Dedicated to Bargie!
Below is the basic background story behind the “Look Ma, I Can Play” story. It’s a heartfelt reflection of how this all started with the piano album of music “Tunes” (e.g. music without words).
Steve
(Pic from her 80th Birthday Party!)
The Story Behind the Music!
The story goes a little something like this… You see, what happened was……
Background of the “Look Ma – I Can Play” Series
Brief background, I moved away from home a few weeks after graduating from high school to join the Army. Later in my life (in my early 40’s), I began experimenting with playing a piano. To this day, I can’t read music, and only play by ear.
Fast forward a bit, during the summer of 2003, Janie and I went down to Wrightsville Beach area with just Margie and us. After spending time on the beach we ended up in the lobby of a hotel nearby. They had a huge lobby area and in the middle area a fancy Grand Piano. Nice hotels have amazing pianos. I have a hard time passing one by! Hotels lobbies and bigger airports both always seem to have nice piano’s, and many allow just anyone to play them.
Margie went to the restroom. I made a beeline for the Grand Piano which was across the rather large lobby! I was just finishing up the first song when she came out, standing with Janie and seemingly waiting for me to come back from the restroom. After a few more minutes Janie proceeds to ask Margie if she was enjoying the piano playing? She responded affirmatively!
Appropriate sidenote, it was a huge room and my back was to them! Janie then asked Margie if she knew who was playing, she didn’t and was totally shocked to learn it was me playing! She had no idea I even played at all! A piano is not something you bring home with you for holidays and vacations! LOL!
In December 2004, Janie graciously gave me the gift of studio time at a local music studio to record the piano music. None of the “tunes” had/have words to them, so according to the dictionary, they are at most “tunes” not songs because of that. However, I did create individual names for each to distinguish the different ones. That lead to the recording of “Look Ma – I Can Play!” I subsequently made and helped her give away a lot of copies of the CD, which she was terribly proud of!
Fast forward to 2025, I have played guitar on and off since I was in high school. We played in bands publicly during those mid teen years. Likewise, as with the piano, I can only play guitar by ear. I haven’t played in front of an audience in a really long time until a week ago attending a Live Open Mic event at a local brewery (Wiseman Brewing).
Being retired, I now have more free time and decided to give it a try. Prep for the Mic Night event prompted me to collect, record, and document the collection of musical guitar “tunes” on my brand new Taylor guitar! Sadly, Mom never got to hear me play guitar of my music either; with the exception of playing along with a lot of other people at the same time to gospel songs at annual family reunions! Thus, the continuation album is dedicated to her as “Look Ma – I Can Play Guitar Too!” As with the piano album, the guitar album is a collection of “tunes” without words! No names for them yet, just numbers so far! LOL!
Enjoy!
Steve
(Additional Pics from her 80th Birthday Party!)