From the recording People On The Porch & Other Sparkling Folk
About this new "old" song, based on a story told by John Denver:
I was very young, in my first decade, when John Denver was touring and performing. Like so many others, I grew up with the freshness of the beautiful acoustic, folk, music he played.
As I was growing up and finding my own voice as a songwriter, I naturally pulled from the spirit of the music within me, and that included inspiration from music that I loved.
His music is universally loved but, today, music has grown away from an industry that loves one singer and a guitar, although that is the kind of music I still write.
I never got to hear John Denver play live and so a few months ago I went looking for performance footage and came across a remarkable story that he told about his Grandmother's guitar.
He told it in such a way that I loved every word and then he sang a song that he wrote called "This Old Guitar." but that song did not tell the story of his Grandmother. I was surprised! It told his story- the story of where the love of music that started with her old guitar took him. I was floored! I knew he had just told the audience one story and singing what he had just told them would have been redundant so it stands to reason that he sang more a continuation of that story, but, as he is no longer here to tell the story of his Grandmother, I wondered how people would hear it? I just happened to find it by mistake!
I thought deeply about this for a few days. I watched that video over and over. That was his story to tell but there was a song in there. I could feel it, and that story needed a song. (I made a "Kitchen Session" video about my thoughts).
I am a songwriter because I can't not be. Because he can not tell this story anymore I think he would not mind it becoming a song.
Writing this song I feel better. Now the story he loved to tell will continue as music too. I hope everyone that loves him and his music feels all the love that went into its making. This was the first song I wrote and recorded with the guitar my dad recently gave me. So, on my own level, I can relate.
Thank you for listening.
There is something to be said for an independent singer songwriter who creates music from the heart, and so I persist.
Lyrics
Grandmother’s old guitar
was made in 1910
She played it
when she was a little girl
She gave it to him
when he was 12 years old
Her Oklahoma farm-boy
was learning how to sing.
Her old guitar
took him by the hand
found the voice in his heart
and added strings
Music took him down a country road
and helped a shy boy sing
Understand everything.
Serenade under the stars
She heard the love come from
the songs he made
with her old guitar
That guitar
taught him how to play
Hank Williams Cheating Heart.
They practiced it so much his friends
got awful sick and tired.
Broke that-old guitar
right over his head.
Well life's gonna give you scars
is what his grandma said.
Her old guitar
took him by the hand
found the voice in his heart
and added strings
Music took him down a country road
and helped a shy boy sing
Understand everything.
Serenade under the stars
She heard the love come from
the songs he made
with her old guitar
Life is sometimes win or lose.
He lost her guitar once
and really learned to sing the blue.
About the time
he resigned to have it gone
well It turned up again
and they wrote another song
One country boy fell in love with
The Rocky Mountains
And played his life
on the strings of that guitar.
And when it came to leaving,
no they never said goodbye
Just flew away together,
serenade above the stars
His Grandmother smiled when he came home to heaven
bringing her guitar.
Bringing her guitar.