A Roomful of Magic

I just heard that Etta Baker has died. For those not in the know, Etta was a blues guitarist, but to me, her music is much less traditional blues and not even close to Stevie Ray, and much more like traditional folk and bluegrass. I have one of her albums, One Dime Blues. Hers is kind of a cool story, in that while she played with her family as a youngster, and kept in practice most of her life, she only tried to do so professionally after she turned 60.

Anyways, I really like that album, and wish now I had gone to see her in one of the local festivals she used to play at. I know that with rock musicians, a lot of their music sounds better live, but often, a lot of it sounds a whole lot worse. But with good folk, bluegrass, and to me, blues music, the smaller and the more personal the setting, the more enjoyable it is.

When I first moved to North Carolina, my good friend, music guru and all around fantastic guitarist Laura McLean introduced me to her circle of musician friends, who would gather together on someone’s porch or in their living room and jam for an hour or two. Boy oh boy, the first time you hear a fiddle played up close is magic. Coming up, the word “fiddle” to me was a word I could use to insult violinists: “That’s a nice fiddle.” Never did it cross my mind that I would eventually fall in love with the sound of such an instrument played so differently than in a concerto. I have some photos of those sessions. One day, when I figure out how to upload pictures, I'll post them.

Such was my introduction to North Carolina life: a roomful of friends, playing the guitar, banjo, harmonica, fiddle, and sometimes concertina, spoons, rattles, and themselves thrown in; it was truly magical.

Etta Baker was 93 when she died, so I imagine her musician friends went on long before she did. But, I suspect there are many, many, many folks who at one time or another, at an outdoor concert, a back hall gathering, or even in a car listening to her CD, experienced a touch of that “roomful of magic” themselves.

Listen to Baker here: WMP, Real, MP3.