Obit: Dave Carter, 49, heart attack (1952-2002)

Subject: RE: Obit: Dave Carter, 49, heart attack (1952-2002)
From: frogprince
Date: 07 Nov 13 - 11:28 AM

I didn't discover the Mudcat until a couple of years after Dave was gone. My wife and I had just seen Dave and Tracey open for Tom Paxton and Anne Hills at the Ark in Ann Arbor, MI. I had been stunned by their recordings as played by Matt Watroba on his Folks Like Us broadcast out of Detroit, and was anxious to see them live. They were wonderful. It was the first time I had heard "Gentle Soldier of my Soul", which I still find absolutely stunning. A week later I tuned in Matt's broadcast and learned Dave was gone.

Subject: RE: 2002 OBIT: Dave Carter, 49, taken by heart attack
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Nov 13 - 01:40 AM

Somebody pointed out the song "Mother I Climbed" to me today, and I really liked it.
Most of the songs on the 2005 Tracy Grammer Flower of Avalaon album, were written by Dave Carter. The album is a good example of Dave Carter's songwriting ability. Follow the link to get full lyrics and partial recordings.
-Joe-

Here's a 1999 performance:

Part 1

Part 2

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter
From: SharonA
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 09:40 AM

Sad news indeed. I'm one of the ones who noticed open mike's other Obit thread before this one, so thank you, mike, for starting it.

I'm wondering if anyone on the Forum attended Falcon Ridge last weekend, and can check in and tell us about the tribute that was to have been done for Carter there. Did Tracy Grammer attend Falcon Ridge on Saturday as she said she planned to do? If so, was she emotionally able to participate in the tribute onstage?

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter
From: winniemih
Date: 27 Jul 02 - 10:55 AM

All this week I've been listening to the 3 CDs I have by Dave & Tracy (I don't have Dave's earlier "Snake handlin' Man" CD), and am struck by his growth as a songwriter during these few years (1998 to 2001). I read somewhere that in the last year or two, Dave was starting to write songs specifically for Tracy to sing. The last CD issued,"Drum Hat Buddha", has at least half the tunes with Tracy doing lead. The last tune on that CD, "Gentle Soldier of My Soul", is Tracy singing about the departure of her beloved "through the veil" . It is so poignant in the face of Dave's recent death. I wonder if Dave had any idea when he gave her this particular song, if he had a premonition and gave her this gift to comfort her.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Jul 02 - 12:11 AM

Thanks, open mike for posting more to this one and also for the article in the other thread. I am listening to When I Go for about the 20th time this week, it seems. Lomax and Carter...a high price for one day...

kat

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter
From: open mike
Date: 26 Jul 02 - 03:38 PM

and she was looking for a sign-- that's is a good way to be-- always on the look out for a sign-- they are all around and some times we just have our eyes shut-- or ears-- there was a tremendously powerful lightning storm here the day after he died---you don't suppose????

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter, 49, taken by heart attack
From: open mike
Date: 26 Jul 02 - 03:22 PM

He said he did not get to play the "When i go" song for his mother before she died... i spent over a week in my mother's hospital room as she lay dying this spring and the first song i heard at the strawberry music festival was thier song--i had just come cross country from the memorial service for both of my parents who died with in a week of each other and the song moved me big time!!

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter
From: open mike
Date: 26 Jul 02 - 03:07 PM

wierd--this thread has not shown up on my computer til today-i was surprised there wasno mention of dave's passing so i started a new thread...hope that does not dilute the posts to have two obit going-- i keep thinking how majic it must have been for tracy to have hime come back and speak to her after actually passing away--and then to see a bird hovering at the window--oooh-- it is just such a wonderful sign of spirit!!

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter, 49, taken by heart attack
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 26 Jul 02 - 01:10 PM

Thanks for the lyrics, Sharon. He had the Gift indeed.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Jul 02 - 01:00 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter, 49, taken by heart attack
From: open mike
Date: 26 Jul 02 - 12:52 PM

sorry the links havenot been working--here is an article..BABY, I JUST DIED: THE PASSING OF ALAN LOMAX by Joyce Marcel American Reporter Correspondent Dummerston, Vt. DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- July 19th was a somber day for folk music. The great musicologist Alan Lomax died at the age of 87, and one of his direct musical descendants, the great but almost unknown Dave Carter, died at 49.

Many people will be celebrating Lomax's life; he helped preserve America's and the world's musical heritage by making thousands of in-the-field recordings of folk, blues and jazz musicians from the 1930s onward.

A smaller circle of fans will be mourning Dave's loss, and I am one of them.

Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer - life and musical partners - were just getting started. Tracy sang lead and harmony and played fiddle and mandolin. Dave played guitar and banjo and wrote the songs. He used to say that all you needed for a song is two chords and the truth.

They had just boarded the fickle folk train for fame and fortune, or at least as much fame and fortune as folk music ever provides. Joan Baez had discovered and toured with them. She compared Dave to Dylan and recorded his songs. The duo's "Drum Hat Buddha" on Signature Sounds was a big Americana-roots radio hit. Nationally, they were developing a faithful following. So far, over 1,400 people have posted reminiscences and condolences on the Web (http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/dave-and-tracy/messages). The big Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in New York State this weekend will be dedicated to him.

One of the biggest secrets in folk music is that its best practitioners are poets, and Dave Carter, tall, thin, and handsome in a craggy way, was a great one. He created fluid rivers of words - torrents of them - and then made them dance to infectious melodies.

Take his "Tillman County": "Mother red river she flows like a copperhead, coils and boils over Dennison Dam. Little white houses, eggs on the rocky bed, I am the son of the serpent I am."

Like most great poets, Dave created images that made no immediate sense, and yet you intuitively understood them. Explaining a rocky relationship in "236-6132," for example, he had this line: "Though I play the highway kind, and he the china dancer."

I puzzled over "highway kind" and "china dancer" for a long time, especially since Tracy, who sings the song, is such a slender-boned, elegant young woman. Finally I asked Dave what it meant.

"Well, it means what you want it to mean," he said, seemingly embarrassed to be pinned down and maybe lose some of the magic. "When I wrote it, I was thinking about traveling a lot, and there was someone who reminded me of one of those porcelain figurines. So highway kind and china dancer, I guess."

But I had known that all along.

Dave's best-known song was "Gentle Arms of Eden," which got heavy airplay on folk radio. The chorus was written about the earth, but it expresses perfectly the way I feel about my home: "This is the only scared ground that I have ever known."

Dave was the son of an evangelist mother and a mathematician father, hence a life-long tension between the mystic and the logical. His solution, I think, was to write his words from his mystical place and then watch the mathematician take delight in squeezing them into complicated and super-fast rhythms. Then, Tracy complained, he made her sing them.

Dave was raised in Oklahoma and Texas, worked horses and computers, had a Master's degree in music theory, a B.S. in mathematics, and had completed post-graduate work in spiritual studies at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, Calif.

He called his work "post-modern mythic American music," but some of his songs sounded liked they had been written 200 years ago. He strode that dangerous line between the spiritual and the sensual with profound grace and easy charm. But it must have tortured him.

"Mama she raised me on riddles and trances, fast-back, channel-cat, lily white lies," he wrote in "Crocodile Man." "Inside the house is a hall of mirrors, inside the mirror is the temple of sin. Inside the temple is the face of mama, and mama she know just where I been."

I'm not saying that every song he wrote was great. Many were sentimental ("The Cowboy Singer" comes to mind, and "The Mountain," which Baez and the Dalai Lama seemed to like.) But Dave had found his voice, and it was a unique one. He was also a brilliant on-stage story-teller. Unfortunately, I can't provide examples. Last year, in rapt attention at a string of their concerts, I forgot to take notes. This year I had arranged to see four Dave & Tracy shows in a row, and was planning to write a long piece afterward. That's why I feel his loss so keenly - I thought I had time, and then he was gone.

Last Friday the couple were staying at a hotel in So. Hadley, Mass., booked to play the Green River Festival in Greenfield, Mass. the next day. Dave went for an early morning run and came back feeling unwell. Then he slipped into unconsciousness.

"Yesterday, shortly after he went unconscious, he came back for a lucid minute or two to tell me, 'I just died... Baby, I just died...'," Tracy wrote to fans on the Web. "There was a look of wonder in his eyes, and though I cried and tried to deny it to him, I knew he was right and he was on his way."

He had died - the greatest spiritual adventure of them all, right? - and yet he found a way to come back and tell it to his great love. It was the perfect Dave Carter song.

"He stayed with me a minute more but despite my attempts to keep him with me, I could see he was already riding that thin chiffon wave between here and gone," Tracy wrote. "He loved beauty, he was hopelessly drawn to the magic and the light in all things. I figure he saw something he could not resist out of the corner of his eye and flew into it."

Many of us are wondering how Tracy will survive after losing her lover ("He was endless spring to me, he was bountiful joy and gentleness and laughter,"), her musical partner, and her career, all at the same time. Certainly, for a while she will dedicate herself to the music they made together.

"It was always my mission that the world hear and know the poetry and vision and wonderful mystical magic of David Carter," she wrote.

The Greenfield festival was dedicated to Dave, and the great Canadian country-rocker Fred Eaglesmith found the perfect tribute - a song he had recorded in 1999 about the death of Carter Stanley: "White doves in the hollow. I heard somebody say. Nobody's ever gonna play those songs that way again... Now that Carter's gone."

"In the center of our hotel window earlier tonight, by lamplight, came the shadow of a bird to my curtain," Tracy wrote. "He held steady for a four flaps of the wing, maybe five, and then he pivoted away. My heart froze for an instant and then I felt some relief. I took this midnight messenger as a sign. You know that I have been desperate for a sign."

Joyce Marcel is a free-lance journalist who writes about culture, politics, economics and travel.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter, 49, taken by heart attack
From: Jeri
Date: 26 Jul 02 - 09:20 AM

Please also see this thread OBIT: Dave Carter

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter, 49, taken by heart attack
From: SharonA
Date: 26 Jul 02 - 09:19 AM

Here are the lyrics to Carter's song "When I Go":

When I Go
© 1998 Dave Carter / Dave Carter Music (BMI)

come, lonely hunter, chieftain and king, i will fly like the falcon when i go
bear me my brother under your wing, i will strike fell like lightning when i go

i will bellow like the thunder drum, invoke the storm of war
a twisting pillar spun of dust and blood up from the prairie floor
i will sweep the foe before me like a gale out on the snow
and the wind will long recount the story, reverence and glory, when i go

spring, spirit dancer, nimble and thin, i will leap like coyote when i go
tireless entrancer, lend me your skin, i will run like the gray wolf when i go

i will climb the rise at daybreak, i will kiss the sky at noon
raise my yearning voice at midnight to my mother in the moon
i will make the lay of long defeat and draw the chorus slow
i'll send this message down the wire and hope that someone wise is listening when i go

and when the sun comes trumpets from his red house in the east
he will find a standing stone where long i chanted my release
he will send his morning messenger to strike the hammer blow
and i will crumble down uncountable in showers of crimson rubies when i go

sigh, mournful sister, whisper and turn, i will rattle like dry leaves when i go
stand in the mist where my fire used to burn, i will camp on the night breeze when i go

and should you glimpse my wandering form out on the borderline
between death and resurrection and the council of the pines
do not worry for my comfort, do not sorrow for me so
all your diamond tears will rise up and adorn the sky beside me when i go

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter, 49, taken by heart attack
From: SharonA
Date: 26 Jul 02 - 09:14 AM

Open Mike: Your links are not appearing on-screen. Please post again and give us the URL's of these pages, without the HTML. We can always copy-and-paste the URL!

Also, the Dave-and-Tracy website has been redirected to http://daveandtracy.globalhosting.com/index.php LINK

Sad news, indeed. At least he was able to share the essence of his vision in his lyrics during his last years. According to the bio on the daveandtracy site, "Mr. Carter perfectly fit the old showbiz saw of the overnight sensation who was years in the making. Though he studied classical and world music (he had a master's degree in music theory from the University of Oklahoma), and was an excellent jazz pianist, he did not pick up a guitar to write a song until he was 42."

There's also a very poignant note from Tracy there. Apparently she still plans to be at Falcon Ridge "on Saturday, if not before." From her note, it sounds as if she will make sure that Carter's music will be heard for a long time to come.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter, 49, taken by heart attack
From: GUEST,smallpiper
Date: 26 Jul 02 - 05:38 AM

May he rest in peace, and his music live on

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter, 49, taken by heart attack
From: open mike
Date: 26 Jul 02 - 12:05 AM

[e-mail] here is their yahoo group-I just recommended there that folks come to mud cat to find the folk comrades and join in this online community... I just heard them at strawberry music fest and theirs is the only music i chose to bring home with me-it was so moving. I hope all my links worked right- I thought som,eone else would have posted the news here by now, but i do not see it. I , too am 49, so feel a kinship to thisman. I, too, recently lost my mother, as did he, and a song he wrote about passing away helped me to process my own mothers' passing..and now his...song": When I go, title song to their latest album...

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter, 49, taken by heart attack
From: open mike
Date: 25 Jul 02 - 11:59 PM

here is where you can hear their music:

Thought it may be of interest to folks that I'll air a small "tribute" to Dave and Dave and Tracy's music on my program "Crash on the Levee" this Sat. from 9A-12Noon... you can listen in the NYC area on 89.1 FM or on-line at www.wfdu.fm, as you get ready to head on up to Falcon Ridge... theirs was music that truly came from another place... it spoke to us in so many unique ways and we'll try to convey that in whatever small way we can on Sat.

Subject: Dave Carter, 49, taken by heart attack
From: open mike
Date: 25 Jul 02 - 11:57 PM

Dave Carter, who with Tracy Grammer recorded 3 c.d's and was scheduled to perform at Falcon Ridge this next weekend, has been taken from us by a massive heart atck last friday. see news item below: THE NEW YORK TIMES Thursday, July 25, 2002

Dave Carter, Folk Singer and Songwriter, Dies at 49

Dave Carter, a folk singer and songwriter, died on Friday in Hadley, Mass. He was 49 and lived in Portland, Ore. The cause was a heart attack, said his performing partner and companion, Tracy Grammer. Mr. Carter was in the area to perform at a music festival in Greenfield, Mass., and collapsed in his hotel after a run.

Mr. Carter and Ms. Grammer had been performing together only since 1998 but had made a quick rise to the top ranks of the folk music world. Their music was praised by critics for its eclectic approach and for Mr. Carter's lyrics, which were steeped in spirituality and dreamlike imagery.

Joan Baez frequently performs Mr. Carter's songs in concert, and earlier this year she took Mr. Carter and Ms. Grammer on tour. "There is a special gift for writing songs that are available to other people," Ms. Baez once said, "and Dave's songs are very available to me."

Reared in Texas and Oklahoma, Mr. Carter had a varied career, working as a computer programmer and mathematician, before turning to folk music in his 40's. He had degrees in fine arts, music theory and mathematics and had completed studies in spirituality at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, Calif.

Besides Ms. Grammer, he is survived by his father, Robert Carter, of Tulsa, Okla., and a sister, Elise Fischer, of Lawrence, Kan.

This is how to go to their web site: www.daveandtracy.com and here is their chat list:

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 Jul 02 - 11:11 AM

That's okay, winniemih, I understand. Sending in a copy would be fine, too.

I first heard Dave and Tracy when Art Thieme sent me a Waterbug Sampler on which he was also included. The song was By the River Where She Sleeps and it grabbed my attention immediately. I told my kids and husband, I want it played at any kind of memorial/wake they may have for me. I love the joy it expresses.

I finally was able to buy their first CD, "When I Go" just this past year and now every song on it seems to have such significance..listening to his beautiful voice. I guess this must be how folks felt when Phil Ochs died or some of the other "biggies" whom I didn't know about until after the fact.

Thanks, winniemih,

kat

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter
From: winniemih
Date: 23 Jul 02 - 04:26 AM

Kat,I'm sorry, I tried that computer maneuver, but couldn't figure it out. I'd love to share this photo of Dave and Tracy, So I'll get a reprint and send it in. I kinda want to keep this thread alive for a while longer and read the comments that come in. I realized that this feels almost like a death in the family to me and the community of other mourners is needed. I so much appreciate all the memories and information.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter
From: katlaughing
Date: 22 Jul 02 - 09:33 AM

winniemih, if you have it on your computer in jpeg format, you can send it to Pene Azul (aka Jeff) that way. He's the one who puts the pix up. If you go to the Quick Links box, use the drop down menu (the arrow which points downward) and choose Member Photos and Info, you will find more info on how to do that, plus the right email addy to send it to Jeff. You could also mail in a copy, if you have extras printed up and don't have it available by email.

I am amazed at Tracy's strength and spirit...but, then, really listening to the words of his songs, it would take someone of that depth of spirit, love, etc. to be so in sync with him and his music and then I understand more about her calmness, etc. So many of his songs on "When I Go" have such poignant lines, esp. the last one...throw out the lifeline, throw out the lifeline, somebody's drifting away....

Thanks, winniemih...

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter
From: winniemih
Date: 22 Jul 02 - 03:32 AM

Kat, I would love to post the photo in the memorial site but I don't have a clue how to do this. Reading Tracy's words has been comforting. I have been concerned about her well being. My thoughts and prayers are with her and Dave's other family members. I sang a number of songs in tribute to Dave last night, and I'm sure there were hundreds or even thousands of others who did the same.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter
From: wysiwyg
Date: 21 Jul 02 - 06:05 PM

Yup. Intense, is passing, and letting someone go.

~S~

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter
From: katlaughing
Date: 21 Jul 02 - 05:32 PM

What an incredible message. Thanks for posting it, Susan. Talk about two extraordinary people...just in awe and tears...

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter
From: wysiwyg
Date: 21 Jul 02 - 05:13 PM

Tracy Grammer posted the following note on their yahoo message site.

~S

=========================================================


Dearest friends and sweet fans,

I am with you in tears and bottomless sorrow. This loss is indescribable. He was endless spring to me, he was bountiful joy and gentleness and laughter. He was my soulmate, my partner in everything worldly and otherwise. I visited with him one last time today and he glowed golden and ageless. His sister and I agreed he looked like an angel. He was absolutely beautiful.

Yesterday, shortly afer he went unconscious, he came back for a lucid minute or two to tell me, "I just died...Baby, I just died..." There was a look of wonder in his eyes, and though I cried and tried to deny it to him, I knew he was right and he was on his way. He stayed with me a minute more but despite my attempts to keep him with me, I could see he was already riding that thin chiffon wave between here and gone. He loved beauty, he was hopelessly drawn to magic and the light in all things. I figure he saw something he could not resist out of the corner of his eye and flew into it.

Despite the fact that every rescue attempt was made by paramedics and
hospital staff and the death pronouncement came at 12:08 pm Eastern Time, I believe he died in my arms in our favorite hotel, leaving me with those final words. That's the true story I am going to tell.

I am so, so very moved by your recollections. I have a thousand hugs and tears and words waiting for whoever wants or needs them. I will meet you at Falcon Ridge on Saturday, if not before. We need to keep this music alive, it was always my mission that the world hear and know the poetry and vision and wonderful mystical magic of David Carter. This path is broad and long; I hope you will stay the course with me.

In the center of our hotel window earlier tonight, by lamplight, came the shadow of a bird to my curtain. He held steady for a four flaps of the wing, maybe five, and then he pivoted away. My heart froze for an instant and then I felt some relief. I took this midnight messenger as a sign. You know that I have been desperate for a sign.

My love to you,
Tracy

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter
From: katlaughing
Date: 21 Jul 02 - 12:14 AM

From the Portland Oregonian:

Carter: Duo's performances, albums gained popularity

07/20/02

MARTY HUGHLEY

For the past few years Portland music fans have enjoyed watching the local duo of Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer rise from small gigs around town to award-winning performances at prestigious festivals to national tours and rave reviews.
         
That ascent was cut short Friday by Carter's sudden death from a heart attack at a hotel in Massachusetts.

Carter, 49, died at about 9 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time after jogging, according to his manager, Biff Kennedy. The duo was preparing to perform today at the Green River Festival in Greenfield, Mass.

Kennedy said no memorial arrangements yet been made as yet. Grammer was unavailable late Friday for comment.

Kennedy received dozens of phone calls Friday afternoon from all around the United States, from admirers including Joan Baez, the folk music legend who invited the duo to tour with her last spring and had added several of Carter's songs to her repertoire.

In a Boston Globe interview last September, Baez lauded Carter's rare ability to write songs that can be readily interpreted by other singers. "It's a kind of genius, you know, and (Bob) Dylan has the biggest case of it," she said. "But I hear it in Dave's songs, too. There's a very sophisticated feel to the songs. Dave is masterful with words, and there's a real spiritual connection in there; nothing direct, it's in the imagery, and that really rings bells with me."

"He's probably going to end up becoming one of those legendary guys," said John Malloy, who had booked several Portland shows by the duo. "He died at his most prolific period, when he was being discovered by a lot of people."

Carter was a superb musician, with voice, guitar and banjo, but was most praised as a songwriter. Staff writer John Foyston wrote in The Oregonian last year, "Carter skitters across the language like a water bug but can plunge to depths of the heart and soul without so much as a splash."

Carter and Grammer, who also brought vocals as well as violin to the duo, recorded their first album, 1998's independently released "When I Go," in Grammer's kitchen. But their career quickly advanced from such modest circumstances. They soon won the New Folk category at the Kerrville Folk Festival, the sort of victory that had helped launch the careers of Lyle Lovett and Robert Earl Keen, and they went on to top honors at the Napa Valley Music Festival and the Wildflower Performing Songwriter Competition. The albums "Tanglewood Tree" in 2000 and last year's "Drum Hat Buddha" were well-reviewed and earned the duo a strong national following.

Carter was born Aug. 13, 1952, in Oxnard, Calif., and raised in Oklahoma and Texas. Though he played and studied music since boyhood, he worked as a mathematician and computer programmer, and he studied Jungian psychology until a 1994 epiphany led him to seriously pursue a music career. He and Grammer began performing together in early 1998.

Survivors include father Robert Carter of Tulsa, Okla., and sister Elise Fischer of Lawrence, Kan.

Local music promoter Lisa Lepine, who formerly managed the duo, recalled hearing Carter speak in a songwriting seminar earlier this month at Lewis & Clark College. He described songwriting as "the tongue of angels" and said that his work was "to learn the song from God, then write it down so everyone can hear it."

"It's a huge loss," Lepine said. "Dave had a lot more work to do. But he's with the angels now, though, speaking in their tongue."

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter
From: DaveJ
Date: 20 Jul 02 - 11:58 PM

I first saw Dave and Tracy on WVBR's Bound For Glory, a live radio concert. The performance was absolutely wonderful. Dave and Tracy closed the show with his song "The Gentle Arms of Eden." The audience joined in and sang along with every chorus. Dave was so impressed that he repeated the final chorus three times. He said that no one had every sung along to any of his songs before...Rest in peace...Dave. We'll miss you.

DaveJ

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter
From: wysiwyg
Date: 20 Jul 02 - 09:55 PM

From a mail list I belong to-- what a lovely tribute to him as well as to the business in general.

~S~

================================

Dear Friends,

Many of you have heard the very sad and tragic news of Dave Carter's untimely death following a massive heart attack 2 days ago. Although the festivals will certainly go on and still be as festive and wonderful as we can make them, we know Dave would have wanted it that way, we will sorely miss him, and Tracy as well. We can't begin to imagine the loss this is for her.

We have decided we will not replace Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer on mainstage or in any workshop set they planned to be in either. They are not replaceable as far as we are concerned and it just seems that this is not the appropriate thing to do. Instead, we are planning a tribute for their Sat night Mainstage spot. That spot will feature the songs of Dave Carter as it was meant to be.

The set is on Main on Sat night 7:20 to 8:30P and will feature several FRFF featured artists including Chris & Meredith Thompson, Nerissa & Katryna Nields, Erin McKeown and others to be announced. Other artists will also contribute Dave Carter songs to some of the workshops Dave & Tracy would have done. Dave Carter's songs will go on as planned in those spots. The loss of Dave Carter to this community is a tragedy beyond words. He was one of the most gifted songwriters ever in this world.

Anne Saunders
Falcon Ridge Folk Festival
July 26, 27, 28, 2002
Long Hill Farm, Hillsdale, NY
www.FalconRidgeFolk.com
------------------
Winterhawk 2000 and 2 - Bluegrass and Beyond
August 2, 3, 4, 2002
Long Hill Farm, Hillsdale, NY
www.Winterhawk2000.com

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 Jul 02 - 02:45 PM

winniemih, what a lovely and tangible memory. Perhaps you'd like to share it on the In Memoriam photo pages here at the Mudcat? If so, Pene Azul, aka Jeff, is the one to send it to. I have had his voice and songs running through my mind and heart since reading this last night. So sad...

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter
From: winniemih
Date: 20 Jul 02 - 12:05 PM

I just saw this thread,not having heard this on the news , and I'm totally shocked. I live in the Portland OR area, and have gone to see Dave and Tracy perform many times when they've been in town ( which recently has not been very often, they've had a busy tour schedule). I have been in awe of the talent that emanates from both, but Dave as a songwriter was an incredible voice. I just saw them about a month ago at the Hillsboro farmers market, and thought Dave looked a bit stressed, very different from his appearance in a photo I took of them at the Canmore,Alberta folk festival last August. I remember commenting to Dave then about how relaxed he looked, and he replied that they had been having such a good time up in the Canadian Rockies, lots of time to "play". I gave a copy of the photo to them last month, and now have the duplicate sitting in full display. This is how I'll remember him, a big grin on his face, making beautiful music in a beautiful place (and on the same stage with Jesse Winchester). All this verbosity on my part is a reaction to my shock and sorrow. I think

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter
From: raredance
Date: 20 Jul 02 - 10:19 AM

I couldn't believe this thread title; I didn't want to believe. It is so sad. I first heard Dave on a couple cuts on a Greg Brown CD a couple years ago. I only recently acquired their Tanglewood CD and have had in my car player the last two weeks. My total synmpathy to Tracy and Dave's family and friends.

rich r

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter
From: Dharmabum
Date: 20 Jul 02 - 08:03 AM

I saw Dave & Tracy at Winterhawk for the first time a few years back & immediately fell in love with their music.
I was really looking forward to seeing them at Philly again in August.

Rest in peace Dave.......Thanks for the tunes.

DB.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 20 Jul 02 - 05:42 AM

This is a huge shock.

I had the pleasure of meeting them both in Florida and talking at length to Dave after the show. He was such a nice guy. It is just unbelievable ....

Murray

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter
From: Genie
Date: 20 Jul 02 - 04:55 AM

What a wonderful song! So sad he's gone.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 Jul 02 - 03:11 AM

Thank you for that. It must've been Hadley, as it is in the five college area, near the Iron Horse, a venue where I know they often performed. I see in a quick check of the Daily Hampshire Gazette, in Northampton, MA, that they were scheduled to perform on the 19th and 20th at the Green River Festival at Greenfield College, which is near there, too. I couldn't find any news of his passing in that paper, though.

Thanks, again,

kat

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter
From: GUEST,Fwd: from a friend
Date: 20 Jul 02 - 03:00 AM

I reiceved this tonight from a friend Dale Barcellos:

I just talked to Daryll Purpose who spent this sad day with Tracy Grammer.

Dave fell ill this morning at approximately 11:00 am in his Holiday Express hotel room in Hadley (or Handley) Mass. He had just returned from jogging and felt the tell tail distress in his left arm. After drawing a bath he apparently told Tracy things were getting worse and at some point she called for help and after he lost consicousness she attempted to resucitate him. He briefly returned to consiousness reporting that to his amazement he had indeed died. She assured him that he was still with her and that he was not dead. He again lost consciuousness was taken away by emergency personal and pronounced dead a short time later. Whether or not this is exactly how it happened I can't varify since Darryl himself was in a state of shock. As Dave says however never let the facts get in the way of the truth. His was a life of profound grace and beauty even to the very end.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 Jul 02 - 11:00 PM

Lomax and Carter on the same day...seems like a weighty price...may they both live long in our memories and songs...

Subject: Lyr Add: WHEN I GO (Dave Carter)
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 Jul 02 - 07:47 PM

This really effing bites! I just discovered him a couple of years ago and his CDs are some of the most often played in my collection. In fact, two of his songs are to be used at my memorial. What a sad, sad day this is...and how appropriate for his song When I go...

WHEN I GO
(Dave Carter)

Come, lonely hunter, chieftain and king, I will fly like the falcon when I go
Bear me my brother under your wing, I will strike fell like lightning when I go
I will bellow like the thunder drum, invoke the storm of war
A twisting pillar spun of dust and blood up from the prairie floor
I will sweep the foe before me like a gale out on the snow
And the wind will long recount the story, reverence and glory, when I go

Spring, spirit dancer, nimble and thin, I will leap like coyote when I go
Tireless entrancer, lend me your skin, I will run like the gray wolf when I go
I will climb the rise at daybreak, I will kiss the sky at noon
Raise my yearning voice at midnight to my mother in the moon
I will make the lay of long defeat and draw the chorus slow
I'll send this message down the wire and hope that someone wise is listening when I go

And when the sun comes trumpets from his red house in the east
He will find a standing stone where long I chanted my release
He will send his morning messenger to strike the hammer blow
And I will crumble down uncountable in showers of crimson rubies when I go

Sigh, mournful sister, whisper and turn, I will rattle like dry leaves when I go
Stand in the mist where my fire used to burn, I will camp on the night breeze when I go
And should you glimpse my wandering form out on the borderline
Between death and resurrection and the council of the pines
Do not worry for my comfort, do not sorrow for me so
All your diamond tears will rise up and adorn the sky beside me when I go

© 1998 Dave Carter - BMI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n9vE3gEpSI

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter
From: BH
Date: 19 Jul 02 - 07:33 PM

Such sad news and such a young man taken so soon. On the cusp of real fame too.

I recall, as Ron did, our meeting at NERFA--and he, Dave, was in awe as Ron said. Yet when I interviewed him he talked of his travels around the world with such enthusiasm and a feeling of --I can't believe I have done all this. Wonderful---then he and Tracey played.

A unique talent that will be surely---and sorely--missed.

Bill Hahn

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 19 Jul 02 - 06:45 PM

Dave was a wonderful writer and a wonderful human being. I met him at NERFA a few years ago and I will always remember one moment that summed up his enthusiasm. We were attending a workshop (I can't remember the topic) but Dave and Tracey were on a panel with a number of musicians including Annie Haslam, the former lead singer of Renaissance. Dave was in awe of being on the stage with Annie and was literally tongue-tied. It was such a delight to watch him enjoying his work. He was so happy to be part of the music community.

He will be missed. Another great talent who has left us way too early. My condolences to Dave and his family.

Ron

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter
From: DebC
Date: 19 Jul 02 - 06:44 PM

Can someone please confirm this?

Deb

Subject: RE: OBIT: Dave Carter
From: DonMeixner
Date: 19 Jul 02 - 06:38 PM

I have just listened to several of their cuts off a site. Excellent writing now gone. Too sad....

Don Meixner

Subject: Dave Carter
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Jul 02 - 05:34 PM

Dave Carter of the Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer duo died today of a heart attack.