As the old saying goes, music makes everything better.
Music can give anyone’s quality of life a much-needed boost. It improves our mood, brings back happy memories, and gives us good feelings.
Treat yourself with some Babushka electric light bulb blues, and you’ll see what we’re talking about.
The innovative musician we’re talking about is the 85-year-old Lydia Drobyshevskaya.
Lydia is a lively Belarusian granny who plays the guitar on the streets of her hometown Gomel.
Since the video of her playing some blues on the old guitar went viral in 2009, many have wondered about the old lady’s fate. People wanted to know if she was homeless or poor, and if there was any way to help the adorable grandma. A German news agency Ruptly TV managed to catch up with Belarusian blues wonder, and they’ve found out some answers. You’ll find the complete interview here. Lydia is not homeless, but her living conditions could have been far better. However, she didn’t complain, she said she plays on the streets because she enjoys it.
People grew familiar with seeing her around Gomel and nicknamed her guitar.
She reminisced about being an excellent domra player when she was younger. Domra is a traditional Russian string instrument, and Drobyshevskaya said that she could almost make the instrument speak. “I used to be naughty, I could actually play words on domra, a poem,” said Lydia. We believe her, and after you watch the video, so will you.
Nana plays an old seven-string guitar, and it’s rarely seen among guitars of such age.
We must say that Lydia reminded us of what the real blues is all about.
An old lady dealing with the hardships of life, and giving her all to a song she’s playing. You can see in her finger joints that Lydia’s got arthritis—but it’s not keeping her away from music, and we admire her commitment. Babushka is wearing a sweater, and a headscarf and some bypassers can be heard talking to her n Russian. Everyone is intrigued by her playing. We enjoyed listening to every note. It felt like getting to know a new way of playing, because her way of tuning the guitar is different and she plays it in a completely different manner than you would expect.
A lot of people commented that her guitar looks like a vintage piece from the 1930s and that she could probably sell it for a lot of money.
While it wasn’t confirmed if the guitar was that valuable, Lydia said that she wouldn’t sell it either way.
She used a light bulb instead of a capodaster.
Maybe the performance wouldn’t be so catchy if the old lady wasn’t so creative.
Let’s face it, who would come up with an idea to use a light bulb instead of a capo? Moreover, who would have thought that it could sound so good? Lydia is playing an old song “Life, I Love You.” Interestingly, the song is based on Beethoven’s sonata called “Apassionata.” We’re happy that Lydia still feels that way about life, and that she finds an inspiration to sing about how much she loves it.
MTV wanted her to air the video of the Babushka Blues.
That was an idea, and almost eight million YouTube viewers would have probably loved it.
Anyway, it was never done. Lydia can be proud of herself—she’s an inspiration to all of us and reminds us that there is always some joy in life.We hope that she’s still giving her Gomel a happy sound!
Check out the full performance in the link below:
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
