When Gordon Lightfoot was eight years old, he walked into the kitchen where his mother was working. The radio was playing a Tony Bennett song.
“You know Gordie, that man makes his living singing,” she said to her son, who would go on to make a very good living giving the world a lot of amazing music, all of it while staying in Canada, refusing to head south to “make it.”
When he was about the same age, Hank Williams was singing while he shined a man’s shoes on a sidewalk in Montgomery, Alabama. “Where did you get those words, son?” the man asked him. “I made them up,” said Hank. “They’re pretty good,” said the man.
Hank Williams would go on to write and sing a lot of pretty good words. Good enough to become known as the Shakespeare of Country Music.
Sometimes it doesn’t take much to inspire a person at any age, but especially the young who are looking for direction.
When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.
©2016 Jim Hagarty
