Ever since I was in high school I’ve wanted to be able to play the banjo. Most teenagers want to play something cool, the drums, guitar or saxaphone. Not me, I wanted to play the five string banjo like Earl Scruggs. I think it goes back to my first trip to Philmont and just sitting on the porch at Crooked Creek and listening to the camp staff pick away at the banjo in the rain. Something about that was cool (not to mention the suave plaid jacket in the album cover to the left!).

I finally got a banjo for Christmas two years ago and I picked up a couple of books on how to play and slowly tried to learn. However, being the non-musically inclined oaf that I am, I quickly got frustrated and finally convinced my love to sign me up for Banjo lessons.

I’ve been taking lessons from Jody Hughes for about 8 months now and while I am not the best, nor have I ever been accused of practicing too much (something I need to remedy) I get a little better each week. Below is a tune called Doug’s Tune. It was written by Doug Dillard and has been played everywhere (ok, on the Andy Grifith Show). If you want to hear what it really sounds like check out some of the other videos after my clip.

Sometimes, its fun to play in the dirt. Other times, its just fun to listen. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band take the best of everything country and mash it all together in a really unique sound that will have anyone bopping their head to the music (listen to the harmonica!!). The guitar, banjo, mandolin, harmonica and other instruments rock out the sound on their album. Listen to “Party on the Mountain” and you’ll feel like you’re there!!

Christmas (and boxing day for you Brits) has come and gone and little is left to tell that it was ever here at all. Oh, don’t get me wrong, the tree is still up, the decorations haven’t been taken down and there’s still a pile of trash to go out on Monday, but there are no left overs, no unopened presents under the tree and certainly no more Christmas music playing (at least not on my radio). Maybe it was the warm weather this year (we had weather in the 70’s two weeks ago) or the fact that we spent Thanksgiving at Disney and didn’t decorate right away, but this holiday season was more of a burden than a blessing.

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed watching the girls as they played with their shiny new toys (Emma got a battery powered ATV that she loves and Grace hasn’t taken off the Ariel wig since she unwrapped it), and the dinners with family and friends were nice too. It just seemed there was too much work to be done for the holiday and not enough time to do it in. As far as my take for the holiday went, it was pretty good, I got a couple of books (from an author I have not read yet), 2 DVD’s and Banjo lessons. I’ve only been asking for the lessons since I got the banjo two years ago, and finally I might be able to do more with it than a simple forward roll.

Amy made out pretty good too. I decided to forgo the sexy corsets or naughty nighties this year and instead upgraded her iPod from a pink Shuffle to a 30gb Video iPod (Classic they call it these days). She also got a pretty cool alarm clock (though when you can’t sleep at night the fact that it projects the time on the ceiling makes it even worse) and a new Department 56 town piece. We didn’t go too over board for each other this year and in retrospect, we didn’t go that overboard with the girls either.

I was glad when I climbed in to bed on Tuesday night that Christmas was over for another year and now its on to Amy’s Birthday. Maybe we’ll do something lo-key.