Musical Kids

     I had heard a lot of stories about Molly and Paul's musical children.  I knew that Lucy, their oldest had somehow gotten introduced to Canadian Maritime fiddle music, even though rural Tennessee is a long way from Cape Breton.  She took up the violin and learned how to play the complex melody lines of the Celtic tunes.  

     Lucy's devotion to the music soon infected her sister, Daisy, who quickly secured a violin of her own.  Eliza, who is still a bit young to start on her own fiddle career, was determined to join in, so Paul cut a board into a violin shape and gave her a stick to use as a bow, and now whenever there is music being played, she is out in front sawing away on her "violin."

      It wasn't long before brother Ezra started delving into teaching himself the piano.  The kid is a natural; he sits down in front of the piano, and can construct amazingly complicated tunes and chords by just feeling his way along the keyboard, following the music that is being constructed inside his head.  His melodies had a Bruce Hornsby feel to them.

     The day before I arrived, Sillas the other brother had been given a used snare drum, so I suppose the family band, "The Celtic Knots," will soon also have a rhythm section.

     When I arrived at their home I had my mandolin with me.  After I told the girls it had the same strings and was tuned like a violin, they were all over it, taking turns trying out their violin "licks"on the mandolin.

       Shortly after returning from the cave trip, in the lull before supper, the house was filled with a cacophony of sounds as all the kids were messing around on the musical instruments.  I joined the chaos by playing Paul's guitar, that was crippled by having only 4 strings.

     After the evening meal, the young people took the "stage" and gave a  performance.  The younger girls even threw in some Celtic step dancing during one song.  It was a delight to see how well they all played both together and individually.  It warmed my heart to see the future generation have the same love making music that I have.  I hope they will take the next scary step and start singing as they play.