Thursday, October 2, 2008
My dad plays in a bluegrass band.
That hasn’t always been something I was willing to admit.
Back in my younger years, when all my friends’ parents listened to cool bands like U2, The Beatles and REM, I was embarrassed by the songs laden with twangy fiddle and harmonica riffs that my dad played during car rides, his shelves full of records and CDs by no-name, quirky-looking bluegrass acts.
I could never shake the feeling that liking bluegrass music made him seem a little Deliverance. A little not like the hip dad I needed him to be.
His band would practice in our basement every couple weeks, and the music would float up through the vents into my bedroom. No matter how loudly I played my Mariah Carey cassettes, I could never quite drown out the frantic picking of the guitar, the staccato cluck of the banjo, the low croon of the upright bass.
I made sure never to have friends over when dad’s band was practicing. A friend once saw my dad’s guitar in our living room and excitedly asked who it belonged to. I lied and said it was my brother’s, and that of course he used it to play songs by whatever the emo band du jour was.
The zenith of my dad’s bluegrass calendar comes every September with the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kan.
For the past 31 years, my dad has escaped south to Winfield for the festival, a Mecca for bluegrass enthusiasts around the world.
Winfield is my dad’s heaven. He sleeps in a tent, eats his meals from a cooler, and spends every moment surrounded by the sounds of bluegrass.
I have never been to Winfield. But I can picture the crowds of people, the outdoor stages, the sunlight on faded September grass. And I picture my dad there—a little younger, a little more at home—picking his guitar. Happy.
Check out Brianne’s story on page 6 about the Walnut Valley Festival and how this five-day bluegrass extravaganza is actually a popular destination for college students and music lovers of all kinds.
I guess my dad was hip all along.
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