When I Was A Boy: A Song History

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"When I Was A Boy" is the eleventh of fifteen titles, all set in DAD tuning, in Tom McConnell's Music From The Heart, which its DulcimerDownloads listing presents as a book of McConnell's original music, published by Airway Publishing.[1] The table of contents pictured on that listing places the piece on page 28, and the download includes an MP3 recording of each of the fifteen songs.[1] The listing credits the book as a whole rather than naming a composer for each title; the two sample tunes it shows, both other pieces, are each marked "by Tom McConnell" with the year 2015, but the page for this one is not among them.[1]

Watercolor of a boy in a straw hat leaning back against a large rusty anchor on a stony beach

Winslow Homer, Boy with Anchor, watercolor and graphite on paper, 1873. Shown for its subject; it has no connection to the piece.

The listing calls McConnell a college professor, and his DulcimerDownloads artist page describes him as a hobbyist who plays mountain dulcimer, guitar, ukulele and a little bass, with music he calls "acoustic folk" that also leans on Americana, blues, bluegrass and a touch of jazz.[1][2] The sources consulted here give no date, background or outside recording for "When I Was A Boy," and none explains its title.[1][2]

Our book that contains the song "When I Was A Boy"

Sources

  1. Tom McConnell: "Music From The Heart".
  2. DulcimerDownloads: "Tom McConnell".
  3. Image: Winslow Homer, Boy with Anchor, watercolor and graphite on paper, 1873. The Cleveland Museum of Art.

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