MUSIC MAKERS
My cousin and I have been exchanging recommendations for bands.
My cousin lives in a fairly remote part of the United States, and spends big chunks of each year in Europe. His taste in music, and his preference for bands, is far broader than mine. Lately we have been trading YouTube links; we include a few words of explanation of styles of music and/or statements about personal experiences in seeing/hearing the bands we like.
My cousin has always liked to dance; contra dancing has been an important part of his adult life. Lately, he has been learning some country line dances. He even works some nights as a DJ at the place he goes to for line-dancing. All that sounds great to me, having spent 30-some years in Nashville. For at least some of those years, my life included weekly line-dancing with friends and co-workers. I am sending my cousin some links to real Nashville music and real Nashville music peeps!
My cousin is also a drummer, and gets together with friends to jam out. I am thinking that, now that he has retirement time, he is enjoying the artistic side of our genetics: the music, the dancing, the drumming. Creating and performing are at least as important as our more passive pursuits like reading and listening to music. I love the idea of a life full of art!
“A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence.” Leopold Stokowski
