Acoustic Inspirations

I’m awed and humbled when I look around the synagogue at the kids who want to take up guitar playing and realize that, in some way, my playing served as piece of the inspiration for that desire.

I had a music inspired flashback at camp to a piece of the inspiration that led me to music. I grew up going with my family to the Lair of the Bear, Cal’s alumni camp, and there, around the campfire, we used to listen to various people entertaining including one camp counselor named Bobby who played the banjo. Bobby was a fixture at camp as long as I remember, and further back than I can remember, I wanted to play the banjo.

It was about ten years after I started learning banjo that I first started to learn how to play guitar. I was a counselor at Camp Swig, and learned my first chords from my campers.

Tonight we sat at a campfire with Dan Nichols and a few staff members playing. Dan brought out his new banjo. Another staff member brought out the marshmallows. And at one point, as I sat staring at the banjo, a moment of reflection reminded me of the moments that led me to music.

In my last entry, I reflected on Ecclesiastes who also said, “All streams lead to the sea…” The campfires, the banjo playing, the feel of community, were all streams that led me to this moment under the Redwoods at Camp Newman watching the next generation being inspired.

(Here's Max learning to songlead.)