I always thought it began with Dylan, but looking back, it was before that. I had my first male teacher when I was in the sixth grade and on the first day of class after he scared the shit out of us, and as our first day came to an end, he pulled out his guitar and played and sang in his deep baritone voice his old cowboy version of Old Shep. By the time he was finished, there wasn’t a dry eye in the classroom, including me. It made an impression cause I looked around the room and thought to myself, “I want to do that!”That was 1960.
I took several guitar lessons, C, F, and G, then G, C, and D. I think the first song I learned was I’m a Bad Boy from one of the first Ricky Nelson albums I got to buy. For me, at that time, it was Chuck Berry, the Everly Brothers, Elvis, and Ricky Nelson! Still, great songs that I still listen to and sing to this day. My dad was a Hank Williams, Earnest Tubbs, and Gene Autry, country music fan, so I was surrounded by storytelling and heartbreak songs since I can remember. What I called Rock and Roll, moved me in a way that started the separation between my dad and me when I was about twelve years old. The next few years and the war in Vietnam finished the job. Over the years we never really recovered a meaningful…
