The End of a Era?

I know the death of Glenn Frey caught many off guard, including me.  So many great songs, so many memories that he helped create.  I never personally got to see Eagles live, sounds funny, just saying Eagles, but for some reason puttin "The" in front of them wasn't what the band wanted, or so I've heard.  I had been a fan of the band for many years, but sometime during the nineties, with the oversaturation of classic rock on radio, I kind of got sick of hearing "Hotel California" or "Life in the Fast Lane".  Great songs none the less, but they were (still) in heavy rotation on classic rock stations.  It wasn't until last year when I was on a "sicker than I have ever been" three day camp out in my bathroom, that I discovered " The History of the Eagles" documentary.  It clicked that I was still a fan, I just hadn't really listened to the band in years.  Seeing the doc, reminded me of all the great songs that they had.  It's not that I had forgot, just really hadn't paid attention to them.  Being the youngest with three older brothers and a sister, I really can't remember ever not knowing who the Eagles were.  It seemed there was always an 8 track or a cassete laying around.  Glenn Frey's contributions will live on which is something all his fans should be grateful for.


We also lost David Bowie this year.  I will admit I'm not that much of a fan of Bowie.  Some songs I like, but just was never that into his songs.  The one thing about Bowie that I look at as a great contribution to music is that he introduced a little known Texas blues guitarist to the world.  Bowie had met Stevie Ray Vaughan after the Montreaux Jazz Festival and tapped him to play guitar on six of the eight tracks on his "Let's Dance" album.  Soon Stevie Ray and Double Trouble became a known entity on their own.  Although not much of an influence on me and my style of music, Bowie is a great loss to millions.

We also lost Lemmy, Paul Kantner, and just today it was announced that Singe Anderson, original singer of the Jefferson Airplane died the same day as Kantner.  2016 sure has not been a good year for classic rock artists so far.  Death is apart of life, but when heroes and influences that you have known all your life starts leaving us, it makes you realize that youth is just a part of everyone's past.

So here we go....

I have been kicking around the idea of doing a blog about music for awhile now.  Just trying to find time to do it was the one thing holding me back.  For those that know me, knows that I have loved music and have been singing since I was a little child.  I started playing guitar at around 15 or so, and started a band a few years later with my best friend Rob Oxford, Dave Conley, and Billy Irby.  We played for a few years with different members thrown in here and there, also a few different names.  But music was instilled in me long before the band, it always seemed there was music in the house, whether it be my Dad playing his guitar, or my mother listening to the country countdown while getting Sunday supper cooked, or the numerous different records or tapes that my older brothers and sister had brought home.

I remember very fondly when I was four or five and seeing the 8 track, yes 8 track, of Lynyrd Skynryd's "One More From (For) the Road".  The one thing that I have never forgotten is Ronnie Van Zant asking, "What song is it you want to hear?"  Then hearing the crowd shouting back "FREEBIRD!"  It still gives me chills to this day.  The range of different music in our house was great and varied.  From country to bluegrass to rock to gospel, just about everything was played, and growing up in the 70's and 80's there was some great music out there.  I always seemed to be about 10 years behind on my music, while most of the kids in my junior high and high school was wearing Poison, Bon Jovi, or any other rock/metal band (hair metal is a term that wasn't used at the time), I was wearing my Skynyrd tribute shirt. I listened to that music also, but I was more about Skynyrd, the Eagles, ZZ Top.

I'm just giving you a little background on me and some of my tastes in this blog.  I am going to try to update this every week or two.  I am not an expert by any means, but I listen to a range of different music.  I plan on talking about different musicians, genres,  and what I love about them.  As I've gotten older, I find myself at 40 listening to things that I would've never turned an ear to at 16.  So just a little bit to expect, and I hope whoever read this enjoys it, and maybe discovers new and old music to enjoy.