A Life of Words

Although I grew up playing the clarinet and picked up the piano in my late 40s, I never learned to play the guitar – a regrettable choice, I’m thinking, although I realize it’s not too late. Such a beautiful, soulful instrument in the right hands. I wouldn’t have been a rocker and probably would’ve stuck to acoustic over electric.

Crys Workman, the 81-year-old oldest of my three wonderful birth family full siblings I found 20 years ago, knew a bit about the guitar as a kid. Our boozing father Bob had one and also played standup bass in a West Virginia band when Crys was little and our mother Betty sang with the group. Crys says he didn’t take it seriously as he grew up, only playing the bass line of the “Peter Gunn” TV show theme, among others.

But Crys got serious about the guitar (and cars) when he joined the Air Force after graduating from high school in our hometown of Huntington, West Virginia, in 1962. His first guitar was a cheap classical whose brand he doesn’t recall. Crys’s first electric guitar was a 1962 Gibson ES125 TDC, which he still has. He later bought a ’64 Gibson C1 acoustic classical guitar, which he also still owns.

These days, Crys has a guitar collection that numbers in the 30s, and although arthritis in his hands keeps him from playing as much as he’d like, he’s still madly in love with the instrument.

Crys, our sister Terry and I visited on a Zoom video call Sunday, and before Terry came on, Crys and I were talking about a particular classical guitar piece that’s always been his favorite. It’s called “Capricho Árabe” and was composed in 1892 by Francisco Tárrega, a Spanish composer and classical guitarist. I found a YouTube video of a Croatian musician named Ana Vidović playing it while we were on the call and made plans to listen to it later. I was pretty sure I’d heard the piece before but wasn’t certain.

I finally had time to listen this evening after work. It gave me chills – not just the song itself but the absolute mastery Vidović displayed, the technical flawlessness, the depth of her emotion and sensitivity. I texted the video link to Crys, and 10 minutes later he messaged back to say this rendition had moved to the top of his list of the many he’s listened to.

“Her note articulation is flawless and the emotion she conveys brought tears to my eyes. Thanks for that, bro.”

And, as I told him, she makes it look so easy.

Even if you don’t like classical music or classical guitar, who doesn’t like guitar music? If you do, I ask – no, I insist! – you watch/listen to Ana Vidović putting her remarkable touches on Tárrega’s masterpiece (not his only one) at the link below. You might even get chills and shed a tear, too.