What Was Your Musical Journey Like?

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I was born and raised in Nashville, TN, so I got a good start. Music was everywhere, especially at home. The radio was on a lot and I heard the top 40 that my sister played or the local easy listening station (WSIX) my mother would put on. My father would occasionally watch something on PBS, usually opera or classical, which I had trouble getting into. My mother played piano and organ for our church, and would practice at home; my sister sang in the gospel choir; my father directed a children's choir at his church; my brother bought records (much later he became part of the gospel choir at church also). It was inevitable that I should develop a strong interest in music.

In those early years I listened to the two main top 40 stations of the time, WKDA and WMAK, switching back and forth to see who was playing what. Then the British Invasion came along and I spent even more time with the radio and those two stations. Then my mother bought one of those console stereos, and on Christmas 1965 I got my first record, a James Brown 45 of "I Got You (I Feel Good)." I started buying 45s and would play them often, especially during the summer. In the summer of 1968 I discovered LPs, and I bought my first one, Diana Ross & The Supremes' Greatest Hits, followed quickly by the Ventures' Hawaii Five-O.

By junior high I'd moved on to the local soul station (WVOL), then in high school and college I discovered FM rock radio and music that wasn't top 40, and groups I never heard of playing tunes that were longer than 3 minutes. And groups emerged that struck a chord with me that opened the way eventually for genres beyond those I was listening to. Looking back, it was Santana that led me to try Latin music; ELP and Yes got me to try classical music (my first-ever CD purchase [in 1986] was classical); Chicago and BS&T got me to jazz. From there I stretched out to other explorations like world music, Brazilian, folk, even electronic music. Country and easy listening were always there. These days, the only genres I don't deal with are rap and opera, though I've been to 3 operas in my life and have a BD of La Traviata, which I've yet to finish.

That's my journey in a nutshell. what was yours like?