Remembering Al Grierson

Subject: Remembering Al Grierson
From: open mike
Date: 01 Jan 06 - 06:41 PM

With flooding all around me here this new years day, and
my car towed to the shop because i got swamped in a swollen
over-flowing creek yesterday I am reminded of the plight of
Al, who did not fare so well. He left a legacy for us all.

I remember hearing about Al Grierson making music in trains across
Canada. He, with Utah Phillips, was a member of the group Rose Tatoo
www.utahphillips.org/al/

A Web Site for Al Grierson by Pat Maloney
www.icogitate.com/~celticfolkmusic/artists/algrierson.htm

Fellow Worker Al Grierson (1948 - 2000) | Selected IWW Member ...
Around central Texas, Al Grierson, 52, was known as the "Poet Laureate of Luckenbach," ...www.iww.org/culture/biography/AlGrierson1.shtml

Kerrville Folk Festival Memorial Concert to Al Grierson, poet ...
Poet, songwriter, maverick and true spirit Al Grierson lost his life in a flash flood...He was a "Dustbowl Don Quixote" personified. ...
www.ragamuffin.fsbusiness.co.uk/algrierson/

Feature - Al Grierson, 1949-2000 - Hugh Blumenfeld's tribute to Al:
Folksinger and Songwriter Al Grierson Dies in Texas Flood. date:11/7/00. Al Grierson last time I saw him:
at last winter's Folk Alliance in Cleveland. ...
www.balladtree.com/articles/001107a.htm

Al Grierson Memorial Rock Garden | Other Snapshots from along the ...
Al Grierson Memorial Rock Garden. Previous Image Previous Image · Return to
Thumbnails Index Page Return to Thumbnails · Next Image Next Image ...
www.chuckbrodsky.com/.../slides/Al%20Grierson%20Memorial%20Rock%20Garden.html

Al Grierson
With the passing of Al Grierson in the broiling Texas Hill country waters in November... c 1999 Al Grierson. D. 1. Silly little people, silly little world ...
www.barnstormersmusic.com/artists/alg/

And this from Songwriter Jack Williams off of his Walkin' Dreams c.d.
www.jackwilliamsmusic.com/Songbooks/walkin_dreams.htm

In The Texas Sky (a song for Al Grierson)

Al Grierson rode to paradise on the flood near San Antone
When they found him they cremated that great storyteller's bones.
His family divided bits of Al among his friends
To keep him in good company as they scattered him
to the winds.
While staring in my little vial and marveling at his dust
I neared the Canadian border, that line of mutual trust
Where travelers all despair before severe jack-booted thugs.
Too late I realized that Al resembled dangerous drugs.

Now I am quite respectable, though I hardly look the part.
Three border guards laid all my stuff out on a metal cart.
They opened up my knapsack and smiled coldly at my pain
And impounded that suspicious vial that held old Al's remains.
"Hey, that's my friend that's not some drug like LSD or crack!"
They said "We'll have to run some tests
before we give him back."
They took Al to the back room with a laboratory sign
And there the three decided they'd lay Al out in three lines.

Within an hour they'd set me free to get back on the train
They said the test took all the substance, all except one grain.
That bit of Al remains my dear companion more or less
For there's more love in that one speck
than mortal men possess.

In the Texas sky floats a little cloud
Where the spirits lie and they laugh out loud.
Al Grierson sings his story, though it takes a little time,
How he got snorted by the boys on the US-Canada line.
        
Frankie, Sam and Henry worked the border drug patrol
Protecting all of Canada from illegal goods, I'm told.
But lives change mysteriously and miracles come to pass
They broke the law too many times and lost their jobs at last.

Frankie moved to Luchenbach with wife and kids along
They thought he'd lost his bloomin' mind
when he took up writing songs
But they came to love the madness
and the old bus they called home
For Frank became a gentler soul than they had ever known.

Sam once was a ladies' man with a head of coal black hair
But one morning in the mirror he found very little there.
It was long and stringy stickin' out beneath an old straw hat
But he found the woman of his dreams looking just like that.

Henry moved from Canada, sold everything he owned.
Mercedes, house, swimming pool, even gave away his phone.
In saffron robe and bowl you'll find him begging on your street
With words of compassion for every stranger that he meets.

That happy grain is all I have of my departed pal
Each day I greet the artist formerly known as Al.
His love abides in this sad world in three men no one knows
Who stopped us at the borderline
Who treated us like royal swine
Until they snorted Alan David Grierson up their nose.
Until they snorted Alan David Grierson up their nose.

Subject: RE: Remembering Al Grierson
From: open mike
Date: 01 Jan 06 - 06:49 PM

if you search for Al Grierson on mudcat
there are 2 songs of his in DT and 18
threads that come up in the search.

Subject: RE: Remembering Al Grierson
From: Amos
Date: 01 Jan 06 - 08:02 PM

See the Lyric Add Thread just started with his "'Til the Cirlce Is COmplete" song, a really beautiful song of best wishes.

That tale of Al getting sniffed by the Border guardia is one of the funniest things I've read in a while. I am sure Al is laughing in his many graves!!

A

Subject: RE: Remembering Al Grierson
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 01 Jan 06 - 11:54 PM

I posted the words to Al Grierson's song OLD COYOTE a while ago, but I do believe I got some of the words wrong. Now it's in the Digitrad with the mistakes. One of these days I'll re-do a post to make it right.

To push what a fine song I think OLD COYOTE is, I started the thread called The Greatest Song Ever Written (or something like that).--- That's surely an overstatement of some kind, but it does indicate some of what I think about Al's writing. Having him pass in a flash flood is just a terribly sad loss---and a cosmic joke of some horrific kind. I do suspect that COYOTE might have had a hand in it.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Remembering Al Grierson
From: GUEST,pdspeers
Date: 14 Mar 14 - 02:27 PM

Al and I were pals in Vancouver in 1969. We shared a flat, worked together in Gastown, had many a meal and drink together and travelled to England. In London he "borowed my guitar". I haven't seen him since.
Now 14 yrears after his death I was thinking of him and googled him to find out about his life and death in a Texas flood. It's great he is so well remembered. He was a great charater and the finest of friends. I geuss it's unlikley he could return my gutar...

Subject: RE: Remembering Al Grierson
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Mar 14 - 01:00 PM

Al Grierson was one of the best folk style contemporary lyricists around. He has a couple of CD's available. He kindly sent me a booklet of many of his lyrics.

Subject: RE: Remembering Al Grierson
From: GUEST,Mark Leier
Date: 29 Oct 20 - 03:24 PM

This November will be 20 years since Al Grierson died.

Subject: RE: Remembering Al Grierson
From: GUEST,brian QTN
Date: 11 May 21 - 03:29 AM

Hard to believe it's been 20 years since Al died. Both of his older albums are up on bandcamp where he has his own page at last. A new album of unreleased songs is up there too and preorder just began. The album called The Petals will be out by Memorial Day and the proceeds go to Al's two daughters. If you want more info, drop a line to [e-mail]