The Murphy Method Blog

This past weekend, Casey and Red and I attended the high school graduation of my niece Caroline Marshall Pate down near Charlotte, N.C. These teenage rites-of-passage have become a Big Deal in our extended family, so all four of my sisters and their offspring were there, along with all three brothers-in-law. Which, I do believe, was a first. This was also the first high school graduation that my parents have missed, so I was aware of a little sad place in my heart amongst all the celebrating. They are simply unable to travel anymore, so we were on our own. Scary.

Naturally, when this many of us get together, music is always a possibility, but since this was Caroline’s Big Day and my motto was “It’s all about Caroline,” I checked with my sister Nancy to see what she thought about the idea of a small family jam. She wisely said, “Let’s wait and see.”

After the ceremony, when we’d all gathered back at the Pate Place and were wolfing down pizza, shrimp, watermelon, and cake (Caroline’s faves) and catching up on niece Helena’s new boyfriend and niece Mac’s summer job, one of Caroline’s friends asked if we were going to play music. I checked in with Nancy saying, “Vicki asked” and again she wisely said, “After presents and cake.”

Opening presents was a bit poignant as, in the past, Mama has always given the grandkids a graduation quilt which they have all taken on to college. (Even Christopher.) Luckily, Mama had made a lot of quilts (usually from our old clothes!), so Caroline got hers. I enjoyed seeing her and her cousins pointing to bits of fabric and saying, “I’ve got that in my quilt, too!” Mama would have so enjoyed that.

As everyone was finishing off their cake, I started rounding up musicians and instruments because It Was Time. I grabbed a guitar, Red, a mandolin, Casey another guitar (she was working on her calluses for leading the slow jam at Kaufman Kamp!), and bro-in-law Mike Johnson (Argen’s husband and builder of my Gibson neck), a banjo. Friends and family gathered around in attentive audience formation.

We started off briskly with the Stanley Brothers’ “Shouting on the Hills of Glory” in G because I happened to think of it. And I knew Nancy could add the high baritone part above Red’s lead and my tenor. We were off and running! Other songs that surfaced during the course of the evening included:

Uncloudy Day
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms
More Handsome Men Than One (Casey)
M and M Blues (me, at a request from Caroline’s dad, Rad)
East Virginia Blues
When You and I Were Young Maggie (Nancy)
Cry From the Cross
Shine, Hallelujah, Shine
Brethren We Have Met To Worship
Do Lord
Mountain Dew
This Little Light of Mine

Nancy and daughters Caroline and Natalie, who harmonize beautifully together, sang “Angel Band” and “Washed in the Blood”. Then later in the proceedings Nancy took over on guitar to sing some of her original songs including “Georgia in the Middle of June” and “Pray For Rain”.

And if you notice a preponderance of gospel songs on the list, well, that’s because Caroline’s aunts were raised Baptist and grew up on the Broadman Hymnal. (I know you weren’t and didn’t, Marty, and I feel your pain.) So, we did many of these songs as “sing alongs,” which is, technically, not the Bluegrass Way, but which I am coming to love again. Also, my niece Mac, who just finished her second year at Yale, is deep into listening to the Hicks Sisters’ gospel project, With Sweet Accord, and has learned the words to most of the songs on the cassette. She was joining in with great gusto and her enthusiasm made me happy. I strongly suspect she will be taking up the banjo any day now!

But we had The Most Fun with the song “This Little Light of Mine”, which for us, dates back to the Primary Department in Sunday School where we learned it with hand motions. Your index finger is “the light” and you wave it around to “shine.” You also cup your other hand over your finger when you sing the verse “Hide it under a bushel, NO! I’m gonna let it shine.” And when you sing “Won’t let Satan blow it out” instead of saying the word “blow” you actually pucker your lips and expel a breath of air. All very exciting stuff to a six-year-old. And here we were, fifty years later, still getting on our “inner child.”

After those initial verses, sister Claire led us into the third with “Shine all over Waxhaw, I’m gonna let it shine.” (Waxhaw is where Caroline and family live. We usually sing “Clarkesville,” our old hometown.) Then I thought we were done with the song, but NO! Claire started in on “Shine all over Caroline, I’m gonna let it shine” and actually got up and moved over to “shine” her “light” on Caroline, who took it all in with much aplomb. And then I thought we were done. But, NO! Claire was on to, “Won’t let Caroline blow it out, I’m gonna let it shine,” which I thought was hysterical, and totally appropriate for an eighteen-year-old heading off for college in the fall with all the myriad temptations that will be waiting for her there. (I’m sure she’ll do fine, Nance. She’s been Raised Right.)

I see I have failed to mention my nephew Andrew, 14, (Laurie and David’s son) and his friend Tristan (visiting from Clarkesville who is my occasional mandolin student and who was completely in awe of Red’s playing). They were both Good Boys and pretty much stayed out of the way. They will no doubt Go Far. (And if you’re wondering about all these Random Capitalizations, I got the idea from Ferrol Sams’ fabulous book Run With the Horsemen, which is about growing up in rural Georgia in the forties. If you haven’t read this, Marty, it’s A Must. He’s a doctor, too.)

Red and I got up early the next morning to drive the six hours back to Winchester where I had an afternoon square dance to attend in Hagerstown, Maryland. And durned if we didn’t dance to “This Little Light of Mine”! How weird is that! I was dancing with one of the West Virginia callers, Rich Steadman, and we were singing to each other as we promenaded around the square. And then, in talking to Rich’s wife Lou (who was kind enough to let me Dance With Her Man), I found out Rich is from Maryville, Tenn., which is where I will be next week for Kaufman Kamp. Again, what a strange, unforeseen connection. Is the Universe speaking? I hope I’m listening!

And on that note I will close, get out of my pajamas and into my day clothes, and go pick up my car at the Toyota repair place. I wanted it to be in good shape for my drive to Kaufman Kamp and then onto the National Square Dance Convention in Louisville, Kentucky! See you in one place or the other!

Tags: Caroline Pate, graduation

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 17th, 2010 at 12:01 am and is filed under By Murphy, jamming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.