In It for the Long Run: A Musical Odyssey

Completions

167 Completions one at a time. Edgar had perfect pitch, and everything had to be right on themoney.Iwaspunchinginandpunchingoutonthe24-trackmachine because he would go over a section repeatedly until he was satisfied. I was getting tendonitis with all the punches, but I thought to myself, “If I’mgettingtendonitis,whatishegetting?”Intheenditwasanamazing piece, which I jokingly called, “The Killer Bees Meet the Killer Whales!” ThatwasEdgar’sfirstalbuminalonganddistinguishedcareer.Itisone of the honors of my life that I was involved. Edgar was extremely open to the new acoustic music that was blossoming in Nashville. It was grounded in Bluegrass, but there was a new level of virtuosity in the playing of Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Bela Fleck, and Mark O’Connor that was taking the music in new directions. That was one of the great reasons to be in Nashville. I was living in the same town with Bill Monroe and Sam Bush, with Earl Scruggs and Bela Fleck, with Josh Graves and Jerry Douglas, with Kenny Baker and Mark O’Connor, with Roy Huskey and Edgar Meyer. There was a depth there that I really valued. Basically, when I came to Nashville in 1976, I was starting over. I had been welcomed in by Jack Clement and his circle of friends and had worked my way in from the ground up. I was now starting to find a place for myself in the big scheme of things and had become part of this extraordinary community of creative people. It was very satisfying be able to contribute to it by helping artists like Nanci, Alison, and Edgar when they were just starting out. COMPLETIONS At the end of ’84 I got a chance to reconnect with my old Cambridge communitywhenTomRushputonthreenightsofconcertsatSymphony Hall in Boston as a reunion of the Club 47 gang, including Joan Baez, Mimi Farina, Eric Von Schmidt, the Charles River Valley Boys, Spider John Koerner, Joe Val, Peter Rowan, Bill Keith, me, and lots more. Every night Eric would hold court after the concerts, and the music would never end. Some of us stayed around for a couple of days and on New Year’s Eve, Joan, Mimi, John Cooke, Fritz Richmond and I decided to go over and surprise Joe Val at the Old South Meeting House where he was playing a First Night concert. Sadly, Joe was battling cancer and had to cancel, so we did the gig for him with the New England Bluegrass Boys. 168 FOLLOWING MY OWN PATH It was our farewell to Joe, who died that spring—one of the sweetest soulswhoeverlived.Mymotherhadcometooneoftheconcerts,and,in her usual fashion, seemed to know half the audience before it was over. She too became very ill not too long after, so I was spending time with her in Dedham when Nanci came up to Passim to launch her album for Rounder Records, which was another way the circle came ’round. My mother passed away in April, but she had lived long enough to know that I had found happiness following the path she had helped set me on back when she gave me Carl Sandburg’s AmericanSongbag. In the summer of ’85 Bill Keith, Mark O’Connor, and I did a tour of England and once again played at the Cambridge Folk Festival. Cambridge really lit a fire under us. Bill and Mark were feeding off of each other musically; I felt great vocally, and there was no stopping us when we went over to Dublin to play one night at Barry’s Hotel. The place was packed, and the response was amazing—another “Mighty Night!” One good by-product of this visit was that I got to meet a songwriter named Mick Hanly. Mick had been encouraged to introduce himself to me by Phillip Donnelly and P.J. Curtis. A year or so earlier P.J. had come to Nashville to produce an album by a marvelous Irish singer, Maura O’Connell. Phillip had organized the sessions, so I played some rhythm guitar on it. Jerry Douglas and Bela Fleck were also there, and I could see the start of a bit of a romance between Maura and Bela. Thanks to Phillip Donnelly, this was the beginning of a lot of two-way traffic between Dublin and Nashville. Meeting Mick Hanly was another piece of the puzzle, and I encouraged him to feel free to send me songs, which eventually worked out well for both of us. On our way home we played the Newport Folk Festival. After a...