called "The Tennessee Blues". I still sing it and have never heard anyone else sing it since. I inherited an original copy of Carl Sandburg's "American Songbag" circa 192(?) from my biological father who died four months before I was born. I saw the movie "Smoky" and fell in love with Burl Ives. Studied jazz guitar with Sam Surace who later became a sociologist professor at U.C.L.A. My conservative aunt who was at that time a flaming Socialist introduced me to a 78 recording of "Hold The Line", a documentary of the Peekskill Riots. I'll never forget the opening, "This is Howard Fast". Fell in love with Pete Seeger. 1949...went to my first Hootenanny. Bart van der Schelling (a vet of the Spanish Civil War) and his wife had them in their home in the Hollywood Hills. In subsequent meetings I met Cisco Houston, Woody Guthrie, Bess Lomax Hawes, Mickey and Mattie Miller, Jerry Atinsky, Guy Carawan (who became my singing partner for a while), Rich Dehr and Frank Miller (later to become the Easy Riders with Terry Gilkyson) and a beautiful Black woman who played the autoharp and sang spirituals. In high school, sang folk songs and played on folksong program for radio station KGIL in the San Fernando Valley. One of my fans was Wendell Corey, the actor who was most gracious and encouraging. Don Cherry was the M.C. I believe. Through Will Geer, I met Cisco, the Weavers and my first exposure to Pete Seeger. (Had to learn to play that kind of banjo, Pete blew me away so I took a couple of lessons from Eddie Mann. Guy, Pete and I jammed together. I met Woody at Will Geer's ranch and learned harmonica from him to perform in a local production of "Finian's Rainbow" playing the Sonny Terry part. We became "pickin' buddies". Got into trad jazz and played trombone in jam sessions at the 47 club on Ventura Boulevard hosted by Zutty Singleton. Doc Rando, who played with Bob Crosby took me under his wing. We became friends. (Practicing doctor who played jazz clarinet.) Bess and Butch Hawes (with help from the UCLA music library) introduced me to authentic trad American folkmusic . Then one thing lead to another. I'm getting this down for an autobio. Mudcat folks have been encouraging and generous about this and I think it's our responsibility to see that these experiences get documented somehow. We all need to do this. Couldn't do anything else but be in music because I was fired from every other job I attempted. Arrows pointed "Go this way". Frank Hamilton |
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16 Aug 09 - 02:40 PM (#2701716) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Leadfingers Whichever of my parets bought my firat Mouth Organ I suppose ! Cant think of anyone else to balme |
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16 Aug 09 - 02:59 PM (#2701738) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Bernard 101 |
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16 Aug 09 - 04:08 PM (#2701777) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Leadfingers As long as its not ROOM 101 ! |
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16 Aug 09 - 04:24 PM (#2701787) Subject: RE: Who influenced you to become a musician From: Stringsinger Allison, Talked to John Langstaff at Pinewoods before he started the Revels. He was in the planning stages. Apparently it worked just fine. In the winter of '82 (I think it was) I sang in the chorus of the Revels in the barn in Cambridge on Harvard Campus. (Sanders Theater?) He always closed out with "Lord Of The Dance" before Micheal Flately. Everyone danced around the entire theater space. Beautiful baritone voice. Frank Hamilton |