Dave Loggins With The Hidden Gem ‘My Father’s Fiddle’

Some of us I guess came to country music late.

While my friends Joe Morrison and Mark Tassler tell me they loved country music from the 'get-go', that wasn't necessarily the case for me.

Growing up on the little farm over there by Leota, Minnesota back in the 60's, I was (like most of the kids my age) caught up in the Beatles, Herman's Hermits, the Stones and a million or so of the one-hit pop/rock music wonders. A little later it was the Grass Roots, Three Dog Night and who's that new group Led Zepplin?

Country Music? Well, that was the 'old man's' music. Yeah, he loved Hank and Lefty and Ernest and Buck (like I do now!), but really one of the only artists we agreed on back in those days was Johnny Cash.

So, maybe it was The Man In Black that introduced me to the world of country music.

It was in the early 70's, my high school years, that I started to turn. I discovered a guy named Kris Kristofferson and in addition to the now-legendary songs he wrote (Sunday Morning Comin' Down, Me and Bobby McGee, For The Good Times and more) he looked cool. Shallow thinking, I know, but when you're 16 or 17 I guess looks mattered.

But it was the songs, really. I discovered I loved songs that told a story. And the best story telling songs in the world live in country music. But I guess I was still on the edges of country.

It was people like Shel Silverstein and Jim Croce and Lobo that tilted me more to country music. Now, I know those folks aren't the hardcore country artists, but nonetheless, after I 'got into' them, I ended up finding Willie and Waylon, Milsap and Jones and Wynette and...well, you get the idea.

It was 1974 when i first heard a guy who I've come to love and respect as one of the great singer/songwriters of the past half century or so.

Most people know Dave Loggins for his massive pop hit 'Please Come To Boston' (which, to me, is way more country today than a lot of new country songs), and he's written many great country hits through the years. But it was the album that included 'Please Come To Boston' that blew me away, an album called Apprentice In A Musical Workshop.

Below is what I call a hidden gem from that album, a song that I think is one great country song. It's called 'My Father's Fiddle'. Pull up a chair, sit back and give it a listen.

Oh, and go ahead...turn it up.

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