I'm a pretty private person, but recent events make me want to share this:
We just found out that my Mom, who lives alone in Florida, has non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. We were deciding on what to do for the Holidays when we decided to that my 3 brothers and their families would come on down to NC for celebrate Christmas. We're flying Mom up here to spend a week or so before treatment starts.
The thing that my Mom loves more than anything is the fact that her sons have always got along, and even though we're all pushing towards getting our own AARP cards (we range from 47-55), and live all over the East Coast of the US, we try to see each other when we can. Unfortunately, getting the 4 of us together at once has proven really difficult over the past 10 years or so.
It's gonna be fun as we all love music and several of us hack at our favorite instruments & the one's that don't are gonna get crash courses (via Tabs and/or demo videos with crude chording) in the songs we're going to play. We also have lots of stuff to bang on and a dedicated Jam Room upstairs with everything we need, so it's logical to have everyone come here. Mom has no idea that we're planning a jam...
Making a set-list via swapping email has been fun so far. My 3 bro's, myself and my 2 sons (my 12 year old plays drums & and my 17 yo plays guitar, bass and has a great voice) all have musical tastes that are similar enough that allow us to do this, yet diverse enough to throw a few head-scratchers in there. We're also gonna do some Simon & Garfunkel and Kingston Trio for Mom.
So far, the Christmas Menu includes: Georgia Satellites, Ramones, Johnny Lee Hooker, Nazareth, Uriah Heep, SRV, Tom Petty, Smithereens, Focus (yes...Hocus Pocus! a little raucous Christmas yodeling!!), Eagles, Kingston Trio, S&G, Kinks, Fleetwood Mac ("Oh Well"), Madness, Modern Lovers, Clash, Iggy Pop ("Search & Destroy" is the ultimate holiday song!), Traffic & for some reason, I've been told that we're playing the "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". Maybe Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's "House at Pooh Corner", & Ozark Mtn. Daredevil's "Chicken Train"...note to self: get some kazoos, spoons and a Jaw Harp.
My mom can't stop talking about this Christmas - I swear she's never sounded juiced about getting on a plane before.
The pain of listening to the aforementioned menu should ease her mind about her upcoming radiation treatment...or it might make her hop back on plane that day. I guess we'll see.
