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Music Passion Ten

Bluegrass Roots and Country

Appalachian Summer Night
a front porch congregation
drinking moonshine get�n tight
on cigar box guitar someone strums
banjo lends its lively voice
effervescent fiddle joins
washtub bass and whiskey jug
In tandem mark the beat
washboard adds its joyful noise
singing songs of a sobering nature
of hard times been and coming
ever present death, old time religion
love�s conquest, evil�s defeat
t�was the place of Bluegrass birthing
where seed was planted and nurtured

I was to Bluegrass enticed
like sultry dulcet siren�s call
by the angelic voice of Alison Krauss
singing �When You Say Nothing At All�

Memories of roots music
garnish my life
grandma played piano
In a teetotaling jug band
around the campfire
dad would play to my delight
his ukulele and banjo
our smiles framed by firelight
while we sang
�You Are My Sunshine,�
�Home on the range,� and
�This Land is Your Land�

When much younger
Country music I berated
considering it low class,
thoroughly uneducated
now much older
ostensibly wiser
I empathize more
with this storytelling genre
and its honest depiction
of the human condition