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Hullo from Idaho!
Hullo, my name is Brad Hardy, and I am in Idaho, US of A. I’ve been a “silent” member since April, but I am finally making an effort to be sociable. I’ve very much enjoyed the questions/comments that everyone comes up with here, and also the candor with which our hosts often reply- this really is a groovy place to be!!
So, my story is this: I was surfing YouTube back in February, and I came across the banner for this band I had never heard of- The MonaLisa Twins. I’ve been a Beatles fan since my childhood (before paved roads), and so the video title, “Drive My Car- Monalisa Twins (The Beatles Cover)” caught my eye, as the title seemed to be so very understated, and- “…what- Hey! She’s playin’ a Ricky!! Ok, I’ll bite…” So I clicked on it, only to discover that there was another young lady with a Gretsch Duo Jet, and in the video the first girl was playing what looked like a Lennon Sig J-160. Cool…
After 30 seconds of watching, I realized, “…wow, these girls got chops!! They are playing skillfully, AND with a loud noise!!”. I guess that was the moment I was hooked. Over the next few weeks I kind of went on an MLT video binge, and found that just about everything they put their collective talents to produced a very high-class and intuitive result. I kept thinking, “how does someone so young have that much insight into the musical stylings of that era?” Then I discovered Papa Rudi and it all made sense. What a cool family, and it seems that they are very serious about family values and love and respect for each other. So, “Hats off to the Wagners!!”
My wife of 37 years is a first generation American, and her mom was from East Prussia. She speaks fluent German, and was very pleased to find I had discovered a band she would like too. She even commented that, “..they do the Beatles better than the Beatles”. Wow. Sorry folks, I hope no one gets indignant about that…!
One last thing that may be interesting, my wife and I wake up every morning to the Twins on my little iphone alarm clock. Depending on what day of the week, we either hear “Close To You”, or “Count On Me”. By the way Lisa, Close To You is my absolute favorite MLT original- IMHO it’s nothing short of brilliant, with not a single note wasted or out of place. We sing it every morning at breakfast, and sometimes make up our own lyrics (Omi Whyyyyyyyyyyyy- do you feel so sad and lonely..?). Thanks for making us smile…
Lastly, since I don’t write that often, I have to mention the MLT cover of “Time Of The Season”. If you would have told me that someone was going to do a classical guitar duet in place of Argent’s keyboard solo, I would have laughed at you. But, oh my, you girls pulled it off, and brilliantly!! To me that is the height of musicianship- Wow!
Ok so there, that’s me. Thanks again, ladies, and Papa Rudi and Micheala for all you do. Please keep up the good work, and Stay Groovy!!
Brad Hardy, Your Biggest Fan from Idaho
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10 Replies
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Hi Brad… Glad to see you’ve emerged onto the Groovy Scene here at MLT Club… Enjoy… Nice to meet you…!!
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Welcome Brad to the
We’re all glad to have you here. The MLT are a real gem indeed. They rekindled my love for music.
BTW, I’ve been to Idaho. Moscow Idaho to be exact back in the 60s when I was a very little kid and we were living nearby in Pullman WA when my dad was doing his graduate studies at WSU. My parents use to drive into Moscow to enjoy the quaint little town and go to one of the coffee places. I always loved coming along to Moscow Idaho because it meant I could ride the nickle Kiddie Horse ride at the supermarket there. Always remember that! ?
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Jung,
Thanks for reaching out! We live about 2 1/2 hours North of Moscow in Post Falls. My oldest son graduated from University of Idaho in Moscow. Small Whirl, indeed!
It’s interesting that you mentioned your love for music being “rekindled”, as I have have felt the same. Although I still play guitar a lot, I used to be quite involved in songwriting. I have let that hobby go by the wayside for many years now, but after listening to the MLT and their approach to songwriting, I have been somewhat inspired to take it up again. I especially like their colorful selection of chords. Lots of fun!!
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I hope you do take up songwriting again Brad. I think people are meant to create, and if you have that gift to be able to write songs, that’s special, and it would be a shame not to do it again. I struggled to even read music well enough to play piano by sight when I took piano lessons a long time ago, so song writing is way out of my grasp, but I plan to resume my piano lessons. Even bought a new digital piano for when I start. MLT are inspiring indeed!
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Welcome to the club Brad. I think regular posters like Jung, Jacki and myself find it difficult to contain our enthusiasm, so it’s always nice to hear from someone new. I too stumbled on the MLT in a similar way to you and spent a whole night binging on MLT YouTube videos.
Yes, their writing is brilliant and you have mentioned two of my favourites, “Close To You” and “Count On Me”. The story behind the writing of “Count On Me”, to me, reveals a father’s love for his daughter.
Once again, nice to hear from you and I look forward to more contributions from you in the forum.
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Hello, hello Brad!
Thank you so much for this extremely cool introduction. As you can imagine, knowing that our music has become part of someone’s breakfast routine, makes our hearts feel soft, fuzzy, furry.
That’s about as sweet as it gets 🙂
We really enjoy getting these sneak peeks into people’s lives, people who allowed our music to become somewhat part of their lives. And of course, thank you for the compliments and kind words!
We hope you’ll enjoy it here in the Club and really appreciate the support!
Much love from all of us to you and your wife, all the way from Liverpool to Idaho <3See you around!
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Welcome Brad from Tom in New York. You’ll love it here!
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Hello and welcome Brad!
I enjoyed reading your introduction and it sounds like we have a lot in common! You obviously are a very loyal and devoted fan of the twins. I also was introduced to them through their cover of “Drive My Car”. “Count On Me”, and “Time Of The Season” are also both standouts for me.
However, I will have to take exception to your claim of “Your Biggest Fan from Idaho” as I am also in Idaho, in Middleton -just west of Boise. And, although you may be bigger than I am (I am 6′ 1” / 195 lbs), you couldn’t possibly be the Twin’s biggest fan because I already am!
But a very warm welcome indeed! Its nice to know the Twin’s following is growing to the point that they have more than just one or two fans around here! Looking forward to hearing from you from time to time here in The Club.
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Well, Hi, Stephen, nice to meet a fellow Idaho-ian (that’s what we way up here by the Canadian border call ourselves.) Or, maybe it’s just me….
I would be very honored to share the title of Biggest Fan from Idaho with you! Maybe we could do a North-South thing. Anyway, very nice to hear from you, and yes, I will also look forward to viewing my neighbor’s posts. Are you the one who posted several items about the MLT guitars, and various models? If yes, I enjoyed gleaning from your research. You know, every time I watch the Baby Mine video, I spend the entire time smiling at how the girls are cooing over their guitars. In a way, that’s like a lot of us, and it’s fun to laugh at ourselves sometimes and realize how silly we may look to others who, well, just don’t understand…. 🙂 Guitars really are fun!!
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…And very nice to meet you, too, Mona! Glad to hear you all got the SFFs over my post. We are very much enjoying getting to know your family through the posts and pics you share here. I especially enjoyed reliving your family’s move to Liverpool- scary, but still very exciting! Glad to hear everything is going well for you all there. Thank you for being transparent and showing us all who you are as a family, and how down-to-earth your lives still are (although I would wager that you work a lot harder than I do!!) We all talk about natural born talent, and there is something to that, but we also know that it takes A LOT of work to do what you do, so Thank You, because we all get to enjoy the fruits of your labors. See you around, too… 🙂
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