January 14, 2007

• Grace Like A River

  Just wondering if anybody is reading Christopher Parkening's Grace Like A River autobiography?  Parkening is considered America's foremost classical guitarist who studied under the great master classical guitarist Andres Segovia.  He's also a Christian believer which is how I've come to know his name.

  I'm two degrees of freedom from meeting Parkening.  A couple of years ago I noticed at the boarding area for my flight there was this bearded fella with a plastic hardtop case strapped to his back.  It looked like a guitar but with a really short neck.  Well, after we landed at our destination, curiosity caused me to ask him what was he carrying, and it was a classical guitar.  Turned out he was Andrew York of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet and he grew up in Virginia.  (For you JMU alum, Wikipedia states York is a fellow graduate of y'alls fine institution.)

  The only classical guitarist I could think of was Parkening and it turned out York has worked with him.  I guess right now I'm just amazed at how close to greatness I have come to meeting.

  (Parkening mentions in his book asking York for his transcription of the song Andecy so he could play for a woman who was a big fan of the song.  The woman later became Parkening's wife.  That story reminded me of the connection between the two men and my meeting of York.)

  • 1:37 am
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