The Evolution of the Hoot

Last Sunday we had an amazing Hoot. What made it so powerful went beyond the classic, essentially manifested setting of a log cabin in a beautiful PA hollow. What made the jam special was the realization that after putting these jams together for over 10 years, I'm noticing a change in expectations---maybe a subconscious desire to dig deeper into the music, to play it with its intended passion and complexity (at least to the best of our abilities.) Of course, this may all be my own projection! -- like how a scientist impacts his or hers' own study.

Let me expand a bit. Ten years ago our main goal was just to play and to meet new people. We were excited to be together and we played the classics, those easy three chord folk variations that we all grew up on. But this style of jam can only grow by fueling each session with "knowable" songs, ones where we all know the melody, and especially where the chord patterns are consistent (no complicated bridges or super-fast chord changes)--folk and bluegrass standards like Johnny Cash, Dylan, and Ralph Stanley. The problem becomes that after many years, and if one is so blessed (as I've been) to have long-time friends in the Hoot pack, it can get repetitive. Jam sessions are like relationships, if you want them to last, you have to spice things up...re-evaluate shared (or individual) goals and reach towards a vision of what comes next.

At the end of last Sunday's jam I was talking to a friend. She's been an inspiration to me because she's working on her own material. I told her I read that new friendships are most often formed from shared life experience, which in our later years, usually means a crisis, like the death of a spouse or a divorce. But it can also mean a shared passion. In many cases, though, that shared passion is something benign and predictable, like fixing an old car or hiking. But music is different. It's an art. In order to use music to grow lasting friendships, one has to practice, take chances and be vulnerable. It's so easy to put that type of thing off, especially for any of us over 60. So we stick to the easy routes and find ourselves bored, unfulfilled or worse, lonely.

So what makes us (or some of us) want to move towards more complicated songs at 64? (my looming age) -- could it be the subtle "crisis" of time?-- the now urgent motivator, pushing us to make the most of life in a tighter window? Could it also be the desire to share and celebrate life's "victories"--the accomplishing of goals? For me, this reality of time makes the sharing of music in a Hoot so much more intense and meaningful. It's pushing me to move the Hoot beyond the standard sing-along, and into a category like the forming a "group" - not in the sense of going out and performing, but harnessing that same excitement of preparing to "take on the world." It's the feeling that young band members feel of reaching one "first" after another. I'd like to create that same "band" camaraderie. Maybe it's because I missed that experience, having married early, raised kids and basically stuffed my guitar in a closet from about age 24 to 50.

So that's the long-winded insight into my vision for the Hoot. Bring on the creativity! Mix up the instruments! Do you play tuba? - come on aboard! Piano?--hell yeah! Write your own stuff, but scared to sing in public? - we're your people! New to your instrument? -- aren't we all?

Until the next rendition! - keep on playin' and keepin' the spirit--life's just a big damn Hootenanny y'all!

((Next post: "Boomer Song Writing --and its Awkward Side-Effects!"