First, I’d like to thank all those who’ve spoken so supportively of my first article.  It initiated many enjoyable recollections as I listened how others remember their musical roots. Joel helped me remember why folk music became so popular in the early 60’s. As I’d mentioned the drinking age was 21 in Ontario back then so teenagers started going to hear musical acts in non alcohol - coffee houses and folk clubs that were springing up everywhere.

 

Radio stations with stronger signals started back in the 20’s to expose us to a diversity of music from classical, jazz to popular and country.  Sixties youth became more free thinking and rebellious, the anti-war and civil rights movements, along with music hinting sexually suggestive themes prompted some stations to target their shows to a lucrative, younger, more questioning market.  It was the late 50’s – early 60’s when television sets overtook radio in families living rooms and so the resulting exposure to music from around the world became the norm. Lifestyle changes and the rapid growth of money making musical ventures blew the creative doors of the music industry wide open.

 

I remember an old friend who’d grown up in Beatle - era Liverpool and booked groups in area halls telling me that communication was so poor between communities, for a while bands would go by one name one night then travel to another town and change the name on the front of the bass drum to be another band to save other band’s  travel costs.  Marketing of entertainment quickly became more developed so the world became a smaller place. As an example, the British Sound took over North America only after advanced telecommunications brought this “new sound” to us via Ed Sullivan on the telly.

 

Funny what musical memories stick in our craniums. I harken back to being in Cubs, complete with those itchy all wool sweaters and stockings complete with garters, flannel shorts and narrow peaked cap.  I attended a Father and Son Banquet, the multitude of us being crammed into a church basement and fed.  Entertainment that night was some of the older Scouts who played a few tunes on electric guitars and sang.  The one lyric I still recall them singing over and over in a gospel style was “Momma’s Little Baby Loves Shortening, Shortening. Momma’s Little Baby Loves Shortening Bread”.  We’re talking 1960 or so and I was around 8 years young and enthralled by the sound presented. 

 

I remember being at a campground in the Lake Placid area with my parents and hearing one night at the outdoor amphitheatre a local band doing a 10 minute version of Wipeout that still causes me to tap out this song on tabletops subconsciously from time to time. I’ve searched out and attended live music wherever I’ve found myself ever since. I thank O’Reilly’s for providing my live music “fix” locally and am grateful every Tuesday night when they present the amazing young singer / songwriter Brock Zeman , our own Keith Glass, Peter Newsome and whoever sits in.  See you there and we’ll continue to share our own musical musings.  Support Live Music.