Saturday Night and Sunday Morning Music

I used to play the guitar and sing at a local wine bar a couple of times a month. For two and a half hours, I was unplugged background music for an upscale crowd of everyone from 20-somethings to 60-somethings. I, myself am much closer in age to the latter. The music I play is mostly 60s and 70s acoustic stuff, James Taylor, Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, Everly Brothers, Cat Stevens, et al.

People liked it, or so it seemed. Folks called out requests and more often than not, I could send out at least a stanza or two of what they wanted. What was remarkable is that the 20-somethings knew all this old music too. With the advent of iTunes and other online music snatching sites, the generation my children belong to has claimed, not only their music, but also mine, as their own. This is very cool.

My 26-year-old son also played at this same establishment at times. And sometimes we played together. Now, I know what you're thinking. "Oh, how sweet is that!, mother and son singing together!" And it was sweet. I love singing with him and we are not bad, you know. Many of my friends came, as did his, to hear us and hang out on a weekend evening. This gig, however small and really, insignificant, came to mean a lot to me.

I also sing in the choir of my local Methodist church. I have been a steady alto presence for over ten years now, and, even though my religious views are, well, shall I say, HERETICAL, it is a great group of people and we have fun. Singing hymns and religious anthems every Sunday morning is at least as inspiring as the Saturday night stuff. To me. I don't analyze it. I just feel it and go with it.

Emily Saliers, one half of the Indigo Girls wrote a book a few years back with her father Don, a reknowned hymnast (rhymes with gymnast) for the United Methodist Church and co-editor of that church's universal hymnal. The term 'Music of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning' was stolen from them.

Some of us worship at the altar of the pub. Others at the church altar. Some of us manage to fit in both. For me, one is not complete without the other.