Dust-to-Digital

March 17, 2018March 18, 2018 ~ Joe Accardi ~ 2 Comments

Saint Joseph’s Day, a Sicilian holiday, is March 19 and coincides this year with my Monday “Life Out of Tunes” radio show. So I’m re-posting this article about my Grandfather Giuseppe, originally published more than two years ago. I’ll take a few minutes on Monday’s show to feature Grandpa, his music and some Saint Joseph’s Day traditions…

Today, I received a pleasant surprise. A year or so ago I was contacted by Professor James Leary from the University of Wisconsin. Jim is a folklore historian who was researching material for a book about the ethnic folk music of Wisconsin. We chatted about my Grandfather, who I wrote about here previously, and of his recording session in 1946 that was part of a federally-funded project begun in the 1930s to collect and preserve folk songs of native Americans and immigrants in their own languages. (See my previous blog post: The Sicilian Wedding Singer.) Our email exchanges also revealed that Jim and I had been classmates at Notre Dame.

About a month ago an envelope arrived from the office of professor Leary in which a letter was enclosed offering a discount on his newly published book and CD collection entitled Folk Songs from Another America: Field Recordings from the Upper Midwest, 1937-1946. The mailing targeted descendants and family members who served as “research informants” for the individuals whose voices and stories appeared in the book.

I ordered a copy without hesitation and it arrived today. Jim included a photo and a story about my Grandfather Accardi in his book. Not only that, an accompanying CD contains a track of Grandpa Giuseppe singing one of the Italian songs he recorded, Tic-ti, Tic-ta. The song’s lyrics, in Italian with English translation, along with its history are described also.

What an honor it is to know that my Grandfather’s songs and the folk songs of many other immigrants and native Americans, continue to be relevant decades later in Professor Leary’s “Dust-to-Digital” research and book. Thanks, Jim!

The Annotated Playlist in My Head

January 31, 2018January 31, 2018 ~ Joe Accardi ~ Leave a comment

Perhaps it’s a lingering librarian obsession within me. A way to catalog and shelve that playlist in my head. Or maybe it’s because I can’t think of anything else to write about. Either way, here’s an annotated edition of the playlist from my January 29, 2018 Life Out of Tunes radio show.

Ernest Tubb – Walking the Floor Over You. This tune was floating around in my head for many years as I reminisced about running playbacks of The Ernest Tubb Show in a previous blog post. One thing missing from the radio broadcast was a visual of Tubb flipping over his guitar at the end of the show and displaying the word THANKS in big block letters stuck to the back of it. My No Left Turns bandmate and cousin Mike, whose dad was a country music fan, would do the same thing with his electric guitar at our gigs.
Chris Rea – The Road To Hell (Pts. 1 & 2). Not only have I been a Chris Rea fan since the 1980s, but I have two friends, also Chris Rea fans, who would agree that we, as a country, are traveling down that road. This one was for you, Mike and Brad.
The Flock – I Am the Tall Tree. I always liked the Flock from Chicago. I missed their performance at the Pop House, a teen club in my hometown, around 1966-67. I have it on good authority they closed their show with, “We’re gonna play one more song, then get the flock outta here.”
Umphrey’s McGee – Forks. I confess to enjoying jam bands. The Grateful Dead have always been among my favorites. UM elevates it with scorching, jazz-infused solos and time signature changes accompanied by smart lyrics.
First Friday – Maryanne. A blast from my past, circa 1969-70. While students at ND, these guys were talented enough to record an album. I bought the LP new at that time and played it so often, the grooves wore out. A favorite at parties both on and off campus, First Friday disbanded upon graduation. Members of Umphrey’s McGee are ND alums too, separated from First Friday by three decades. This must be where I say, “Go Irish!”
The Rums & Coke – Glad All Over. Growing up in Wisconsin during the 60s, I knew many “garage bands.” but had never heard of this one until researching a recent post to Wisconsin Garage Bands 1960s, a Facebook page I admin. A five-piece, all-girl band from south of Milwaukee, the Rums & Coke were popular in southeastern Wisconsin. They recorded this Dave Clark Five song across the border in Chicago and released it as a single in 1966.
Roxanne & Dan Keding – Little Drummer. Originally from Chicago, this talented folk duo moved to Wisconsin, near the town where I was working and where we became friends. I was invited to join them and four other musicians for a one-off fundraising gig, performing together as a 50/60s rock ‘n’ roll revival band, Heavy Chevy & the Circuit Riders. That aside, the Kedings recorded an album of traditional folk songs, From Far & Near, in 1980. It was followed by an album of children’s songs, In Came That Rooster, in 1981. I had both albums. They split up and eventually I split, leaving both LPs behind. I regretted it (leaving the records, that is) until I found From Far & Near at a used record store in Asheville, NC, 850 miles from where it originated! From far and near indeed! An old Irish folk song about love at first sight, I selected this track for Frank, my Irish friend.
The Clientele – Lunar Days. If you caught a glimpse of either the super-moon or the lunar eclipse last night, you’ll understand why I spun this tune.
Van Morrison – Moondance. See #8. “Can I just have one more moondance with you?”
The Broadcast – Battle Cry. Threw in something from a great Asheville band featuring an equally great vocalist.
Hot Tuna – Water Song. Sylvia (the one with whom I moondance) and I heard Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Cassidy (a.k.a. Hot Tuna) shred this guitar instrumental in concert a couple years ago.

Hope you enjoyed reading the stories behind each song on this week’s playlist! If you missed it, you can still listen to this Life Out of Tunes show through Monday, February 5, 2018 by following the link: https://www.ashevillefm.org/show/life-out-of-tunes/ and clicking on the “Play Archive” button. Peace!

“Smug hippie anthems” (Pièces de résistance, partie deux)

November 7, 2017November 7, 2017 ~ Joe Accardi ~ 4 Comments

Until recently, I was receiving weekly emails from a fellow blogger who also writes about music. He’s more prolific than I, writing weekly posts, waxing nostalgic or offering insight into music from his past, not unlike other writers I follow. And like the others, I know how to access his blog so I didn’t need weekly reminders. Determined to cut back on the number of emails infiltrating my inbox, I requested my name be removed from his list. I kept the message brief, figuring a long explanation wasn’t necessary.

Judging from his reply, he was deeply offended by my innocent appeal and wasted no time informing me, stating “(I’ll) Spare you the trouble of having to not read something.” At first I thought he was joking, but he continued with a rather harsh criticism of my blog. He wrote, “I haven’t read your blog since that head-up-the-butt ‘Songs of the Resistance’ post back in January. That would have been hard to top — or slide under the lowered bar, as it were — but I wasn’t interested in finding out whether you could, or did.”

I realize it’s not great literature, but “head-up-the-butt?” Ouch! Guess I touched a nerve. Or struck a chord, so to speak. His reply also included three unattributed quotations, all sharing the same general theme about “savage mobs” and “reverence for the law.” At the end he finally alluded to the source of his quotations by posing a question, “How could Abe Lincoln have foreseen the #Resistance, Antifa, Black Lives Matters (sic), the anti-free speech mobs on campus, etc.”

Clearly, he appreciates neither the resistance nor my song list. It brought to mind one of his previous blog entries in which he described a classic Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young album as containing “smug hippie anthems.”

Rather than take umbrage at them, his remarks piqued my interest. The words of respected historical figures are posted ad nauseam among social media groups and become rallying cries for various causes. Some research revealed those three quotations my fellow blogger shared with me were excerpted from one speech Abraham Lincoln delivered on January 27, 1838 entitled The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions: Address Before the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois. It’s been studied and debated by Lincoln scholars for years. So was it an indictment of future Resistance, Antifa, Black Lives Matter, or anti-free speech movements on campus? I don’t believe it was, and here’s why.

William Herndon, who became Lincoln’s law partner in 1844, had this to say about the Lyceum speech: “The speech was brought out by the burning in St. Louis a few weeks before, by a mob, of a negro. Lincoln took this incident as a sort of text for his remarks…”

Reading the entire speech, it becomes apparent that Lincoln, upset by the lynching of a black man in St. Louis and similar lynchings of black men and their white sympathizers in other states, was condemning those mob actions specifically. If I were to respond to my detractor, I’d point out that black lives seem to have most certainly mattered to Abe. I’d also reframe his question and pose it back to him: How could Abe Lincoln have foreseen the Ku Klux Klan, Nazism, the white supremacy movement, a president who is complicit, etc.?

Instead, I’ll resist the temptation to respond directly and simply dedicate the rest of this post, entitled “Smug hippie anthems” (Pièces de résistance, partie deux), to my fellow blogger and critic. Having already written too many words, I’ll keep it brief.

Some time back, I was handed a page torn from an issue of Vanity Fair magazine. It was a list of “favorite protest songs” by celebrities Lin-Manuel Miranda, Q-Tip, Mavis Staples, Tegan & Sara, John Mellencamp and Brittany Howard. Even if you aren’t familiar with some of these artists, you might appreciate the song titles they shared. I invite you to enjoy the following link to a list of their selections on the Vanity Fair website, each of which you can find on YouTube, Spotify, iTunes or other purveyor of “smug hippie anthems.” To see the list, click on this title: Lin-Manuel Miranda’s favorite protest songs.

Violets of Dawn

October 16, 2017January 15, 2018 ~ Joe Accardi ~ Leave a comment

Around the time it was released in 1967, I brought home an album by The Robbs, a regionally popular band from Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. At least two songs from that record were being played on top forty radio often enough to make me fork over some cash for the LP. My band even learned to play one of the tunes.

The Robbs had a regional hit single that year, Race with the Wind. It’s a great song, but it wasn’t my favorite. The album’s opening track, Violets of Dawn, turned out to be the one that grabbed my attention. Scanning the liner notes, I discovered Eric Andersen was the songwriter. The name meant nothing to me. I’d never heard him on the radio, but I sure liked his song. The tune was catchy and the lyrics painted images in my head. One phrase in particular, …petal sprays of violets of dawn, stuck with me like fireworks illuminating an early morning sky.

A year passed. I’d wasted an evening pretending to study in my dorm room when a student from down the hall stopped by with a record album. It was an Eric Andersen recording. He placed the LP on my phonograph and I heard the original Violets of Dawn for the first time. It moved me. Just Andersen singing with his guitar, accompanied by some light percussion from a snare drum and a piano. There were three more verses than what the Robbs had recorded. It was like hearing Bob Dylan sing Mr. Tambourine Man for the first time, after having known only the Byrds’ abbreviated cover.

Over the years, I’d kept up with Dylan’s music while at the same time losing track of Andersen’s, much to my regret. On a recent fall evening, that oversight was rectified.

Eric Andersen performed in concert at a small music hall, accompanied by a violinist who doubled on mandolin, and a percussionist whose bare hands provided a subtle rhythm. While time may have stolen the youthful innocence of his voice, along with my stamina for drinking more than one beer, his performance was a sonic fireworks display of poetry, at times dark and sparse, but consistent in its imagery. The fourth song into his set was Violets of Dawn. Again I was moved, transported back in time, a wave of chills rushing down my spine.

Eric Andersen in concert — Eric Andersen (center) in concert – Isis Music Hall

Andersen performed two sets, each a wonderful blend of old and new material. He delivered songs from his past catalog, of course, and debuted a select set of newer material. He unveiled three new songs invoking the spirit of German writer and Nobel laureate Heinrich Böll, works commissioned by Böll’s descendants and shrouded in sharp satire of the nationalism he despised, especially in a song titled, “Thank You, Dearest Leader.” “The Rebel (Song of Revolt),” inspired by French philosopher Albert Camus, was a call to resist even in the face of hopelessness. Before finishing the evening with his classic “Thirsty Boots,” Andersen turned to the romanticism of Lord Byron, taking Byron’s poem, “To a Lady,” and setting it to music.

It was at once an entertaining and intellectually stimulating evening, one which might have happened fifty years ago in a dingy coffeehouse, illuminated only by …petal sprays of violets of dawn.

Broadside #59 The national topical song magazine

What’s that jangling in my head?

July 17, 2017July 18, 2017 ~ Joe Accardi ~ Leave a comment

Keys that jingle in your pocket, words that jangle in your head.
— The Windmills of Your Mind

When Caryl, my friend and fellow blogger (Home Sweet Abbey), asked if I’d be interested in collaborating on something, I jumped at the opportunity. I’d disabled any notification about the WordPress “Daily Prompt” a while back, mainly because it made me feel anxious about not churning out a daily masterpiece. So when Caryl mentioned a recent prompt featured the word “jangle,” my rock and roll brain began singing to itself, “In that jingle jangle morning I’ll come following you.” But before my mouth could even form the words, Caryl continued with “Keys that jingle in your pocket, words that jangle in your head,” a line she explained was from a Michel Legrand song, The Windmills of Your Mind. I tried to suppress any facial expression that would have revealed while I recognized the song title and the composer’s name (Legrand wrote the score for Summer of ’42), I couldn’t recall any more lyrics from it. Okay, I thought. I’ll stall for a while and eventually Caryl will mention something that’ll jangle loud enough for those sleeping brain cells in my head to awaken. She said the song was from a late 1960s film, The Thomas Crown Affair. Okay, I know that film. Couldn’t tell you a thing about it, but I recognize the title. That’s a start. When she said Sting performed The Windmills of Your Mind for a later remake of the film, a couple of those brain cells yawned and opened their bleary eyes. I kinda remembered hearing him sing it. Or perhaps it was just my imagination, as I know I’d never seen the remake either. But I know this song. We agreed to pursue the proposal and Caryl said she would email me some notes about the song and the film.

Upon returning home, I checked my email and saw Caryl’s message with the notes she promised. It was still bugging me that I couldn’t remember The Windmills of Your Mind. In the old days I would have had to flip through dozens of record albums, scanning track listings on each one to pursue a hunch that maybe, just maybe, I have someone singing that song on an album in my collection. It’s much simpler now with a computer. I typed in the first few characters of “windmills” and with the speed of electrons, a complete title and artist displayed on my screen. I love technology.

I’ve had Dusty Springfield’s Dusty in Memphis CD in my collection for some time now. It, along with virtually all my other CDs and LPs have been transferred to a digital format and stored on my computer. They’re intermingled with more recent purchases, digitally downloaded from online music stores. So I listened to the sultry voice of Dusty Springfield singing The Windmills of Your Mind through earbuds.

Thanks to YouTube, I listened to a dozen other renditions including the original soundtrack version by Noel Harrison, the remade soundtrack mix by Sting and the haunting 1969 Academy Awards performance by Jose Feliciano. I couldn’t stop myself. The jangling was getting louder. I listened to covers by Neil Diamond, Barbra Streisand, and Johnny Mathis. Not content with only the English versions, I sought out the original French recording, Les Moulins de mon Coeur (The Windmills of my Heart) performed by Marcel Amont. Jangling out of control, I digressed for a moment and listened to Legrand’s beautiful score for Summer of ’42. And though completely unrelated, I listened to Paul Mauriat and His Orchestra perform the theme from A Man and a Woman (Un Homme Et Une Femme) before getting back to business. Lastly, I heard the psychedelic, yet soulful rendering of The Windmills of Your Mind by Vanilla Fudge from their 1969 album, Rock & Roll. I highly recommend it. It will jangle in your head for quite some time. For eight minutes and fifty-five seconds, to be exact.

Click to listen: Vanilla Fudge – The Windmills of Your Mind

Too Genius

June 20, 2017October 18, 2017 ~ Joe Accardi ~ Leave a comment

Two days apart. That’s all the difference it made to shake up pop music. One might argue, and rightly so, that music has always been moving forward, progressing along a continuum. A musical evolution of sorts. But this particular evolutionary development was far more profound. It could be described as a pivotal event. The musical soundscape would be altered forever.

Had it been a horse race, Paul McCartney would have won by a nose. In the photo finish you would have clearly spotted Brian Wilson, just a hair’s breadth away from snatching the trophy. But it really was a race. A race to see which musical threshold would be crossed first. What new, innovative songwriting and production would thrust pop music out of a genre stagnating from simple chord progressions and uncomplicated lyrics?

In such a musical race, McCartney would argue that Wilson won the first heat, with his innovative Beach Boys album, Pet Sounds. Wilson, on the other hand, would respond that his inspiration for Pet Sounds resulted from listening to songs composed by Lennon & McCartney (and George Harrison) on their Beatles album, Rubber Soul. In fact, Wilson himself has gone on record to state precisely that.

McCartney, though, has countered that Wilson’s “God Only Knows“ from Pet Sounds, inspired him to write “Here, There and Everywhere” from the Beatles album, Revolver. Moreover, McCartney revealed that after Rubber Soul, the Beatles, upon listening to Pet Sounds, wanted to produce an album that would match its level of innovative production. The result was Revolver. Both Pet Sounds and Revolver were released in 1966, the former in May, the latter in August.

The relationship between Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson is immutable. It was written in the stars. An event of cosmic proportions. They were born just two days apart, 75 years ago. Paul on June 18 and Brian on June 20, in 1942. Astrologically, they are Geminis, a sign represented by twins. They are indeed musical twins represented by genius. Innovators inspiring each other to create the most original and most imaginative music of an era. Two days. Too genius!

Blonde on Blonde

May 17, 2017May 17, 2017 ~ Joe Accardi ~ Leave a comment

It was hailed as a landmark album. Rock music critics variously ranked it among the greatest albums of all time, with some placing it at the top of that all-too-fickle list. Released fifty-one years ago this month, though the exact date is debatable, it’s still considered one of the finest recordings in the history of rock music. To many, including me, it remains at the top of that list.

Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde capped a trilogy of albums that began with Bringing It All Back Home, followed by Highway 61 Revisited, both released the previous year. In the history of rock music, Blonde on Blonde was among the first double albums with a gatefold cover and one song, “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands,” that spanned the entire fourth side of that two-LP set. Initially I thought Highway 61 Revisited, containing the timeless anthem, “Like a Rolling Stone,” could never be surpassed. Man, was I was wrong! At first listen, Blonde on Blonde blew me away.

For a budding teenage guitar player just beginning to get the hang of playing and singing “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” from the Bob Dylan Song Book I’d purchased months before, the songs from Blonde on Blonde offered a new challenge. I desperately wanted a leg up on learning them. Desperation turned into exultation when I spied the Bob Dylan Blonde on Blonde “Deluxe Edition” song book in a local music store where I’d get guitar strings and picks.

Regretfully, I never convinced my garage bandmates at that time to include a Dylan song or two in our repertoire. Instead, I learned a few of them for practice and to entertain myself. Eventually, I learned enough of them to entertain my college housemates and an occasional campus coffeehouse audience. Over time, I’ve entertained some of those same housemates, their spouses and friends whenever we’ve gotten a chance to reunite for special occasions. Long ago, I’d allegedly perform for about anyone at the drop of a hat. Those days are becoming fewer and further apart. When it does happen, you can be sure I include a hefty portion of Dylan songs, some by request. If you find yourself in the audience on one of those rare occasions, please don’t request “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” unless I have my Blonde on Blonde “Deluxe Edition” song book handy and you’re ready to settle in for the night.

With your silhouette when the sunlight dims
Into your eyes where the moonlight swims
And your matchbook songs and your gypsy hymns
Who among them would try to impress you?
Bob Dylan – “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands”

Is the governor singing?

March 4, 2017March 5, 2017 ~ Joe Accardi ~ Leave a comment

I was listening to the radio last night. It wasn’t how I used to listen to the radio when I was a teenager. I’d be in my bed, ear pressed to the tinny speaker with the dial tuned to WLS, “the Big 89” from Chicago.

That was then. This is now. I was streaming a classic rock station through a smart television equipped with a radio app and connected to an audio system. The end result was the same. Music from the sixties.

A strong male voice was singing passionately about a girl. I recognized that familiar voice, but not the song. Singing in a full, rich baritone and ultimately reaching crescendos layered with full orchestration, while repeating the name “An-ge-LI-ca,” it was compelling enough for me to uncover more about the song. I located the station web site where a slowly scrolling playlist noted the title currently streaming was Angelica by Scott Walker:

You know, it’s been a while since the sixties. For one split second, upon seeing the name “Scott Walker” scroll past, I envisioned a notorious politician crooning from behind a podium, and it wasn’t Scott Walker the singer.

A group named the Walker Brothers had a hit song in 1965 titled The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore, the refrain of which I often sing aloud while shuffling around the house on gloomy, winter days. It was that song in which I’d first heard the Scott Walker I was hearing now, the one my mind’s eye initially offered up as a politician from Wisconsin.

Most of what I know about Scott Walker the singer, I learned on Wikipedia just a few minutes ago. Most of what I know about Scott Walker the politician has come from newspaper articles and social media over a number of years.

The Wikipedia article about Scott Walker the singer is surprisingly good and rather extensive. It captured my interest for quite some time as I sought out YouTube videos of him as a solo artist and singing with his brothers. I don’t spend that kind of time on politicians. Unless, of course, they’re singing.

For better or worse, Scott Walker the politician isn’t among them in the above mashup video. But depending on whether it’s Scott Walker the singer accompanied by his brothers, or Scott Walker the politician accompanied by his environmental policies, The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore can carry two distinct messages. Sad as it is, I prefer the singer’s. The other is unthinkable.

Disturbing the Silence

February 19, 2017February 24, 2018 ~ Joe Accardi ~ 7 Comments

Letting go of the past can be a challenge. We’d like to think the music we grew up with was the very best and most innovative. To some extent it can be argued that certain songs and musical works set a standard that might never again be achieved. Mozart’s innovative symphonies and operas are held up as examples of classical innovation. At least that’s what I learned in a “Classical Masters” course many years ago. Duke Ellington and Miles Davis were innovators and giants of jazz. Their music is still regarded among the best in that genre.

When modern orchestras and opera companies perform Mozart’s works, they may tweak portions here and there, but the result is still the same breathtaking music that we can only assume sounds the way it did in its original form, perhaps taken to new sonic levels through vastly improved acoustics or recording technology. When contemporary jazz ensembles perform the music of Ellington or Davis, we anticipate new, uncharted improvisation, for that is the very essence of jazz.

In popular music, we cling to the past more than ever. Who can top Sinatra’s interpretation of the American songbook? Tony Bennett perhaps? Who can surpass Elvis and his Jailhouse Rock? No one else has ever done it justice, though I must confess I’ve enjoyed the Jeff Beck Group’s cover of it on their 1969 Beck-Ola album. Or how about any originals by the Beatles or Dylan? There are some “prettier” covers of Dylan tunes that have been released, but the originals still endure.

A music video has been circulating on Facebook recently, linked from within a “Society of Rock” online music zine article. The video is Simon & Garfunkel performing Sound of Silence in a 2009 reunion performance at Madison Square Garden, fifty-two years after they first introduced the song. It’s usually accompanied by comments like, “Nothing beats the original,” or something similar. The zine article that many ignore is about this year’s Grammy-nominated, live cover of Sound of Silence performed by the metal band “Disturbed” on Conan O’Brien’s late night television show.

While the band’s name and heavy metal music may be disturbing to some, Disturbed’s live performance of Sound of Silence was one of those “Oh, my!” moments that made me wonder why I don’t listen to more metal music. Granted, nothing can approach the seamless, soaring harmonies of Simon & Garfunkel in their 2009 performance. But for me, the orchestral crescendo backing the unique vocals of Disturbed’s singer, David Draiman, snatched away any preconceived notion that there are no other ear-worthy versions of that song. I’m only sorry it didn’t win the Grammy for Best Rock Performance. It might have led to a greater appreciation for the original artists by Disturbed fans too young to remember them.

Here are both performances, snatched from YouTube, so you can watch as well as listen. Simply click on each of the links below to enjoy. If there’s a favorite cover version of a song you like, feel free to share it in a comment.

Simon & Garfunkel (Live at Madison Square Garden- 2009)

Disturbed (Live on Conan O’Brien- 2016)

Jonathan Edwards

November 5, 2016November 5, 2016 ~ Joe Accardi ~ Leave a comment

Note: I’ve been a fan of Jonathan Edwards (the singer/songwriter, not the 18th century theologian) since first hearing his music in 1971. It took all these years until last night before I heard him perform in concert. It brought back memories of my first encounter with his music.

Having returned home from college for the weekend, I wasn’t around that October night Poco performed at Notre Dame. I heard it was a great concert with Poco delivering on their promise at the outset about getting the crowd to “kick up their heels and never let up.” They had the audience dancing in the aisles. What I really missed that night, though, was the party after the show.

Frank, my apartment mate, and I hung out with some classmates who lived in a large house they rented outside of town in the middle of a corn field. The seclusion of this place, notoriously referred to as “the Ranch,” made it an ideal location for parties. Loud parties. The living room furniture consisted of two old, comfortable sofas, an equally comfortable easy chair and a high-end stereo system whose gigantic twin speakers were once used in a P.A. system for a rock band one guy had been in. As I said, the parties were loud.
Enjoying the after-show party I missed that night at the Ranch were not only the usual suspects, but members of Poco who were invited by “someone who knew someone.” While my friends were rubbing shoulders with the likes of Richie Furay and Timothy B. Schmit (years before he joined the Eagles), I was rubbing noses with my hometown honey. I look back now and wonder, “What the hell was I thinking?”

The following weekend featured another party at the Ranch, a welcome respite from hitting the books all week long. Still flying high, so-to-speak, from the week before, a lively discussion ensued about Poco’s show and subsequent appearance at the party. Ed, the party’s host, picked up a record album. As he slid the vinyl out of its sleeve and placed it on the turntable, Ed recounted a discussion he’d had with some Poco guys. He’d asked them what music they listened to when they weren’t playing their own. They said at the moment they were listening to a new singer/songwriter by the name of Jonathan Edwards.

Ed cranked up the volume as the first track began to play. Everybody knows her. She’s the one to love… came blasting out of those speakers. “This is the guy they were talking about,” Ed announced when the song finished. We listened to the next five songs on the album’s first side in virtual silence. Wow! Great stuff!

Browsing the record bins in the campus bookstore a few days later, I ran across that eponoumously titled album by Jonathan Edwards. I snatched it up and and trotted over to the cashier, plunking down my three bucks and forgetting entirely about whatever else led me to the bookstore initially. I couldn’t wait to get a listen back at the apartment, pull out my guitar and start learning how to play those songs. It was a lofty challenge, but I learned to play a couple and would sometimes include them when entertaining myself or my apartment mates late at night. One song, Shanty, remains in my repertoire to this day.

Thanks for the years of great tunes, Jonathan Edwards. Such beautiful imagery from a guy who shares his name with an 18th century preacher man.