My Musical Autobiography

As I enter into the concluding years of my college life I have been prompted to answer such a stimulating question about my musical autobiography.

I will start from the very beginning when I was first introduced to B.B. King and Jethro Tull at the wee age of 5. My father would play his records while my mother cooked dinner. She did not like this very much, but needless to say, I always enjoyed dancing. I shared the passion for the blues along with my father at a young age. After listening to it time and time again, I would play little clips on the piano. Jethro Tull was next on my fathers list. I was a little bit older when I started to listen to Jethro Tull. One of my favorite songs is “Living in the Past.” The folk rock band included flutes, whistles, drums, keyboards, and more. After this, I started doing my own research and ended up doing a history project in high school of the culture and music of the 60’s. You can probably guess all the artists that I still listen to (Hint: Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, and yes of course Jefferson Airplane).

I’ll now move on in a bit of a different direction. These two artists still influenced my very opinionated attitude towards music. My Aunt Pattie was determined to change that. Her favorite movie for some time was Chicago. She bought me the soundtrack and I could not stop listening to “They Both Reached for the Gun.” I sang in my top high school show choir (yeah, I bet you didn’t know that!), for 2 years and we would put on a Cabaret. I was very influenced by the show tunes and type of entertainment. The French, Dutch, and the U.S. all have their opinion and specific way they define a cabaret but are still intertwined with their music scene.

The most important influence in my musical career would have to be playing with a local Irish group in Charleston. It is called Na Fidleiri, which means the fiddlers. This group consisted of other fiddlers, a band that included the penny whistle, guitar, mandolin, bodhran, and more. I gained most of my cultural experience when we received a grant to travel to Ireland. We played in bars, cathedrals, and parks. We traveled the south of Ireland hitting Dublin, Galway, Limerick, and Lahinch. When we were in the U.S., we played at various festivals including the Savannah Irish Festival, Augusta Irish Festival, Charleston Piccolo Spoleto, and was a headliner for the Charleston Symphony where we took traditional Irish tunes and incorporated it with a classical symphony. I continued to play with this group gaining influence and experience while studying classical music. I learned about reels, jigs, and slow airs, which are the basic rhythmic outline for Irish songs. Improvisation was expected and dancing to the Irish tunes was normal.

I am aware that I have not recalled all of my past musical influences and experiences, but have hit on the most important ones. Now that I am older and wiser –that’s a joke- I have come a long way from being opinionated and stubborn about my musical collection to being open to every genre that unfolds. This is the same for music in other cultures.