Bluegrass music has always been a part of my life. You can say bluegrass runs
in my blood and you’d be right. I was about two years old when Mama and Daddy
gave me my first instrument, a ukulele, and I was five years old when I “sang my first song”
on stage with my family band. I was blessed to have made my five-year-old debut
at the Texas Troubadour Theatre in Nashville singing at
the Bluegrass Gospel Showcase with my family. Nine
months later in August 2008, I sang at Bill Monroe's Memorial Park at Bean Blossom, Indiana. I had grown up watching my parents and
sisters play and they have been role models in my life. It wasn’t until I was
fourteen or so that I began to truly “contribute” to the band. I’ve played the
mandolin since I was about five, and I mostly did a percussive kind of chop for a couple of years, and
then, I began adding some chords.
I mostly concentrated on singing and still do to this
day, but I do like picking out some tunes. Around ten or so
is when I began
to focus on picking. What helped with picking is when I began playing the
trumpet in my school’s band. I learned all about reading music and harmonies and
I played up until my tenth grade year when it got to be too much with school and
other things I was involved in. My dad began
to teach me the guitar in the summer of 2017. The first song he taught me how to
pick was Wildwood Flower, which is the first song he was taught how to pick. My
mandolin is a Lebeda F-5 (my dad is holding it in the
ukulele picture below). I enjoy playing my dad's HD-28
Martin guitar, but my go-to guitar is my Yamaha FG800. I
love music, and I think it’s an important gift from God. Sometimes, we are able
to express things through music and communicate with people that we normally
couldn’t or wouldn’t communicate with. I’m thankful God has given me the chance
to sing for Him and to minister to people in song!
Photo
Gallery
Me with my
Ukulele June 2004
My new
mandolin December 2004
Vintage case!
With the band 2008
Texas Troubadour Theatre
2007
Fisher's Hornpipe July
2014. Daddy gave me the Lebeda .
Flatpicking and struming
2017
Bean Blossom Bluegrass
Gospel Festival 2008
Gallia Baptist Church,
Patriot, Ohio 2018
Black & White photo of Madeleine Copyright 2012 by
Jackie Blakeney
Bluegrass music has always been a part of my life. You can say bluegrass runs
in my blood and you’d be right. I was about two years old when Mama and Daddy
gave me my first instrument, a ukulele, and I was five years old when I “sang my first song”
on stage with my family band. I was blessed to have made my five-year-old debut
at the Texas Troubadour Theatre in Nashville singing at
the Bluegrass Gospel Showcase with my family. Nine
months later in August 2008, I sang at Bill Monroe's Memorial Park at Bean Blossom, Indiana. I had grown up watching my parents and
sisters play and they have been role models in my life. It wasn’t until I was
fourteen or so that I began to truly “contribute” to the band. I’ve played the
mandolin since I was about five, and I mostly did a percussive kind of chop for a couple of years, and
then, I began adding some chords.
I mostly concentrated on singing and still do to this
day, but I do like picking out some tunes. Around ten or so
is when I began
to focus on picking. What helped with picking is when I began playing the
trumpet in my school’s band. I learned all about reading music and harmonies and
I played up until my tenth grade year when it got to be too much with school and
other things I was involved in. My dad began
to teach me the guitar in the summer of 2017. The first song he taught me how to
pick was Wildwood Flower, which is the first song he was taught how to pick. My
mandolin is a Lebeda F-5 (my dad is holding it in the
ukulele picture below). I enjoy playing my dad's HD-28
Martin guitar, but my go-to guitar is my Yamaha FG800. I
love music, and I think it’s an important gift from God. Sometimes, we are able
to express things through music and communicate with people that we normally
couldn’t or wouldn’t communicate with. I’m thankful God has given me the chance
to sing for Him and to minister to people in song!
With the band 2008
