A Song For Nora

We were tiny dancers, we were so unafraid to let the music take us far away.

I recognized the look on her face. There was no mistaking it, she was feeling the music in the purest sense. Her little dark eyes beaming with joy, her two-year-old body ever so slightly responding to the subtle urges to move with the music, nodding her head and raising her hands. And her smile, well you can imagine. As I strummed my guitar, I couldn’t take my eyes off of her.

Now, this is one moment I never could have predicted. Of all the songs I have learned or wanted to learn to play, Cat Scratch Fever has never made it to the short list, or even the long list. However, when little Nora came into the restaurant that day with her dad, we knew what she wanted to hear, Ted Nugent, or Uncle Ted as she calls him. I’m sure her musical preferences have been influenced just a little bit by her dad, but watching her respond as we played the song, left no doubt in my mind that her genuine love for his music was her own. At two and half years old, she really likes Ted Nugent — and I get it.

For me it all started with the Monkees. I was holding on to the edge of the coffee table, barely able to walk, staring at the tv, when the Monkees stole my heart — a pivotal  moment that would plant the early seeds of my lifetime quest to follow the music. As I grew, I studied the album covers in my mom’s record collection that included Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass (yes, the girl in the whip cream), Hank Snow, Faron Young, Glen Campbell. Later, it was my older sister’s albums such as Jefferson Starship, Frampton Comes Alive, and Bob Seger’s Silver Bullet, to name just a few off the top of my head.

Then came my first live concert, Bad Company. I begged my mom to go. I was 13. Somehow, she let me go, even though it wasn’t with the best of company…😉.  After all, she was a teacher and knew more than most about the kids I was going with. The next concert was Fleetwood Mac with my older sister. What I remember about this concert was hearing Firefall for the first time, another milestone. And yes, I even saw Ted Nugent, but he didn’t leave much of an impression on my young musical tastes. It was The Cars, one of the opening acts that turned my head and whose songs I still love to this day. Once again, the music took a strong hold. From BJ Thomas to the Waitresses,  Chris LeDoux to Tom Petty, Don Williams to Chrissy Hynde, the music that has informed my life is all over the board.

One thing I know for certain is that it’s not about the style or genre, it’s about the music. I had that tattooed on my forearm over twenty years ago to remind myself that I am just a conduit for something much bigger than me. A song takes on a life of it’s own, all I have to do is show up, whether that means performing it to the best of my ability or hearing it come through another artist, or a distant speaker in a restaurant. Music never ceases to leave me standing in awe as I watch how it moves the people around me.

Back to little Nora. She’s not old enough to know what Ted is singing about. My 58-year-old self might be just a little, or a lot, jaded about the lyrics of Cat Scratch Fever 🙄 and what little I know about the real Ted Nugent. But for Nora, it’s not about all that, it’s about the music.

And after we finished singing her Uncle Ted song, she told her dad she wanted a guitar.