Our bluegrass music is definitely made for picking on the porch with friends. One of my favorite CDs of all time is the Dillard’s Back Porch Bluegrass. Dooley, Ground Hog and the banjo standard Doug’s Tune are all on that recording.
I wish COVID-19 had never happened but one of the things that resulted from that trauma was that it encouraged people to congregate however they could safely do, even if it meant playing music together from afar from our porches, balconies or whatever. A sense of community is needed in times like these and music is one of the best ways to bring us together.
If you are in the party mood this Saturday, whether you have a real porch or not, you can still participate in an annual event celebrating the joy of playing music with friends. Here’s the link:
http://playmusicontheporchday.com/
As you can see I love the idea of porch music so here is a repost of an article I wrote a few years ago about the subject:
The Daily Grist: “My ideal summer day was reading on the porch” … Harold Varmus
A porch is a wonderful place to be. If you want to be a front porch picker, you have to have a front porch. It’s just as much fun to pick on the back porch and if you have a wrap around porch, you can take your pick of the best picking areas.
Sadly, a lot of houses you go to these days don’t have a porch at all. No rocking chair in which to collect your thoughts while you whittle on a piece of wood. No social perch from which you can greet your neighbors as they walk home after a long day. No porch swing or glider in which to romance with your sweetheart.
When I was a kid our front porch was the only place to be on a summer evening. Nobody wanted to swelter in the heat and humidity of the interior unless they had to. The screened porch was a haven where you could escape the heat once the dishes were washed. With all the windows open you could bide your time in relative comfort while the rest of the house cooled down. If you went for a walk instead, you’d be consumed by mosquitos before you got to the next block. So everybody in the family got together on the front porch every night by default. Some times we’d play canasta with my grandma (her favorite card game) but mostly we’d just talk or read.
The back porch was more private but still useful. If we had a house full of people over for Thanksgiving, the youngest members of the families would eat outside on card tables set up on the back porch.
When I was about ten years old, our family moved to a brand new house in the suburbs. The modern house had central air conditioning and we said goodbye to our porches after we moved in. Years later my parents had a patio put in behind the house but it wasn’t the same. The weather was just too hot and muggy most of the summer in Carolina so we never really spent much time on the new patio. A patio might be a good idea for a home here in California but in my opinion, porches are the ideal add-on to a southern home.
Modern architects have sadly abandoned the porch concept for public buildings as well. Modern hotels have nice lobbies and foyers where people can be accommodated in air conditioned comfort. But there’s something to be said for a quaint hotel where you can sit on the porch and enjoy the beautiful view. If the porch was spacious enough we generally referred to it as the veranda.
If you’re lucky enough to have a porch, I hope you enjoy the heck out of it.
