Posted by John Gearing on June 11, 101 at 12:55:35:
I was fortunate to have seen and heard John Hartford some half a dozen times over the years. One memorable show for me was one he played in Decatur, GA (just over the line from Atlanta) at a good-sized club called "The Full Moon Saloon" (close by the Emory Univ campus). This was back in 1980 or so, I'd guess. John was playing solo then, and had his magic sheet of plywood laid down on the stage, upon which he tapped out a rhythm line with his feet during the entire concert. But for me the most enduring memory of that show was when he played "The Orange Blossom Special" on his fiddle. He had a pickup on the fiddle and a wireless transmission system, which enabled him to hop down off the stage and dance among the tables while he played. Toward the climax of the piece he stopped at the table in front of mine while making his way back to the stage. While he played on, he explained to the gentleman sitting at that table that in a few seconds he was going to hand the man his fiddle bow, and for the man to hold it firmly and straight up. The man nodded his assent and after a couple more bars John thrust the bow into the man's waiting hand....and then continued to play the piece by moving the fiddle up and down the stationary bow!! All the while maintaining perfect rhythm and playing very intricate fingerings. After half a minute or so he took back the bow and continued on his way without missing a note! This was one of the most amazing musical feats I've ever seen.
Some years later I caught up with John again at San Fransisco's Great American Music Hall. John played a great show, once again, but as he concluded his last encore, he asked the crowd if they felt like dancing. There was a resounding "yeah!" in response. So John directed us to clear out the tables and folding chairs and make a big space right in front of the stage, and then he proceeded to call a square dance for us, right there! Of course he had to teach most of us how to square dance, but that was part of the fun of it. What a night!
And then there was the time he was on the bill at a festival up in Marin Cty, California. One of the events was noted as a "workshop" with John Hartford. We went, not knowing what to expect. The small theatre was packed with people when John walked out onto the stage. He brought along his banjo and fiddle, and something to sit on. He asked us all how we were and what we wanted to do that afternoon. Then it dawned on probably 95% of the audience that this was really meant to be a workshop! We were all sitting there in awe of John--too much so to even speak. And if there were any musicians in the group, they weren't talking either. But John picked up on that right away and simply disarmed us with his casual grace and class, suggesting a few things he'd been asked by others, like how he approached songwriting, and things took off from there. It was a wonderful afternoon, one in which we not only learned about John's music and music in general, but quite a bit about ourselves and how we saw ourselves in relation to John. T'was fine!