Snow songs

Hymns, Carols And Songs About Snow; Tuck Andress, guitar

I know. I know. You got inundated with my profusion of Christmas music wealth during December. Yet a few of my favorites never made it here because, well, quite frankly, many of you, in just so many words, declared “enough already”. I can appreciate that.

Dad used to tell me that Grandpa A. couldn’t stand the sound of a pipe organ. He could bear it for about five minutes then he either turned the radio off or he walked out of the church, whichever the situation warranted. I heard this story from Dad several times and he showed consistency with this detail: Grandpa claimed that the sound of the pipe organ hurt his ears. He never said that he didn’t like the sound of the pipe organ or that he felt the organist was showing off. The sound of the pipe organ hurt his ears. I take him at his word.

Any one person hears things differently than anyone else. I talked to someone just a few days ago who could hear a note, say a “C”, pitched way up high but couldn’t find that note a few octaves below. I’ve heard of people who can’t find their pitch from an electronic keyboard but have no problem receiving a cue from an acoustic instrument.

My sister K. can only listen to solo guitar for so long, then the sound starts to grate on her nerves. At various times when we have shared CD’s, she has passed on some of my very favorite selections for this very reason. I find it fascinating.

I don’t remember how it came about that she revealed this involuntary, inconvenient solo guitar phobia, but it happened while listening to a middle track of Tuck Andress’ “Hymns, Carols and Songs About Snow”. I suspect that K. likes her iPod because of the “shuffle” option. She can now listen to some of these guitar features interspersed over the course of so many other types of songs.

I have already written about my obsessive “fear” of non-acoustic instruments. And yet here I am hawking away about Tuck Andress and his electric guitar. I love to hear what a solo artist can do with a song. As a pianist, I have it pretty nice. I can play as many notes as I want in order to get my musical point across. Guitarists need to apply a little more efficiency.

We have snow. A LOT of snow. The “Songs About Snow” aspect of this CD caught my eye when scrolling through my iPod today.

Credits: To the operators of snow plows. We love what you do.