Hard times and home made music

There is no disputing these are the hardest times I can remember. I had one other time in 1981 in Dubuque Iowa that was this bad. We used to go get the USDA cheese and butter at the Convention center after standing in long lines of unemployed down on their luck people. I thought then I was back in 1929. Imagine standing in line for over an hour to maybe two for what is now worth about $20?
Anyway.

Economic reality is hard. The answer? Home Made music. It's nearly free. If you don't count what you paid for all those lessons and the instrument and the tapes and the tab books and the instruction videos and....

Free jams is where the fun is and that is only going to cost you a little gas money. If you live in KC, driving to Lawrence can be a big deal if your short on gas money. It's why I am still thinking seriously about starting a jam in Shawnee in a month or so. If your a local here, check out FolkJams.org. The Kansas City and Lawrence areas are hotbeds of jam sessions. Bluegrass jams are big on the Missouri side of the line here in KC. There is only one Old Time/Celtic/Contra jam in Johnson county so far.

Much kudos and thanks to FolkJam.org for what they do!!!!!!

Maybe we will see more of the old ways of folks getting together and pulling out the instruments and playing and singing for our own entertainment?

We lost The Mountain Music Shoppe last year about this time. Right after I lost my really good job. It was all downhill from there. It gets depressing and stressful. Yet, I find myself thankful for what I still have and the friends I have made and the wife who stands by me.

I am thankful for my really great Martin D-18VS guitar which brings me great satisfaction and enjoyment when I pick it up and play. Thank God I got it bought when I did. I have had it for three years now and it's never going to leave these hands until they pour me into that remains jar.

The future is uncertain for many of us now. More changes are coming to our way of life. Things will never be the same. So, my friends. Get out your Mandolins and fiddles and banjers and guitars and bones and dulcimers and autoharps and pianos and harmonicas and mandicellos and bouzouki's and cello's and basses and whatever else you have and make some music.

Sometimes the way forward is what we did so long ago.