Earl once more!
tens, the attractive and driven woman on his squad, supplies a daring enthusiasm coupled with quick and forceful decision making, which is not always well thought out before she goes into action. One armed Willie Kunkel brings seething inner anger, deep self doubt, and an eye for the depths of human depravity. Gail Zigman, Joe’s long-time girlfriend and companion, often working from the sidelines gives Joe the political cover and connections he often needs to be successful. The books dig beneath the country charm of rural Vermont to reveal an often ugly reality of drugs, crime, and the urge for power hidden from the tourists who admire the mountains from their cars or the views through their picture windows. The Joe Gunther character is a relative rarity in detective fiction these days. Joe isn’t a very sexy guy, nor is he brilliant. He’s a hard working, almost stodgy professional policeman who achieves his goals by hard work and careful policing. Once or twice during each book he is forced by the situation to become a man of action and performs well, although he is usually the worse for wear after triumphing over adversity. His long-term relationship with Gail is much the same. Both are happier when they are close, but not too close, together. They’re comfortable with each other, but each requires space, privacy, and independence.
Joe Gunther has recently become the number two man in the VBI (Vermont Bureau of Investigation) a newly created police agency designed to tackle major crimes at a statewide level. This agency, which apparently doesn’t exist in Vermont, gives Archer Mayor the advantage of allowing Joe Gunther a much wider theater of operations rather than having to be based in Brattleboro and loaned to other agencies on an as needed basis. Gunther can now be involved in a wider and more interesting variety of crimes taking him anywhere in the state. In fact, he’s also had forays outside the state. In Tucker Peak Gunther is called to investigate a robbery in a ski area condo because the victim threatens the local police chief with calling the governor. Quickly, the investigation expands as a murder ensues, local environmental activists appear to be sabotaging projects on the ski mountain, and there are intimations of drug sales. All this is placed within the context of the bust or boom economy of the ski industry in Vermont. Brought together, it makes an intriguing and exciting story that culminates in one of the skillful chases Mayor 
usually manages.
For some reason, Mayor’s previous publisher has decided not to continue maintaining a back list of his books. He has undertaken to publish them himself under the imprint of AM Press. The books are being printed in a very handsome trade paperback format and sold through the bookstore at Mayor’s web site at $14.95. They can also be ordered through your local independent bookstore. While each of the Joe Gunther novels stands alone, I always find it enjoyable to read a series in chronological order because it allows me to follow the growth of the character over time. If you’re new to Joe Gunther, take a look at the early books. If you know Joe, but haven’t reached Tucker Peak, it’s a good mountain to try. Mayor’s most recent novel is Chat, which I expect to review in a few weeks. Meanwhile, consider supporting this very fine writer who has fallen victim to the needs of the major book store chains for huge sales rather than continuing to be satisfied with good, steady sales by reliable authors.
h rock bands and women’s bands during the 1980’s, before pursuing a career in business for a time. Later she returned to her first love bluegrass, country music, folk, and Americana. She appeared at the Falcon Ridge Emerging Artist Showcase in July of 2007. “Feel That Light” is her first recording, a collection of seven songs she wrote and performs. This CD, backed by a good bluegrass band, contains only seven songs, all written by Kenney, and should, perhaps, be viewed more as a demo recording than a full fledged showcase of Dawn’s capability. In it she displays a range of subject matter and her very fine voice in a thoughtfully arranged collection of her own songs.
The song continues, in the style of murder ballads, to sketch out a series of nasty crimes as well as an assertion of his being rotten to the core “since age eleven.” The singer views the world from her place as a waitress at the local diner, watching the town’s reaction to John Cyrus. Instrumental solos by Rich Stillman on banjo and Phil Bloch on fiddle are effective and showcase this song as belonging to bluegrass. With the line “The women of this town protect their own,” Kenney suggests a feminist tone that without rancor or anger still reflects a clear posture found in many of the songs.
Reach High can be heard as a song of faith, a proto gospel song using the metaphor of a tree in a meadow to stand for nature, the creator, the overarching universal soul.
Feel that light when it shines all around you,
Reach high up into the sky,
Dig deep, plant roots into things that ground you,
Take time; don’t let life pass you by.
Reach High.
In this song, Dawn uses her soaring mid-range voice to capture the majesty and mystery of the tree. Her melody aptly complements her voice and intention. The song inspires as it captures the listeners imagination and spirit. The tree is characterized as a mother figure who embodies home and family as well as strength to cope with the storms of life by helping us to bend and sway with life’s stresses and strains. Some might object to the lack of specific religious reference in this song, but the strong spiritual sense and metaphorical emphasis make it clear to those who want to see it.
A haunting love song, Walls Between Us captures pain of lost communication in a long-term relationship.
So now why must we build walls between us?
Though that only tears us apart?
Can’t you see how my soul is just achin’
To be with you back safe in your heart?
The song fits solidly into the country love song genre of lost love that could be resurrected if he would only reach out. The search for safety and togetherness is palpable in Kenney’s voice.
That’s God Talking speaks of the hypocrisy of organized religion in the face of encountering the eternal in the beauty of nature.
But I look around me, that’s where I find it,
In the glistening of the morning dew,
You hear that bird sing? Now that’s God talking,
And it’s in your eyes, that light in you.
The singer receives this wisdom from her beloved Grandfather, as they walk and talk. Finding the human connection with the woods, the sky, and the earth, he shares his love of life and its beauty with her. As with Reach High, this song communicates a kind of deism more native to New England than some devoted to Bible based gospel songs might find comfortable, nevertheless, this is a lovely song capturing the ranging quest of the human spirit.
Gonna Make Me Fall is another bluegrass song in the “your bad for me, but I love you anyway” mode. The singer speaks of looking into his eyes and knowing that there’s trouble ahead and going down the road anyway, even though she recognizes she’s playing a fools game. This is one of those lively upbeat songs so typical of bluegrass in which the message of the lyric sends quite a different message from the tune and the tempo. Bluegrass often wants to soften the blow by lightening the mood. The song allows Kenney to display effectively her emotional range.
The last cut on the CD, Unexpected Life, returns to the theme that pervades the disk, making the ordinary in relationships into something special and extraordinary.
When I count my blessings, they’re not things that I can hold,
You there every morning, it’s more precious than gold.
Sleepy smiles and slippered feet as the kids run down the hall,
This unexpected life we share, it’s the greatest gift of all.
Kenney keeps reminding us that while life isn’t always easy or without difficulties, persistence and shared commitment yield the small but real joys that make a fulfilled life.
rom Ms. Kenney. Her singing is first rate, melodious, full, and emotionally satisfying. Her melodies support and extend her lyrics. I’d like to hear her in a band setting where her voice is part of the bluegrass vocal trio, which she assures me happens when she appears with a band. On this CD, in addition to Stillman and Bloch, she is supported by Don Barry on Bass, and Eric Kilburn on mandolin and Dobro. She supplies her own guitar accompaniment on her 1973 Martin D18.
All pictures come from Dawn's web site and will be removed upon request.
hich the brain and music are related. The title’s Greek suffix suggests a mutual relationship and love between music and the individual. Sacks examines that relationship, finding it extraordinarily complex and not fully understood. His web site describes him as being best known for his “collections of case histories from the far borderlands of neurological experience.” This is a pretty good description of his writing, highlighting both the strengths and weaknesses of this book. Characterized on the cover as “Tales of Music and the Brain,” this book is most interesting in telling stories about the often mysterious ways in which music affects people of all kinds. The occurrence of absolute (perfect?) pitch, the appearance of musical talent after being hit by lightning where none had be apparent before, people afflicted with all kinds of music in their heads, the persistence of musical ability in cases of otherwise nearly total dementia, musical talent in those of extremely limited ability, the loss of musical talent to neurological insult…the stories are interesting and varied. Each individual has a different story. And herein lies one of the problems with this book. I had difficulty finding a linking principle to help tie together these threads until the very end. They seemed like a disassociated collection of stories not leading me to any generalizations I could make about the nature of humanity or music.
Sacks presents too much “brain geography” for this general reader to integrate into his understanding of how what goes on in the brain effects how people experience music. I had difficulty identifying with lobes and ganglia and regions and areas. These have little meaning. The stories Sacks tells became interesting vignettes as I searched for an organizing principle for the narrative to help me gain perspective on the works of the mind/brain. His heavy reliance on footnotes, some of them quite relevant, to make certain points, nevertheless proved themselves to be distracting, as they don’t add materially to the points he wishes to make but attract my attention sufficiently to require me to read them. Perhaps offering extended end notes rather than footnotes would have been helpful. At times this book skirts the distinction between a scholarly effort and an informative overview, leaning too heavily towards the former.
I found Sacks to be encouraging to my own musical ambitions in some ways. Levitin had assured me that musical ability was widespread, potentially as broad as color perceptions, and that sufficient practice would yield results. As I work on my banjo, I often become discouraged as the improvement I seek just doesn’t seem to be coming, and I wonder if what bluegrassers call “drive” or “bounce” is something I can learn. Sacks delineates any number of neurological deficits leading to inabilities to perceive or reproduce musical tones, rhythms, pitches, and so-on. S
ome of the cases he presents characterize sufferers experiencing music as “screeching” or “like pans clashing in the kitchen.” He tells about those who cannot recognize when one tone is higher or lower than another. As I’ve watched my wife improve steadily on her mandolin, developing skills I can only hope for myself and admire, I now recognize she has a much broader set of abilities and perceptions than I. Maybe she also works harder.
Perhaps the great lesson of the tales Sacks tells in Musicophilia lies in opening to readers the great power music has to affect the human mind and soul, although he avoids such a concept as soul. People lost to ordinary intercourse in the world, those with brain damage, dementia, or genetic differences can respond to and perform music even though their ability to respond using conventional speech or relying on memory has either disappeared or has never been present. Overall, the effect is to increase our respect for and wonder at the marvelous organ we call a brain and the mind it spawns. Arguments concerning whether music or speech came first, how we developed our musical sense, what the meaning of these stories is, in the end, pale beside the awareness of how much more we are than we know or recognize.
Thoze Gize are Rich Hamilton and Bob Dean, a duo singing old time, bluegrass, country, and lite rock who appeared at Fritz Belgian Fries in Keene, NH on Friday night. Fritz Fries, recently re-located to 45 Main Street in Keene from an out of the way location across town, is a pleasant little sandwich and beer/wine place with a small performance area, comfortable seating, and a tasty, but simple menu. Thoze Gize offer an enjoyable mélange of songs played and sung with verve and enthusiasm as well as considerable skill. The coffeehouse scene and their delightful music contributed to a most satisfying evening.
Bob Dean plays guitar and sings a melodious baritone and occasional falsetto harmony. Rich Hamilton plays old-time banjo and fiddle and contributes mostly harmonies as well as high lonesome leads. Their good sound acoustic sound amplified by a modest sound system filled the room without blaring, helping to create an appropriate environment. Thoze Gize’ song selection is eclectic, ranging from old—time songs and instrumentals like Old Joe Clark and Rabbit in a Log through Clapton’s “Layla”, Peter Rowan’s “Midnight Moonlight”, and (of all things) Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline.” Their rendition of The Grateful Dead's “Fire on the Mountain” was particularly effective as was “I Know You Rider.” This song, actually collected by Alan Lomax and appropriated by the Dead is a good example of how traditional music moves into, changes, and is changed by its use in popular music. Another good Garcia song was “Friend of the Devil.” Those Gize also sang some traditional bluegrass songs like “Sittin’ on Top of the World,” “More Pretty Girls Than One,” and “Wild Bill Jones.” All-in-all their single long set was satisfying, varied, and fitting to the setting. Both men are also founding members of The Stillhouse Jammers, a bluegrass band playing a variety of New England venues including this winter’s Joe Val Festival.
Fritz Fries offers a menu of a variety of tasty Panini and wonderful looking signature and design your own salads. Their fries accompanied by a variety of dipping sauces didn’t quite live up to their billing for me.. Nevertheless, the food is tasty and the atmosphere enjoyable. Beer and wine are sold.
Thoze Gize will be appearing in New Hampshire and Massachusetts this winter. Look up their performance schedule on their MySpace page and give them a try. You won’t regret it.
Google Analytics is another tool for assessing web site usage. It allows very sophisticated analysis of where readers come from, how long they stay, and what sort of search they made to get to my site on a thirty day running average. In the past thirty days, Google Analytics says I’ve had 3,574 page views on 2,323 visits from 34 countries and territories. The map overlay shows these visits having come from every continent except Antarctica. It includes most countries in Europe, a number of visitors from Australia, a few from South America, and even three from Africa. One blog that I’m aware of in Germany has me on its blog roll as well as one in Australia. Roughly 54% are new visits, leaving about 56% as returning.
During the past month, I’ve had 2165 visits from every state in the Union except Wyoming. This month, the three highest numbers came from New Hampshire, North Carolina, and New York. As we head south after the New Year the balance will shift in that direction. As people look for information about their local or regional bluegrass events as well as other interests of mine like the state parks we camp in, tourist attractions we visit, and people we meet along the way, the hits will come from those localities. There’s pretty good balance, however, as California is fifth in usage, Tennessee sixth, and Texas tenth. It makes sense that I get a large number of hits from New England because that’s where I live and write. I think it also makes a difference that I publicize my blog through the mailing list of the Boston Bluegrass Union, a marvelous regional organization supporting the bluegrass community. I’ve recently joined Bluegrass-L, and I think that will make a difference, too
About 25% of the traffic coming to my blog comes from direct hits, i.e. people who know the address and point to it. Another 18% comes from search engines, with Google leading the way. People searching for a bluegrass festival, band, or other event, a specific book title, a state park or restaurant find my blog coming up in their search and click on it. Some books and bands I wrote about months ago get hits regularly. Otherwise, about 57% come from referring sites, led by the major bluegrass forums: Banjo Hangout, Mandolin Café, and Bluegrass Rules lead the way. Festival Preview, which carries many of my blog entries, is high on the list. My new cyber friend Dr. Tom Bibey’s Web Log sends a bunch of people as do Byron Chesney’s Knoxville Trivia Blog, and a bunch of other sites which have either put me on their blog roll or mentioned me in their text. I’m very grateful to all these people and organizations for helping my blog to gain wider circulation. While Technorati, the web organization that charts blog usage and links, gives me a power rating of seven, i.e. they recognize seven other blogs that have linked to mine, I’m aware of many others that either have a single link to me or have me on their blog roll and send readers to me. Except for Technorati, all the other figures from Google reflect only the past 30 days. I try to keep an eye on this data, but I have no idea about the annual totals and how they work out. For instance, my readership concerning Merlefest will go way up beginning in March. I’ll be writing about Florida through January, February, and March, and I’ll be getting a lot more hits from there during that time. I hope to blog daily from the ETA Bluegrass Cruise, which we’ll be on from February 16 – 23.
The hard drive where I store my photographs has 50.2 gigabites of pictures. That’s 20.125 pictures held in 163 folders spread over the past three years. Nearly every picture on my blog is chosen from pictures I took myself. When I’ve used pictures that are not mine, I try to give due credit. Of course, I want a better camera and more lenses, but what photographer doesn’t?
I have a few disappointments in my blog. I would like for people to leave more messages, but, unfortunately in Blogger, you have to join to leave a message. I keep an eye on the forums, too, and try to respond to thoughtful posts. I’d like for my blog to generate more conversation, but I guess I’ll have to start a web site with a forum built into it to have that happen. I hope my readers have come to see my writing as trustworthy, and I think they have. I see I’ve written nearly a thousand words. For those of you that have hung in there, here’s another portfolio of photographs.
Alan Bibey
Ron Thomason
Smokey Greene
Joey Cox
Tim O'Brien, Casey Driessen, Darrell Scott, Steve Earle and Dennis Crouch
hritic old hands, making it difficult sometimes to keep reading. As I’ve watched Harry Potter grow up, it seems that I’ve been growing old. Nevertheless, from beginning to end, this series has managed to hold my interest. The other morning, as I wept my way towards the very satisfying completion of this huge undertaking, I found myself truly sorry to have reached the ending. It’s hard to say much more for such a long work. The book contains a great deal of exposition. As Harry hides from Valdemort and his Death Eaters waiting for something to happen, characters show up to tell him what’s happening. Here Ms. Rowling defies one element of fine writing by telling rather than showing. As her action sequences are still as strong as ever, and the characterizations of Ron and Hermione remain consistent, it seems strange she had difficulty getting out and having these characters do something. Another overused device is the nearly endless series of articles in The Daily Prophet by news hen Reeta Skeeter. This character has moved from being a rather amusing and nasty witch to a place of adding too heavily padded exposition. It takes this book several hundred pages to get untracked. After an early very effective battle and escape sequence freeing Ron, Hermione, and Harry to complete their quest, the book bogs down for a rather long period in which the past is reprised and the future set up.
Any reasonably literate reader will find recognizable themes and antecedents in the Harry Potter series. The tales of Arthur, Frodo’s quest for the ring, the world’s search for a Savior – these elements of our collective memory resonate throughout the Potter books. Ideas of sin, redemption, forgiveness, good and evil, and the search for finding a balance in our lives run through these texts and are presented in a way that allows adults to enjoy them and young people to soak them up and luxuriate in them. While some have said and written that the existence of a favored group of people who can use magic to affect the world is un-religious or anti-religious, I cannot see this. What I see is a set of characters who must deal with pride, arrogance, doubt, innocence, wisdom, and ambition and all the other human characteristics we mu
st balance to lead useful and fulfilling lives. By creating a magical world in which the rights of the less favored and weaker are exploited by powerful and cruel beings who seek to dominate through the misuse of power, Rowling has provided readers with a huge amount to chew on. The message of overcoming evil through selfless love comes through loud and clear. These books can be read as political screeds, but that, too, would be a mistake. The Harry Potter books are not populated by Nazis, fascists, communists, liberals, or conservatives. Within their pages live characters who struggle with their own baser instincts as well as the evil around them.
In this final Potter book, Rowling has tied up all the loose ends and answered questions that have arisen throughout the course of the stories. I particularly liked her final explication of Snapes’ story. As friends have seen me pull out Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, they’ve said things like, “I’ve heard rumors that Harry dies at the end,” and looked at me for a cue or clue to the way this book turns out. Well it really doesn’t matter, as the book itself triumphs. Even if you’re merely a Muggle, like me, the book will work its magic on you and on generations of young readers into the future.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is published by Scholastic Books in the US, and has a price of $34.99 which is being pretty deeply discounted at this time. Current price at Amazon is $19.24.
For the past three years, Christmas has not begun for me as the stores stock for the shopping season, or as we begin to purchase gifts, or even as lights spring up in the snow covered New England countryside. The event sparking off my own relighting of the Christmas spirit is a small concert sponsored by the Kiwanis Club in Ellenburg, NY. Here, Erin Gibson LaClair teaches second grade in Northern Adirondack Central School and gives a Christmas concert with one of the bluegrass world’s greatest backup bands, her brothers Eric and Leigh Gibson with their band mate Mike Barber on bass. We drove across snow covered Vermont, cutting through the mountains on I-89 and then ignored the GPS’s oft repeated orders to take the ferry to Plattsburgh, preferring to drive through the Lake Champlain Islands and to cross the lake at Rouses Point. From there it’s only a short stint to Ellenburg, a dot on the map a couple of miles south of the Canadian border. This part of the world is less than thriving, and the cold and snow don’t cover the costs of the dead agricultural economy which once existed in New York. Road signs pointing north lead to towns with French names in nearby Quebec.
As we entered the high school, we were greeted by elves wearing red hats and seasonal sweaters, now familiar faces to us as we were here for the third consecutive year. The stage was dressed with snowmen, red packages, and other seasonal decorations. The Gibson’s took the stage to the enthusiastic applause of the audience and kicked off the show with “Christmas is A’comin’.” It took no time at all to sink into the pleasure of hearing the familiar close harmony of the Gibson brothers enhanced by a lovely third voice perfectly complementing theirs. Erin Gibson LaClair, her hair darker than we’ve become accustomed to, has a lovely clear, clean voice which blends perfectly with her bothers, as only sibling vocal chords can. In addition to mostly secular seasonal fare, she selected songs by Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Gordon Lightfoot, and others. She also sang “The Lighthouse” and, from their new album “Gone Home,” both of which she has recorded with her brothers. Particularly in “Gone Home” where she sang harmony, the closeness of their voices and her marvelous harmonies shone through. Her voice is clean and pure, her delivery unaffected, and her stage patter developing, enhanced by her brothers’ teasing. While Erin has chosen work and family over professional performing, it is easy to hope a Gibson Family album lies not too far on the horizon. The chilly outside world evaporated in the warmth of this family’s presentation. Eric’s eleven year old son Kelly made his surprise stage debut on the mandolin, ably playing “Whiskey before Breakfast” when Leigh fortuitously broke a string.
There was an interesting moment early in the second set that attests to the growing national stature of the Gibson Brothers. At such events the sponsoring organization often supplements the ticket sale receipts by sponsoring raffles, including a 50/50 drawing. Hilda Danforth, president of the Kiwanis, introduced this portion with a story. It seems that Kiwanis’ national dues enable the organization to purchase inexpensive event insurance. When Hilda called the national office in Indiana, she spoke with a woman who asked, “Is this insurance for Mel or the Brothers.” On hearing that it was, indeed, for the brothers, she joyfully told Hilda how much she loves their music, so much so, in fact, that each year she and her husband take part of their annual vacation to attend a Gibson Brothers performance.
Late in the second set, Eric and Leigh excused their sister, whose voice has not developed the endurance strengthened by daily performance, to perform a couple of their own songs. Their new CD, called “Iron and Diamonds” will be released by Sugar Hill in March or April. They chose to share two new songs from the upcoming disk. “Angry Man” looks at how much stays the same in troubled times when people are looking for something new. The song is clearly not political in a partisan sense, speaking instead to the general aura of disappointment and unease people feel in some of the directions taken being taken by our society and their feeling of powerlessness in being unable to affect the directions we take. The singer says, “I’ve been sittin’ here for a long time thinkin’ that the world would change. I’m older now but it’s still the same. Must we all fight ‘till kingdom come? I’m an angry man, am I the only one?” It also talks about the singer’s disappointment in himself at his own sense of paralysis. At the same time the song expresses hope rather than despair, a characteristic of Gibson songs.
“Iron and Diamonds,” the title track of the new CD, is a love song to the miners of Lyon Mountain. Lyon Mountain, up into the sixties, was a center of northern New York’s iron mining heritage. Men drawn from immigrant groups as well as long time inhabitants have enriched America through their toil in the dangerous and exhausting work of the deep miner, emerging only on Sunday for church and their afternoon baseball game. Adirondack sports, especially baseball and soccer, are notoriously hard fought, and the miners of Lyon Mountain won more than their share of games. The song pays tribute to their strength and dignity, as well as the importance of the game’s giving them an outlet for expression and freedom. “They dug into America, down a hole deep, dark and cruel…with pride and dignity…in the bleachers and the batter’s box, the miners could be free…A life of iron and diamonds was all the miners knew.” This sneak preview of these two great songs, with their haunting sounds can only make a listener salivate for the new CD and its seven new Gibson Brothers songs. The concert concluded with Erin returning for a lovely rendition of “Silent Night” and their encore, “Gone Home,” also from the new album, a traditional gospel piece.
We drove south into the looming Adirondack Mountains filled with the sense of having heard some of the best giving their best to the home town crowd. Does it get much better than this?
The winter solstice may be nearly two weeks away, but winter has seriously arrived in New England. Temperatures over the last few nights have been in single digits, the ski areas 
are open, and there’s natural snow on the ground almost everywhere. We headed up to Weston, VT for Candi Sawyer’s Pickin’ Party held at the Weston Rod & Gun Club. We drove through the lovely tourist town of Weston where the Vermont Country Store is located. As we drove past the store a horse-drawn wagon pulled by a large dapple gray and carrying a load of tourists stopped to let traffic pass. We pulled into the parking lot, already nearly full of cars with licenses from New York and New Hampshire as well as plenty from Vermont. Inside we greeted Candi, smiling as always, and spied a bunch of folks we hadn’t seen since the Jenny Brook Family Festival last June. It was like a family reunion. Even our son Alex managed to come over for an hour or so with the two grands, Anna and Luke, for an hour or so. While he’s only beginning to get into bluegrass music, he particularly commented on the strong sense of community he found in the group.
At the front a sound system was set up and several people were pickin’ and singin’ while most of the rest listened and ate. There was corn chowder, dogs and burgers, American Chop Suey (you figure it out), drinks, and brownies. A couple of gallon jars held money for the 50/50 and a couple of other raffles. People gladly paid the $5.00 admission fee. After all, the event gave us all a chance to get together, hear or make some good music, and support this delightful small festival held each June at the Weston Recreation Park just north of town.
Candi has been involved in bluegrass music since she was small. Her grandfather promoted bluegrass concerts at the Weston Playhouse for many years. She’s married to Seth Sawyer, a talented singer/songwriter, and together they’ve promoted the Jenny Brook Family festival for six
years. The seventh edition, to be held from June 26 – 29, 2008 has a great lineup planned, but folks want to get together to pick a little sooner than that. Candi also publishes the Bluegrass Guide, a comprehensive presentation of all the bluegrass events in New England and large parts of New York for every summer. Candi’s story and the story of Jenny Brook have become an intertwined experience of courage, commitment, and perseverance that make the festival an even richer experience, extending it well beyond the high quality of the music offered there. You see, a few years ago Candi was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis which has steadily weakened her body, making it difficult for her to walk, but has never eroded her optimistic and sunny spirit. Their son Mathew has had to undergo a series of surgeries to repair a congenital back malformation which is both painful and debilitating. That’s all a good deal for even the most courageous family to face. It also turns the festival into an event that in many ways has a spiritual component transcending the music itself and making the festival into a celebration of the Sawyer family’s strength as well as the power of bluegrass music to 
affect the spirit. But this whole experience is in no way maudlin, and Jenny Brook provides four great days of fun, fine music, and good fellowship. Candi’s parents and grandparents were there, too. The family environment permeated this day.
The music at the Pickin’ Party consisted mostly of local folks playing classic country songs and some pretty good bluegrass, but the quality of the music wasn’t the real reason for this get-together. Rather, the chance to be together as the days shorten and th
e snows come made it a fine day. Seth Sawyer led a group singing some of his own bluegrass songs ably abetted by Steve Hennig on banjo. Seth’s voice is one of the purist in bluegrass, filled with plaintive undertones and creating the high lonesome sound without ever becoming harsh. His love song to Candi, Green Mountain Girl, deserves much wider play. Steve’s inventive arpeggios on his Stelling provide marvelous backup as well as enjoyable solos. Bria
n Jiguere of the Cabin Fever Band played lots of guitar, some mandolin, and contributed his very fine voice to the afternoon. He sang the bands new song “Stone Soldier” to great effect. This song, about the statue of a Confederate soldier standing in a southern town square who cries one tear on the anniversary of Lee’s surrender at Appomattox is most affecting.
Perhaps the best part of this afternoon, as we look forward to a long, hard winter, was seeing the happy faces of people who love music joining together to turn this small building into a center for making music and sharing a good time. What else is bluegrass about?
In the end, it's all about the people and the music.
for their new CD, which will be released in March or April. While no cuts from the new CD, to be called “Miners and Diamonds” were played, Eric sketched out much of the background for some of the twelve new songs, seven written by the Gibsons, as well as talked about their approach to making music. A little more than an hour into the afternoon’s music, Kyle played an older Gibson Brothers song, “Alone with You” from Long Way Back Home album of 2004, and then introduced Eric Gibson and Mike Barber. They chatted about the length of time since the Gibson’s last album “Red Letter Day” had been released in January 2006. Eric commented about the importance they place in not going into the studio until they feel quite confident they have put together material that is not only strong but fully representative of the kind of music they want. In the case of the new CD, titled “Iron and Diamonds,” seven of the twelve songs were written by the Gibsons themselves. He particularly spoke about the support they have from their record company Sugar Hill. He said, “The label’s been great to us. They told us to feel free to produce our own records. We’ve found a way to do it our own way and it seems to work.
S
am Smith – Kyle asked whether Sam Smith had been recorded earlier. “It was on one of our early CD with Hay Holler records, but Leigh wrote it and he was never happy with it. When we made Red Letter Day we went back to an old timey sound, slowed it down, and made it sound the way Leigh really wanted it.” The discussion segued to the band. Eric mentioned mandolinist Rick Hayes and fiddler Clayton Campbell and noted that the band has been together as a unit for three years. He’s very pleased that the entire new disk was recorded by the touring band with the addition of Jr. Barber on Dobro, and early member and important influence on the band as well as being Mike’s dad, and Erin, the Gibson’s sister. The closeness helped the brothers to create a disk capturing the immediacy and excitement of their stage performances. For this recording Eric and Leigh decided to record their famous duet singing live, face-to-face using a special microphone designed for such a purpose. “It’s not often that studio work makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck the way a song does on stage when it’s really on. The songs on this album do that,” says Mike Barber. Since each of the Gibson’s past three albums reached #1 on the Bluegrass Unlimited charts, that’s pretty high praise. Kyle asked whether the new recording approach helped keep a sense of on stage spontaneity. “I think so…real live music, kept real,” Eric responded.
The conversation then moved towards the Gibson’s roots in the country north of 
the Adirondacks along the Canadian border where they had grown up on a dairy farm. Although their early influences were in classic country music, they discovered bluegrass when their guitar teacher gave them the Flatt and Scruggs Carnegie Hall concert. Kyle talked about the maple syrup Eric had brought to the studio and then quickly uttered a disclaimer about any influence it might have on studio appearances or, for sure, air time. There’s clearly no payola at XM. They talked about the amount of rural country there is in New York State and Eric particularly mentioned his enjoyment of the annual Labor Day weekend festival at Thomas Point Beach in Maine.
Eric spoke with passion and enthusiasm about the title song for the album, “Iron and Diamonds,” telling how the miners in Lyon Mt., NY came out of the mines and played baseball on the weekends, giving them a chance to play the tough, hard baseball they were noted for. Town baseball in the North Country was a central part of the culture through the middle half of the twentieth century. The great Dodger pitcher Johnny Padres came from nearby Mineville. Eric’s love of regional culture and appreciation for the tough men who mined for iron until the mines closed in the early sixties came through clearly. His enthusiasm for the new recording and appreciation for the subjects of their songs comes through in everything they say about their work as well as in their recordings and performances.
The interview offered truly interesting insights into the creative process of the Gibson Brothers. Eric, whose writing in the Gibson Brothers web site also provides thoughtful views inside the working and thinking of a top musician, came across as smart, creative, and delightful…just like the man we know.
er writer and CNN correspondent Jeffrey Toobin, does the same service in depicting the issues and personalities on the Court as it has moved from the relative liberalism of the 1990’s into the present generation of conservatism under the leadership of George W. Bush and his appointees Chief Justice John Roberts and Samuel A. Alito. In taking on this challenge, Toobin has provided a fascinating glimpse behind the usually closed doors of the Court into the tensions and differences existing between and among the justices that work to clarify or muddy the world we live in. Toobin places Justice Sandra Day O’Connor at the center of the Supreme Court’s decisions during much of her tenure on the Court, citing her almost unerring ear for the center of the country’s mood rather than the high quality of her judicial reasoning. Thus she managed to hold together much of Roe v. Wade in the face of right wing pressure to overturn this insult to evangelical Christians and other conservative religious groups. Later she deeply regretted her position in Bush v. Gore as the Republican Party she so loved moved further rightward and further away from the Constitution in response the President Bush’s drive to battle against what he characterized as “the war on terror” and the errors of “activist” judges.
Toobin’s usually measured prose and careful discussion of the issues, as one might expect of a media personality educated at Harvard Law School, describe the movement of the Supreme Court from a generally liberal understanding of a changing Constitution responsive to changes in the country toward a much more restrictive and conservative view of the document as the nation’s mood moved further to the right. Of particular interest is Toobin’s discussion of how movement conservatives, those committed to radically moving the Supreme Court towards the right to achieve their goals regarding extending executive power, increasing the acceptance of religion in public discourse, ending racial preferences, speeding executions, and achieving their highest priority, ending legalized abortions by overturning Roe v. Wade. These changes were initiated during the Reagan administration, forwarded by the efforts of The Federalist Society, a group of conservative law professors at major law schools, and kept alive in right wing circles by two unlikely proponents Jay Sekulow of Jews for Jesus and Manuel Miranda (It’s not possible to invent a more ironic name for a major player in the move to the right!) who developed a vast computer-based mailing list to energize the conservative base. These goals of the far right were achieved with the elevation of John Roberts and Samuel A. Alito to the Supreme Court, creating a consistent 5-4 majority and quickly overturning many actions of previous courts, some having precedents going back over 100 years.
Whenever the secrecy of the Supreme Court is penetrated, court watchers enjoy speculating as to which justices made themselves available to the author. In the case of The Nine it isn’t too difficult to guess. It appears that Sandra Day O’Connor, feeling betrayed by the president her vote assured election in Bush v. Gore, speaks out as do, apparently, Justices Breyer and K
ennedy. It’s also pretty clear that Scalia and Thomas had little to say to Toobin. Nevertheless, Toobin’s book is filled with insights into how the background and development of each justice has contributed to their court contributions, formal and informal. Other players, like Alberto Gonzales and Harriet Miers also are carefully, if briefly, considered. Altogether, the picture of smart people with big egos placed on a stage where their every word counts is both enlightening and concerning.
Perhaps the greatest attraction of this important book is Toobin’s marvelous skill as a story teller. His narrative is well structured, beginning and ending with a scene on the steps of the Supreme Court. His portraits paint the picture of a court claiming to represent the will of the Founding Fathers in their writing of the Constitution while reflecting the ebb and flow of politics in America. The Court stands as a lagging indicator, because justices appointed for life often outlive the national mood that led to their installation. The triumph of George W. Bush may lie in the longevity of his two appointments to the Supreme Court, but only time, as with so much concerning the Court, will tell.
The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin, Doubleday, 2007 costs $27.95 at bookstores everywhere.
