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OBIT: John Jackson, blues musician, 1924-2002
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Subject: John Jackson, blues musician, 1924-2002 From: Charlie Baum Date: 21 Jan 02 - 05:46 PM Legendary bluesman, John Jackson passed away Sunday January 20, 2002, in the afternoon. He had recently been battling liver cancer which was diagnosed in late December. John was reportedly in good spirits and, other than feeling weak, he was not in pain. |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: John Jackson, blues musician, 1924-2002 From: Bill D Date: 21 Jan 02 - 05:59 PM .......oh, my...how he will be missed ...I have watched him happily so many times. He left a lot of joy behind.... |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: John Jackson, blues musician, 1924-2002 From: kytrad (Jean Ritchie) Date: 21 Jan 02 - 06:01 PM Charlie, your thread got on while I was writing mine- sorry about that. Maybe Joe/clones can just add mine onto yours, or delete it? Thanks, Jean
From: kytrad |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: John Jackson, blues musician, 1924-2002 From: van lingle Date: 21 Jan 02 - 06:07 PM One of the last living links to that Piedmont Style I love so well. A very nice man, I met him in Faifax, Va. a long time ago and learned more watching him play for an hour than I had in the previous year or two. Rest easy, Mr. Jackson. VL |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: John Jackson, blues musician, 1924-2002 From: catspaw49 Date: 21 Jan 02 - 06:07 PM Helluva' finger picker....very sad indeed. A good man who "gave back" much and left us with even more. Spaw |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: John Jackson, blues musician, 1924-2002 From: Bill D Date: 21 Jan 02 - 06:11 PM John, as we remember him |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: John Jackson, blues musician, 1924-2002 From: Bill D Date: 21 Jan 02 - 06:19 PM a couple more...just because! He was such a good guy...often performed for FSGW for free, and gave all he had. |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: John Jackson, blues musician, 1924-2002 From: catspaw49 Date: 21 Jan 02 - 06:53 PM And here's good site that I got from Tweed over at Tweed's Blues. Like Mississippi John Hurt, a bluesman who contributed a lot to the folk scene. Spaw |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: John Jackson, blues musician, 1924-2002 From: Charlie Baum Date: 21 Jan 02 - 07:02 PM From the DC Blues Society --Charlie Baum |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: John Jackson, blues musician, 1924-2002 From: GUEST,debThutton Date: 21 Jan 02 - 07:05 PM Who could know that he would go so fast. Bruce kept trying to get his phone number so they could try to get together. I worked many folk festivals where John was appearing. I'd run from stage to stage never sitting for more than 5 minutes. But... when John got on stage I stayed to listen to the who set. We will miss him. |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: John Jackson, blues musician, 1924-2002 From: ddw Date: 21 Jan 02 - 07:07 PM A terrible loss. I will always feel fortunate that I got to take classes with him at Augusta Blues Week last summer. For those pickers who never got a chance to see him live, the most remarkable thing about him was his great paddle of a thumb on his right hand, which he used as a flat pick. Not unusual, you say? Most who fingerpick use the thumb of bass rhythms, almost always with a down stroke. John picked down and up with his thumb, giving him a sound that is VERY difficult to duplicate. Fine performer, fine gentleman. His thousands of fans will miss him greatly. david |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: John Jackson, blues musician, 1924-2002 From: Charlie Baum Date: 21 Jan 02 - 07:50 PM From The Associated Press Monday, January 21, 2002; 8:46 AM
FAIRFAX, Va. ÐÐ John Jackson, who went from gravedigger to one of the pre-eminent blues musicians in the country, died Sunday at his home in Fairfax County. He was 77. The native of Rappahannock County died from kidney failure. Charles L. Perdue, a close friend and president of the Folklore Society of Greater Washington, said Jackson had been diagnosed with liver and lung cancer a few weeks ago. The disease had progressed to an advanced stage and there wasn't much doctors could do, Perdue said. During his long career, Jackson played for presidents and in 68 countries. He also befriended countless people, including blues artist Ann Rabson, a member of Saffire The Uppidty Blues Women. "He was an old and dear friend of mine and probably every other blues and folk musician in the United States," Rabson said. "He will be missed a great deal." Perdue is credited with discovering Jackson, one of the few surviving Piedmont blues masters. Jackson was playing guitar for some friends at a gas station in Fairfax in 1964 when Perdue pulled in to get some gas. He listened as Jackson taught a song to a mailman he knew. He and Jackson became friends, and Perdue eventually helped launch Jackson's career by introducing him to people in the music business. Perdue, who teaches folklore at the University of Virginia, said Jackson's death is a major loss to the blues community around the world. "He was an incredibly fine musician," Perdue said." The seventh son of 14 children, Jackson had just three months' education at the first-grade level. But he earned the admiration of fans from all walks of life around the world. B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt and Pete Seeger are among the performers he has played with and befriended. He played at a Labor Day picnic at the White House for President Jimmy Carter. He moved to Fairfax in 1950 to work on a dairy farm. He earned a living as a cook, a butler, a chauffeur and a gravedigger before his music career took off. Among his numerous awards is the National Endowment for the Arts' Heritage Fellowship Award, which he received in 1986.
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Subject: RE: OBIT: John Jackson, blues musician, 1924-2002 From: Charlie Baum Date: 21 Jan 02 - 07:54 PM A clarification/correction to the above article from the Associated Press: Chuck Perdue was president of the Folklore Society of Greater Washington (FSGW) some decades ago. He hasn't been active in years. --Charlie Baum, currently a relative bigshot in the FSGW |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: John Jackson, blues musician, 1924-2002 From: Debbie Hutton Date: 21 Jan 02 - 08:00 PM Richard Harrington is writing an article which will appear in the Washington Post on Tues. |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: John Jackson, blues musician, 1924-2002 From: Bill D Date: 21 Jan 02 - 08:02 PM as ddw, said, his right thumb was special!...I do NOT believe there was a joint in it...it was just straight & solid...*smile*...wonderful to watch him pick! |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: John Jackson, blues musician, 1924-2002 From: Benjamin Date: 21 Jan 02 - 08:10 PM John is just about (if not the) nicest man I've ever met. One of the most under-rated finger pickers ever. He lived a truely remarkable life and saw nothing but the best in everyone. He treated everyone the same, no matter who they were or how old they were or what they looked like. He didn't stay in school long enough to learn how to read or write, but still found ways to educate himself and provide for his family. Heaven is a richer place now. My prayers are with Trish and everybody who knew John. He will be missed! |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: John Jackson, blues musician, 1924-2002 From: Bobert Date: 21 Jan 02 - 11:08 PM I first heard John in 1986 when he played an outdoor concert in Leesburg, Va, Then some 10 yeras later had the priviledge to hear him again in Leesburg. But in the summer of 2000, I found myself at Davis and Elkins College in Elkins, WV for "Blues Week" and Johnwas there for the entire week. Every afternoon, John would set up shop on this large wrap around porch and lead what folks call the "porch jam." About 20 people would sit infolding chairs around John and he would lead one song after another. He had this little thing he would do. He would look at you and ask you if you wanted a little?!?.. If you nodded yes then it would be your song for a round and then he would take it back and keep it going. I started the week in the back row trying to figure the stuff out and ended the week in the back row having figured it out. Fotunately, he never called on me but it was a real pleasure to have played with him and after that last porch jam I sat with him and talked and told him I had written a song during the week entitled "Where Were You" and asked him if he would sign under it in my songbook. He did and I feel so very blessed to have spent that time talking with him. He is one of the sweetest men I have ever met. I never saw him without his coat and string tie and his shoes were always polished. He was soft spoken and genuinely interested in giving of himself. A few months ago, I told my wife that I was afraid I would not get to hear amd see him a again. John was supposed to play in Leesburg on New Years Eve but becasue of the illness had to bow out. I will miss John, his sweetness, his generosity and the wonderful way that he went about presenting his music. |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: John Jackson, blues musician, 1924-2002 From: Rolfyboy6 Date: 21 Jan 02 - 11:44 PM It was thanks to John Jackson that the Virginia piedmont blues tradition has been carried on. He had a big influence on many. Rest In Peace. |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: John Jackson, blues musician, 1924-2002 From: Sandy Paton Date: 22 Jan 02 - 01:55 AM John McLaughlin has an interview with John Jackson on his Folklife website. I've forgotten how to do the clickies, but it's at http://www.thedigitalfolklife.org/johnj.html. John Jackson was, as almost everyone writing above has pointed out, one of the sweetest, gentlest souls I've ever been privileged to know. Caroline and I were with him at a number of festivals over the years, and I was always moved by his thoughtful kindnesses to all around him. His music was wonderful, to be sure, but it was his loving spirit that I will cherish in my memory even more. Sandy
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Subject: RE: OBIT: John Jackson, blues musician, 1924-2002 From: GUEST,karen k Date: 22 Jan 02 - 01:56 AM I first met John Jackson about 1976 or 1977 at small festival at the Chelsea House in Brattleboro, VT and was hooked on him. He was a gem. I went to see him as often as I could and will remember him with the same fondness and esteem that I remember other blues greats like John Hurt and Jesse Fuller. I treasure the times I was in his presence and will always be a John Jackson fan. For those that never had the opportunity to see him in person you missed one of the great experiences in life. I join the many who will miss John Jackson, the man, and his music. I am truly saddened by his passing. Keep singing and playing, John. Safe home. |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: John Jackson, blues musician, 1924-2002 From: KathWestra Date: 22 Jan 02 - 10:15 AM His music, thankfully, will be with us forever through his recordings. His sweet gentleness, as Sandy said, is irreplaceable. It's what I will miss the most.
I am appending an e-mail posted on a folklore listserv by Nick Spitzer of NPR's American Routes. It includes details of the wake on Wednesday evening Jan. 23 and the funeral service on Thursday morning, as well as a news release from Alligator records. I apologize for the length, but there's good stuff here. Nick Spitzer wrote:
The sad news is that the great Piedmont blues guitarist, singer, raconteur, and master of many trades, John Jackson has passed away. A full press release from Alligator Records follows and I'm sure others will want to share their memories of John.
Many on the Washington scene will recall the enormous elan and grace with which John Jackson carried himself appearing at the National and Smithsonian Folk Festivals over three decades. John was always ready to perform with remarkable instrumental virtuosity and authority in his songs. Each telling of the episodes of his extraordinary personal history revealed new facets in the complexities of his early family life; work on the farm; black/white social relations in the rural Piedmont; getting guitar lessons from a prison water bearer; his love of blues, jazz and country music heard on 78 records; his interpretation of John Henry; observing the reaction of British audiences to his Rappahanock County manner of speaking....
I could go on at length about his appearances at Carnegie Hall, the 4th of July in Washington, at the New Orleans Jazz Festival, on American Routes...each where his appeal to audiences was so transcendent, but I now recall a final visit with John at hishome in Fairfax Station just before New Year. Although tired and drawn, he exuded good cheer and calm despite his worsening condition. Gently shooing away a black kitten a great grand child had received for Christmas, he recalled his fascination with artifacts and history of Civil War battles fought nearby, and shared memories of a musician and instrument maker of his youth from whom he'd obtained an antique guitar. Seated in a rocker surrounded by large portraits of Washington, Lee, the Kennedy's and ML King, John spoke softly of how times had changed mostly for the better over his life. He'd been a farmer, dairyman, houseman, chauffeur, grave digger, musician and family man.
Always kind to all comers, but firm in his convictions, he recalled more with sadness than bitterness the tragic loss of his namesake son to police who shot wrongly. In the next moment, he spoke warmly of people who'd worked to record and present him as an artist over the years. A seventh son, given to foretelling the future, John said he wasn't worried abit about illness and death.
Despite his weakness, he remained softly handsome and firm of grip as we said goodbye. I left his warm hearth on that sparking cold late December afternoon with the impression that a man so a part of the Virginia cultural landscape could never die.
John Jackson passed away at home just after 1:00 pm on Sunday January 20th surrounded by family, friends in the folklore community and his manager.
On Tuesday, the Washington Post will carry a major obit. A wake is planned for Wednesday and a funeral service in Dale City Virginia at Grace Baptist Church on Thursday morning. For information 703-670-5032.
Nick S.
Alligator Records obit follows--
JOHN JACKSON 1925 - 2002
"Jackson is a brilliant technician and a master of East Coast blues." --Living Blues
"A genuine blues legend, performing in his own distinctive style, beholden to no one else." --Washington Post
Famed Virginia blues and ragtime songster John Jackson, whose gentle, acoustic guitar picking and warm, rich baritone voice won him a National Heritage Fellowship in 1986, died of complications from liver cancer on Sunday, January 20, 2002 in Virginia.
Jackson was one of the last remaining first-generation country bluesmen. His music--East Coast Piedmont-style blues, ragtime, folk, old-time hillbilly songs and ballads--transcended race, class and intellectual backgrounds. The Chicago Tribune called Jackson, "a master of both songster classics and Piedmont-style blues fingerpicking...mingling engaging storytelling, authoritative musicianship and down home charm."
Over the years, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Luther Allison, Junior Wells and Son House all shared stages and swapped songs with Jackson. Carl Sandburg and Alex Haley, even Fred Rogers (Mr. Rogers Neighborhood ) counted themselves among Jackson's close friends. With a strong desire to stay in Virginia and not take to the road very often, Jackson's accomplishments were truly astounding. He went from playing on his front porch to playing at President Jimmy Carter's Labor Day Picnic at the White House, Carnegie Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, to points all over the world.
Over the course of his career, Jackson released a total of nine albums. His most recent recording, 1999's Front Porch Blues on Chicago-based Alligator Records, reintroduced Jackson to a national audience. The album received widespread critical and popular acclaim, and it also received three W.C. Handy Blues Award nominations in 2000, including Acoustic Blues Album Of The Year. His other albums were: 1965's Blues And Country Dance Tunes From Virginia (Arhoolie); 1966's John Jackson (Rounder); 1968's John Jackson, Vol. 2 (Arhoolie); 1970's John Jackson In Europe (Arhoolie); 1970's Don't Let Your Deal Go Down (Arhoolie); 1979's Step It Up & Go (Rounder); 1983's Deep In Bottom (Rounder); and 1999's compilation album, Country Blues & Ditties (Arhoolie).
Born in Rappahanock County, Virginia on February 25, 1924, John Jackson was the seventh son of 14 children. His parents were farmers as well as musicians who played parties on weekends and holidays. John first played around with his father's guitar at age four, and by eight he taught himself enough to accompany his parents at parties. His parents bought a second-hand Victrola when John was six, and John soaked up the sounds from the blues and country 78s by Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Blake, Blind Boy Fuller, Uncle Dave Macon and Jimmie Rodgers. Before he could learn to read or write, John had to drop out of school to work on the farm. He continued playing parties with his parents during the 1930s and 1940s but quit playing music a short time later. He felt music encouraged violent behavior, and he didn't want any part of it.
John moved to Fairfax County, Virginia in 1950 with his wife, Cora, and children to work on a dairy farm. A friend of John's, in need of some quick cash, pawned John his guitar, and John quietly started playing again. He became a gravedigger to support his family, occasionally pulling out his guitar for fun. One day, while John was playing guitar for some neighborhood kids, his mailman asked him for lessons. John agreed to meet him at the local gas station, where the mailman had a second job. While John was playing at the gas station, Chuck Perdue, the president of the Folklore Society of Greater Washington, pulled in for a fill-up. He heard John playing and knew that he had stumbled onto a true original. Within weeks, John was playing at coffeehouses in the Washington D.C. area, where he gradually regained all his old musical powers.
In April of 1965, John recorded songs for his first album for Arhoolie. He became an instant hit at blues festivals, easily winning a whole new generation of fans. Two more Arhoolie albums followed as John's reputation continued to grow. Two albums for Rounder kept Jackson busy on the international tour circuit. Besides constant trips to Europe, Jackson played Asia, Africa, South America, India and all over the United States. The National Endowment for the Arts awarded John their National Heritage Fellowship in 1986, giving official recognition to this giant of traditional blues.
DISCOGRAPHY
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Subject: RE: OBIT: John Jackson, blues musician, 1924-2002 From: Charlie Baum Date: 22 Jan 02 - 10:29 AM Here is the Washington Post article:
By Richard Harrington
John Jackson titled his last album "Front Porch Blues," but his music was just as much at home on the South Lawn of the White House and center stage at Carnegie Hall and London's Royal Albert Hall. Still, that front porch notion was accurate: Jackson was a sweet, gentle man, a charmer whose rolling guitar rhythms, easygoing vocals and warm, engaging smile invited one up. Discovered in the early '60s while working as a gravedigger and handyman in Fairfax County, Jackson became one of the world's foremost finger-style guitarists and songsters, a beloved figure at folk and blues festivals around the country and the world. Jackson, who died Sunday at age 77, went from anonymity to being declared a "living treasure" when he received a National Heritage Fellowship in 1986. That award, given by the National Endowment for the Arts, recognized Jackson's mastery of the sophisticated but deceptively simple Piedmont fingerpicking style. The award also acknowledged the richness of Jackson's repertoire, which embraced blues, gospel and early country music, traditional folk ballads and Tin Pan Alley standards, rhythmic rags and reels. Though he was diagnosed with liver cancer late in December, Jackson insisted on keeping his commitment to perform at Falls Church's First Night concert on New Year's Eve. This likely surprised no one who knew him: He always insisted he was just a working man, and that work ethic undoubtedly gave him just enough strength for one last job. Nor was it surprising that in his last days, Jackson was surrounded by friends and fellow musicians, one of whom, Stephen Wade, was quietly performing the lovely melody of "Hand in Hand" on his banjo as Jackson closed his eyes and slipped away. John Jackson was never strictly a bluesman -- "a bluesman don't play anything but blues," he once pointed out in the rich, syrupy cadence that reflected his rural Virginia roots. He was born in 1924 in Woodville, in western Virginia's Rappahannock County, the seventh son of Hattie and Suttie Jackson, tenant farmers who were also musicians. Jackson's mother played harmonica and accordion and favored sacred song; his father, who played guitar, banjo and mandolin, preferred secular music, which he played in a string band with his brothers. Their son showed an interest in guitar but could not learn from his father, who played left-handed and upside down. When he was 5, an older sister bought him a $3.95 mail-order guitar and Jackson started teaching himself by listening to used 78s played on a secondhand Victrola his parents had purchased from traveling furniture salesmen. "They would come around once a month and collect whatever we was able to pay 'em and they had boxes of records for 10 cents apiece by everybody who made a record in the '20s and early '30s," Jackson recalled in 1986. "That's how I learned to play, listening to 78 records." Jackson listened to early country bluesmen like Mississippi John Hurt, Barbecue Bob, Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Blake, and early country acts like Jimmie Rodgers, the Carter Family, Uncle Dave Macon and Ernest Tubb. The family radio also brought in the Grand Ole Opry and the Wheeling Jamboree. Because he listened to all kinds of music, Jackson developed an expansive repertoire that made his concerts delightfully inclusive. Songs stuck in his memory, Jackson suggested, because he'd had to drop out of school at an early age to work on the farm. "I don't read and write and I have to keep everything right up there," he said, pointing to his head. There would be one teacher, known only as Happy -- a water boy on a chain gang laying Rappahannock County's first paved road, who'd come to the Jackson farm's spring. He eventually borrowed the family guitar and over a year-long period taught young John open tunings and slide techniques. From him John learned the Piedmont fingerpicking style, which reflected a lesser-known but vital strain of blues, lighter and more rhythmic than the harder blues of the Mississippi Delta and Texas. Reflecting the influence of early string bands and ragtime, the style was built on a technique in which the thumb lays down a rhythmic bass line against one or two fingers plucking out the melody. That complex interplay could make one guitar sound like two in earnest conversation. The Jacksons built a small stage on their farm, a site for the weekend house parties and hoedowns that were important social occasions in segregated times. Their son started performing with them in the '30s, but in 1945, at age 21, he stopped. "People sometimes liked to fight and I just hated violence, so I quit playing," Jackson explained. "It just wasn't worth it." So until 1964, John Jackson didn't play publicly. He didn't even own a guitar again until 1960, when a friend gave him an old Gibson as collateral on a loan. By then Jackson and his wife, Cora Lee, had been living in Fairfax for a decade, having moved there so he could work various jobs on a dairy farm before becoming a gravedigger, a job he did the old-fashioned way, with pick and shovel. When he began playing again, Jackson did so informally. In fact his "revival" was due to a sequence of fortuitous events. In 1964, he was entertaining neighborhood kids with "Walk Right In," a 1930 recording by Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers that had revived into a No. 1 hit by the Rooftop Singers. A mailman making his rounds heard Jackson and begged for a lesson. Embarrassed at the attention, Jackson kept putting him off until the man finally invited him for a late-night session at the gas station where he worked part time. And that's where folklorist Chuck Perdue, president of the Folklore Society of Greater Washington, pulled in for a fill-up and heard Jackson playing Mississippi John Hurt's classic rag "Candy Man." Still unsure of his talents, Jackson had to be cajoled into playing another tune, Blind Lemon Jefferson's "Matchbox Blues." By song's end, Perdue knew he'd made a wonderful discovery, and Jackson was soon playing in public again, notably at the Ontario Place coffeehouse that had become home base to such other Folk Revival discoveries as Skip James and Mississippi John Hurt. Perdue ended up producing Jackson's 1965 debut on Arhoolie Records, "Blues and Country Dance Tunes From Virginia"; there would be nine albums in all. More important, after having become a local fixture, Jackson began to tour nationally and overseas, ultimately performing in more than 60 countries. He played in coffeehouses, clubs and community centers, but also on the stages of the world's major concert halls -- and, being practical, kept his job as a gravedigger part time. Jackson celebrated his geographic roots in songs like "Rappahannock Blues," "Fairfax Station Rag" and "Graveyard Blues," though he'd also chuckle at earnest blues fans looking for deeper connections between his music and his old job. Mostly, they would be enthralled not only by his exquisite guitar playing and storytelling, but by his gentle personality, the warm laughter that came so easily, the sunny disposition that could not be clouded over by life's hard circumstances.
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Subject: RE: OBIT: John Jackson, blues musician, 1924-2002 From: lamarca Date: 22 Jan 02 - 11:49 AM I last saw John at a party given for folklorist Joe Wilson after this year's Heritage Awards (where Joe was honored for his longtime contributions to preserving and promoting folk arts). John, as always, was his usually gentle and gracious self, mingling with his fellow musicians, Washington folk bureaucrats and us hangers-on with a good word and a smile for all. Several years ago, my husband and I were looking at a bin of Neal Parent's B&W photos at a craft fair. Neal does mostly photos of Maine; exquisite pieces of sailing schooners and Maine's rugged people and landscapes. But Neal also loves music, and mixed in with the rocky shorelines were a few of a blues musician. "That's John Jackson!" we said. Neal said yes, and asked if we knew him. Although we didn't know John as close friend, we'd been to hear him perform many times, and greatly admired him and his music. I was able to send John's address to Neal, who sent him copies of the great photos he had taken. John was due to perform for the Institute of Musical Tradition's Monday night concert series on February 25th - they will, instead, have a musical Memorial concert for John, with Piedmont guitarist and fellow National Heritage Awardee John Cephas presiding. It will likely be a joyous celebration of a good man and his many gifts given by the many friends and musicians who loved him well. I'm saddened by John Jackson's death, but glad to have known him and his gentle and generous talent. |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: John Jackson, blues musician, 1924-2002 From: Charlie Baum Date: 22 Jan 02 - 12:27 PM Forwarded and posted on behalf of Donna Fletcher: Services for John Jackson The visitation is on Wednesday night, 7 - 9 PM, at: Ames Funeral Home 8914 Quarry Road Manassas, VA Service on Thursday - 11 AM Grace Baptist Church 14242 Sprigs Road Dale City, VA |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: John Jackson, blues musician, 1924-2002 From: DeanC Date: 22 Jan 02 - 01:10 PM I want to reiterate what Sandy and Kathy (and some others) have said about John. He was one of the nicest people I have ever met. We met mostly at festivals and concerts, but he also lived "up the road" from us, so we occasionally met in places like grocery stores. He always had a warm, friendly greeting and a strong, warm handshake. Yes, I'll miss his music, but most of all I'll miss the man behind the music. |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: John Jackson, blues musician, 1924-2002 From: GUEST,Donna Fletcher Date: 22 Jan 02 - 06:47 PM I first met John Jackson at Blues Week at the Augusta Festival in Elkins about 15 years ago. In John's class that first year, I sat enthralled by his incredible guitar picking (he made it look effortless), his tales both tall and true (and it wasn't always easy to figure out which was which), but most of all by his warmth and willingness to share. That first experience was the beginning of a friendship that will always be precious to me. The highlight of every day during Blues Week for me and lots of others in recent years was the late afternoon jam that John led on the Halliehurst porch. Everyone was welcomed and encouraged to join in -- from the world-class instructors to the beginners. I feel so honored to have had the opportunity to have known, loved, and shared time with this great man. I'll miss him so much.
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Subject: RE: OBIT: John Jackson, blues musician, 1924-2002 From: georgeward Date: 23 Jan 02 - 02:07 AM I barely knew John personally. But I knew him well as a touchstone, hunting companion and wise elder to a dear friend. I treasured him for that before I met him, or ever heard him play a note. Still do. |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: John Jackson, blues musician, 1924-2002 From: Charlie Baum Date: 23 Jan 02 - 12:02 PM Passing along an update on funeral information, for anyone in the Greater DC/Virginia area wishing to attend:
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Subject: RE: OBIT: John Jackson, blues musician, 1924-2002 From: GUEST,TomLoriMail@Yahoo.Com Date: 23 Jan 02 - 02:14 PM John: Thanks for the great music and the fond memories. You'll truely be missed by those who grew up with your music. Tom |
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Subject: RE: OBIT: John Jackson, blues musician, 1924-2002 From: Mike Byers Date: 31 Jan 02 - 10:09 AM I first met John Jackson at a mutual friend's house in the 1970s. He was a wonderful man; kind and warm-hearted and genuinely interested in other people. Hearing him play "Goodnight, Irene" at the Leesburg, Viginia First Night program was always a great way to bring in a new year. One freezing December 31st, my wife and a young woman friend from New York were standing on the Leesburg courthouse steps with John, each rubbing one of his hands to keep them warm for "Goodnight, Irene". The sweet smile on John's face at that moment is something that will forever be engraved on my heart. I don't think there was ever anyone who met John who didn't admire him, and he left us such wonderful music, too! How could anyone do better than this? I'll be playing John's music on "Acoustic Blend" (Public Radio from Purdue University, WBAA AM920 or www.wbaa.org) on February 2, 6:00-7:00PM eastern time. |
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