Looking for a Community
Last nite I watched Allison Krauss and Robert Plant win the annual Grammy Award for best album, Raising Sand. They deserved to win, it’s a great album. But I am jealous, because I feel I have a connection with that album, and I wasn’t a part of it.
An important song on the album, Your Long Journey, was written by Rosa Lee Watson according to her husband, Arthel, better known as Doc. I know Doc Watson, have for over 40 years, talked to him two weeks ago, was once his “lead boy” and accompanist. I never got completely over not still being in that position. But that’s part of a musician’s life.
Same kind of thing happened when I saw José Feliciano a couple weeks ago pimping his comeback on TV. I know Jose, too. He introduced himself to me in 1964 or ’65 by yelling, “Play the fastes’ thin’ you know!” from the audience at a club where we were both appearing. Why aren’t they calling me in to be part of his re-entry into pop music stardom?
Are either of these things of interest to you? Would you like to know more about these encounters and other ones like them? What I’m asking is: Is there a place for my True-Stories-type accounts of the musicians and music scene of the 1960’s and early ‘70’s? I am asking for your opinion.
I have stories about Janis Joplin, Jerry Garcia, Johnny Cash, Ry Cooder, Taj Mahal, The Byrds, Sammy Davis, Jr., Dave Lindley, Laurel and Topanga Canyons, the Carter Family, Little Richard and many, many more.
I wouldn’t have to work hard to make these stories interesting, because they already are. BTW, I’m not trying to sell anything, just share some personal history with othere people like me, who might have personal histories of their own to share. I should have some parameters, tho. I think your experiences should be like mine: personal tales of first-person contact with the music and musicians of the 1960’s and early ‘70’s.
So, please tell me what you think about what I’m doing, realizing that right now there are so few of you that your input will have a profound effect on what I do next. Feel the burden.
Allan “Country Al” Ross
