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Reminders

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Each morning since 2013, alongside pictures from work, travel, musical moments, and family, a list of eight simple reminders shows up on my computer screen. These rules of how I want to live day-to-day are the result of a more intentional focus on life’s journey rather than relying on a changing list of annual resolutions. As one blogger noted in outlining a similar set of what he called “cardinal rules,” these are not quite principles, but are rules which — for the user — have lasted over time.

In thinking of the work before us in 2021 as we look to regain our equilibrium after a tumultuous year, we can all return to our own set of reminders. Though I often miss my personal marks, I return each day to be prompted about the things that matter to me and to focus on ways to live with compassion, grace, insight, integrity, and love.

We are all looking for our way through and beyond the difficulties of 2020. I’ve written — in one way or another — about each of my personal reminders over the past twelve months. Here are eight of those stories from More to Come, given in the hope that they will help you think about your cardinal rules in this new year.

Rule #1. Be Grateful. Be Thankful. Be Compassionate. Every Day. 

Making time for gratitude (December 28) is my story of a practice that didn’t begin as a pandemic project. But as the weeks passed and turned into months, the realization deepened that the specific action of writing one or more thank you letters each week — not in a reflexive way but in a more thoughtful and intentional fashion — was a perfect antidote to the poison that seemed to permeate our lives in 2020. It was, for me, an ideal pandemic project.

Rule #2. Exercise six days a week for the rest of your life. 

Journeys that move us toward justice never end (October 20) begins with a walk through Brookside Gardens. There were small signs of “Garden Mindfulness” along the path with reminders to “feel the air moving across your skin” and to “bring awareness to those parts of the body where you could feel the wind.” Upon discovering a labyrinth, I began to walk its path and recalled Rebecca Solnit’s words about the rules and morals of the practice:

“…sometimes you have to turn your back on your goal to get there, sometimes you’re farthest away when you’re closest, sometimes the only way is the long one.  After the careful walking and looking down, the stillness of arrival was deeply moving.”

In troubled times it was a good reminder that your grandmother was right: A walk will do you good.

Rule #3. Listen more than you talk.

Listen, learn, love…and act (June 8) was written after the horrific murder of George Floyd and as the nation reached an important inflection point in our 400-year-old history with race and racism. A number of smart commentators noted that while we should stand up in the moment for an end to racism, white people like me need to listen, listen, and then listen some more, followed by work to educate ourselves about the systemic nature of racism, the ties to implicit bias, and how we can train ourselves to be anti-racist. But listening and learning, without action, will not change history. As the first African American presiding bishop in the Episcopal Church, Michael Curry, counsels, our actions should come as we walk a path of love.

Rule #4. Spend less than you make. 

Be there (December 7) focuses on how you never know when someone needs you to be your best. It may be as you write a note or pour a cup of coffee. It fits with this reminder about money in that it contains the story of Lene and Abeba Tsegaye who left Ethiopia in the 1980s to move to the U.S. and set up a coffee shop in our town. On a recent visit to Kefa Cafe, Abeba told me these were challenging times, but that she and her sister have seen challenges before. I was able to tell her how much the café meant to us, and how much I appreciated the sign they had placed in their window which read, “Gratitude turns what we have into enough.” She replied that it was the way they tried to live. This is a good year for all of us to be grateful for what we have and to resist the urge to try and satisfy ourselves with more stuff.

Rule #5. Quit eating crap! Eat less of everything else. 

Reflect. Reconsider. Reset. (March 23) was written early in the pandemic as we were each learning that navigating through difficult times is both a personal and communal journey. One of the ways to reset was my suggestion that we could use this time to straighten out our mental house. “Most of the choices we make each day may feel like the products of well-considered decision making, but they’re not. They’re habits,” according to Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. Oftentimes the way I eat — and eat too much — is simply a habit. It was easier to reset this habit during 2020, since we stopped eating out and I benefited from thoughtful, well-prepared meals.

Rule #6. Play music. 

Saturday Soundtrack: Doc Watson’s Deep River Blues (November 21) relates to a life rule that works for me but may not be important to you. Virtually any time I pull out one of my guitars, I end up playing Deep River Blues in the style of the late Doc Watson. In this post, I thought it would be fun to see what real guitar players do with this tune.

Rule #7. Connect and commit. 

Remembrance, not regret (March 2) was written as I approached my 65th birthday. It has a similar focus to the first cardinal rule referenced in Niklas Göke‘s blog: “Make peace with your past so it won’t mess with your present.” In this post I thank the many family, friends, colleagues, and even strangers who have been there for me over 65 years. Their support has led me to a place where I now move quickly past feelings of regret to memories that provide a solid foundation on which to connect and commit anew. And while they may, or may not, remember what they did to lift me up, I remember.

Rule #8. Don’t be a Grumpy Old Man. Enjoy life! 

Finding your potential: Aging in a time of turmoil (June 15) contained thoughts on two books I read this year after recognizing that one can’t claim to be middle age when no one lives to be 130 years old. Times of turmoil give us the chance to “change the status quo” about many things, including how we see the roles older people play in daily life and how we, as we age, can move past grumpiness into full enjoyment.

What did I learn from those who have successfully navigated the next third of life? To find the power and potential of our lives, we should:

  • Maintain a future orientation that provides the ability to anticipate, plan, and hope. Learn something new every day.
  • Stay engaged with meaningful work.
  • Exercise, but don’t worry about getting a gym membership.
  • Spend time with younger people.
  • Build the capacity for gratitude and forgiveness and focus your perspective around empathy for how others see the world.
  • Get enough sleep.
  • Do things with people, as opposed to doing things to people.

Oh, and as neuroscientist Daniel Levitin reminds us at the end of his book, don’t forget to laugh. “Whatever’s going on around you, remember to laugh.”

Here’s to a better 2021.

More to come…

DJB

Image: My computer wallpaper with DJB’s Life Rules as a daily reminder of what matters.

Bulleit bourbon (photo credit: The Adventures of Sarah & Derrick)

New Year’s Eve brings songs for Jack, Jim, and all of their friends

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This special Thursday edition of Saturday Soundtrack is timed for December 31st, when, for some reason, you may have a drink in your hand.

You may be drinking to celebrate the New Year and to welcome President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Or you may be lifting a glass to say goodbye to a year that has been horrid in almost every way possible. You may be toasting the soon-to-be end of an administration that has tried to kill democracy in America. Perhaps you are anticipating a Dry January and have decided to load up before the calendar turns over.

No matter the reason, here are a few songs for Jack, Jim, and all of their friends to get you in the mood, beginning with a couple from one of my old favorites, David Bromberg. The first, with Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, is Keep on Drinkin’ — not the last time we’ll hear someone disregard the advice of their doctor.

The second Bromberg tune is a long-time favorite of fans — as you can tell by the sing-along nature of the chorus — I Like to Sleep Late in the Morning.

Norah Jones doesn’t normally go off on benders, but her “alternative” band, The Little Willies, get drunk singing a song written by the inspiration for the group’s name, Willie Nelson.

“I gotta get drunk I can’t stay sober
There’s a lot of good people in town
Who’d like to hear me holler
See me spend my dollars
And I wouldn’t think of lettin’ ’em down

There’s a lot of doctors that tell me
That I’d better start to slowin’ it down
But there’s more old drunkers
Than there are old doctors
So I guess we’d better have another round“

Even though the quality of the video isn’t great, the guitar solos by Jim Campilongo are amazing and worth the trouble.

The Watkins Family Hour with Sean and Sara Watkins calls up one of the saddest drinking songs around, The King of the 12 Ounce Bottle, on their debut album.

We don’t know how long we’re here for, do we?

So much beer, and so little time.

Chris Stapleton has sung his share of drinking songs. Here he is with his old band The Steeldrivers Drinking Dark Whiskey, Telling White Lies followed by the beautiful solo acoustic version of Whiskey and You.

And just because Stapleton left the Steeldrivers to begin his solo career, it doesn’t mean the band forgot how to drink.

“I’m drinking like a fish and dancing like a mule
Fighting like a chicken and talking like a fool
And I will ’till I don’t have to honkey-tonk my blues
‘Cause anything’s better than thinking about you
Sitting at home, knowing your gone
Watching the phone, drinking alone“

I don’t know, drinkin’ alone sounds so 2020.

Seriously, folks, don’t drink and drive. At all. Be safe. Enjoy yourself. And goodbye 2020…you’ve been a helluva year (and that’s a nice way to put it).

Welcome 2021.

More to come…
DJB

Image: Bourbon (Photo Credit: The Adventures of Sarah and Derrick)

Bonus: And here’s one of many references in song to being with Jack (Daniels), Jim (Beam), and all of their friends, from the 2015 CMA Awards show.

“I can’t drink you away
I’ve tried Jack, I’ve tried Jim
I’ve tried all of their friends
But I can’t drink you away“

Weekly Reader: What was missing on your 2020 bingo card?

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This Weekly Reader features links to articles that grabbed my interest or tickled my fancy as we approached the end of 2020. Here’s hoping you find something that makes you laugh, think, or cry.

Kimberly Harrington takes on this crazy year at McSweeney’s with Things I Didn’t Have on My 2020 Bingo Card Bingo.

Click through to check out her full card and have a hearty laugh (or a moist eye). Here are three to whet your appetite:

  • Dumbest. Coup. Ever.
  • Quitting royal family: An option
  • U.S. Postal Service: White hot center of drama and intrigue

In a similar vein of looking back with a combination of laughter and horror, the Washington Post recently published 2020 in editorial cartoons from all over the country.

With everything that happened, editorial cartoonists more than made their money this year. Have you forgotten that we impeached a president in 2020? That seems like history from another era.

Speaking of history, two recent pieces by historians are worth your consideration. In an op-ed for the Washington Post, Northwestern University’s Daniel Immerwahr writes that History isn’t just for patriots: We teach students how to understand the U.S., not love it — or hate it.

Immerwahr wrote one of the best works of history I read this year. His ability to illuminate complex issues comes through again in this piece in the Post, where he outlines the contours of the battle over patriotism in the classroom. He explains that the study of history isn’t based on how we feel, but what we learn, and provides two reasons why the question over patriotism in the classroom is an odd one.

“The aim of a geometry class is not for students to love or hate triangles but to learn the Pythagorean theorem. Similarly, the point of U.S. history isn’t to have students revere or reject the country but to help them understand it.

The second reason is that, by imagining history class as a pep rally or a gripe session, we squeeze the history out of it. The United States becomes a fixed entity with static principles, inviting approval or scorn. And that makes it hard to see how the country has changed with time.“

A good history class, writes Immerwahr, “doesn’t treat the United States as an unvarying force for freedom or oppression but as an arena where worldviews compete. Students learn that different people had irreconcilable dreams, clashing understandings of what made their country ‘great.’ They learn that history is messy.”

In the second piece, historian, CEO of New American History, and president emeritus at the University of Richmond Edward Ayers, writing in Medium, tackles The Deep History of the 2020 Election.

Ed takes the reader on a fascinating look, with an insightful assemblage of maps, at how two centuries of black migration in the U.S. shaped today’s political parties.

“In many ways…the broad outlines of the election of 2020 — like the elections of the last half-century — are products of the 1820s and 1920s. Fundamental contours of the electorate were defined by the migrations of Black Americans, first in the forced movements of enslavement and then in the bold movements of the Great Migration and succeeding generations.“

Eight years before the 2020 election the changing nature of the suburbs in the South (from white to black) and gerrymandering by Republicans in more rural states had crystallized voting patterns at the congressional level. If you want to understand more about how the election played out, take a look at Ed’s history of black migration over the past 200 years.

Writing in Mother Jones, Tim Murphy hits the ball out of the park with Monsters of 2020: The People Who Gutted Minor League Baseball.

In one of the under-reported stories of the year (perhaps the press should get a pass just this once, given everything on their plate), the brains who run Major League Baseball decided that this was the time to gut another of America’s beloved institutions.

“There will be 40 fewer minor leagues farm teams next year than there were in 2019….The minor leagues—which rely on in-person interactions like concessions and ticket sales—were hit hard when the pandemic forced the cancellation of their 2020 seasons, but that’s not why these franchises got kicked to the curb. Plans to dramatically reduce the number of minor league franchises and players were in the works long before that, because Major League Baseball is filled with insufferable ghouls.“

Of course, the cheating Houston Astros with their ex-McKinsey general manager were among the leaders of this drive to “optimize” baseball and save costs.

“It’s a testament to the almost religious levels of self-absorption among Major League owners and executives that they didn’t think (or perhaps just did not care) about just how awful it sounds to tell people, publicly, that baseball games are a wasteful byproduct of professional baseball, as opposed to the entire point of professional baseball.

“Even as other sports produce better highlights or cooler players, baseball’s great asset is that it’s there. A game is a nice place to be, with friends or family, reasonably close to where you live…Most people who go to these games will not particularly care if a pitcher throws 90 miles per hour instead of 93. They might not even be able to tell you what happened on the field at all. Getting rid of the ubiquity that’s sustained its popularity for 150 years gets sold as streamlining. It’s really just strip-mining.“

This is not just a baseball story, notes Murphy.

“By this point in the 21st century, you should know enough to run full speed away from people who talk about optimization—people who take over beloved institutions with little appreciation for what those institutions actually do, who talk about getting better by getting leaner, about rooting out inefficiencies and pivoting into a new ‘space.’ These people buy newspapers and gut them. They buy your company and make you build a stage for the announcement where they lay you off. They take over the post office and, well, you know.“

Yes, we do. As I said, Murphy hits a home run with this piece. Go read the entire aticle.

The Angry Grammarian, writing in the Philadelphia Inquirer, has some advice for those of us who write in I don’t know who needs to hear this, but you need to stop using these 13 phrases right now.

Jeffrey Barg notes that there are so many things we should leave behind as the calendar turns — “including far too many words and phrases that 2020 wrung dry.” Here are three of the 13 he features in a funny and insightful piece:

  • “I don’t know who needs to hear this, but …” Stop lying. You know exactly who needs to hear it. Grow some stones and confront them.
  • “Asking for a friend.” Stop lying. You don’t have friends.
  • “This is so me.” Grammatically, this one is interesting. So is a remarkably versatile word, having legitimate uses in five different parts of speech: It can be an adverb, adjective, conjunction, noun, or pronoun. In this sentence, me, which would typically be a pronoun, is functioning as an adjective, following the linking verb is. So that makes so an adverb modifying an erstwhile pronoun functioning as an adjective. But being grammatically interesting doesn’t make your overused sentence interesting itself.

Moving to a musical theme, for those who like their songs with a Southern twang, check out the 30 Best Southern Albums of 2020 from The Bitter Southerner.

The list is wide and eclectic, just like the South. Some are from old musical friends, such as Jason Isbell, Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson, and The Chicks. Others were new to my ears. All are interesting and many are worth repeated listenings.

The 2021 Reading Challenge from Anne Bogel at Modern Mrs. Darcy is designed to put more intentionality into your reading list next year.

“Haven’t we all spent the year examining myriad aspects of our lives, reflecting on what works and what doesn’t? And even more than before, we’re turning to reading with wildly different purposes in mind.“

Bogel has structured her challenge around these questions:

  • What do you want more of in your reading life?
  • What do you want to be different in your reading life? 
  • What are you looking for in your reading life right now?  

For those who want to “read harder” in 2021, you might also want to check out this challenge.

Enjoy these writers and artists, and we’ll see what the first week of 2021 brings in the next Weekly Reader.

More to come…

DJB

Image by Nina Garman from Pixabay

Making time for gratitude

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It did not begin as a pandemic project.

In early March, when the thought of how best to express my gratitude first arose, it was near the milestone of a 65th birthday. But as the weeks passed and turned into months, the realization deepened that the specific action of writing one or more thank you letters each week was a perfect antidote to the poison that seemed to permeate our lives in 2020. It was, for me, an ideal pandemic project.

“I turned sixty-five in 2020,” each letter began…

“,,,which certainly falls in the “time flies by quickly” category. In ways that I never could have imagined, I have had a fortunate life. In wanting to recognize this milestone, I found some inspiration in two very different places. First, I was taken with the powerful scene in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood when Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers asks a reporter to take a minute of silence in the middle of a Chinese restaurant to consider the people who’ve loved him into being. The second is writer Nancy Davis Kho’s Thank You Project. Both have motivated me to write thank you notes over the course of this year to the people that have enriched my life. This week I want to thank you.

What followed was several paragraphs that described the reasons I was grateful to have that particular person in my life. The letters generally ended with the complimentary close, “With much gratefulness and admiration” sometimes augmented with “and love.”

When making the decision to begin this year of gratitude, my journal quickly filled with the names of siblings, in-laws, former bosses, teachers, and long-time friends. But as the weeks passed and I thought more and more about the people who had really been there in times of need — benefactors in one way or another — the list expanded to include a range of colleagues over four decades, spiritual and secular mentors, people in positions of power who demonstrated how I should support others when given similar levels of responsibility, and those who guided and stretched my intellect.

By December 20th, 52 individuals had received a letter, one for each week of the year. Those who would have been on the list had they lived included my parents and grandparents, of course; a board chairman who called every single morning during his two-year term to check my temperature and see how he could be of help; and an influential college professor and his wife, who became good friends over three decades.

Early in life I was taught the importance of saying thank you, to the point that it entered my DNA. However, real appreciation for the act of gratitude and the kindness that is conveyed through that action has come only in recent years. It can mean a great deal when people remember you with a short but pithy note, send a generous and unexpected recognition, or reach out across decades to recall long-ago friendships. I have been the recipient of each of those gifts in my lifetime and know their power.

This year of gratitude has provided an abundance of life lessons. By focusing on how to articulate what it is about someone else that has proven so beneficial in our lives, we are led to the realization of how much our thoughts, words, and deeds are shaped by others. Community, in all its meanings, is key to a fuller existence.

The first boss who truly shaped my career served as a role model in how to support staff by recognizing their individual needs. She also encouraged my professional growth, even when it meant leaving her office for new opportunities. Bosses and other mentors who followed her taught lessons in how to listen, in generosity that leads to sharing as opposed to hoarding, in ways to build and reward initiative, in the value of a wide and curious perspective, in the need for clarity in thought, and in the benefits that come in welcoming a stranger with a figurative embrace as people move into new and different circumstances.

So many mentors believed in me, providing affirmation that was there at critical times. They had a willingness to share work, decisions, credit, and praise; encouraged engagement and empowerment with boards and other leadership groups; and placed me in situations where I could learn, succeed, occasionally fail, and ultimately grow. It is a good lesson to keep front and center as the opportunities arise to support those in earlier phases of their life and careers.

It became clear over the year that many of my benefactors were vulnerable and human, revealing ways to open up to others that did not come naturally to me. So many have an uncanny ability to listen with empathy. Knowing how to laugh came through time and again. Abundant good humor — often of the self-deprecating variety — can help make suggestions easier to digest. I thought of friends, co-workers, and loved ones whose lives demonstrated the value of generosity, a positive outlook on life, forbearance, and simple kindness. A choral director changed my life when, through her patience and skill, she showed me the transformative nature of music. There were two individuals in particular who will forever be important in my life, as they taught me how to work through troubles and handle loss.

And some of the earliest and most enduring benefactors were my siblings, who challenged, nurtured, and supported me throughout childhood and beyond. From them I learned the warmth that comes from a spirit of hospitality, the fearlessness that makes life worth living, and the love that overcomes differences.

Writing weekly letters of gratitude did not begin as a pandemic project, but the intentionality of articulating what others have brought to my life could not have come at a better time. Besides recognizing the good fortune we have in those who shaped us, a benefit of giving is what comes back in return. I received dozens of kind and thoughtful responses, some several pages long, that spoke of the effect of the gratitude on the recipient and the depth of our relationship from their perspective. These are emails, notes, and letters that I will always treasure.

To all who have touched and supported my life, thank you. I cannot begin to truly express how grateful I am for you, but I am enriched beyond measure in making the time to try.

More to come…

DJB

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

Tony Rice, R.I.P.

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The world lost one of the greatest and most influential acoustic guitarists of the last 50 years when Tony Rice passed away on Christmas morning at the age of 69.

In the 1970s at the tender age of 21, David Anthony Rice — known to everyone as Tony — redefined bluegrass guitar when he joined banjoist J.D. Crowe’s New South and began playing guitar leads that referenced flatpicking greats Clarence White and Doc Watson, but were nonetheless uniquely Tony Rice’s music. Crowe’s band came to include Ricky Skaggs and Jerry Douglas, both of whom had long associations in various musical combinations with Rice. It was with the New South that Rice also began to make his mark as one of the new breed of vocalists in bluegrass, who owed as much to Gordon Lightfoot as he did to Bill Monroe. The New South’s self-titled album, known among aficionados by its catalog number 0044, is considered a classic in bluegrass. This 1975 video showcases the band — with Rice’s lead singing and guitar playing — at the height of their time together.

In the mid-1970s Rice left the New South to join with mandolinist David Grisman to create what became known as Dawg Music or, more broadly, New Acoustic Music. The group’s debut album, The David Grisman Quintet, remains as one of the most influential of its time. Grisman, Rice, and violinist Darol Anger — taking the leads — were playing a type of string jazz influenced by gypsy, blues, and bluegrass music that had a beauty and clarity that was unique for its time and jaw dropping in its inspiration.  Now, 40+ years later every acoustic musician worth his or her salt can work their way through similar tunes, but the originality of Grisman’s vision in the 1970s reminds me of the breakthrough of bluegrass when Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs joined Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys in the 1940s and a whole new American music was created. The opening tune on the album, E.M.D. — seen here played by Grisman, Rice, violinist Mark O’Connor and longtime Grisman bassist Rob Wasserman — set the tone for what was to come. Rice’s dazzling guitar break begins at the 1:10 mark.

When Rice left Grisman’s band, he continued with the jazzy sounds of DGQ through his own Tony Rice Unit — featured here with Mar West — but he also began returning to his bluegrass roots with albums such as his tribute to country brother duets with Ricky Skaggs, captured here with The Soul of Man Never Dies, and the Bluegrass Album Band, seen in a 1991 performance at the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) awards show with fiddler Vassar Clements.

Throughout the 1980s and 90s, Rice played with a number of musical collaborators, as he was the guitarist of choice for many musicians. Some of the best of those bands were the super-groups often consisting of Rice, banjoist Bela Fleck, mandolinist Sam Bush, dobroist Jerry Douglas, fiddler Mark O’Connor, and bassist Mark Schatz. Whitewater, a Bela Fleck tune played by the group at an early Merlefest, is a great example of these collaborations. Rice’s first guitar solo begins at the :50 mark and his second one begins around 2:45.

UPDATE: Since writing this appreciation on Sunday, I’ve listened to hours of Tony Rice on YouTube, and I have to add in another song from this wonderful Merlefest set with Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Bela Fleck, Mark O’Connor, and Mark Schatz. Freeborn Man is just the coolest of the cool from what is arguably the best bluegrass supergroup ever assembled. Don’t take my word for it, listen to what Tony said:

“Have you heard any of the stuff that was done by the group of myself and Sam, and Bela and Flux, and Mark O’Connor? Have you heard any of that stuff? It was back at MerleFest, there’s quite a bit of footage of us playing live. There’s tunes like Freeborn Man and Nine Pound Hammer, were – you talk about an ensemble. And uh – I don’t know – Mark O’Connor playing that bluegrass fiddle like that was just absolutely mind-blowing. I’ll go and get on my computer and listen to that stuff and listen to him paying the solos in Freeborn Man and Nine Pound Hammer – listen to Jerry Douglas’s solos and I think Jesus, this is just amazing shit.” –Tony Rice (taken from “A Conversation with Tony Rice directed by Jan Johansson, in 2019)

And if to prove my point, my younger brother sent me this video of a guitar teacher breaking down this song. His mind is blown, as every solo in here is just amazing in its complexity and in the way the ensemble interacts.

BACK TO THE ORIGINAL POST: Rice continued to honor others who made the acoustic flatpicked guitar such a force in roots music through his collaborations with Watson and Norman Blake, among others.

Manzanita was a signature tune for Rice, that he played and replayed on various albums and with different musical collaborators throughout the years. Here is a version from Tony’s 2000 album Unit of Measure.

As an obituary in Rolling Stone notes,

In the Nineties, Rice was diagnosed with dysphonia, an affliction of the vocal cords that all but robbed him of his singing voice. Rice also battled arthritis and elbow issues that affected his playing. He gave his last public performance on guitar during his 2013 induction into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and delivered an emotional acceptance speech.

The obituary also quoted numerous musicians and acolytes who noted Rice’s influence.

“’The list of guitarists who reinvented the most played instrument in the world is very short. Eddie Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix… a few others. Tony Rice is on that list,’ Charlie Worsham told Rolling Stone in an email. ‘Hang out long enough with a couple guitar players, and you’ll hear phrases like ‘Manzanita, or ‘Cold on the Shoulder,’ dropped into the conversation like code, like a test to see how much you know about the good shit. Anyone who strives to flat pick a guitar with a solid right hand, to meld raw physical power with the grace and precision of a hummingbird’s wings owes a debt of gratitude to Tony Rice.’”

I first heard Tony live with the David Grisman Quintet in Atlanta around 1978, and I last heard him with the Tony Rice Unit at Merlefest in 2009 and again in 2012, a year before he stopped playing in public. He was always inventive, thoughtful, and stretching boundaries in ways that pointed paths for others.

My personal copy, inscribed “To my old pickin pal, David – Tony Rice”

UPDATE NUMBER 2: In 2010, I reviewed Still Inside: The Tony Rice Story on More to Come. It was part of a blog where I looked at several books, and you can find the full review by clicking on the link above, but this is the bulk of what I wrote:

“Rice is — in my humble opinion — the best acoustic guitarist on the planet, and this work covers his entire life’s story and musical development.  Much of it is written in Tony’s own words or comes from remembrances from fellow musicians and friends.  The section on the development of David Grisman’s Dawg music, when Rice left his bluegrass roots and joined the seminal David Grisman Quintet in 1975, is worth the price of the book.  As Tony says, there are now at least 10 guitarists who can play circles around him while playing Rice’s own music, but none have the tone and touch…and none came up with the beautiful combination of roots, bluegrass, jazz, and even classical influences that makes the best of Dawg music still fresh some 30+ years later.  After reading the book, I recalled all those great Rice albums that I had listened to on vinyl and immediately went online and downloaded several CDs worth of music from Tony’s four decades of music.  Backwaters is Tony’s favorite, and with fresh listening I can see why.

The best part of Still Inside?  My copy of the book is inscribed “To my old pickin’ pal, David – Tony Rice.”  Now, there’s not a shred of truth in that, but my grandchildren (should I ever have any) will never know!  Thanks to my friend Leti, who stood in line at Merlefest when I couldn’t go this year and snared the best inscription ever for a guitar lover.”

BACK AGAIN TO THE ORIGINAL POST: Tony Rice’s music was part of the 2004 documentary film Bluegrass Journey, and a fitting place to end this tribute is with his haunting solo version of Shenandoah, which — with a short commentary on art at the end by Tim O’Brien — puts a coda on Tony’s life and work.

Rest in peace, Tony Rice. Your music influenced generations and will live on in those whom you have touched and blessed.

More to come…

DJB

Image: Tony Rice with his younger brother Wyatt at Merlefest 2012 by DJB

Mavis Staples

The Saturday Soundtrack 2020 top ten

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In October of 2019, the realization hit that blog posts around music had slowed to a trickle on More to Come. To push away from always writing about politics, work, life lessons, or leadership issues, a commitment was born to write a new post each Saturday to focus on music and musicians that had caught my ear.

Soon it became clear that people were actually reading these things! One dear friend, who has since passed away, commented on the obscure musicians that “only Oakley Pearson (a mutual friend) and David Brown have ever heard of.” Yet a family member on my wife’s side wrote to say that an album by one of those obscure musicians just discovered was on his “Best of 2016” list. Sometimes I’m ahead of the pack and sometimes a bit behind. A friend and former work colleague from Chicago suggested he was finding all sorts of new music, although some of it “had a bit too much twang” for his tastes. A retired lobbyist and friend here in DC commented on a singer’s Amy Winehouse sensibilities. It helps that we have young adult children to keep us cool. A lawyer in Cleveland mentioned at the end of a business-related call that our musical sensibilities were very similar, and we found a shared love for Darrell Scott. (Post coming soon.) And then a former colleague wrote to say she would follow my playlist on Spotify, if I had one. Whew! All high praise that keeps me going.

So 2020 was the first full year of that commitment. At year’s end, we are going to turn to see what you — the readers and listeners — enjoyed by highlighting the top ten viewed/listened to posts from the Saturday Soundtrack series, beginning with….

#10: This Land is Your Land

The July 4th post was a pitch to change the national anthem from the unsingable and militaristic Star Spangled Banner to the Woody Guthrie song that no less an authority than Bruce Springsteen has said is “one of the greatest songs ever written about America” because it “gets right to the heart of the promise of what our country was supposed to be about.” Listen to Springsteen’s live version and see if you don’t agree. “With a country, just like with people, it is easy to let the best of yourself slip away.”

#9: Tyler Childers

Country musician Tyler Childers is from Kentucky, having grown up with a father who worked in the coal industry and a mother who worked as a nurse. Like many a country musician, he began singing in church — in his case the local Free Will Baptist congregation. His grandfather gave him a guitar, he absorbed the music of the 1980s, and began writing songs. To my taste, Childer’s best work to date is the solo acoustic work you find on the Red Barn Radio sessions and on YouTube videos. White House Road may be one of the best of these songs, as the singer from Paintsville, Kentucky — famous for its lawlessness, religion, and booze — puts his own spin on life in rural Appalachia.

#8: Rhiannon Giddens

Posts during the five Saturdays in February highlighted different musicians at the forefront of the work to reclaim the African American contributions to folk, old-time, country and roots music. Giddens is the woman who has one of the most visible roles in leading, in Rolling Stone’s words, the “movement of 21st-century singers, artists, songwriters and instrumentalists of color who have been reclaiming the racially heterogeneous lineages of folk, country and American roots music.” From another post this year which featured Giddens, enjoy her haunting version of Wayfaring Stranger.

#7: I’m With Her

“When you go to heaven and hear singing, it will sound like these three women.” That’s a quote from mandolinist Chris Thile, and apparently a lot of readers agree with his assessment of the overall wonderfulness of the Grammy-award winning roots music trio I’m With Her comprised of Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan, and Sara Watkins. 

Watkins, Jarosz, and O'Donovan
I’m With Her – Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz, and Aoife O’Donovan – at July 2015 Red Wing Roots Music Festival

Having heard this band live on multiple occasions, in 2020 I featured them in the Soundtrack series as both a trio and as individual musicians. Call My Name was awarded the Grammy for 2020’s Best American Roots Song, and their performance on Thile’s Live from Here show is a great example of the beautiful harmonies that are integral to their work. 

#6: Roots music for ghosts, goblins, and other things that go bump in the night

It was great fun selecting grim and scary songs for Halloween. The best of the Halloween songs have been hiding out in the roots music bin, just as the great, old folktales were ones that really hit the mark when it came to ghosts, goblins, and other things that go bump in the night. This led to many views and some great feedback. The song that took me down this spooky path is the Del McCoury Band’s title track from the album It’s Just the Night, with backing vocals by the classic gospel group Fairfield Four.

#5: Sturgill Simpson

Sturgill Simpson is the hard-to-classify, but always intriguing singer and songwriter who sounds like Waylon Jennings or Merle Haggard (take your choice, as both were great singers); writes about topics not often heard on contemporary country radio; has outspoken progressive politics sure to rub many country music fans the wrong way; and who has a gift for surprise. Two examples of the many routes his music has taken can be found in his performance with the Dap Kings of All Around You at the Grammys and the anti-war rocker Call to Arms from his Saturday Night Live show.

In June 2020, Simpson posted a video of a live-streamed one-hour concert held on Friday, June 5th, at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium — the mother church of country music — with an all-star bluegrass band in anticipation of his fall release of two albums of his own music in the bluegrass style. It is wonderful! If you have the time to pull up a chair and crack open a cold one, I won’t stop you. If you don’t have time for the entire concert, give a listen to Breakers Roar from his Cuttin’ Grass, Vol. 1 album.

#4: Holy Week

Suffice it to say that my son Andrew and I share a deep love for unaccompanied vocal ensembles singing beautiful and intricately-crafted compositions from the classical canon. Realizing that one of the Saturday Music post in April would fall on the final day of Holy Week, I reached out to Andrew — who was in his London flat, sheltering in place during his final year at the Royal College of Music  — and asked for some help. He was all in! His curated collection of beautiful and moving vocal music was a big hit with readers, coming in #4 on this year’s top ten list of Soundtrack favorites.

Tenebrae, under the direction of Nigel Short, is one of the world’s leading vocal ensembles renowned for its passion and precision. Their version of Like as the Hart by the English composer Herbert Howells is a beautiful and thoughtful rendering of this classic, which is based on Psalm 42 vv. 1–3. Howells taught composition at the Royal College of Music for almost 60 years, and this particular composition has long been a favorite.

#3: Lift Every Voice and Sing

Coming in at #3 on the countdown — God, I feel like Casey Kasem — is a musical celebration of Juneteenth. On the post one can find various versions of the song known as the “Black National Anthem.” Here it is in a classic setting from late November 2016 — an especially auspicious time — at Abyssinian Baptist Church.

#2: Andrew Bearden Brown

The Soundtrack that took the #2 spot in the top ten list for 2020 has a real family focus.

Andrew Bearden Brown (© 2015 | Kristina Sherk Photography | https://www.kristinasherk.com

In November, our own Andrew Bearden Brown was a part of the concert series Music at Emmanuel in his program Dream & Escape. Featuring works by Samuel Barber, Mozart, and Gerald Finzi, the program was inspired by the vivid and strange dreams many of us were experiencing at the beginning of the lockdown. Christian Lane is the pianist, and the concert was beautifully edited by Max Kuzmyak. The recital was taped in historic Emmanuel Episcopal Church in downtown Baltimore. I may be biased, but the program and music are lovely.

#1: Mavis Staples

If anyone had to knock Andrew out of the top spot this year, he can’t complain because it was that incomparable national treasure, Mavis Staples. The picture at the top of the post may have given it away!

There was no better musical artist to celebrate during The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend than Staples. Readers seemed to agree, and kept coming back week-after-week. This post often ended up on the “trending” list.

Her reach and impact as a once-in-a-generation artist has been astounding. Staples is a member of both the Blues Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a Grammy Award winner, a Kennedy Center honoree, and a recipient of the National Arts Lifetime Achievement Award. As someone who began singing during the civil rights movement and marched with Dr. King, her longevity in the spotlight is a testament to her magnificent talent. Mavis Staples performed at John F. Kennedy’s inauguration and sang at President Barack Obama’s White House.

Let’s salute her work with one of her best-known songs, I’ll Take You There and with her great cover of Bob Dylan’s Gotta Serve Somebody.

BONUS: Paradise

Music is a language that helps us process loss. Throughout 2020, Americans have had to call on that language time and again as more than 300,000 of our fellow citizens have lost their lives to COVID.  Overall, “25% of U.S. adults say they or someone in their household was laid off or lost their job because of the coronavirus outbreak, with 15% saying this happened to them personally.” On top of this health and economic crisis, we are facing the potential loss of our democracy to minority rule.

So many have suffered personal losses during this year, holes in their lives that shake their soul. For those who find nurture in roots, country, folk, and acoustic music, the death of singer/songwriter John Prine to COVID early in the pandemic still creates a void that is difficult to fill.

When a tribute to Prine’s song Paradise came in just outside the top ten, the More to Come editors decided to add it as a special bonus to help sum up the year. This celebration premiered October 3rd on, “Let The Music Play On”: A Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Broadcast, featuring many of John’s friends. Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is a Bay Area institution in San Francisco and Prine was a regular. His full sets from 2014 and 2017 are available to watch on the HSB website.

The artists in the tribute range from a handful of our most cherished roots musicians to some of the youngest and most innovative performers of our times. These are the type of people who are attracted to John’s music and his sensitivities as a songwriter. Bonnie Raitt — who had a huge hit with Prine’s Angel from Montgomery — takes the lead on the song’s final verse.

When I die let my ashes float down the Green River / Let my soul roll on up to the Rochester dam / I’ll be halfway to Heaven with Paradise waitin’ / Just five miles away from wherever I am.”

[Chorus:] And daddy won’t you take me back to Muhlenberg County / Down by the Green River where Paradise lay / Well, I’m sorry my son, but you’re too late in asking / Mister Peabody’s coal train has hauled it away

Paradise is, of course, a song about loss. Loss of youthful innocence and the loss of our environment. In accordance with Prine’s wishes, half of his ashes were spread in Kentucky’s Green River. The other half were buried next to his parents in Chicago.

It is a wonderful tribute to someone whose loss still stings.

Thanks for listening during this most difficult of years. You chose some exquisite music for your 2020 favorites. Let’s look forward to sharing more great musicians and their craft in 2021.

More to come…
DJB

Merry Christmas 2020

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As is true for so many of our fellow travelers on this earth, Christmas 2020 is unlike any other in our family.

In years past we would travel to be with family, siblings, cousins, and friends. Christmas 2020 will be celebrated without travel and without a large gathering of loved ones. Because our parish buildings are closed to help defeat the spread of a deadly virus, we won’t be able to join in some of our family traditions, such as serving at the annual parish Christmas dinner. Even in a year when we have avoided serious health issues and so desperately want to hold our loved ones close, the desire to defeat the spread of the coronavirus means that for the first time in 27 years, the four of us won’t physically be in the same city and the same house to celebrate the season.

So much of Christmas 2020 brings a feeling of dislocation, as noted by our rector in his online Christmas Eve sermon. And yet, we can use this year’s season — in whatever way you celebrate this time of year — to begin to relocate what is important in life, in relationships, in building hope for a future where love trumps hate.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays, with best wishes for 2021.

More to come…

DJB

Image: The Brown family Christmas 2020 tree (credit: Andrew Brown)

Weekly Reader: The Winter Solstice edition

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The Weekly Reader features links to articles of interest from this week as we celebrated winter solstice. Here’s hoping you find something that makes you laugh, think, or cry.*

Historian Lindsay Chervinsky writes in Governing magazine about The Strange History of the Office of the Vice President.

“On Dec. 19, 1793, Vice President John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, “my Country has in its Wisdom contrived for me, the most insignificant Office that ever the Invention of Man contrived or his Imagination conceived.” Most vice presidents in American history have agreed with Adams’ assessment of the No. 2 office in the country. Despite being a heartbeat away from the presidency, the office of the vice president has often been relegated to obsolescence.“

Dr. Chervinsky takes the reader through the changes that took place in the office, most in the latter half of the 20th century and now into the 21st. And since she mentioned the lack of attendance by VPs at Cabinet meetings, I dug a bit to find that Calvin Coolidge was the first to attend those meetings, during the Harding administration, but “He sat at the farthest end of the table from Harding, listening to what was said and saying almost nothing himself.” I guess he was always Silent Cal, even as VP.

People Are Taking the Wrong Lesson From Trump’s Failed Coup writes Elie Mystal in The Nation.

Trump tried to steal the election after being soundly defeated. He failed. Trump will be removed from office at noon on January 20, 2021, just as the Constitution requires. Mystal notes that “we won” but we may not understand what that means. It certainly does not mean, in Mystal’s analysis, that our institutions held firm.

“(T)hat analysis appears overly sanguine. Trump failed to steal the election because he and his legal team are incompetent criminals, not because our democratic institutions defeated him. Saying that our democracy proved resilient against Republican attempts at subversion is like saying the fences at Jurassic Park proved resilient against raptors. Yes, technically Trump kept getting zapped on the electrified fence that is the federal judiciary. But his willingness to try—and the willingness of large swaths of the Republican Party to help him—shows that if the guardrails give way for even a moment, Republicans will break out and start eating the votes of Black people.“

Writing in Just Security, Katherine Hawkins suggests that We Can’t “Look Forward” on the Trump Administration’s Abuses.

In an article that speaks to what we will need to do to make sure our guardrails are more secure, she begins by suggesting that the Biden administration ignore those who say we should look forward and not backward.

It would be a historic mistake for the Biden administration to listen to this advice. Impunity for the powerful—from the corporations and executives responsible for the financial crisis, to wealthy tax evaders, to prosecutors and police officers who grievously violate people’s rights—is part of what brought us to this point.

In her lengthy post, Hawkins outlines different ways to correct the mistakes of the past, including,

  • Criminal prosecution and professional accountability;
  • Civil litigation and restitution; and
  • Fact-finding, acknowledgment, and reform.

“The truth may not be enough to free us from a repetition of all the terrible things that have happened in the past four years. But exposing it, and learning from it, is the only hope we have of doing better.“

In celebration of Monday’s Winter Solstice, here’s Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie with Give Me That Old Time Religion.

“We will pray with those old druids / They drink fermented fluids / Waltzing naked though the woo-ids / And it’s good enough for me.“

Rob Walker in Marker Medium writes about The 15 Objects That Defined 2020.

In this piece, he tells the story of a year “through objects — commercial stuff, material things, designed goods, products and artifacts large and small.” Face masks are clearly at the top of his list, but see why he includes a bookcase (spoiler alert: how would we know that Dr. Fauci has a real love for Sicilian cooking?) and leaf blowers.

I love bananas, so I was thrilled to see 11 Side Effects of Eating Bananas Every Day by Rachel Linder in Eat This, Not That!

Bananas seem to be a wonder food. They can help you fall asleep faster and provide an energy boost (hopefully not at the same time). And let’s see…can I recall that other one that appealed to me? Oh yeah…

“Bet you never realized that eating a banana could enhance your memory. Well, according to the BCC, it can. It’s the richness in B vitamins that give bananas the power to support memory function as well as protect the brain. Studies have found that students who eat bananas perform better on exams as well as learn more efficiently.“

Time to get some bananas.

Enjoy.

More to come…

DJB

Image by Eva Lirot from Pixabay

*In the words of that great philosopher Jimmy Valvano, “If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.“

Best of the blog: Top ten posts of 2020

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December is the time of year when we see “Top Ten” lists spring up in all sorts of places and for some really weird reasons:

Last year’s listing of the top posts on More to Come as selected by reader views was a hit, so we’re back for 2020. I’ve spent days with our MTC analytics team to find the top posts as selected by you, the reader. (Well, actually I spent about ten minutes because Word Press does all the work.) In the process, I discovered that we’ve broken our personal record for views in a year (even with a seven week summer hiatus) and the total number of views is up almost 75% from last year. Thank you!

The list of the top posts is split fairly evenly between music-related stories from my Saturday Soundtrack series, several history-themed posts on the relationship between places from the past and the events of 2020, and family favorites. What follows is your selection of the top posts for the year. Let’s begin with some music. And yes, you have to go all the way to the end to see what’s #1.

Saturday Soundtrack posts that cracked the top ten

During April, I asked my son Andrew, from his quarantine flat in London, to curate a selection of songs appropriate for the days leading up to Easter. Saturday Soundtrack: Holy Week was a big hit, with one reader writing “Wonderful music! I’m a fan of Byrd / Gibbons / Tallis et al. The links to Voces8 are VERY cool.” The English composer William Byrd has long been a favorite of mine as well, and in this video from the post VOCES8 sings Byrd’s double motet Ne Irascaris Domine and Civitas Sancti Tui. The Catholic Byrd wrote these motets in the 1580s as a protest against the Elizabethan Catholic persecutions, and the text refers to the Babylonian captivity of the Jews. 

Dr. Horace Clarence Boyer

The second musical post to make the top ten — Saturday Soundtrack: Lift Every Voice and Sing — was written in honor of Juneteenth, when I celebrated the song known as the “Black National Anthem.” I came to Lift Every Voice and Sing later in life. But when I did I had the privilege of learning the song and its history directly from one of the foremost scholars in African American gospel music, the late Dr. Horace Clarence Boyer. I was fortunate to be a part of a group that he led in his week-long workshop on African American gospel music. It was life-changing.

In a recording uploaded in the midst of the pandemic, with the heightened focus on racial injustice, and during the celebration of Juneteenth, Nicole Heaston gathered 65 Black opera singers accompanied by Kevin J. Miller and conducted by Damien Sneed to sing Roland Carter’s arrangement of the Black National Anthem. It is an inspiring version, and I remind you to stand up during the national anthem!

Mavis Staples
Mavis Staples from her “Live in London” album

The top-rated post from the music category in 2020 featured American icon and national treasure Mavis Staples. Saturday Soundtrack: Mavis Staples was posted in celebration of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend, and readers kept coming back to this post throughout the year. That’s no surprise since I include such wonderful music as Oh Happy Day with Mavis and Aretha Franklin, which brings together two of the greatest and most powerful Soul and Rhythm & Blues voices not just of their generation, but of all time. (Check out the interplay at about the 1:50 segment and then again at 4:00. Good gawd!) 

Family and friends

© 2015 | Kristina Sherk Photography | http://www.Kristinasherk.com

Saturday Soundtrack: Andrew Bearden Brown could fit in either the music or family and friends category, so I’ll use it to bridge the two. Our own Andrew Bearden Brown was recently featured as part of the Baltimore concert series Music at Emmanuel in the program Dream & Escape. With works by Samuel Barber, Mozart, and Gerald Finzi, the program was inspired by the vivid and strange dreams many of us were experiencing at the beginning of the lockdown. 

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, I was involved in a wonderful musical community in the Shenandoah Valley. One of the dear friends I made during that time was the organ builder John Boody. When John saw this post he wrote:

“Our very own son whom we love so very much. He made me weep. He has a sweet and ringing bell. He has a wonderful confidence and handsome in all respects. Bravo.”

I thought it was pretty wonderful as well, so I’m glad it made the top ten!

Rest in Peace, The Rev. John D. Lane was a tribute I wrote on the passing of a dear family friend, our former rector, and Andrew’s godfather. John touched our lives in so many ways, and we were fortunate to spend time with John, his wife Bizzy, and daughter Mary during the last months of his life as he was in D.C. and Baltimore for treatments. There’s a lot to say about John’s life, so go read the post.

The Browns, December 2019
The Browns, December 2019

The perennial favorite Our year in photos — 2020 made the list again this year, as I chronicled life in the Brown family during the year of the pandemic. It has everything from a Zoom Mother’s Day brunch to the securing of the ever elusive rolls of toilet paper. You just have to go and see for yourself.

The times we live in

Babe Ruth and the creation of the modern celebrity would normally be seen as either a sports or book-related post, but I think what drove reader interest in this book review was the way I discussed how Babe Ruth paved the way for people like Donald Trump. I couldn’t help but think of the current occupant of the White House when reading Leavy’s description that “Ruth’s relationship with New York’s sporting press was cozy, complex, and complicit.” One sportswriter of the era said Ruth had more talent for staying on the front page than your average earthquake. Sound like anyone we know? But Ruth produced in his chosen field: on the baseball diamond. As he said in a different context, when asked about making a higher salary than the president, “I know, but I had a better year than Hoover.”

Let’s stop celebrating a past that never existed. Instead let’s understand and honor the one that did. During October, I wrote six articles on how history and the places where history happened can help us understand the issues we are facing as a country and a democracy.* This was the first in the series, which I began by telling how I first stood at Jamestown as a history-enthralled 11-year-old. The picture of the 17th century ruin of the church tower, abutted to the 1907 Memorial Church, is seared in my mind.

While I didn’t know it at the time, the narratives of life in early 17th century Virginia — told by the guides, the plaques that lined the walls of the 1907 church, and the books I devoured — were incomplete and sometimes egregiously false. White Christian Europeans were the focus. However, those Europeans were not home. They were the outsiders. Yet we are still fighting over how to interpret their presence in what would become Virginia.

Patriotism as I envision it involves a willingness to examine, rather than paper over, the troubles in our past. My stories of the places from my history — coming from my very privileged status in the South as a straight, white, Christian, male — celebrate both triumphs and difficulties. But I write them out of a spirit of hope. Hope that is grounded in memory. When we make the choice to hope, refuse to paper over our troubles, and go down into our figurative basements to work on the often hidden issues that divide us as a country, perhaps then we can move beyond a celebration of a past that never existed and begin understanding and honoring the past that did.

Downtown Staunton

Early in my preservation career, I was privileged to serve five years as the executive director of Virginia’s Historic Staunton Foundation. Just as we like to return to this gem of a community, visionary leadership has made Staunton a year-round destination for tens-of-thousands of visitors annually and has generated national recognition for the city, including more than forty awards and accolades for its historic downtown from national organizations and media in the past ten years. Great communities don’t remain that way by chance recounts the city’s recent battles over Augusta County’s plan to demolish seven historic buildings in the downtown around the historic courthouse. The post — which reached the #2 spot in the top ten list — includes my letter on the issue to the Staunton City Council. At last report, negotiations are underway to modify the plan.

Which brings me to the #1 post, in terms of reader views, in 2020.

Places and perspective was written this past summer in the midst of the controversy over Confederate memorials. It is a personal take which includes the story of my journey on this issue, beginning with a pick-up basketball game.

I had a pretty idyllic childhood, and Murfreesboro’s history — which was very real and very present to me as a child — is one reason. It was also a history that challenged me as I grew older, and continues to challenge me today. I am challenged by the fact that I could look at places such as the county courthouse and the Johnny Reb statue that stood guard there and not give much thought to how others — like my African American teammates on that basketball court — reacted to the messages and symbolism.

When the editors of Business Week named Murfreesboro as one of the great places to raise a family in 2008, I wonder how much thought they gave to what it feels like to raise a child in a community where the seat of government is still guarded by a symbol of the soldiers who fought to keep one class of citizens enslaved. Did they think about how, a century later, white men still felt it was okay to spit on black children? Did they consider the ingrained racial injustices in our communities, systemic injustices that we are now facing following the death of George Floyd and so many others? I look at controversies over Confederate statues and consider how I would respond if I was in the minority, beyond for just an hour or so on a blacktop basketball court.

I’ll admit that it took me too long to come to this conclusion, but like other preservationists, I “support the removal of Confederate monuments from our public spaces when they continue to serve the purposes for which many were built — to glorify, promote, and reinforce white supremacy, overtly or implicitly.”

We more than owe that to our fellow citizens who have walked in the suffocating shadow of Johnny Reb for far too long.

It is a long post that clearly had some resonance back in June, and I suspect it may still resonate today.

And that’s the “Best of the blog” with our top ten posts from 2020. I hope you find something in these posts that makes you think, smile, laugh, cry, or love.

Have a wonderful week, and thanks so much for reading.

More to come…

DJB

Image of Rosenborg Castle by Claire Holsey Brown

*Besides this story of revealed history beginning with Jamestown, you can find posts on the use of misinformation, wrongful imprisonment and racial violence, religious liberty, and voter suppression, in addition to a book review on how democracies die by clicking on the links.

The gift of new favorites

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Many of the musicians I write about each week in these Saturday Soundtrack posts are like old friends who have been in my life for a long time. Yet I began this segment, in part, to discover musicians who weren’t playing in the ’70s (that’s 1970s). So occasionally I highlight musicians new to me, recommended by friends, You Tube, Sirius XM, the Fretboard Journal, or Pandora. They are gifts, if you will. So for this holiday version of Saturday Soundtrack, I want to revisit a few of those “new favorites” that may be well known, but that I just discovered in 2020.

Amythyst Kiah
“Dig” by Amythyst Kiah

We’ll begin with the very first Soundtrack of the year, which featured Amythyst Kiah. This native Tennessean is a self-described “Southern Gothic” singer of “alt-country blues” who has been receiving rave reviews and was nominated for a 2020 Grammy in the Best American Roots Song category for her spell-binding “Black Myself.” When you listen to Kiah sing that tune live with Our Native Daughters — a song which is a perfect kick-off for a year when Black Lives Matter moved to the forefront of the nation’s consciousness — you’ll be up and rockin’ in no time.

Another member of Our Native Daughters, Leyla McCalla, was relatively new to me as well. McCalla grew up in the cultural mix of New York City but relocated to Accra, Ghana for two years while a teenager. She returned to the States to study cello performance and chamber music at NYU. Taking that knowledge—and “armed with Bach’s Cello Suites”—she left to play cello on the streets of the French Quarter in New Orleans. There she sang in French, Haitian Creole, and English, and played cello, tenor banjo and guitar. McCalla spent two years and gained greater fame as cellist of the Grammy award-winning African-American string band, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, alongside bandmates Rhianna Giddens and Dom Flemons. She left the group in 2013 to pursue her solo career. Money is King is from her 2018 album Capitalist Blues. The song highlights McCalla’s incorporation of traditional Creole, Cajun and Haitian music into her contemporary work. 

Eric Skye came to my attention through the pages of the Fretboard Journal. Although new to me, the Portland, Oregon-based acoustic guitarist certainly has a devoted following, and not just from Richard Hoover and the folks at Santa Cruz Guitars who made his beautiful instrument.

Skye has a very broad minded approach to music, which he explains came in part from a classical guitar teacher who turned him on to blues and jazz as well. As his website notes, while often billed as an acoustic jazz guitarist, “Skye actually occupies a unique niche between traditional acoustic music, modal jazz, folk, and blues. Give a listen to him play Herbie Hancock’s Watermelon Man.

Hawktail came to me as a gift one day via a Sirius XM acoustic music show. Although I knew some of the members of the band — which is composed of fiddler Brittany Haas, bassist Paul Kowert, guitarist Jordan Tice, and mandolinist Dominick Leslie — this particular configuration was one that I had not encountered before they were featured on Sirius

Hawktail plays some of the most beautiful, complex yet accessible music from the American contemporary acoustic music scene you’ll ever want to hear. After beginning life as a trio, this band’s first album, Unless, was released in 2018, and earlier this year their second offering, entitled Formations, hit the streets. Both are excellent, but in Formations the band really hits its stride. Give a listen to this medley of Polly Put the Kettle On / Say Old Man, Can you Play a Fiddle? / Johnson Boys. Brittany Haas and Paul Kowert shine throughout, with a special mention of their work in Johnson Boys.

Brooks Williams is a Statesboro, Georgia- born/Cambridge, England-based country blues guitarist who gets a wonderful groove going on You Don’t Know My Mind and never lets it go.

Williams is a talented singer and guitarist who has a devoted following. For something completely different, check out this 2014 slide version of the traditional tune Sitting on Top of the World, played on an electric cigar box guitar!

When I was calling for This Land Is Your Land to be our new national anthem, I came across a version of the Woody Guthrie tune by Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings that blew me away. Good Gawd! Where has this wonderful musician been all my life? Jones, unfortunately, died from pancreatic cancer in 2016, but her music lives on. Give a listen to some of her other tunes when you have a chance. You will not be able to sit still!

In my Halloween Soundtrack entitled Roots music for ghosts, goblins, and other things that go bump in the night I uncovered a wonderful acoustic version of Who Do You Love by Elise LeGrow. She howls about her “tombstone hand and a graveyard mind / just 22 and I don’t mind dying” in a way that makes you feel it in your bones.

I’m planning on doing a full Soundtrack on LeGrow’s acoustic work in the coming weeks, but this wonderful version of Chuck Berry’s You Never Can Tell should whet your appetite until I can get the whole post together.

And we’ll end with Dutch singer Clara Bakker, who I featured in the Soundtrack Women Sing Waits. Her cover of Tom Waits’ Temptation is a bit more distinctive than Diana Krall’s better known jazzy version of the same tune.

Rusted brandy in a diamond glass / everything is made from dreams / time is made from honey slow and sweet /only the fools know what it means / temptation, temptation, temptation / oh, temptation, temptation, I can’t resist!

I can’t resist the chance to hear musicians who are new to me. I hope you’ve found gifts of music this year and have enjoyed getting to know some of my favorites — old and new — from 2020.

For next weeks Saturday Soundtrack, I’ll highlight the top ten posts in this series, based on readers’ views. It is a great list!

Enjoy!

More to come…

DJB

Image by Mike Gattorna from Pixabay.