Merrie Wales

Growing up, my mother was a concert pianist, who gave up a career in music to have a family. We listened to her play Flight of the Bumblebee (when she was happy),  Rachmaninoff (when she was angry), and ragtime and hymns (to have fun).

Music is a large part of what influenced who and what I am. We had a family band: Mom on piano, Dad on baritone, older brother on sax, me on clarinet, and younger brother on trumpet. We were B A D and it was fun. We sang around the piano in the evening, and at family gatherings.

I learned how to play the guitar in junior high and there were plenty of “sings around campfires.” I went to a jazz club, in the early '70s in Berkeley and heard a three-piece group (drums, string base and piano) and was hooked by the intelligence of the music. It felt like coming home.

I will never be a musician, and spinning the blues and jazz music at NSPR for those of you on the other end of the mic is one of my biggest joys.