From the Washington Post.. of Tuesday, November 13, 2001. The Birchmere is the local folk music nightclub in Alexandria, Virginia (just across the river from Washington, DC).

Tom Paxton Pays Tribute to 'The Bravest'
By Lloyd Grove
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 13, 2001; 12:44 PM

Famous folksinger Tom Paxton Ð who created such popular standards as "Ramblin' Boy," "The Last Thing On My Mind" and "Bottle of Wine" Ð didn't want to write a song about Sept. 11.

"I'm sure you'll believe me when I say I really didn't want to," the 64-year-old Paxton told us this morning from his home in Alexandria. "When I was watching that horror, the furthest thing from my mind was to write anything about it. The first time the thought occurred to me to write something as I was going through my responses, I said to myself, 'No way! This is way over my head. It's too huge and awful. . . . I wouldn't know where to begin.' So I decided not to. But this same phrase kept going through my head, and I gave up resisting. I thought I'd better try."

That phrase ultimately became the refrain of "The Bravest," Paxton's tribute to the firefighters who gave their lives to save the victims of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center:

Now, every time I try to sleep
I'm haunted by the sound
Of firemen pounding up the stairs
While we were running down.

Paxton Ð who five years ago moved from East Hampton, N.Y., to Alexandria to escape the barbarian glitzoid invaders ("It's like Beverly Hills East," he complains) and to be close to two daughters and two grandsons who live in the Washington area Ð will perform "The Bravest" this Saturday at the Birchmere.

He said the song received its debut a few weeks ago from Garrison Keillor, after Paxton sent a demo tape to Keillor's public radio show, "A Prairie Home Companion." Paxton was away on tour in England when Keillor's musical director phoned to ask permission to perform the song at a slower tempo. His wife, Midge Paxton, gave the okay, saying: "I think 38 years of marriage gives me the right."

In fact, Paxton said he prefers the slower Keillor rendition of "The Bravest," and has adopted it as his own. He plans to record it for his next CD, due out sometime in 2002.

In the meantime, Paxton finds himself in the strange position of being a typically left-leaning folk singer who now not only plays a passionate game of golf Ð the sport of presidents, notably his old nemesis Richard Nixon Ð but also supports the American military action in Afghanistan.

"I think to be against it is very difficult for me," he said. "The outrage was so stupendous, the atrocity was so enormous and undeserved, I don't see how we have any choice." A longtime critic of U.S. foreign policy, especially during the Vietnam era, Paxton gave a surprising response when a German journalist asked during a recent interview: "What do you think of America's war?"

Paxton said he replied: "I don't think it's America's war. I think it's Osama's war."

© 2001 The Washington Post Company