On Turning 50
Growing up has always been messy business, but with inspiration from Jimmy Page, Peter Frampton and my Dad, I coped by learning to play the electric guitar when I was 11 or 12 years old. I was terrible for months, but I really wanted to play Stairway to Heaven, Show Me the Way and the Guitar Boogie like my heroes. So I held that guitar long enough to gradually bend its will. In time, I knew enough about the electric guitar to make those six strings speak on my behalf, and transform my experiences, my insecurities and my dreams into notes.
Rock and roll taught me how to say “Fuck it, I’m Brian Kain. This is how I act, how I think, how I look, and who I am. Take it or leave it.” My records and my guitar got me through those transitional years and filled me with an inner “cool” I may have never really had.
Fact is, since I was a very young man, rock and roll has been the language in my lungs and the soundtrack to my life. The years, as they tend to do, sped by too fast and along the way, music and I had changed in ways we didn’t see coming. But we never grew apart. To this day, we still find new things to discuss. I guess that’s why music has been a such a close and dear companion for so long.
Watching Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Richard Thompson and Neal Young fight the “rust,” of age and continue to write, record and innovate with their music taught me that you never have to outgrow your passions, even if they involve something as frivolous as rock and roll. It also showed me that, regardless of chronological age, with the right spirit, your best work and best days will always be ahead of you.
In just 20 minutes I will turn 50. That amounts to nearly 40 years of playing music, listening to music and following the artists who created it. Thankfully, it remains a passion and a passport to worlds and avenues of thought I never would have experienced otherwise. My time with music has been time well spent. That’s why I write this page for you, whoever you are; wherever you are. Yeah I know…it’s only rock and roll, but I still like it. Like it. Yes I do.
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Brian loves South Jersey for its proximity to four metropolitan cities, the Jersey shore, the Pocono Mountains and some of the nation's most congested roadways. When he's not marketing education, or on a treadmill, BK spends most of his free time spinning vinyl, writing and playing guitar. Brian writes a classic rock blog at Justriffin.com and edits Planet Zombo. 
Just Riffin' 
Hello Brian. I felt that I should respond to this since our birthdays are so close together. I think that you’re a year less one day older than me. I shall hit 50 next year (with luck!) My great musical regret is that I’ve never really mastered an instrument, so I envy you that. I do strum guitars though, and get a good deal of pleasure from it and I’ve recently taken up the ukulele (yes, I know: a composer friend of mine looked askance when I told him about this and said “I now feel that you have been inducted into a weird cult”). I think the main thing with music, though is to keep learning and keep trying. T H White once wrote that the best way to deal with depression is to learn something new.Wise words, to be sure, but how on earth does one find the time? Not to mention the energy. But you seem to be doing well on it, so I’ll take encouragement from that.
Hello G.H. Thanks for reading my post and your comments. Couldn’t agree with you more about continuing to grow with and through music. I never imagined when I was 20 that I’d be playing better than ever at 50. Yes, time is a challenge, but what thrills me (and sometimes frustrates me) is that I still want to do so many things! Sometimes its simply hard to choose what to do next with my free time. As they say, an object in motion, tends to stay in motion. So, I’m not slowing down until I have to. Great to hear from you and have no fear of 50! Oh, and I’ve spent some time with the uke too and actually find it to be a lot of fun to play. Check out Pete Townshend’s Blue, Red and Grey on the Who by Numbers!