Unusually, I met Peter Wile and spoke to him before I saw him play. I knew he played guitar and harmonica, and I talked to him about folk music — my favorite subject, the one that usually makes most people’s eyes glaze over. Pete went with it and even told me he’d met Pete Seeger.
Some people discover music later in life and focus tightly on a single thing — blues guitar, for instance — or maybe they can only play the intro to “Honky Tonk Woman.” Others are satisfied learning “Tiny Dancer” on a cheap electric piano and declaring their lives complete. More power to them. Then there are
In the Civil War period, musical performance was a much bigger and different part of people’s lives than it is today. Today, for most people, it’s background while you’re doing laundry, or streaming through your earpods while you do your 10,000 steps…or it’s the thing you look forward to at the end of the week,
It’s interesting to see how a band within a particular genre can expand and evolve. I became aware of Chuck Darwin & the Knuckledraggers when I had just moved to Gettysburg, and they were playing at Ploughman Cider Taproom on the Gettysburg Square. I was very new to the Gettysburg music scene and was a
My favorite, probably-not-true, Civil War story is about a young private from a PA regiment, up on Culp’s Hill after the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg. He’s digging and moving rocks in the dark, and the Confederates are camped at the bottom of the hill, not a stone’s throw away. While he’s digging
The first time I saw Matt Morris play, I got him wrong. He stepped up at open mic night at Ploughman’s, and I thought, “Oh man… another damn Dave Matthews.” You know what I mean. Aggressive playing, lots of chukka chukka muted chords, then seven different voicings of a C chord… really percussive. Then comes
When it comes to playing my guitar and singing, I’m what my grandfather would have called a “ham and egger”. I know ABOUT music, and I’ve been at it for quite a while, learning to play guitar and sing a bit…but, like most things, knowing about it and being able to do it well are
Teenagers struggle with a lot of things they don’t understand. It’s part of growing up. One of the most important things is defining oneself. Are you a tough guy or a sensitive poet and thinker? Do you play football or chess? Because it’s not about the thing itself, but how you create your identity. And