Lessons in the “Slip Note” and Other Concert Goings With My Dad

The last time my Dad and I went to a concert together, before we went again just last month, was to see Bonnie Raitt in August of 2017. It was at Overture Hall at the Overture Center in Madison, Wisconsin, on State Street.

It was just after my folks moved out of my childhood home they’d been in for over thirty years, and just less than a year from when I had my second son. It was also just under two years before I moved back to Wisconsin in 2019.

My Dad was a CPA (Certified Public Accountant), has always loved numbers and dates, and maybe by sharing all these numbers and dates it will give some context as to how everything fits in to the story, as well as show how I too adore a good look back on a timeline.

Here We Go
Before I moved back, I spent years traveling back and forth between the Twin Cities and “home” where I left after high school to pursue music, theatre and dance in Minnesota. (See photos from that time: Here) It’s about a four to four and a half hour trip, with one stop.

For the Bonnie Raitt concert, I came down just by myself and with my two boys, a practice I’d gotten pretty good at, and worth it if I’d be seeing a concert!(Read how these trips inspired a song I wrote called “Here We Go” Here) 👈🏽 This content is for “Members Only.”😉 Join Annie’s Club to get your ✨Golden Ticket password here.

The Nylons
My very first concert ever was actually also in Madison with my Dad, and two older sisters, to see The Nylons! It was in the same building as the Bonnie Raitt concert years later, but the venue before 2004 was called The Civic Center. If you’re not familiar with The Nylons, they were an a cappella group that formed in the late 1970s who I listened to in the early 1990s. I’d play a record we had over and over in the room we called the “family room.” I’d make up dances on the brown carpet, and practice performing while singing the lyrics. I can’t remember the exact year Dad surprised us with tickets. I think it was early ’90s. I should text him, I know he’d remember.

I do remember my friends, and my sisters’ friends were into listening to groups like the New Kids On The Block at the time. AND I slightly remember mentioning to friends that I went to see The Nylons, waiting for them to be like, “Cool!” AND instead they were like.. “The who?” and me just shrugging it off.

Epic and Educational
But last month, I went to another concert with my Dad. This time at the Verona Area Performing Arts Center in, Verona Wisconsin, a suburb of Madison. (Area is known for being right by Epic Headquarters, a tourist destination, look it up!)

My Dad had texted me if I wanted to go, something about it featuring some Nashville legacies. I honestly didn’t look too closely, I replied back “yes!” knowing a night out listening to music is something I just don’t get to do enough, and I was sure it would be if not entertaining, “educational.”

You see, my Dad has an uncanny ability to soak up and retain information, facts, trivia, and all sorts of nuggets of shareable stuff. I love this about my Dad. He has a history of whispering it all in my ear at times too. Things like dates and years that songs came out and were popular, who was famous that maybe covered songs I’d recognize, or a historical moment happening at the same time he was hearing it play on the radio for the first time… all shareable.

My Dad is a baby boomer, born in 1950. So he was 18 in 1968, to give you an idea about when I’m talking about and what was going on.

“It was an incredible time for music Annie,” he’s said more than once. “New music, great music, was coming out all the time. Every week there’d be something new to listen to.”

Annie Lynn Podcast…
I’ve often imagined my Dad and I having a podcast to discuss music in this context. I’d maybe play a game where I’d give him a song title and ask him to say the year it came out. Then I’d challenge him for the month and day, if he didn’t already provide that. Then I’d see if he’d riff on where he was when he first heard it, and what he was doing at the time. Wouldn’t that be fun?!

At the Bonnie Raitt concert I remember him sharing tidbits in my ear about stuff he wanted to share, and it happened again this time.

Lessons in the “slip note“
At this recent concert, he mostly was excited about hearing the grandson of the person who invented what is called the “slip note” piano style. Are you familiar? I actually wasn’t. But now I am.

This concert featured pianist Jason Coleman, who’s grandpa was Floyd Cramer. My Dad, always building on skills or learning something new, was taking piano lessons about the time of the Bonnie Raitt concert and he’d learned all about the style then, or at least had a name to call the style and a person to connect it to.

I remember my Dad teaching me chopsticks on the old upright player piano we had when I was a kid (it had ivory keys!), us imitating the style years ago, without even really knowing it. Influential styles can do that, sorta just get familiar and ingrained in our minds I guess. After I heard examples of the “slip note” style at this concert, I recognized it. I’m sure you would too.

According to the program notes the “slip note” style was: “an essential part of country, pop, and rock music in the 1950s and ’60s and is widely regarded as the standard for country piano.”

Also featured in this concert was Meagan Taylor, who’s great uncle was Chet Atkins. Heard of him? He’s known for a thumb and two-finger guitar style.

Both Coleman and Taylor performed together on March 16th, 2024 in Nashville Legacy. Here’s a few pictures they shared with us:

Virtual Duets
But besides playing covers of their relatives’ songs, what made this concert so incredible was the use of video projected behind them while they performed and told stories. One of my favorite parts was when they played songs along with the videos. These were like virtual duets!

Even though their relatives had passed away years before, at one point Taylor was doing a virtual duet with Chet Atkins on her guitar, and another time Coleman was playing piano with his grandpa Floyd Cramer. It was super touching, unlike anything I’d ever experienced, and incredible how they used video this way.

Coat of Many Colors
I also loved how they brought on their children to perform a few times. (It reminded me of the Trapp family singers from “The Sound of Music.”) The two families had all traveled up together for the concert, harmonized and took turns doing solos. I loved when Coleman did a duet with his seven year old son on the piano, and when Taylor’s daughter did a cover of Dolly Parton’s “Coat of Many Colors.” Hearing her do it was so sincere and simple and really captured the moment in my mind. I’m a huge Dolly fan, and did my own cover of this song a year or so ago Listen Here.

“Mister Sandman” Memories
Other memorable moments were hearing “Georgia On My Mind,” and “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” as well as “Mister Sandman.” I’d sung a medley with “Mister Sandman” in it when I was in “Respect, A Musical Journey of Women,” a four women show at the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre in Minnesota. I was in that for up to eight shows a week, for nine months between 2007-2008.

Patsy and Willie
We also heard “Crazy,” written by Willie Nelson and made popular by Patsy Cline. I just loved it. Did I ever share I saw Willie perform in Green Bay, Wisconsin? (with Alison Krauss, August 2019) Yup. Fantastic. He also incorporated family into his show. My folks are seeing him (May 2024) in Madison at the Breese Stevens Field Stadium (Home of Forward Madison Soccer Team). Ya just gotta see these legends while you can, Dad and I agree.

But it definitely was an awesome night. We were both inspired, and left more pumped than ever to work on our own harmonies and get back to playing music together too.