thanks mate, so much.
Well, I've listened to more music than I could care to name in my 40 years and right here, right now...yours is the bees knees to me; has been for virtually a whole year. What is it about your stuff? hard to put the finger on it exactly but I think it's a mixture of things...
I can only speak for me, but first and most obviously it's the material you play. It's all stuff I love and all listening to you has done is broaden my musical palette further. I've pretty much been until only recently, solely into old time folk,outlaw country and gospel. But since buying a CD of Ike a couple of years back, the journey into early twentieth century jazz, show tunes, ragtime etc began for me. I'm a newcomer to all of this...so when I heard your stuff...man, there's hardly anyone out there doing it...as often, or as well, as you do.
Second is simply your style doc. It's' a deep-rooted hardened blues and jazz style of playing. You can tell you've been doing it for years. It flows so smoothly from your fingers and out of your vocal chords. For me I fell for the voice you have. Pure and simple. Not sure how much more you want me to gush but what can I say brother, I love everything you do, whether it's playing the uke or the piano, doesn't worry me at all. You are inspiring because you keep teaching us songs we've not heard and play them in a way that is very laid back and very cool. Whew, I'm exhausted, I need a cigarette!!! Ha ha!!! I mean, I lost count of how much of your stuff is in my favourites box...I've got something like 150 clips in there and at least 40 must be your songs.
At the end of the day it's been your music which has deepened my love for an era of songs that I knew very little, if nothing of. After a year or so I am a devotee of Edwards and many of the blues writers and players of the 20's and 30's and before I heard your playing doc I was ignorant. It is now my favourite era of recorded music and I know it always will be. That's why I tell everyone about your channel at every possible opportunity, because it truly means so much to me. It has allowed me to learn more jazzier type stuff and blues and therefore made me a much more adaptable and flexible player of the instrument with a much wider musical palette upon which to draw. I am probably twice as good a player than I was 2 years ago and much of that I can easily trace to being exposed to your playing, from which I have learnt and continue to learn a great deal every time you put something up. This is all not evening mentioning your presence on stage or in front of a camera which is also wonderful and enjoyable to watch.
So there it is, that's my reasons...not sure of others'. The thing is mate, you say your perplexed at how some members here find your stuff inspirational because you are just doing what you love, eh. Same here brother. I get some compliments from time to time as well along similar lines and I am totally bewildered as I don't consider myself to be much good at all. But it's all relative and people perceive things as listeners and viewers that is their right to...once you put something out there it's public and it has a life of it's own. I am trying to learn to be gracious and accept compliments, as weird and embarrassed as it feels. I have always had notoriously low self esteem and it is very difficult for me to accept good feedback...I often still wonder if people are being sarcastic or if they really mean it sometimes.
But what perplexes me, is that your channel still has only 130-something subscribers. To me this is beyond comprehension. The more people that hear your old time blues, jazz and ragtime music the better off this world will be in my opinion. That's why I will continue to give you a shout-out every darned opportunity I get because, in very tangible ways, your music has altered the course of my life. Significantly for the better doc.