The Steel Guitar Forum

Alan Brookes wrote:With more time on your hands, now is the time to work on that new solo album you always told yourself you would record when you got round to it.

Absolutely right Alan. First thing on my agenda when I move my recording equipment into my new studio. We should all be able to release a new product in the first year of retirement.

Ken Byng wrote:...First thing on my agenda when I move my recording equipment into my new studio. We should all be able to release a new product in the first year of retirement.

I only recently realized it's been over 20 yrs. since my last mediaeval album, so I'm dusting off my lutes, rebecs, et al, and I shall be working on it this summer. It'll be called "Days of Yore" and will have a lot more instruments on it, including harp, hurdy-gurdy, hammer dulcimer, tublular bells, etc.

I have played music all my life. Made the school orchestra in the 2nd grade on trumpet. Then french horn in high school. Started into country at 12 in 1950. Played in bands, and stage shows, opening for the Nashville acts, when they traveled alone. My main job was a union electrician. Just became a life member in the AFM142. Don't look for steady gigs. I play a Wed. jam basically classic country, and a Fri. bluegrass jam, with my banjo. That fulfills my music outside the house. The Wed. jam gets testy with some players. They are used to playing alone, and timing, and chords, are a real test for fills, and intros, and endings. But they say jams are fun? Don't miss the smoke filled clubs, of yesterday.

I would give just about anything to live next door to one of you guys who have a void to fill in your life! I could fill that void in a split second. I'd be at your house so fast with my guitar and I would be cutting your lawn and running your errands and pretty much anything you asked in trade for lessons! And I am not even joking. When we moving in to this house 7 months ago I literally prayed that by some miracle we would happen to move into a house where someone like one of you retired experts lived! My wife thought I was crazy but I hey, you never know!

So far I've enjoyed getting to play every weekend for a few bucks, the last 3yrs. It helps buy strings, gas, and the materials to build new cabinets for my '76 Fender Twin Reverb, w/JBL'S, so I can lift it without gettin' a hernia. So, post retirement for me is great, cause there is always something to do or fix, out here in the country.

Joe Gall wrote:I would give just about anything to live next door... I could fill that void in a split second. I'd be at your house so fast with my guitar and I would be cutting your lawn and running your errands and pretty much anything you asked in trade for lessons!...

Well, I wouldn't move 4,000 miles on that basis, if I were you...
I feel the same way. I left England 34 yrs. ago and moved to California, where, in a big city, I feel somewhat isolated. I'm surrounded by thousands of people, but I don't know them as well as I did my neighbors where I was brung up. I try to get back to England at least once a year, play with all my old friends, and appear at folk clubs. In California I've never really felt at home...

Indeed. After we lost our home 5 years ago when I lost my career due to my vision loss, if a friend had not loaned us the money to buy another house here in the area, we would have moved to Nashville just so I would have at least been close to someone willing to take me on as a student. But things worked out and we were fortunate enough to be able to have another home again. Something we never dreamed in a million years would happen. Everything happens for a reason...

Joe Gall wrote:..Everything happens for a reason...

I've often wondered about that.
As an agnostic, I don't believe in divine inspiraion.
Out of the infinity of possibilities, some of them must work out...

I have taught guitar off and on for quite some time, my students seem to come in little clumps. I have some serious back issues that keep me from slinging equipment around to any large degree, but teaching is the best gig in the world! I do charge money as a gate to sift through the curious and uncurious, but the amount of money and with the time I put in, it's "working" for a few dollars an hour. But, so?... I do find that the hardest part of teaching kids nowadays is that the smart ones, in order to get into even a good "public" college, have their time and "hobbies" regimented down to the last second. I really feel sorry for them, they're joining clubs and doing theater and public service, besides keeping a B+ or low A average a kid is expected to have two athletics, five measurable "accomplishments"... no more staying up all night playing a solidbody and catching up your sleep in school!

I have finally learned that sometimes learning from others experiences is possible, I really don't have to screw up every darn thing myself to "prove it." In that vein, I have tried to identify people who have "retired well", and others for whom it's not going so well. It's a bit creepy categorizing friends & neighbors that way so I don't yak it up, but you do have the chance to see if you can track commonalities among the happier ones. And then experiment with it yourself. My observation is that just having enough money to go on cruises and hit golf balls 1,000 miles away ain't it, BTW; it's got to tickle your brain. Personally I feel very lucky that I have an incurable allergy to television, because there's nothing on there that isn't SO dumbed down I take it as an insult - "Oh, those idiots will watch anything..."

The last time I saw my father really lit up was when he found an online site for WWII veterans, asking them to search their diaries and memory and contribute whatever they could... he banged out 10,000 words or so, looking forward to it every morning. Looking back I wish I had tried to find more.. something?... like that, because it was work and fun for him both. The brain is a muscle, and this was a guy who got up in the morning 15 years after retirement and put on pants with a belt and hard shoes and his shirt tucked in and glasses in his pocket... just in case?

Now, just for an example, go back to the beginning of this thread. And count down how many of the posts are not only lucid with correct spelling, but are structured paragraphs with an introductory sentence, supporting examples, and a conclusion drawn from examples. And there's passion, and sadness, and remembrance of fun, and the big question - What Do I Do?

I, for one, would love to read your stories.