Today -Nov. 27th- is my Dad's birthday. He thinks it's his 74th, but I know better. Seems that there was some mix-up with the paperwork when he was a boy…

As I stated here before, my old man is the one that got me into playing music. He used to like to play old songs on his guitar, as well as blow out some melodies on a harmonica. Real down home stuff.

It was the harp that initially attracted me. I picked up one of his and spent a couple of weeks carrying it around with me, learning how to play simple melodies.

Eventually, I asked him to show me how to play a chord on the guitar………

Merle (I love his given name, and use it any chance I can. I even address him by it sometimes. Why didn't he name me Merle jr.?) used to take me to shows all the time when I was a kid. I'm not so sure that he was trying to indoctrinate me into the world of folk music, but suspect that because I was the oldest boy, I was there for company.

Nevertheless…….. I saw some great old shows that I'm glad to recall. I saw Doc Watson perform several times, both when his son Merle (there's that name again) was alive and playing with him; I saw John prine on several occasions, well before he became the icon that he is; I got to see Norman Blake; I saw Stan Rogers on several occasions as well. Stan died in 1983 -a terrible loss to the Canadian music world.

There were a great many more, but those are the ones that pop into my head the quickest.

Merle still loves to listen to the old stuff as well, and I'm sure when I get together this weekend there's a strong probability that a guitar might appear, and we'll dust off some old Carter Family, or Stanley Bros. songs.

Happy birthday pops!

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