Grandpa Cecil Payne - the one I talk about constantly - died Friday. Since then, besides fulfilling a committment I made for Central City Days - as best I could - I've kind of crawled in a hole since then and whenever I wake up later today, I gotta get back to work, cause my family sill has to eat and all. The funeral, he was buried with masonic rites and full military honors, it was a wonderful funeral. At the funeral home, they had a slideshow of pics going on next to the casket. It was a lot better than the way they used to do it, just prop up a pic or two on the casket, but during the funeral, I kept thinking, this show doesn't say anything about who he really was and who we really are as a family without our music - that has gone on for five generations now and most of that was from his deep love and prowess at it that passed it to subsequent generations. So I made my own. With OUR music. I don't really expect anybody to take the time to watch this, it's long and I'm really just posting this as part of the grieving process, which I need move on with, I gotta get sleeping and working like now. This was damn hard to make. Damn harder to watch. The first two songs are from a record he made in 1950 and the first one is him singing about the loss of a loved one "God took you away, and left me so lonely..." and "I can still hear your voice in the evening..." because I can still hear that voice because he recorded it. It's almost like he picked that song out 62 years ago just for this moment. Anyway here it is. This is who we are. This is our music:
---------- David
____________________ At the time of his birth, it was widely accepted that no one man could play that much music so well or raise that much hell. He proved them all wrong. R.I.P. H. Cecil Payne Elk River Harmonicas
Cecil has left an incredible legacy of what a Good Man does with the time he is given for too short a journey. Thank you so much, David, for sharing his life with us on the Forum. I can see why your sorrow is so hard to deal with. You and your family have suffered a Great Loss, I and many others sorrow with you. Peace, orphan
David: The video was very moving. I felt all your love for your grandfather in it. I loved the music too. My thoughts and prayers are with you. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
David,I commend you for not letting your Grandfather pass un-noticed. Your post of this dedication to his memory is an indication of the great love and respect you had for him. Great Americans like your Grandfather are passing at a rate of approximately 1500 per day, most without notice. I have the greatest respect for men like you Grandfather and with this dedication you have posted I will always remember the name of Cecil Payne, veteran and survivor of Outpost Harry. My deepest sympathy for you and your family. ---------- Wisdom does not always come with old age. Sometimes old age arrives alone.
David, you have the good fortune to have something you Grandfather recorded and pictures as well. My gramps was my first one on one musical experience at age 4, after my father had passed in a car wreck. Gramps K. would put me in his lap and play harmonica and sing to me trying to bring me out of my funk, and this went on for months after Dad had passed. Then mysteriously i never saw him play harmonica any more. some years later he passed away and I have no clue what happened to his instruments. and back then I also have no clue why I didn't ask him to teach me back then. His passing was a hard time for us as well, he was after all a patriarch. He was a man who had emigrated to the states from the isles as a boy and made a life here for himself and a wife and 7 children. I have nothing but fond memories of him.
Take heart David. You have fond memories and in fact you can likely look in the mirror or play a bit of music and feel his presence and influence. Add to that the family pictures and recordings and you have real treasure. Carry on, sir, with pride! ---------- http://www.reverbnation.com/jawboneandjolene
Thanks gang. I am very fortunate that he did make that 78 record back in 1950 and that my father not only saved it from being thrown away, he made a digital recording of it - this took him weeks, the record was in attrocious condition - he had to coat the grooves in the record with crayon wax to rebuild grooves and when the recording was made, the stylus had the weight of like 8 quarters holding it down to keep it from jumping out of the grooves. I talked to his guitar and banjo players at his funeral, they said they recorded numerous cassettes when he was in his mid 70s, so the search will soon be on. I don't have any recordings of his mandolin playing in his prime - the sounds that really formed my musical background. Maybe that's a good thing. I'm sure as the years go by, the legend of it will grow in my mind.
---------- David
____________________ At the time of his birth, it was widely accepted that no one man could play that much music so well or raise that much hell. He proved them all wrong. R.I.P. H. Cecil Payne Elk River Harmonicas
