When Aspiration first started jamming together, two of our members played bluegrass banjo. At the time they were both students of Rhonda Gouge and at about the same level, so they were often working on the same tune. One of the banjo tunes they were working on was “Hop High Ladies”. Maybe it is an interesting tune to play on a banjo, but it was a boring tune for us to accompany them on guitar. To make it more interesting, i decided to write lyrics for the tune so that i could sing along, rather than just play a bunch of rather predictable chord sequences. The lyrics basically told the story of Aspiration, with tonque somewhat in cheek. The turkey troop mentioned in the song refers to the fact that there were often a bunch of wild turkeys foraging just outside John Britt’s pottery studio, where we practiced at the time.
Shortly after i wrote this our banjo players moved onto more advanced tunes and quit playing “Hop High Ladies”. This meant the end of our singing “Hop High, Aspiration” as well, since i never cared that much for the tune. Maybe some day i’ll make up a new melody for it and start singing it again.