Welcome
Hi, All!
Hey, welcome to my virtual front porch! Thanks for coming by! Pull up a chair, break out your guitar if you have one! I've got a few tunes for you, and you're welcome to join me. I've got some songs and stories to tell, all in search of the heart of our country, and some are just plain fun.
I'm originally from Gainesville, Florida but have been in the North Country for the last forty years, mostly in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Both of 'em states where the Pilgrims landed, and sometimes it seems like they never left! Salt of the earth! You may have gators in the south, but we have snow to keep us honest.
I wrote a song last year in February as I was on the way to the Will McLean folk festival: “The day I left the North Country, it was a hundred an' ten below / Way up on the mountain, where the coldest cold winds blow . . . “ At which point I become an apologist for the North: ”That was just on top of the mountain, in New Hampshire! With wind chill and all, but it wasn't that bad in the valley! It was only forty five below!” Still in all, that's the day my wheels hit the pavement for the sweet sunny south.
And when I got to Gainesville . . . “There was flowers blooming everywhere, up there's three feet of snow! / And I ain't in a hurry for to go!” I went to Tennessee instead. That's a whole ‘nother story! And i wrote it up, of course, including everything that happened on Music Row.
That same song was called: “Don' t Feed the Alligators!” because I was staying in the rough camping area at the festival. There was a sign that said: “There are snakes and alligators,” and below that it said: “Don't feed the wildlife!” And I realized that there are folks around these parts that if you don't put up a sign? They might say: “Look at that poor gator, he looks hungry! Let's hand him a hamburger!” So i wrote the song to say: “Believe me, I'll do my best!” I'm not makin' this up! it's a true story!
And everywhere I go, the weather might be different, and customs and languages are slighty different, but the people are the same. I travelled some and I found out there are good people everywhere. And there are also knuckleheads everywhere. But if we just remember we are the better part of who we are? We'll be alright. Don't feed the gators! That's all I'm sayin'! That's the whole idea! If I had to summarize the Entire Tennessee Legend (I'm talkin' about 105 pages of songs and stories and mostly true tall tales, and now I'm writing the Tennessee Legend III ‘cause the story ain’t DONE yet! And I"m on page 865!) If I had to say it in once sentence, it would be this simple: our country was founded on something real and genuine, and we would do well to remember it. When we fall short? (And we will!) Get up an' try it again! If I sound like a preacher? So be it. It's just the truth, y'all! And the rest I can explain better with a guitar. Sounds better wrapped up in a little country an' blues.
Your Pal in the Muse,
You can call me: “Brother Jim!”
