Musical Sins


By: Daniel Date: Apr 11, 2007 - 01:46 PM

Ok so I've been "on the wagon" of acoustic music since I was nine years old and heard my mom's Cat Stevens record. I went through that rebellious phase as a teen and put Kiss posters up in my bedroom, bought an electric guitar and started rockin'. Then, after a while I gravitated back to my roots. I got serious about acoustic music, dropped all attachment to electricity, picked up the mandolin, learned to love Bluegrass, and finally got myself a great mandolin.

Sometime between rockin' out and dropping my attachment to electricity I met my wife, a rocker chick from the 80s. She has not been able to follow me down the traditional music path and has avoided like the plague festivals, jams, and parties that include traditional music.

So six weeks after acquiring my amazing Vessel mandolin, my wife went and ordered me a Stratocaster. But not just any Strat, an Eric Johnson signature Strat with a 2 tone sunburst and a quarter sawn one-piece maple neck. Oh man. I'm electric again, and this is nicest electric guitar I have ever owned.

Talk about your existential directional conflicts. I have just now been playing my strat through a 15 year old Ampeg amp that I never managed to get rid of. The amp only pushes out 20watts of power, but plugged in and turned up to 3, it is so powerful I cannot hear myself singing!

I forgot how cathartic and visceral such volume can be. I was having a crappy day until I cranked it up and threw my fingers around the fretboard on a funky blues riff in A. Man that's fun!

I'm not giving up tradional music, but I am making room for a little extra volume in my life. And my wife is tickled pink.

Daniel

Posted: Fri - May 4, 2007 at 10:29 AM          

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