Harry Aldridge
The Seemingly Endless Saga of Harry Aldridge (AKA "Bootleg")
Played to the accompaniment of a cherry-red Gibson ES-345, here is a biography of Harry Aldridge, as told by Harry himself. Therefore it is an Autobiography...
1946 "The Beginning of the World... As I See It"
by Harry Aldridge
I was born in a world where the sun didn't shine. I was raised in a cane break by an old mama lion! I'm sorry, this is someone else's story...
The great World War had just ended, but to make matters worse... I was hatched in the chicken capitol of South Georgia, at the Douglas Hospital, on February 9, 1946. (The month and day become more important in 1964, or my name's not Ed Sullivan!)
I was blessed with the absolute greatest parents any earthling ever had! They were two Depression Era, South Georgia farm kids who were both very loving and wonderful childhood guides. Mom was soft, sweet, the world's greatest cook, and always had two open arms to hug you. Dad was funny, hard-working, my summer employer, my sports coach and a great country singer and musician. The family package also came with a sister, who I could pester and who was five and one-half years older than "Little Slick!"
1948 - 1954 "Laughing, Scratching and Eating Dead Chicken!"
We moved to Southside Jacksonville, Florida when I was two years old. (Of course at my request because I wanted to live on the coast! ha ha.)
We lived in a poor neighborhood that was one block from our black neighbors. During my young summers lots of music drifted back and forth through the air from house and automobile windows to my receptive, pointed little ears.
Our house was always filled with guitars, mandolins, mouth harps and various instruments that Dad picked up here, there and everywhere. The weekends were alive with jam sessions country style, fox and "coon hunting" in the wilds of still undeveloped North Florida and, of course, the always dreaded "church on Sunday!"
Dad first taught me to play mandolin when my tiny hands were too small to move up to guitar. Next was slide guitar on a Dobro and, finally... guitar!!
When Dad wasn't home we listened to all kinds of music on the radio and phonograph because, like us, Mom loved it all. When Dad was home, it was strictly country, bluegrass and gospel. Dad religiously tooks us to every country music concert that came to town. I was blessed to see all of the greats from Hank Williams, Eddy Arnold, Patsy Cline, Bill Monroe and everyone else below them.