The Sound of Music (From Bucks Free Press)
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The perfect wife and mother, Rebecca runs a home, a village magazine and is working on her novel. She does not visit the gym or jog but is in amazingly good shape. She enjoys photography, playing the piano and arguing with the TV. She lives in Amersham with her husband and youngest child (aged nine). Her eldest, now 26, lives and works in Buckinghamshire.
The Sound of Music
11:08am Monday 27th June 2011
I wonder what people think of Amersham’s new street entertainer.
I first encountered him on one of those typical bleak summer days so common to June in England.
The next time I heard him my husband and daughter went into Smiths and I was left standing virtually next to him not knowing where to look. Embarrassing and awkward.
But shouldn’t I celebrate this lone chap and his guitar? Last summer his predecessor was a hopeful youth – likely back from his gap year in Australia – bashing his drums. Well, practicing… This interesting busker seems right for this town in so many ways.
He can’t really sing and knows perhaps two chords. Sometimes he mumbles the lyrics (which I suspect he wrote himself) and sometimes there’s a burst of clarity when he sings, ‘… broke my heart…’ with all the passion of someone who’s really lived it.
On showery days he shelters in the vacant shop entrances and strums mournfully.
Somehow I imagine him as a man who’s maybe deserted his family or been a high-profile businessman in a former life. Perhaps on the other hand his spouse asked him to leave. (“And your flaming guitar!”) But his slightly gloomy, hard to categorise brand of music seems fight for Amersham.
Amersham is becoming increasingly mixed and I feel losing its identity. This chap seems to represent our transition phase – not sure where to stand, what to sing about, what stage persona to adopt. Country and Western? Folk? Dire Straits?
I also think he may be lead to better things. Last year a young drummer, this year a vocal artist with instrument. Next year a jazz trumpeter? Or a talented keyboard player? Maybe the guitarist and ethnic drummer will form a duo. Hmmm… As long as the Peruvian Pan Pipe ensemble don’t arrive, I don’t mind.
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Comments(3)
menglei2011
says...
7:36am Fri 1 Jul 11
Rebecca Leon
says...
4:52pm Sun 3 Jul 11
:
Don't use my space to promote your junk. This is a classy blog space...
:
Also don't like your 'name' sounding too much like Mengele.
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The perfect wife and mother, Rebecca runs a home, a bad temper and is working on her novel. She enjoys photography, playing the piano and likes almost anything that's out of fashion and uncool. She lives in Amersham with her husband and youngest child (aged ten). Her eldest, now 27, lives and works in Buckinghamshire.
demoness the second says...
1:28pm Mon 27 Jun 11
What a very nasty piece of judgemental writing.
Do you think you are funny?
Because you aren't.