Imagine receiving a mysterious package one day on your doorstep. It contains photos of events from your childhood, but from a different point of view other than the one you remember. A picture of you blowing out the birthday candles, your face in profile, and you see the print of walpaper – how had you forgotten that? Your aunt was there with your former uncle, before the divorce, when you think of that party – you don’t place him in, but there he is…

If you have a brother or sister of similar age, you can open this miraculous package. Just ask them about things you went through – together, or, at least, in proximity.

Episode 5 with my sister Sarah is the first of a few episodes this season in which I talk to family members.

Sarah is an unsung hero in the development of my guitar and song writing style. Growing up, we had a nylon stringed classical guitar that was my Dad’s from the late 60s. I only heard him play it a few times over the course of my whole childhood. But I would pull it out from under Mom’s bed, it was a favorite toy of mine. That is, until age 16 when I wanted to learn how to play it for real. My mom sat down with me once and on a sheet of folio paper, made a handdrawn poster of 8 or so common chords. Later that year, my parents bought me a “How to Play Guitar” book for Christmas. This was 1995, when I was 17. It got me a started on my way, and I’m forever greatful. I knew they did not care for my taste in harder rock music, and openly disapproved, but that simple Christmas gift is something I cannot not overlook. Sadly, I lost the chord chart my Mom gave me.

Of course the famous true story is that around that time, the middle D string broke (I mean it was 25 years old, after all.) So for most of that year, I played a 5 string guitar, and develpoed a method of sorts for it. The altered landscape caused me to think outside the box of conventional playing during that crucial formative stage. I wrote a whole cycle of songs called “Rejecta” with the 5 string.

Within a year, I encountered another book. A college dorm mate, Wil Rudmin, as mentioned in the episode, owned a copy of the Beatles for Easy Guitar.

I would not have ever touched it, had not my sister Sarah vouched for thier coolness and corrected my misplaced prejuidice against them. I’m very grateful. In the episode, you can hear the story of how she correctly identified “I am the Walrus” to me at a time when I thought it was done by a contemporary alternative band. That morning walk to the school bus made me reconsider the Fab Four.

A life long pursuit of chasing inspiration through the use of ordinary methods to exrtraordinary results was gaining momentum within me. The Beatles Easy guitar book, got me closer to knowing how one can do more than play chords, but play songs.

So it was that the folk rock stylings of the Beatles’ approach really schooled me and can be seen in lots of my work, and especially the song writing of the M.Cotu era when I was 18 to 22.

And for fun…!

Songs heard in Episode 5 (with YouTube links)

Beatles: “Yesterday” as played by Hammish Patel in the film Yesterday (2019)

Gary Lewis & the Playboys: “This Diamond Ring“

The Lemon Pipers: “My Green Tambourine“

Blind Melon: “No Rain“

Beatles: “I Am the Walrus“

Artists for Africa: “We Are the World“

Various Artists: “Hands Across America” (1985)

Tracy Chapman w/ Luke Combs “Fast Car” at 2024 Grammy Award Show