Janet Thompson
For The Love Of Music …
By Larry J . Mickartz
Janet Thompson is a retired family law attorney . That is one side of Janet . The other side of Janet is a guitar finger picken , song writing , blues player . She is a fun loving , adventurous , upbeat , affable bundle of energy . Sometimes the two sides of Janet confuse us , but mostly we just enjoy her energy , her voice , her music and her zest for life .
The professional side of Janet includes law school , after two kids , and then 22 years in family law . That side of Janet is over but she has used some of the themes and characters she met along the way as material
That Man of the Tapes for her songs . People who have known Janet in her legal profession
I never really met him In the ordinary way are never identified in her songs but they might recognize a piece An inadvertent mentor of their life or circumstances in her songs ! He taught me how to play
You might be wondering where did the singing , song writing Although he didn ’ t know me guitar player come from ? There is a song for that … The Man on
He opened up my eyes
That man played music on the tapes the Tapes . Janet ’ s older sister , Judy , took and recorded her guitar lessons from a guy named “ Jerry .” Only later did Janet realize that
CHORUS the guitar instructor was Jorma Kaukonen who went on to fame as
I learned Down and Out West Coast Blues a member of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna . Rolling Stone names Candyman and more
Kaukonan the 54th greatest guitarist of all time and the 16th greatest I ’ d play then listen to those tapes acoustic guitarist .
Until my hands were sore I never got to tell him
When Judy went off to college she left the tapes and a guitar to Janet . Just what it meant to me
Time after time Janet played the tapes and learned to mimic what she He taught me the music heard on the tapes . Later in life Janet met Jorma and even attended That set my spirit free some of his guitar camps . At one of these sessions she played The Man © Janet Thompson on the Tapes for Jorma Kaukonan … a memorable event in her life .
Janet ‘ s songwriting sometimes has elements of the dark side of life — that seems to be essential to the blues . Check out Hard Candy Shell , Fast Train Blues or Good Girl Blues . Every now and then she even writes a song that is too personal and it goes into the not-in-public folder !
Photo : Janet & Mike Thompson entertaining at Villa Mira Monte