Windy and Warm

For quite some while—actually, since the very beginning of playing fingerstyle (or something like it)—I've heard an impressive song. It's a catchy tune with an easy but at the same time unique melody. I think there are only a few songs for all of us that we like to listen to even after years. For me, “Windy and Warm” is definitely one of those. There are lots of interpretations out there. The first time I heard the song was at a Tommy Emmanuel show. I wondered who the composer was. On YouTube, I stumbled across a video where John D. Loudermilk talks about the story of how “Windy and Warm” arose. Chet Atkins asked if he could write a song for him, since he'd gotten too deeply into jazz and wanted to get back to his roots (which was blues). John D. Loudermilk agreed. The day Loudermilk wanted to present a first version of “Windy and Warm,” Chet had already finished the song before Loudermilk could do so.

For Loudermilk, the reason Chet was able to predict how the song would go further was that he had a good understanding of motives (musical fragments) in several music genres. When Loudermilk talked about the story, you could hear the pride in his voice that he wrote one of Chet's main songs. Loudermilk never recorded the song himself. He passed away on September 21, 2016, at 82 years old.

Hope you'll enjoy this small excerpt. Recorded with a high quality microphone of an 120$ mobile phone.