Gypsy Song & Story
This was about 40 years ago. I was playing on the banks of a river near my childhood home. I grew up in Romania - Eastern Europe - and there were lots of traveling Gypsies from different neighboring countries. They’d come with 15-20 carriages, settle in a remote area outside of town, spend 1-2 weeks conducting small trades with people around, and leave.
As I was playing by the river near our house, a group of Gypsy children came around and we made friends with some of them. One of them, a little boy, had a nylon string guitar with him - I think I remember he had a missing string - and he sat on the riverbank and started noodling around. He was pretty good for his age. I was a bit younger and had just began learning to play: I only knew a few chords at the time.
This boy was playing broken chords, interesting rhythms, and seemed to have a decent knowledge of the fingerboard. I was impressed. I don’t remember exactly what he played, but I think it was in the key of D.
This week I was noodling around on the instrument one afternoon and I remembered this encounter, so I made up a little something that sort of resembles what I heard that day.
