Pickin' and Grinnin'

Daaaayum. Whenever I forget where I came from, or I get too depressed for words, somebody just remind me to listen to some bluegrass music. I was scanning the TV Guide Saturday night and found Doc Watson listed, and homed right in on that. Oh, yeah. That was mighty fine. That show ended and Three Pickers came on. That, of course, is the bluegrass version of the Three Tenors, and featured Doc, Earl Scruggs, and Ricky Skaggs. Oh, my, oh my. It turns out that it’s Earl Scruggs on banjo that really lights me up. I hadn’t ever paid particular attention to which instrument I liked, but this made it really clear. Ricky plays mandolin, which is nice and sort of a requisite part of the whole, but eh…. Doc plays guitar and sings perfectly authentic mountain music. Lots of it’s sad, like Tom Dooley. But banjo? Can’t play sad banjo music, as far as I can tell. At first I was annoyed that I have the scroll finished! Woo hoo!! and NOW there’s something good on TV, but then I realized I was tapping my foot so hard that I wouldn’t have been able to paint anyway. At the end of the song I just laughed out loud, it made me so happy. Earl Scruggs. Who woulda thought? When I was growing up, you’d never have caught me dead listening to hillbilly music like that. Pickin’ and grinnin’. Now if the hosts would just quit talkin’ and beggin’ for money and get back to the music….. Foggy Mountain Breakdown. Cripple Creek. John Henry. Oh, yeah, That’s better. Rollin’ in my Sweet Baby’s Arms. Heh.