The first time Merritt showed up for our summer campout, I think it might have been 1998 or 99, he asked beforehand if we were going to do the Sunday gospel sing. "Sure, if you want, we'll sing, " I said. We're pretty loose about what happens when, here. Just so there's lots of music. So, come Sunday morning, here comes Merritt, lugging two file boxes of Stanley Brothers gospel and bluegrass songs. They're all alphabetized, and there are multiple copies of each, so he can lead and we can all sing along.
Went down better with some folks than others, but he sure did love the Carter and Ralph Stanley repertoire, and he was worried that their songs were dying out. He wanted all of us to know the joy he found in singing the Stanley Brothers tunes. * * * * *
Merritt always had something nice to say about the song you just sang, especially if you were lacking confidence. "Oh, that was great," he'd say. "That's a perfect song for your voice." And even if he couldn't find anything else to say, he'd compliment you on the key. My lack of confidence came out in singing too loudly, and too often on songs and harmonies I didn't quite know, and Merritt once said to me, "One thing I have to admire about you, Barbara, is that you are absolutely fearless." I'm not entirely sure that was a compliment, but it was graciously said, and I've had time to reflect on it since.
Once, at Rainy Camp (the Seattle club's outing), I asked him after a circle about a song I had sung. He, of course, praised it. "But, somehow, I don't quite think it worked, " I said. "How can I improve it?" He demurred. It was fine, he said.
I persisted. "You're a performer, surely you know some things to make the song go better. What can I do?"
"Well," he said, "sometimes it helps make a song flow if you keep the pulse going all the way through. You don't want to break the rhythm between the verse and chorus, or pause in other places. But you did great!" * * * * *