Author Archives: sixstrstories
Discovery
The “Premiere Issue” of Acoustic Guitar magazine arrived in my mailbox in July of 1990. With a black & white photo of classical guitarist Sharon Isbin on the cover, the feature article was called “My First Guitar” and subtitled “Tales of … Continue reading
Three Days In August
The first day was Friday, August 12th. It was, as you readers know, my wedding anniversary and, after a delicious and leisurely dinner at the Blue Latitudes restaurant in downtown Dover, my wife and I strolled over to Henry Law Park … Continue reading
33 Years
Late in the afternoon Of Saturday, August 12, 1978, In the sanctuary of the First Congregational Church of Park Ridge, NJ, The Reverend Herbert B. Yeager officiating, In front of family and friends, I sang this song To my bride. … Continue reading
70/14/58/100
This past May, Bob Dylan celebrated his 70th birthday. In the May 23rd edition of The New York Times, author and educator David Hajdu had an essay published entitled “Forever Young? In Some Ways, Yes.” Mr. Hajdu puts forth the suggestion that … Continue reading
This Historic Day In Music: Mick Jagger
A few years after Ringo Starr inspired me to learn to play the drums (see my post of July 9, 2011: “Belated Birthday Wishes”), my young infatuation with the Beatles began to fade. By the time I entered high school, I was a Rolling … Continue reading
This Historic Day In Music: Johnny Hartman
This story has nothing to do with the guitar. It is about my very most favorite Jazz vocal recording ever. It is: “Lush Life” by vocalist Johnny Hartman and the John Coltrane Quartet. When I learned, thanks to my good … Continue reading
This Historic Day In Music: Stephen Foster
The first time I can remember that I paid much attention to a song by Stephen Foster was while listening to a James Taylor album. Tucked into the last track on side 2 of the 1970 LP Sweet Baby James, is a … Continue reading
This Historic Day In Music: Mississippi John Hurt
Long time readers of this blog will know that when I started writing “anniversary” posts – inspired by the anniversary of a favorite musician’s birthday or the recording date of an important piece of music – I titled them with the … Continue reading
A Coda: Clarence Clemons
Coda: “A concluding section or passage, extraneous to the basic structure of the composition but added in order to confirm the impression of finality.” Harvard Dictionary of Music. Can you imagine the music of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band without Clarence … Continue reading
sixstr stories 