Courthouse Americana - Our Nation's Song

Courthouse Americana Our Nation’s Song

 I'm a-blowin' down this old dusty road, I'm a-blowin' down this old dusty road, I'm a-blowin' down this old dusty road, Lord, Lord, and I ain't gonna be treated this way. I'm a-blowin' down this old dusty road, I'm a-blowin' down this old dusty road, Lord, Lord, and I ain't gonna be treated this way. I'm a-lookin' for a job that... 

Hey everybody it’s The Trout and welcome to another episode of vinyl to viral. Thanks so much for stopping by and yes we’re going down a road today. We’re going to go down a road of Americana music. This came to my attention when something happened to me recently in my life that kind of focused me on why I love America, and why I love being a musician in America and getting to other great musicians from America. And a little bit of patriotism in there to for me. So if you want to know more about what’s happening with Americana music and how it’s still being played all over America remember you find it because this is The Trout Show.

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I'm a-lookin' for a job at Honest Pay, Lord, Lord, and I ain't gonna... Welcome back to the show, this is the Trout, and you're listening to the Vinyl Deviral on the Trout Show. Now, I'm not a big Americana music guy, although I appreciate the history behind Americana music. And occasionally I can sit down and listen to some people play a little banjo, a little bluegrass type music, but I'm not real big on it.

Except on this one day recently that I came to like it even more than I thought I did. So here's how the story goes. In my yard, I have bluebirds that nest.

They come back every year to have another brood or two, and they go away in the winter, and they come back again the next year. I'm fortunate because they've been doing this for years, and bluebirds are very picky on where they stay. But they do take a special kind of diet.

They like a particular worm that you can buy. Not everybody sells it. But this day I decided to tell my wife, I said, we're almost running out of those type of worms, so we need to go buy some.

So we headed to our nearest feed store. Yes, a feed store, a real feed store. Bought the worms, and I said to my wife, I said, let's go down to the courthouse square and see if we can find some place to eat.

So we drove down to the courthouse square, pulled up to the parking area. And there, as I walked out of my car, I noticed a group of people in front of the courthouse. This is an old courthouse.

It's not being used anymore except for a museum. And there was a group of people playing guitars, banjos, upright bass, sitting there playing music, well, what you could call Americana music. So I strolled up to see them and listening to them for a while, and one man caught my attention.

It was a real skinny guy, older gentleman, playing an upright bass. So I walked up to him and I said, it would just look picture perfect if I wanted to take a picture of this guy, who is as skinny as he could be, up to this big, wide, upright bass. And I walked up to him as I was listening to the people play their guitars and sing in music, mostly original too.

And I said, hey, do you come here very often? He goes, yeah, I come here quite frequently. But then I said, may I ask how old you are? He didn't really want to tell me because I thought he looked a lot older than he was. He told me.

And next to him sitting in a seat was a young lady, probably about 30. And I said, you know this young lady? And she goes, no, he doesn't know me. I was just jogging by when I heard the music.

And I'm a musician too. So we had a conversation. I brought my wife over.

I said, you know, this is really kind of cool. And I listened to people. I mean, most of the people there were probably over 60, the majority of them.

Some of them looked quite elderly. But they were playing guitars and singing. There was a banjo player with a young daughter.

And so I listened to them. And I said, how often do you guys come by here? And they said, we're usually here every Saturday morning playing this music. Whether it's Americana music, like what you're hearing in the background, like Woody Guthrie stuff, or folk music they've written.

And I just kind of felt into place. I said, this is great. Musicians, there's no egos here.

They're just playing their guitar, singing, and having a good time. And as I noticed, there was a couple of guys that kind of wandered off by themselves. There was a guy playing banjo.

Excuse me, not banjo. He was playing a fiddle and a guitar player. So my wife says, hey, let's go see what they're doing over there.

So we walk over to the two guys. Started a conversation. And I said, what do you guys do here all the time? And they go, we come every Saturday when we can and play.

These two guys knew each other for a long time. One was a retired professor. He's a creative arts professor.

And the other gentleman was still in practice. He was a psychologist. He was playing guitar.

And we just kind of talked about music in general, what they played. And I said, well, I'm a music producer. And I grew up playing the blues.

And the fiddle player jumped into playing a blues lick. It was quite remarkable. And we had a conversation about music and a little bit about life.

And I kind of was in a moment where I thought, this is one of the coolest things where I could sit up here, stand up here, and talk to people that are just ordinary people enjoying American music. So we had a conversation. They asked me what I did.

I told them more about what I did. They told me what they did. And I thought, my wife says, well, you need to come up here and play guitar.

And I thought, maybe I should do that sometime. But I just kind of felt this warmth over me of older people enjoying American music. No amplifiers, no microphones.

Probably a little bit like it used to be in the old days where people sat down and talked and played music. So at that moment, after a while, we were there. I said, let's go get some lunch.

And I scrolled across the street to a restaurant. And as I walked in, I heard more music playing. And I thought, is that something recorded or is that somebody here? And I peeked around the corner and I saw two musicians playing, both probably late 50s, maybe even the 60s.

One was playing a clarinet and saxophone and a flute. And the other one had an electric guitar playing jazz chords. And I thought, wow, this is just an incredible experience to enjoy American music, then come to eat, and these guys were playing like jazz music.

And the reason why this is important to me is because I'm a patriot guy. I like talking about the Fourth of July. I think it's because I grew up in a situation where we were taught about that.

They don't seem to have that much going on in classes like they used to. Maybe it's because my dad was a World War II vet. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge.

And my wife's parents both fought in World War II. In fact, her dad was a person that was at D-Day on Normandy. Those patriot roots go way deep, I think, in both of us.

But that's what made me think about American music when I sat there and listened to these people play, whether it was in the restaurant or whether they sat in front of a courthouse and strummed and played. And two things happened then at the same time, I thought. One, a bunch of people get together with their instruments and play music.

And number two, they can do that anytime, anyplace they want to, because this is America. I kind of think I looked at America in its face that day and enjoyed the moments with those people I may never see again, but I will never forget those moments when they were doing that music and I was thinking about how great it is to be an American. Well, that's it for this episode of The Trout Show.

Thank you so much for stopping by and listening. I hope you appreciated this episode of American music. Special thanks to, of course, the guy that keeps the lights on all the time, Mr. David Smith with Edward Jones.

Always a strong supporter of The Trout Show. For more information about The Trout Show, you know where you can find it. Just go to my website at thetroutshow.com. Everything's there.

All the podcasts, including this one. Including interviews, information about the music industry, and of course, YouTube, where you can watch the interviews anytime you want to with some great musicians I get an opportunity to talk to. And also, my music is there that I produce.

So until next time, people, you know what I always say. It's only rock and roll. But I love it.

See ya! The Trout Show

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