The Newbie or How I Came to Love Music

I guess I'll start off by letting everyone know a little bit about me. I'm a geek of all sorts. Computers, gaming, music and musical gear, books, records, comics... pretty much name anything remotely geeky and I'm probably into it! My focus for the blog will mainly be music and everything involved in the music making process. Sure, I'll deviate and talk about some of my other interests, but music will be my main rant. So with that said, let me first start by telling you how music came to be such a big part of my life.

I grew up in a small, rural town in Missouri that didn't have much going for it other than the aluminum molding plant in the next small town over. I guess like most kids, i was exposed to the different types of music that my family listened to and had playing around their houses or in their cars. My grandparents lived closer to Kansas City and i always enjoyed staying with them and attempting to play my grandfather's guitars that he had stashed in the closet. My grandfather would always tell me stories of when he used to play with his band live on the radio. He would sit me down and show me old photographs of him and some pretty famous country musicians that he got to meet and play music with. He would tell tales of his time in the Navy and playing guitar for various bands all while we would listen to classic country music on his little tape recorder. One year i asked for a guitar for Christmas so i could learn to play like grandpa. That year we all opened our presents and i was sad that i didn't find a guitar under the Christmas tree. My mom could tell that i was let down about not getting one and she said i should go and check in their bedroom, that there was one more gift for me that she couldn't wrap. When i walked in their room, there on the bed was an old beat up guitar case. I opened it up and it was my grandpa's old Harmony arch-top acoustic. I forgot all about my other presents and preceded to attempt to "play" the guitar with a huge smile on my face. That was almost twenty years ago and my love for music has only grown over the years. The funny thing is i never actually heard my grandpa play the guitar. After he got out of the Navy he worked construction and while he was working he fell off a deck he was building and broke both of his wrists and could never play the instrument again. Just the love and passion of him telling his stories and taking the time to let me know how much it meant to him was enough to change my life forever. Thanks grandpa.