Boy, after the year that was 2020, this was nice to run across. It's not the latest hot shot band, a rare record, or some ridiculous trivial backstory of a song. It was a short video that did what seemed impossible. It reminded me that life goes on, the wheels still move, and there is hope for the younger generations. It's like this: As you get older, you get jaded. Been there, done that and that sort of thing. You forget what life was like when you were younger and all the melarchy streaming out of the six o'clock news was stuff that was happening to other people.
I'm not sure how many of you have been hanging around here for over five years, but in the event that you haven't, let me introduce you to Kara, a guitar student I don't know. Five years ago I was posting Freddy King's "San-Ho-Zay", and ran into a cover by Kara who was, at the time, roughly ten years old. It was posted on YouTube by her guitar teacher, Michael Stevens. I was struck by the innocence of someone in the position I was when I took guitar lessons at about the same age. (I ultimately walked away from lessons, but my brother continued with them and would end up being an hot shit guitarist by the time he left high school.) I hoped that she kept up with it because she showed promise, and the song selection was an excellent one. Intrigued, I contacted Stevens and he filled in the blanks, telling me that he posted videos of his students to help them with poise, as many of them had never played in front of anyone outside of their households.
Over the ensuing years Stevens hepped me to new videos showing Kara's progress. The first few were blues songs and she had a pretty good feel for them. A couple other Freddy King songs, "Hideaway" and "The Stumble" and Albert King's "Born Under A Bad Sign". During the next few years the videos were of more recent songs, more acoustic guitar. The latest video that Stevens shared was Kara playing Radiohead's "Karma Police". It seemed recent to me. Wow, it came out in 1997. Time flies.
Anyway, it was a nice way to start the new year. Something encouraging. Stevens is still teaching and Kara's still taking lessons. As I've come to know Stevens, as little as I do, I know three things. He teaches guitar, he likes to cook, and he's a Ritchie Blackmore fiend. I wonder when that conversation will come up?
Kara - San-Ho-Zay at YouTube Freddy King cover, April 2014
Kara - Hideaway at YouTube Freddy King cover, March 2015
Kara - Zombie at YouTube Cranberries cover, Mar 3, 2019
Kara - Norwegian Wood at YouTube Beatles cover, January 15, 2020
Kara - Karma Police at YouTube Radiohead cover, January 2, 2021
Michael K Stevens - Channel at YouTube A whole mess of music student videos.
1 comment:
Loved reading this thankks
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