BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer

Subject: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: Amos
Date: 19 Jul 11 - 04:43 PM

Rick Fielding came back last night. I guess I don't need to add, unexpectedly.
I had wandered up the hill behind the house, after the house was asleep, where I keep a little bench, hauling my ole D-35 on my shoulder. It was a July night, a warm breeze came over the hill from the ocean, and the land was riddled with sleepy headed flowers and blooming trees, murmuring little frogs and whippoorwills. Idyllic.
But me, I was singing blues that night. I was stretching the strings on them, too, bailing out a tired heart. "Which Way, Which Way", I was singing, and "In the Evening, Baby when the Sun Gone Down", and "Keys to the highway". One after another just as low and mournful as I could knock 'em out.
"I went dowwwwn to the crossroads, Lord, I fell down on my knees…".
"Ya know, you could slip a ninth in there, it would sound really good." Rick Fielding, big as life, with one of his endless collection of fine guitars strung over his back on a hand-tooled strap.
"JESUS CHRIST!! RICK?? Zat YOU??"
"I kinda think it is, yeah. Last time I checked." He gave me a grin and sat down on the other end of the bench and swing his big ax around. HE started running counterpoint to the Crossroads, and I gave him some bass runs to bounce off of. Dang, he still had it. But I finally had to steel myself and ask him what the hell he was doing there.
"Rick, what the HELL are you doing here?"
"I don't know—something better to do than make some good music?"
"No, no…but, last time I checked this was mortal country, and you checked out years back!"
"Yeah, I believe that's right. Time flies when you're having fun."
He dug in his shirt pocket and pulled out a Players, and lit it up.
"Jeeze, man, don't you know that's bad for yer health?"
He just laughed. "Yeah, I finally figured it out. No worries."
"So how come I have the honor of your company here?"
He just looked at me.
"I just had to come. This is Mudcat Summer."

Subject: RE: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: gnu
Date: 19 Jul 11 - 04:51 PM

So, what did he play? What did he say?

Glad to hear he's havin fun in any case... even if it's in your... our... mind(s).

Subject: RE: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: Charley Noble
Date: 19 Jul 11 - 05:26 PM

Mudcat summer could get crowded if more old Mudcatters join this evening.

Wonder what Barry Finn's up to?

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: My guru always said
Date: 19 Jul 11 - 05:33 PM

Can't you still hear Barry? He's singing!

Subject: RE: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: Janie
Date: 19 Jul 11 - 07:35 PM

"Amos! Hey! Amos!? Sorry I didn't call or pm to let you know I was coming.    Don't suppose I could stay on your couch for a night or two? Gotta be back at work on Monday. Meant to use the tax check to fix the floor in the bathroom, but got a wild hair, (rare thing, these days,) and-well-here I am.

Hi, Rick? I'm Janie. We only met briefly at a couple of Getaways. Mind if I....huh? Those two little waterspouts look to be coming ashore and headed our way. Are waterspouts common here, Amos?

Subject: RE: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: gnu
Date: 19 Jul 11 - 07:54 PM

And then I think of Little John Cameron.... gee whiz... I can think of others who graced our lives and shall not again do so in this forum but shall do so in our hearts forever. Time is so short. But, no matter how short, we touch each others lives... even in cyberspace.

Thanks Max for all my new friends herein, present and past.

Subject: RE: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: Crowhugger
Date: 19 Jul 11 - 09:35 PM

       I came around the corner of the pool shed and saw Amos, no surprise in that. But who was he talking to? Someone who smokes; who does that any more? And as I passed by I couldn't stop myself from doing a lightening-speed double-take, one hand reflexively grabbing the surge of pain at the back of my neck.
       Rick Fielding, plain as day! Never underestimate the power of Mudcat, I thought. Then aloud as I got nearer,
      "Wow Rick, it's really good to see you! Surprising, but very good..." My voice trailed off in bafflement. He grinned as he reached for a handshake and hug. I massaged the crick in my neck with my other hand. Yup, it's Rick, I thought, but I was yet hesitating to believe in the possibilities of Mudcat summer.
      "Got your cello somewhere?" he asked.
      I nodded towards where it sat in under an arbour of swelling grapes and everblooming roses. "I'm a bit rusty, been busy with singing, but it'll come back." Then I retreated to let Amos and Rick to finish their catching up on one other's lives, or rather life and death.
      What will Duckboots think when she sees this? I wondered. Or maybe she called him and that's why he's here.
      By the time my neck pain had faded Amos and Rick were seated with a few others near the main heap of instrument cases. I went over.
      "Rick," I ventured, "after you get settled and find something to eat--I'm guessing you're hungry after all these years--what say we go for into banjo lesson number 2? What was it you were going to show me? Whatever it was, I've almost had enough time to practise Shady Grove since we did lesson one back in, well jeez it was a good few years ago wasn't it?"
      "Sure thing, Crowhugger. Me and Amos just decided to write a song, so soon as we've done that I'll come find you for a little banjo time."
      With that arranged, I settled into a shady seat and closed my eyes. The warm breeze in turn lifted my hair and dropped it again while the laughter of voices and strings and the hum of dragonflies filled me, chasing out all thoughts and tension.

Subject: RE: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: Beer
Date: 19 Jul 11 - 10:03 PM

January 2nd. 2002 I started a thread and asked a question about a certain musician. I was floored when the response came in by Rick. At the time I was relatively new here and was in awe to have Mr Feilding response.

http://youtu.be/fW9TO7toy_w

ad.

Subject: RE: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 Jul 11 - 11:43 PM

(I'll try to add some storyline in a bit, for now I can't see for the tears. What a beautiful idea, Amos...touched my heart, all of you. Adrien, I know what you mean. I'd only been on here a half a year or so when Rick asked me to call into his radio show about May Day! I was thrilled and in awe, as you say. He was wonderful, made me feel so comfortable.)

Maybe we can lure back a few others, from this realm and others...BanjoBonnie/Lil'Neophyte, JenEllen...

Subject: RE: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 19 Jul 11 - 11:56 PM

It seems that it hasn't rained for a very very long time
The creek is much lower than it used to be
I remember when the current was much stronger
When the cooling was longer
when our garden was green

I remember a time before the nasty pollution
before the only solution was to damn up the flow.
Before the politics took over
When we'd share thinks we know

Where is the good will now?
Can we drink up our fill now?
Is it all stored away in somebody's fridge?
Or maybe I see how its going to sea now
Like water under the bridge.

Subject: RE: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: Amos
Date: 20 Jul 11 - 10:49 AM

So, we're leaning back on the old bench in that summer night, and things aren't so bluesy. We're noodling. It is so good to see Rick. His face still folds up the same way when he laughs. We're shooting the breeze. I tell him the Mudcat is going through bumpy times.

"Yeah, that's what Spaw said."

"What??? You saw SPAW? WHEN? What happened? He's not.....".   Of course, I didn't want to say the word, with the living legend hisself sitting not four feet from me.

"Yeah, we talked, but don't bother asking him, he won't remember. It was a short visit, he had to get back. Some of the old timers out there are pissed with him, call him a cock-teaser. He keeps showing up for a few seconds or so and goes away again. I've been standing up for him, though."

"Oh....yeah, okay. So, didja meet Woody?"

"Hell, yeah. Him and me and Huddie have a jam we do on Thursdays. Very good stuff, eh?"

"So, Rick, man. It is really good to see you, ya know? But, what is this Mudcat Summer thing?"

"Well, it's summer, isn't it? And ain't this the Mudcat?"

"YEah, well...but we get summer every year."

"Well, me and Little John were chewing the fat, and Barry came over, and he was laughing about all the hassles and tribulations Max is going through just now, and we decided it wasn't right. So we decided to, you know, stir up some of that ole original Mudcat spirit. Have us a Mudcat summer."

"Oh....wow..." was about all I could think to say.

So, we're noodling, he's playing the deep scarlet Gibson with gold tuners, I have no idea where it came from, and me on my old Dreadnought.

"Whattya wanna play?"

"Oh, hell, how about something from the sea?"

So I open up a couple of minor chords trying to think up a song, And all of a sudden, we hear this bellowing, sweet-tempered baritone.

"My first trip to the Winnipeg Harbor!
My first voyage to Canada's shore!
There I met a pretty little maiden
Commonly known as..."

and out of the shadows behind the hill strode Barry Finn, knocking them out as fair and strong as ever, his big blue eyes shining, grinning to beat the band in the rising warmth of a Mudcat Summer's night.

Subject: RE: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 20 Jul 11 - 11:50 AM

That must be Halifax Harbour.

Winnipeg is no where near the sea.

Was her name Lenore?

Subject: RE: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 20 Jul 11 - 12:08 PM

My first trip to the Halifax Harbor!
My first voyage to Canada's shore!
There I met a pretty little maiden
Commonly known a whore

I was on my way down to the Barber
To get me a shave and a trim
When I poked my head into an Ale House
I know it was just on a whim.

She sat at the end of the bar there
Nursing some brown in a glass
perched oh, just so on the bar stool
showing the curves of her ass.

Subject: RE: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: Amos
Date: 20 Jul 11 - 12:30 PM

(Sorry--as often happens the words deteriorate in direct proportion to the interval since last sung!! I do believe she was commonly known as the Winnipeg Whore, though.)

Subject: RE: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: Amos
Date: 20 Jul 11 - 03:16 PM

"In other words," Rick continued, around three in the morning and four Blatts along, "The word dead is vastly overrated. I've never been less dead in my life!!" He laughed at his own irony and thrww back another swallow of cheap Canuck beer, which he had been somehow materializng from his Gibson case. Barry pulled out another--still moist with cold condensation--and popped it open. We had done every anchoring, short-hauling, long-hauling, foc's'le song, drunk sailor, and sailor's sweetheart song we could think of, and then Rick and I spent some time swapping cowboy tunes. I taught him a Shorty Badger he hadn't heard before!! Can you believe that?? I was bustin' my buttsons at the thought, I tell ya.

"So--what--doesn't that kind if disincentivize the notion of doing good things on this here mortal coil?" Maybe I shouldm't have thrown philosophical conundrums at old Rick, but I couldn't bite my tongue.

But he was up to it, didn't miss a beat. "Hey, you cure Hollywood of writing bad movies by not going to them, right?" He laughed again. "Besides, we all know the time comes to inherit the flesh again, and if you promote ignorance, spread pain, and generally act like an asshole all your life, guess what you find when you get back? Assholeries on every hand." Barry laughed. "You got THAT right!"

It was something to think on; I felt like I had been out-philosophized, but there was no-one I'd rather be out-philosophized by than old Rick.

Subject: RE: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: Joe_F
Date: 20 Jul 11 - 10:12 PM

Jack: The lakes have shores as well. If you look up Winnipeg Whore in the DigiTrad, you will find that the song is set in Michigan. So she is far from home, all the same.

Subject: RE: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: Janie
Date: 20 Jul 11 - 10:23 PM

Thought maybe one of those waterspouts might deliver you, Barry. Soooo good to see you, darlin'!

Now, who was the other what traveled in the same manner?

Subject: RE: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 21 Jul 11 - 04:27 AM

As a sailor, you can't make your first port of call in Canada in Winnipeg. Unless your ship is a train. A lumberjack can float down river to Winnipeg, as he does in the song.

Though Halifax, always a seaport, no doubt always had more than one lady ob dubious reputation.

Subject: RE: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: Rapparee
Date: 21 Jul 11 - 10:08 AM

Of course you can!

Cross the stormy North Atlantic to the Arctic Ocean and sail into Hudson's Bay. Fight your way to the mouth of the Nelson River and sail upstream to Lake Winnipeg. Follow the Red River of the North to the town. Load the proverbial ladies and either continue on the RR of the N to the US (Fargo, ND, for example) or reverse your direction and visit places like Halifax and Baaahston.

No problem for real sailors, the kind who can deal with shoals and narrows.

Subject: RE: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: Crowhugger
Date: 21 Jul 11 - 10:56 AM

Rapparee is right. Why, just beyond the arbour lies the path down to the dock. There's Rick following Barry and did I not catch a glimpse of Huddie L. among others heading down to meet the boat from the UK? Must be some to survive Atlantic swells and storms yet navigate river shallows.

I'm too far away to recognize the woman securing a line from the bow--I wonder if it's katlaughing?

Finally I pull myself away from the music and mosey toward the growing crowd of colourfully dressed greeters. We can't all be first to say hello so I'm waiting for reports from those at the front as to who has got off the boat.

Subject: RE: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: Amos
Date: 21 Jul 11 - 11:27 AM

Wow, CH, what a tangent!! Well done!

I looked at Rick Fielding, and Barry Finn, and the empty beer cans around the bench. THe first thin line of red sunbeams were folding up the edges of the night sky, and they both looked a little transparent. I knew they'd be going soon--that's the way these things work. Other dreams were calling them to other harbors. But I knew one thing, certain and clear and deep: the Mudcat Summer was just beginning.

Subject: RE: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: Charley Noble
Date: 21 Jul 11 - 01:42 PM

Amos-

Thanks for sharing a summer moment with Rick and Barry.

And she was known as "The Winnipeg Whore" but she sort of spread herself around to other venues. My mother used to sing a few verses about her, along with her old sidekick "One-Ball Riley."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: gnu
Date: 21 Jul 11 - 01:56 PM

Warning... CAP of an old joke...

A man met a beautiful lady and he decided he wanted to marry her right away.

She protested, "But we don't know anything about each other."


He replied, "That's all right; we'll learn about each other as we go along."


So she consented, and they were married, and went on a honeymoon to a very nice resort.

One morning, they were lying by the pool when he got up off his towel, climbed up to the 10 meter board and did a two and a half tuck gainer, entering the water perfectly, almost without a ripple.

This was followed by a three rotations in jackknife position before he again straightened out and cut the water like a knife. After a few more demonstrations, he came back and lay down on his towel.

She said, "That was incredible!"

He said, "I used to be an Olympic diving champion.

You see, I told you we'd learn more about each other as we went along."

So she got up, jumped in the pool and started doing laps.

She was moving so fast that the froth from her pushing off at one end of the pool would hardly be gone before she was already touching the other end.

She did laps in freestyle, breast-stroke, even butterfly!

After about thirty laps, completed in mere minutes, she climbed back out and lay down on her towel, barely breathing heavy.

He said, "That was incredible! Were you an Olympic endurance swimmer?"

No, she said, "I was a hooker in Halifax and I worked both sides of the river!"

Subject: RE: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: Crowhugger
Date: 21 Jul 11 - 04:06 PM

Why, thank you; my pleasure, A.!

Subject: RE: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: Crowhugger
Date: 22 Jul 11 - 12:23 AM

Aww, won't someone spin a yarn about who might be on that boat from the UK?
Who else might be back to visit?
I wonder, did anyone bring their dogs and cats with them to this little shindig? Their kids?
Did folks from the UK catch any fish on the way over? (Gotta give the boat a name.)
Who are some of little crowd on the dock and what are they talking about while they wait to hug or say hello to the folks coming off the [insert name of boat]?
Or tell us about the gardens beyond the arbour...is there a buffet or is a sit-down meal planned?
Everyone welcome on any tangents or create your own!!

Subject: RE: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: My guru always said
Date: 22 Jul 11 - 04:21 AM

Col K and Theresa Tooley (Treatise1) stepped off the boat from the UK and breathed deeply. They were both so happy to be visiting with the Mudcat Family again, especially in the Summer. Col K opened his arms to give Barry a huge Hug, and Theresa started to sing 'Captain Valiant'. Why, we could even hear her over here in the UK.....

Subject: RE: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 22 Jul 11 - 07:37 AM

I'm gonna tell you a story that's hard to believe
But while I embellish I seldom deceive
This song is a sailboat so climb on aboard
The ship it is called the Winnipeg Horde

The voyage, it started on the Sunset Coast
With a gentle Mudcatter wanted to host
Some Catters who'd passed on to heaven above
to share some good music, rekindle the love.

With stops on the third coast and Europe's white shores
Don't ye be shy, so climb on aboard
With deep sea adventure and portages in store
Will you be a part of the Winterpeg Horde?

Subject: RE: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: Crowhugger
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 07:59 AM

Got a tune in mind for that, Jack?

Subject: RE: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 08:01 AM

Nope, but 3/4 time and lilting are two qualities it should have i think.

Subject: RE: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: momnopp
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 11:23 AM

MGAS - thank you for bringing ColK and Treatise1 ashore. They were looking a little forlorn there on deck...

Subject: RE: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: Joe_F
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 08:19 PM

They say that in 1933 (was it?), when FDR called in all the gold, Tallulah Bankhead arrived at the teller's window and plunked down a big stack of gold coins. "Why, Miss Bankhead," said the teller, raising his eyebrows, "You've been hoarding!" "Never mind how I got it," she snapped back. "Bank it."

Subject: RE: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: Ebbie
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 12:04 AM

Whew! It isn't easy to sit here silently. No better than I knew Rick and Barry and Little John and Col K and dynamic Theresa I have fond memories of them. Sometimes the veil grows thin.

Thank you, Amos.

Subject: RE: BS: FICTION: Mudcat Summer
From: Ed T
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 12:55 PM

There was never a woman called a whore in or near Halifax Harbour, or even harbor.

They used to be called Ada's girls, or just the girls.

But, now many are from other parts. They massage your mind, and possibly other parts (based on your needs and the negotiation).

:)
Brothel