Has a piece of my childhood passed? Years ago, when I was in the 11th grade, I would lay in my bedroom in the a-framed house on Jesterville Rd in Wood County that Dad had built.

A teenager hiding away. Mom had introduced me to Willie Nelson, and I got gone on his music. Most high schoolers at the time were into the Stones, Billy Joel, Pink Floyd, etc and I was into all of that too, but Willie and Family hit a missed spot. Out my window, nothing but the hills and woods of West Virginia. In my head, nothing but teen angst and imagination. Dreams.

On my turntable, Willie and Family Live would spin for hours on end. I’d listen while staring at the double album cover. I still to this day feel that it is one of the best Rock and Roll albums of all time. Listen to that bone-crunching guitar break in Bloody Mary Morning and tell me I’m wrong. But rock aside, there’s beauty in that album. Touching delicate moments, and many of those moments were centered around Bobbie Nelson’s upright piano. Listen to Bobbie play Just As I Am here.

Maybe it tied me to my younger days when I would attend Sand Hill United Methodist Church in Boaz WV. The church my Grandpa helped build back in the 50s. Mom would take us every Sunday morning and sometimes we’d go Sunday evenings and Wednesdays too. We’d sit beside Grandma and Grandpa while their neighbor, Virginia Lott would play the upright piano, and we would sing those hymns that you likely know. Church in the Wildwood, Peace in Valley, How Great Thou Art.

A bit later on grandpa bought mom a spinet piano and this became my first instrument. My introduction to music creation. (Read More Below*) Virginia Lott was the go-to piano teacher in Boaz. My older brother Max started taking lessons before I did and Mom too. I'll never forget walking into the living room and watching Max play The Entertainer. My mind was blown, and I had to find out what it felt like to make that piano sound that way.

The headline this morning? Bobbie Nelson Has Died. It's the end of an upright era. The beautiful sounds that came from her piano are embedded deep into my soul.

The sound of siblings locked in love. The sound of little ol' churches everywhere. I stepped away from the piano years ago and the guitar became my main instrument, but recently, I’ve picked it back up and I’m loving the reunion. A reunion with the sounds of my youth.

Dallas Gose, an early mentor of mine once said, “Musicians and songwriters never die. The sounds they create fall upon the ears of the next generation and live on. The inspiration is endless”.

I believe Bobbie Nelson and Dallas Gose will live forever. They put me “in spirit”. Your music will live forever too.

Love

Todd

*For more on my musical beginnings, check out
Songwriting in Contemporary West Virginia
by Travis Stimeling - WVU Press

Todd Burge

Bobbie Nelson Died. A Piece of My Childhood Gone?