Category Archives: between books

Separation – – – –

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Wendy did Wednesday, so Jack does Friday – –

My friend Dirk, who engineers my radio shows often talks about the ‘two degrees of separation’ in folk music – everyone has some kind of connection to everyone else!

I experienced this graphically over the last few days – –

Another friend – Randy – owns ‘Oracle Books’ nearby and I hosted a Burns Night there last Saturday celebrating the anniversary of the birth of Scotland’s beloved National poet. I said that I saw significant parallels between the lives of Burns and Bob Dylan – both from rural areas, went to the big city, were lauded by the ‘glitterati’, then dropped when they no longer fitted in! Bob has frequently said his favorite song is ‘Red, Red Rose’ by Burns!

Paul Clayton

I had taken a few books to show, including one called ‘The Merry Muses of Caledonia’ – a very bawdy collection of songs that Burns had heard, written down and was published after his death.

Oracle Books also sells used records and to my surprise Randy messaged me a few days later to say an LP of ‘The Merry Muses’ had just come in to the shop. The performer was Paul Clayton which made another connection. Clayton was a folklorist and singer living in New York when Dylan arrived there in 1961 and they hooked up. Dylan, of course was a sponge who soaked up everything he heard and incorporated lots of that in his songs. Clayton sang a song he’d collected called ‘Who’s gonna tie your Ribbons when I’m gone’ – Dylan used the tune and some lines for ‘Don’t Think Twice. It’s all Right’.

My connection to Dylan? I was at his concert in Edinburgh in 1966 just a few days before the infamous ‘Judas concert’ in Manchester, England.

So maybe you are at the center or maybe you’re just circling around – – –

Me, Bob, Paul, Randy, Dirk, Burns – let the circle be unbroken – –

Memories and – memories – –

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Jack is late again – –

Every year around this time we were among the favored few that got an end of year letter in the mail from our dear friend Lindsay. Lindsay’s letters were reverse works of art; where everyone else’s holiday missives groaned with good cheer, his just groaned.

Wendy and I still quote what we consider the best line ever from his 2010 card: My sister’s house is sinking down a mine shaft. The council engineers don’t think they can save it.

 Everyone who received his Christmas Cheerless letters felt honored and we would all exchange comments about it wherever we were in the world.

Lindsay left us a few years back, but he will never be forgotten. So – to continue his tradition, here’s a few highlights of the low points of my year.

Dead Furnace

At the start of the year our gas fired central heating furnace died and it took a month to get a replacement, so we used our wood stove to keep heat in the house – –

Health checks

I passed out while getting ready for bed one night and had a whole host of health checks which showed me to be in perfectly good shape!

Scotland

We returned to Scotland in June and I got my first foray over the ‘Rest and be Thankful’ from Arrochar to Iveraray – wonderful views! And then we all caught COVID.

New stove

Our old woodstove had been cheap and too small so we invested in a much better and more efficient one. We also learned about using well-seasoned wood! The guy who took the stove out for us said it was a wonder we hadn’t burned the house down or asphyxiated ourselves on noxious fumes.

Storm damage

We caught the edge of hurricane Helene and lost sections of our recently installed metal roof. To my amazement our insurance company promptly paid for a replacement and local roofers did a magnificent job. We were trapped in the house for a day while they heaved sharp sheet metal shards over the sides of the roof. It was an experience.

Wendy

Wendy produced, researched and presented a series of radio shows that aired across the Appalachian states. Then the funding body cancelled the grant. She joined some of her writing friends for a couple of weeks in Mexico and discovered its health system was cheap and efficient because she had an emergency EKG. (She’s going to be fine.)

So there it is, dripping with Christmas cheer – or something, anyway. Fa la frigging la.

We’re sure that 2015 will be just wonderful – – –