John Dwyer - Songs & Stories -Guitar List photos

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 12:30 AM

John,

Thanks! I'll email you. Who all is involved with this project? (Agency/entity-wise and people-wise).

Maggie

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Deckman
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 12:56 AM

Hi Jon, things are quite hectic right now. I'll be PMing you shortly. CHEERS, Bob

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 04:03 AM

Wow, Maggie, talk about an offer you can't refuse--that's amazing! John, are there any compilations planned for public distribution?   (Best of Folklife 19...) I'd love to hear something like that.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 10:05 AM

Mark,

I agree, this is an excellent beginning--but good as it looks, there are questions to ask and answers to sort out. I've already had Dad's papers for four years, waiting to get myself into a position to sort through and organize them. I'm about to that point. Three separate universities, in the general area of the Northwest and Western Canada have people who have said they'd like to see the papers there (this isn't the same as a formal arrangement, this is purely preliminary networking). Someone else suggested the museum set up around Jimi Hendrix's work, because it is central, and funded (How is Microsoft stock looking this month?). I'd like to donate them somewhere (I don't think anyone is going to offer to buy them, but a valuation and donation at least have tax advantages) where they can be processed soon. I am willing to work on them as much as I need to (I want to do this) and have discussed informally the possibility of compiling a CD of Dad's work to sell in order to raise a small endowment for the collection, if this will hasten it's availability to people who want to use it. I have a friend down here in Texas whose husband is a producer for some big names in established music circles, so know I can rely on them for useful information in pursuing this project as far as the quality of the sound, even if it ends up being a garage operation distribution-wise.

This also leads into the larger question that Bob Nelson and Jean Smith and I have discussed--what to do with the collections of people who are long-deceased, where their materials are stored in basements of friends? I would love to be in a position to pull all of these together into a substantial body of Northwestern musical archival resources and see that they all get the attention they deserve and allow those who wish to research their works to have easy access. These materials first have to be safeguarded and assessioned. Again, the question of funding the job for whoever houses it--can funds be generated by releasing some of the material in compilations?

I think several of us are sitting on some valuable and delightful musical resources, and this Folklife/City of Seattle move may be a good one. But I need a lot more answers first (especially when a governmental entity like a City are involved. Winds shift so quickly there!).

Maggie

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 10:09 AM

er. . .perhaps that should read "especially when a governmental entity like a City is involved. . .

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: johnross
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 01:49 PM

This is not the right topic to discuss the audio archive project in detail (I think there's at least one NW Folklife topic around here someplace). But to answer Mark's question, we are considering making some "best of..." CDs from the archive, if we can figure out the rights issues.

Meantime, Northwest Folklife has issued a bunch of highlights CDs, cassettes and LPs over the years. They're all officially out of print, but it might be possible to find a few for sale. Send me private e-mail and I'll see what I can do.

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 03:30 PM

John, as you say, this is probably a good time to move the topic over to a thread with a name to do with NW Folklife to get into the details of this archival process. The system at Mudcat is great for pulling up old threads. For those reading along, I received a long description via my home email of the project underway. For more information about NW Folklife in general, there is a lot to be found at Northwest Folklife.

Meanwhile, once I start unpacking boxes here I'm sure I'll have a few general questions to do with the music that will be best posted here.

Maggie

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Deckman
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 03:38 PM

I agree Maggie ... this thread you started may well lead into several others. Hopefully, some real education will happen. And also hopefully, I'll be able to decide how to best deal with the many boxes of reel to reel tapes, as well as cassettes, of the best of the music that happened in this area in the 50's and sixties. CHEERS, Bob

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: RolyH
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 03:47 PM

Maggie

I never did say thanks for putting up that story about the Penguin book when I put one up for auction a while back.

Thanks

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 05:06 PM

Roly, I found that little number recently and it's now tucked away in a glass-front bookcase. The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs. It's like Christmas every day around here. I've finished tiling a most of the floors and painting walls so I can put up shelves and open boxes of books that haven't seen light of day for several years.

Along with the Penguin book, I'm finding many other gems, books that were part of his creative process. Books of mythology, limericks, dictionaries, atlases, a rhyming dictionary, local history in the Northwest, to describe just a few. Clearly a part of the "collection."

Maggie

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Jon Bartlett
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 11:49 PM

John Ross' suggestions have found a great deal of support here in Vancouver. We have tapes going back to the founding of the Folk Song Circle in 1959. Nothing lasts forever and we need to start urgent thinking about how best to preserve our own history and in what format. I am going to use John's very well-thought-out draft Project as a base for our own, with perhaps local funding and copies or links to everyone else. But regardless of where the material is STORED (a question becoming more and more academic when one asks oneself where one's emails are stored), we certainly could use a Finding Aid or three for North West folk materials. Are there any, um, librarians or archivists in our midst?

Jon Bartlett

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Miken
Date: 01 Nov 02 - 12:00 AM

Maggie, it's good to hear you're finally able to tackle this project. I'll be greatly interested in the progress, and more than willing to help in any way I can. Hmmm, my brother's a librarian and has archive experience. I'll sound him out. He's at Eastern Wa. Univ.

Mike Nelson

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Nov 02 - 12:34 AM

Jon, I'm not an archivist, but I work around a bunch of them (I'm a writer, housed in the administration of the library, and we share the floor and staff kitchen with Special Collections). I read finding aids often enough that it would certainly make sense to develop some along the way as I wade through Dad's stuff. (This reminds me of those bad commercials "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV. . .")

First, I'm going to look at Dad's stuff as it is now and see what it tells me before I start "arranging" it myself. He was, after all, a reference librarian. He kept citations, he documented everything, and he tended to drop notes and pages of stuff and photocopies into stacks, files, boxes, that might be related materials, etc. So there may be someplace to start. But he was a packrat, so there may be a process of taking those files of mostly germane stuff and pulling out the odds and ends that ended up in there by accident. ;-)

Maggie

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: johnross
Date: 01 Nov 02 - 02:07 PM

In the interests of moving this topic back to a focus on John Dwyer, I've started a new thread here for more general discussion of preservation and access. Please join us there.

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Jan 03 - 12:17 PM

I'll refresh this thread rather than offer remarks on other northwest threads, dangling tidbits of news.

I've just begun unloading the boxes of my Dad's books. Some of my siblings took the larger, "charismatic" books in the collection (Child, Lomax, etc.) but they left all of the little books that were obscure to them. So I have quite a selection here of smallish, often locally produced books. Jean Smith sat down and made of list of them before they were picked over, and if I can find that list I'll annotate it and post it. Mostly this is a FYI sort of posting, but it could spawn an exchange of information. I haven't forgotten John Ross' generous offer (I just haven't started anything with the boxes of cassettes yet).

Maggie

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Deckman
Date: 04 Jan 03 - 07:55 AM

Hi Maggie, I'd sure like to see that list when you have time. Knowing John's work, I'll bet it will be an immense treasure. CHEERS, Bob

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Jan 03 - 01:03 PM

Bob, I've been digging through disks this morning looking for it. It's so easy to get distracted reading some of this stuff. He has lots of local folk stuff, then there are things like Too Many Songs By Tom Lehrer with not enough drawings by Ronald Searle. "Smut," "The Vatican Rag," all witty favorites to chuckle over instead of organizing. I have a stack of disks from when I handled the estate, so I'll go through those this afternoon, looking for that list. I may put it into a table to make it easier to read. Does anyone remember if Mudcat tolerates tables?

Maggie

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Deckman
Date: 04 Jan 03 - 01:09 PM

Now you listen here MAGGIE! You are NOT to enjoy yourself. This is supposed to be pure labor, all work, and no smiles or the occasional giggle. I want you to quit your job, sell your children, and get about what is REALLY important here! CHEERS, Bob

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Jan 03 - 12:34 AM

OOooo, Bob! I just found an old one I learned as a kid. One of the ones they hoped we didn't notice, so of course we learned it on the first hearing. "Blood on the Saddle." Thusly:

"There was blood on the saddle
There was blood all around
And a great big puddle
Of blood on the ground."

"Oh, pity the cowboy,
All bloody and red,
For his bronco fell on him,
And bashed in his head."

etc.

Not exactly the wording I remember, but close enough. This particular arrangement is by Norman Cazden in a book called A Book of Nonsense Songs with the cover note "A collection of all-time favorites as well as unfamiliar songs that will make all gay occasions gayer." Some word usages change over time, don't they?!

Maggie

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Deckman
Date: 05 Jan 03 - 10:28 AM

Gawd, did your Dad love to sing that one! He would draw out the "blood" to something like "BLOOOOD". I did some reading on Car Sandburg, of "Songburg's Sandbag" fame, and I learned that it was also one of his favorite songs. I would be curious to learn if he kept detailed noted during his trip to the East coast many years ago to research his family. It was during that trip he found a tombstone marking an important figure in the tale of "Springfield Mountain." I know he returned with several new verses and really enjoyed singing them and telling the story. CHEERS, Bob (by the way, I'm in the process of obtaining a copy of a book my great GrandFather wrote about his own experiences as a prisoner in Andersonville Prison. during the civil war). CHEERS, Bob

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Jan 03 - 11:17 AM

I have a smallish box from Dad's that is packed separate from the rest of the papers in my U-Haul movers boxes. I think it may have been his box and I just added it to my stack to leave things in his order, rather than emptying the contents into one of my larger boxes. Throughout his collection there are lots of binders around with pages of words, and there are lots of scribbles in files. When I glanced in this box, it looks a little more like journal stuff. I remember when he took that trip. Early 1970's, I think? I'm painting today, but if I get a chance I'll poke through that one.

Maggie

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Deckman
Date: 05 Jan 03 - 11:42 AM

Yes, I think it was the early 70's. Also, I think I remember that the name "Myrick (sp?) was important to that story. It may have been the tombstone in the photo. Jean or Suzzie may well know. BOB

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 11:08 AM

Just a note to say that I've opened the first of 13 U-Haul boxes of Dad's music. I wanted to take a peek, but I'm not set up for doing anything with it yet. (At least it is finally out of storage!) This first box is filled with cassette tapes by all sorts of performers, probably sold at concerts or folk gatherings. I recognize one on the top by Flip Breskin, for example, but some of the others I don't know at all. A couple of folks have sent PM to ask about what is in the collection. Since this box is apparently commercial tapes, there probably aren't any rare items in here, but if there are specific things you'd like me to keep an eye out for as I poke through the boxes, let me know.

Maggie

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Deckman
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 01:57 PM

Hi Maggie. You bet there are. I'll pm you. CHEERS, Bob

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 03:57 PM

Thanks for refreshing the thread. I was going around work thinking about John the other day, so I guess great minds think alike.

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Deckman
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 02:48 PM

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 01:02 AM

I will be in the northwest over the weekend, and I think it's time to scatter Dad's ashes. Since many of you will be involved with Rainy Camp, I don't want to conflict with that schedule. My plan is to walk onto the Mukilteo Ferry on Monday, Feb. 16, and scatter them on the way out, then take the return trip back. Tonight I tracked down the direct number of the ferry guy who can give me all of the answers. I'll talk with him tomorrow (Wed). Anyone who is interested in walking on and participating, consider this a "heads up" that we'll be doing this sometime on Monday. Good thoughts, stories, songs, are welcome. We don't practice a religion, so nothing along those lines is planned. We'll just ease him gently on his way to go mingle with his beloved salmon and sea-run cutthroat.

Considerations: Monday the 16th is President's Day--I'll have to see what they expect traffic-wise. Taking an evening run would allow folks to get there after work, but it would be dark. The ferry system folks may prefer daylight, and do prefer "non-peak" runs, so there is a good possibility that I'll have to go in mid-afternoon. I'll post my final itinerary here when I know it. This is a link to the ferry system information regarding memorial services.

I've spoken with a couple of Dad's friends who have spoken to a couple of more of his friends and the plan has been met with enthusiasm--so I think the prudent thing to do is to let the momentum build and say this is a "Go" unless the weather prevents it. I am not sure how many siblings will be there, but since this is the only time I can do it, and I'm bringing the ashes, this is the plan. His folk family carries a lot of weight in my deciding to do this now and in this way--all of you were very important to Dad.

There is no food on the ferry, and Ivars at the terminal is closed due to storm damage. I wasn't planning anything more than the ferry ride, but if someone knows anyplace with good pie and coffee between Mukilteo and I-5 it would be nice to stop for dessert and a chat. PM me here at Mudcat or email at dwy5812syc at sprynet dot com

I hope to see a few of you on the ferry! Here are a couple of his favorite sloppy-weather ditties, to set the mood. You can hear his voice even when you read them:

Sing hey, and sing ho, and sing down-a-down-derry,
Oh, what is so merry
As missing the ferry!

A nice wintry morning
So jolly and freezing.
A dear little cold keeps you coughing and sneezing;
And everyone mirthful and happy and gay,
As we all watch the ferry go puffing away.

Sing hey and sing ho and sing down-a-down-derry,
Oh, what is so merry
As missing the ferry!


Emma Rounds, "The Ballad of the Merry Ferry"


Winter is icumen in,
Lhude sing Goddamm,
Raineth drop and staineth slop,
And how the wind doth ramm!
Sing: Goddamm.
Skiddeth bus and sloppeth us,
An ague hath my ham.
Freezeth river, turneth liver,
Damn you, sing: Goddamm.
Goddamm, Goddamm, 'tis why I am, Goddamm,

So 'gainst the winter's balm.
Sing goddamm, damm, sing Goddamm,
Sing goddamm, sing goddamm, DAMM.


Ezra Pound, "Winter is icumen in"

Maggie Dwyer (Stilly River Sage)

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Deckman
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 09:01 AM

Maggie, This will be so very fitting. Your Father loved the water, the mountains, the islands, and as you mention, the fish. And all those things will be there in plain view on Monday. I'll be talking to you! Love, Bob (I'll bet we can even see his house from the boat!)

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 09:31 AM

Exactly!

Subject: Lyr Add: OLD SETTLER'S SONG / ACRES OF CLAMS
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 01:02 PM

A change of venue is necessary, because Mr. Fletcher (a very nice fellow at the Washington State Ferry system office) says that the Mukilteo run is too short for this kind of event.

We have moved it south, and earlier in the day. I will be taking the 1:30 Edmonds-Kingston ferry and they'll stop the boat briefly so the ashes can be scattered. Here is a map to the terminal.

I'll be there at least 15 minutes early, and will walk on board (there's an overhead walkway, new since I last rode that ferry). Once on board and underway, I'm to flag down a crew member and let them know I'm there and they'll pass word to the captain. He/she still has the final say, but barring really bad weather, there is likely no hindrance to the event.

I don't have anything in particular in mind to say, but if anyone has any remarks or a song to offer, let me know and we will make time to say it or sing it. Maybe a nice chorus of "The Old Settler's Song?"

I've traveled all over this country
Prospecting and digging for gold
I've tunneled, hydraulicked and cradled
And I have been frequently sold

For each man who got rich by mining
Perceiving that hundreds grew poor
I made up my mind to try farming
The only pursuit that was sure

So, rolling my grub in my blanket
I left all my tools on the ground
I started one morning to shank it
For the country they call Puget Sound

Arriving flat broke in midwinter
I found it enveloped in fog
And covered all over with timber
Thick as hair on the back of a dog

When I looked on the prospects so gloomy
The tears trickled over my face
And I thought that my travels had brought me
To the end of the jumping-off place

I staked me a claim in the forest
And sat myself down to hard toil
For two years I chopped and I struggled
But I never got down to the soil

I tried to get out of the country
But poverty forced me to stay
Until I became an old settler
Then nothing could drive me away

And now that I'm used to the climate
I think that if a man ever found
A place to live easy and happy
That Eden is on Puget Sound

No longer the slave of ambition
I laugh at the world and its shams
As I think of my pleasant condition
Surrounded by acres of clams

Maggie

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Deckman
Date: 12 Feb 04 - 01:49 PM

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Feb 04 - 01:13 AM

I arrived safely in Seattle with the ashes. Today's weather was glorious (I had the best view of the city I've ever had, as we did a leisurely circle over the city before landing). Thanks all, who have send PMs. I'm looking forward to seeing those who can make it on Monday.

How are the accoustics inside the ferry?

Maggie

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Deckman
Date: 13 Feb 04 - 04:06 AM

WHAT? Speak LOUDER. I can't HEAR YOU! Bob

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Feb 04 - 12:47 AM

Despite a typical drizzly Pacific Northwest afternoon, I don't think our short ferry ride and memorial to scatter Dad's ashes in Puget Sound could have gone any better. Good friends turned up for the ferry ride, and, as Paddy Graber told me as we parted, because some years had passed, we were beyond the grief and it was a time to celebrate the joy we all knew from knowing Dad and his love of folk music.

I'll post more of a description later. I'm back in Fort Worth, and tired after a day of travel, for those of you keeping track. I was so glad you were all there!

Maggie

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Deckman
Date: 18 Feb 04 - 10:39 PM

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Feb 04 - 11:31 PM

Where to post this remark? I have some nice photos from the concert at Rainy Camp, from the ferry ride on Monday to scatter Dad's ashes, and of Bob Nelson (Deckman) in his living room with guitar. Bob--I won't post anything of you unless I run it past you first--but I would like to send a photo or two from Rainy Camp or the ferry to be posted on Mudcat.

SRS

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Deckman
Date: 21 Feb 04 - 12:56 AM

Maggie, I'm sure the photos would be a delight to all. I just PM'd you on how to do it! Bob

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Feb 04 - 11:20 AM

I will let a photo speak those thousand words: I sent a couple of shots from my recent Seattle trip to Pene Azul, who has set up the page here.

I included a photo on the ferry, and a photo taken at Rainy Camp of Paddy Graber, because I didn't have anyplace else to put it. I have another Rainy Camp photo I'll send Jeff as soon as I have all of the names.

SRS

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Feb 04 - 01:15 AM

I sent in a few more photos, including one of Dad. At the same link as above. There are some remarks on this new thread.

SRS

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Apr 04 - 01:12 AM

I'm another step closer to working on Dad's collection. I was in Calgary for a few days visiting with my aunt and uncle. They had moved into a condo recently and had stuff rattling around in the trunk of my aunt's car that they didn't need but that "were too good to give to the Goodwill." One of those things was a reel-to-reel tape recorder that works just fine. I looked like a bit of a nut lugging that thing through the airports, but I made it!

I don't know what to expect from them, but I do have quite a number of Dad's tapes from back in I would guess were the 1960s and early 1970s. This includes a stack of tapes that was in his living room and clearly things he wanted to keep, and a stack from his back room that he intended to tape over. My theory is that those back room tapes are the raw data that was edited and copied onto the others.

Would this have been the practice? Make the original tape, then copy the "good parts" over onto a new tape? Is this what others of the Seattle folks were doing at that time?

Maggie (SRS)

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Deckman
Date: 07 Apr 04 - 03:49 AM

Hi Maggie, I would suspect that was indeed what your Dad was doing. Being the librarian that he was, it was always my impression that he kept his music material very well organized and in order. Bob

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 10:00 PM

Hello, all,

The time has come for me to start some serious research. I'm quite sure I'll start a new thread or two here at Mudcat before I finish. (One to come up very soon has to do with library finding aids and the disposition of collections.) Over the holiday I put up one more set of shelves in my office, and this was the set that finally put me in a position to move books around and clear out a tall double-wide bookcase for all of the stuff that came from my father's house. Not counting his books or LPs.

Those of you who knew him know he recorded everything. He kept copious notes. He kept published journals, posters, albums, books, cassettes. He bought and was given recordings by friends. He has tapes and CDs from performers who visited the Northwest. He made recordings of albums--some that he didn't have or couldn't get--others that he wanted to study until he could get the LP for himself. Some perhaps to have the duplicates of his albums so he could listen to them in the car. His earliest recordings are on reel-to-reel tapes, the most recent are CDs, and there is everything in between.

I have been unpacking those 13 U-Haul moving boxes of his stuff this weekend, and the sheer volume of wonderful material is staggering. I'm finding recordings that go back to the late 1950s. So many familiar names, and in many instances, faces, when there are photos tucked in with the paperwork. There are files of songs in progress (including some of his parodies!), the folders from events that he helped plan, and notes about things he was working on over the years. He was a reference librarian, so it is no surprise that he kept master lists of several sorts, and I am about to take the plunge, into transfering his floppy disks to CD to preserve the data and to begin to sort it out. I also have some old computer stuff that hasn't been cranked up in years, but will be given space and hopefully I can download the data easily.

It has been just over seven years since Dad died, and just under a year since I was in the Northwest to scatter his ashes. Because of the Mudcat disarray, political and social, I know that a number of people who might help me with this have dropped out. But if you're one of that folks who I've spoken with about Dad's music, or someone who I've missed but who wants some information that you think is contained in his files, please send me a PM and let me know your email address so I can keep in touch as I get started on this work. And please pass the word that I'm beginning to sort this all out. I would prefer to communicate with people through regular email, but send the PM to get it started and I'll know to add your name to my email directory. (That way you can still get through if I have to torque up the spam filter!)

Tonight (to name a few I'll listen to this weekend) I found a tape of his mother's songs that Paddy Graber recorded for Dad, and tapes of Don Firth from the late 1950s, Peggy Seeger in Seattle in the 1970s, and some recordings (copies?) made of Art Thieme's--maybe from albums. Walt Robertson is in there, Merrit Herring, Bob Nelson, and so many other names I grew up with and/or have become aquainted with here at the Mudcat. I see Jean Smith's work throughout the collection as well as Suzi MacAleer and Flip Breskin.

Wow. Such riches! And I have a lot of work to do!

Maggie Dwyer (SRS)

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 09:31 PM

Refresh, for those folks who were out of town or otherwise away from their computers over the weekend. Please PM me if you want to be considered a resource for this organization of papers and songs.

SRS

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: emjay
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 02:24 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Nov 09 - 10:23 AM

Originally posted (first attempt) Nov. 11, 2009. Last night it apparently didn't take.

It was Veteran's Day yesterday, and it is 12 years since my father's death, late in the evening of Nov. 11, 1997. Jean Smith and I did the math to figure this out, according to phone calls, email messages, and checking with places where he had appointments in the next few days. "Your father didn't keep his appointment" meant he couldn't get there--he never just blew off appointments and he was always on time.

He died instantly, the coroner reported, of a pulmonary embolism. Probably didn't know what hit him, and certainly didn't feel any pain. And though it took a few days before the neighbor found him, and a few of us had been emailing, asking "did you get my last message?" we all figured he was out of town at one of the many folk festivals or workshops that he loved to attend, sometimes as a student, sometimes to teach. Tom decided too much time had passed and checked on him about a week later.

Dad was a veteran of WWII, though he didn't speak of it often. I think he enjoyed the time he spent in Asia; he had some things he picked up in Burma and those were about the only stories he told us. I have a "portable" wind-up gramophone that he found sitting in the middle of the road, wound down, with a lacquer record on it. He thought perhaps it had been left behind by the British, who had marched out of this tiny village hours earlier, possibly to the sound of this music. It's just strange enough it might be true. I think he appreciated that border where East met West, for all of it's messiness.

Probably a family photo of John Dwyer, in uniform. This is through an "unlisted" Picasa album, but I think the link is supposed to be durable.

I was going through a trunk recently and found a couple of photos in a leather bound case, meant to travel and probably be set on a bureau in whatever room one finds oneself. It probably belonged to his father, and on one side is Dad in uniform, and the other he is stooped down beside his hunting dog, rifle in hand and a couple of pheasants on the ground. The guitar came into his hands about 15 years later.

SRS

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Deckman
Date: 12 Nov 09 - 06:05 PM

Hi Maggie ... thanks for posting John's picture ... sure is a younger version, eh! My memory says he was an Army medic and served in BUrma? bob (BTW ... this is the SECOND TIME I've tried to post to this thread???)

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: mg
Date: 12 Nov 09 - 06:08 PM

I would like the words to tugboat cook if possible. We are going to be making a tugboat CD. mg

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs & Stories
From: Don Firth
Date: 12 Nov 09 - 08:02 PM

Thanks for posting that, Maggie.

Yup, that's John, all right! I'd recognize him anywhere.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs & Stories
From: Leadfingers
Date: 12 Nov 09 - 08:37 PM

100

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs & Stories
From: Charley Noble
Date: 12 Nov 09 - 08:48 PM

Sound like a person I'd loved to have met. Damn!

Charley Noble