FOR THE LOVE OF MUSIC

I have been playing music on and off my whole life and have always known I had a passion and connection around music…….it just took me a while to figure out why.

For years I thought it was all about the guitar and I took lessons once a week for ten years. I was driven, determined and passionate. I even had re occurring dreams that I would get very, very close to jamming with Stevie Ray Vaughn (my guitar hero) and then I would wake up……it never seemed to happen. I played in bands and jammed at every opportunity possible. Playing the guitar was fulfilling……yet I wanted more.

Things changed in my 40s when I started to hand drum. I fell into this like an old shoe. From the get go, I got it and realized then why I was such a percussive guitar player…..I was a drummer playing the guitar. It was all about the connection to my inner rhythm that turned me on. I could sit in a room full of men (and did many times) and start to drum and they moved…..almost involuntarily…..as if the music connected them to some other part of their being…..it was a spiritual experience….still is.

This weekend I went and celebrated the 40th birthday of the son of a good friend of mine who is now deceased. My friend, Wright “Big Daddy” Bohlmann, and I played in a band (Railroad Gin) for over 10 years. His son, Hans, had his birthday party at their farm in Brenham where we had our annual Summer Soulstice Party for 10 years in a row. Hans was the first drummer we ever had and he was able to get our whole original Railroad Gin lineup plus a few jamming buddies together to play.

What I realized that night, as the memories of all of those years flooded in, was why I play music. I play because of the joy, love and connection I get from the music AND with the people I play with. I love and thrive on the connections with the music, the rhythms, the people and the experience of creating joy and hope. That night something happened within me that opened up a whole new connection I have with the love of music…..for the love of music.