 Ted Silverman at Sweetwater, Mill
Valley
In November Ted reported how he had gone to a concert by one of his great favourites John Hartford, held in Berkeley, California, only to find that, following the death of Bill Monroe just the day before, Hartford and friends decided to make the first half of the concert a tribute to their great idol and friend. He continues here with a report of the Hartford Concert proper.
Hartford then told a tale about a guy who had been given a gig at the Grand Ole Opry. This player was so anxious about his debut at the Opry that he showed up at two in the afternoon and spent the six hours before the show tuning his guitar. The stage manager confronted him at curtain time with “You been tuning that guitar since two this afternoon! Why, that great player Chet Atkins comes in the backstage door and tunes up just five minutes before he goes on stage.” The anxious guitar player’s response, as deadpanned by Hartford, was “Well, some people just don’t give a damn!” The trio then delivered the old Civil war tune Loreena followed by Hartford’s most famous song, Gentle On My Mind, which broke big back in the early 70’s. The warmth of both his vocal and banjo delivery was obvious. The next tune, Freed Bailey, was penned by Charlie Acuff (nephew of the late Roy Acuff). It referred to the true tale of a moon-shining Sheriff of Tennessee who would routinely confiscate shine from the hillbillies only to sell it himself for profit. Hartford reckoned the song had more than 80 verses, most of which were not deliverable in mixed company. The sing-along chorus went “Freed’s done been here and he got my liquor and gone”. In the midst of the song John kicked into a terrific solo (in the style of George Benson) where he sang, to great effect, a twisted melody that matched his banjo improvisation. After this group of banjo numbers Hartford performed a token tune on the guitar, called Silvertone, which related to the purchase of his first electric guitar from the Sears catalog. Following this rock and roll inspired blues he performed a series of classic fiddle tunes with a dancing accompaniment including a sing-along called I Can’t Stand To Throw Anything Away, The Annual Waltz, Tugboat, Jenny On The Railroad and an original by Mandolinist Mike Compton called Hartford House.
Another good Hartford story referred to the first time he had snuck backstage
at the Grand Ole The final number of the set was the fiddle tune Bonaparte’s Retreat, which was introduced with the story of Napolean’s seizing of Moscow and his eventual retreat back to Paris. John explained that this retreat followed a route through the artillery and infantry ranks of the French Army which was being heavily bombarded by Russian cannon fire. Napolean was supposedly going back Paris for reinforcements. Hartford got a good laugh by comparing the song’s story to a joke about a Pilot and co-pilot, parachutes on back, walking down the aisle of an Airliner and telling the passengers “not to worry - we’re going for help!”. The song itself was described as a traditional style fiddle tune that contained melodic passages reminiscent of marching armies and retreating Frenchmen - it was easy to discern these images in Hartford’s playing.
The John Hartford image... The show concluded with a respectful bow by the trio, but of course John was more than happy to oblige the crowd with an encore. He and his musical cohorts shifted gears and began to whisper the words to his novelty song, Boogie. Soon he was conducting the entire crowd in crescendo’s of “Hey babe, you wanna boogie? Boogie-woogie-woogie with me!” The warmth and hilarity resounded throughout the room. Next came The Steamboat Whistle Blues. The encore concluded with the classic Rollin’ in My Sweet Babies Arms - Hartford reminded the crowd that this song was, in fact, penned by Bill Monroe’s brother Charlie. It was a true pleasure to attend this heartfelt performance by a great American Bluegrass innovator. By combining the most basic aspects of the genre with warmth, humor, showmanship, musical integrity and heaps of talent, Hartford succeeded in transforming an audience from a passive entity to one fully involved with the event. He reaches the listeners ears not only through music but with a history lesson tinged with childlike humor, wonder at the simple joys of life and the special aspects of a bygone era.
Ted Silverman,
Ted 'Silverstring' Silverman is mandolinist in the San Francisco band Belle Monroe and Her Brewglass Boys, who will play anywhere for a lot of beer. 'Belle', the lead singer, is actually D'lilah Monroe, the singer in the hit San Franciscan 'Roadhouse Swing' retro-band ' The ChazzCats ' (now disbanded).
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He began the set with Ed Paley’s fiddle tune Half Patched Four, with
terrific tap-dance accompaniment, followed by On the Radio, a song filled
with images of Americana. Jerry McCoury played a hot slap-bass solo while
Hartford did more tricky foot work.
Opry. As he was about to be kicked out into the alley of the Ryman Auditorium
a grey-haired old guy came up and prevented his being ousted by the security
guard by telling him Hartford was a banjo picker for Bill Monroe. It was
just a wild guess that he played banjo but sure enough Hartford was introduced
to his idol by this helpful stranger. The guy turned out to be Joe Stewart
who had at one time or another played nearly every instrument in The Bluegrass
Boys. John and Joe became lifelong friends and, upon Joe Stewart’s demise,
John had penned the song I Wish We Had Our Time Again in honor of this
friendship. Hartford gave a plaintive delivery of the song.
