I guess I’m a little late on this thought. Valentine’s Day might have been a more appropriate time to post a welcome column about the human heart but it’s never a bad time to pay homage to the organ that keeps us all alive every day.
https://youtu.be/zhqO33nWoDM?si=DktbcRSh1g4co5R5
Now don’t be too hasty to judge me As I drift along with the tide
My clothes may be ragged and dirty But a clean heart is beating inside (Carter Family)
Our Bluegrass music depends on a steady beat. Sometimes that beat is really fast, a tachycardia. Other times it is a mellow bradycardia but if you happen to have atrial fibrillation, as many people do, you don’t want to be playing that rhythm when you play Bluegrass. Listen to the banjo. Listen to the bass. They’ll give you the proper beat even when the pace is close to atrial fibrillation pace.
Your bandmates might not all show up for your next gig but the human heart is incredibly dependable. The Ever Ready battery pales in comparison. Your heart can give you a hundred years or more of perfect performance every second with only the occasional skip now and then.
It’s no wonder that the heart is a metaphor for almost everything in our emotional lives. The heart is the epitome of what it means to care for each other:
My heart is sad and I’m in sorrow For the only one I love
When will I see him, no, no, never Till I meet him in heaven above
Let’s face it, The heart is the most valuable real estate in our bodies:
Oh, I’ll pawn you my gold watch and chain, love.
And I’ll pawn you my gold diamond ring
I will pawn you this heart in my bosom
Only say that you love me again
If you are an aging baby boomer like me and many of our bluegrass friends you need to pay attention to your heart health more than just about anything else. And if you are a twenty something hot picker the situation is no different. Heart disease starts very early. Autopsy studies of young soldiers who died in battle prove that heart disease is a disease that starts very early in our lives.
Our metaphor hearts are just as important. Psychological problems have always plagued our society but our modern world has only amplified that. Heartbreak has always been a common theme of our lives and our music:
Won’t you think of the valley you’re leaving
Oh, how lonely and sad it will be
Oh think of the fond heart you’re breaking
And the grief you are causing to me
As long as our hearts are beating we will hear music about sweethearts, broken hearts, heroic hearts and any other kind of hearts allusion you might think of with the possible exception of artichoke hearts or hearts of palm. The heart is our core whether it’s a vital organ or a cultural metaphor:
And I’ll have eyes that will never fill with teardrops
I’ll have legs that will never ache with pain
I’ll have hands that will never age and wither
And a heart that will never break again
