As many of you may know, Keith Billik recently did a long interview with me
for his Picky Fingers Banjo Podcast. Thinking back on it, I’m reminded of the
time I interviewed Missy Raines for my book Pretty Good for a Girl: Women
in Bluegrass. At the end of the interview, I thanked her profusely for being
willing to spend so much time talking with me. She laughed and said
something like, “What’s not to like? I got to spend two hours talking about
myself! It was like taking a nice long bubble bath!”
I’m not into bubble baths, but getting to talk to Keith about some of my
favorite subjects—banjo, banjo picking, Earl, the Murphy Method, teaching by ear, and being a woman in bluegrass? What’s not to like?
Keith is an excellent interviewer. He was well prepared with good questions,
he gently prodded me to expand on certain topics, he knows an amazing
amount about banjos, banjo players, and bluegrass history, and he’s also an
attentive listener. That made this interview one of the easiest and best I’ve
ever done. (He also brought scones! Score!)
Oh! And he also asked, “Can I persuade you to get out your banjo in case
you want to play some tunes?”
But of course! I’d actually had no idear that I was going to get to play as
well as talk. Double the pleasure, double the fun!
It was also interesting (and a bit challenging) to do a deep dive into my own
personal history, off the cuff, and to try to make that story coherent to the
listeners. It made me think—not for the first time—about the question: How
did I get here? What were the important pieces?
That reminds me of the saying, “Life is lived forwards, but understood
backwards.” (I wondered who said that so I just googled it. It was
Kierkegaard! I had no idea I could quote Kierkegaard. I certainly can’t spell
it!) [Editor’s note: LOL]
Another piece of philosophy that comes to mind is from author Robert
Johnson who said that when he looked back at his life he could see “slender
threads” that seemed to be connecting everything together.
So that’s what doing this interview felt like to me: looking at the slender
threads that brought me first to singing as a kid, then to the ukulele, then to
the guitar, then to the banjo, and then to bluegrass which became my life’s
work. (I had planned to be a doctor! Which just goes to show, once again, if
you want to make the Universe laugh, just tell her your plans!)
Somewhere along the way I also became a teacher (thanks to my four
sisters for all the practice!), a wife (thank you Gamble Rogers for introducing
me to Red), a writer (thank you Hub Nitchie and Pete Kuykendall), a mother
(thank you Casey and Christopher for all the growth there!), and a
grandmother (thank you Dalton and Sean for the pure joy you bring to my
life).
It has been quite the journey so far, and as Christopher sang on his new
album HeartSpaces, “But I’m glad for the gig!”
Right now, I’m deep into writing a biography of Maybelle Carter, playing
fiddle in my student band the Bluegrass Posse, jamming with students on
Wednesday and Thursday nights, hitting some occasional old-time fiddle
jams (talk about a steep learning curve…Who ever heard of a tune called
“Rock the Cradle, Joe”?), and occasionally square dancing and doing yoga!
Of course, as ever, I’m still teaching banjo and spreading the gospel of
learning by ear. And still enjoying it.
I hope you’ll find a few minutes to check out the Picky Fingers Banjo
Podcast. Thanks again, Keith, for the gig! Enjoyed every minute of it! (And
the scones!)
Murphy Method Blog 