Wow, Victor....I hope your friend was able to hear your music as he passed from this world...what a long strange trip it continues to be....
Victor Johnson wrote: > Cassidy was written upon the death of Jack > Cassady and the birth of Cassidy Law and Birdsong was written as a memorial > to Janis Joplin. I know you meant to say Neal Cassidy. I did not know Birdsong was about Janis. It's one I like to play. > Last weekend I attended the 14th annual Georgia Reunion and Goodtime Boogie > which I had not been to in two years. All in all, it was a very intense > and powerful weekend and while not the same as jonifest(what is...)it was > highly emotional and spiritual, a gathering of like minded people creating > a bohemian village on some beautiful private land in the Georgia mountains. > I don't know exactly how many people came but I know there were several > hundred. > > I stayed at the Dew Drop Inn, a site some of my friends have had for > several years. People create fairly elaborate camp sites with candles, > christmas lights, tye dyes everywhere. At night everything seems incredibly > beautiful like some kind of fairytale village in the middle of the woods. > There were even a few women with fairy wings flittering down the trails > into the night. > > I had been a little unsure about going as I had missed two years but as > soon as I was there for a little while, it seemed as if no time had gone > by. Whatever negative elements I had experienced before seemed to be > virtually nonexistant. I felt right at home. > > On Saturday, I had planned to play up on the stage though there was no > exact schedule. I sort of milled about and wandered around, hung at the > campsite. Eventually, I went down to the stage where there was a girl > named Jaime playing, who oddly enough, was from Asheville. I just sort of > hung around the stage listening to her sing. Basically, if you want to > play you just sort of have to hang around the stage and take it over, just > go up and start singing. After she was done someone played a couple of > songs on the piano and then I mentioned that I would like to play. > > I had planned on playing "Terrapin Station" and asked my friend Brian > Hillman(formerly of Deep Blue Sun) to sit in with me on guitar. I could > have played later in the day but I felt an urgent need to go up and play > now. It just seemed like it was the right time. > > Brian wanted to warm up on a couple of things so I played "Bertha" and > "Queen Jane Approximately". Somewhere in between, someone came up to the > stage and said there was an emergency and they needed so and so > immediately. I called her name over the mike and didn't think a whole lot > of it. We then played Terrapin with just piano and guitar. Of course, we > had not practiced before hand but I thought it went pretty well. I then > switched over to guitar which I found to be alot easier to gell with the > other guitar. We proceeded to play JAckaroe, Boomerang Love, Cassidy, and > Birdsong. I felt an unusual surge of energy this whole set, as if I was > being carried along by something other than myself. > > At that point, someone came up and said that a friend, Steve, who had just > arrived there shortly before, had just had a heart attack and was on the > way to the hospital. I stopped playing for several minutes, unsure whether > to go on but then played "Box of Rain" sending it out to Steve, followed by > "Real World" and finishing with "Eyes of the World." At that point > Danny(one of the founders of the boogie) came up to the stage and began > talking at which point I left the area and went back to the campsite. > > I later heard wafts of an Irish melody on the piano, coming through the > woods. I found out later that someone was playing it for Steve and that he > had passed away almost immediately after his heart attack. So somewhere in > the first several minutes of my set, he passed away, only a few hundred > yards away. > > I don't know how it happened that we were up on the stage playing through > all if this, with no knowledge of what was going on but reflecting upon it, > I am glad that we were. I will never look at any of these songs the same > way ever again, their meaning so intensified, the close connection of life > to death so clear and vivid... > > Though his death did bring everyone down somewhat, in another way it really > brought everyone even closer together and the weekend became a giant > memorial to Steve, a celebration of his life. Somehow, it seemed so > natural to pass into the other world. Though very, very tragic... > > Victor, glad to be home for awhile... > > --- Victor Johnson > --- [EMAIL PROTECTED] > "Roses wait for the springtime, > They sleep beneath the ground. > They hear March winds a callin' > For the sun to come around."vlj > > Visit http://www.cdbaby.com/victorjohnson
