On Dec 16, 2023, at 8:22 PM, Udhay Shankar N via Silklist
<[email protected]> wrote:
>
> On Sun, Dec 17, 2023 at 9:23 AM Peter Langston via Silklist
> <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>
> Peter Langston signing in from far off Seattle to see if I'm connected. My
> contribution to the annual booklistings, aside from my usual Donna Leon
> (Brunetti) mysteries and Alan Bradley (Flavia de Luce) stories, is a
> biography of Vivian Williams, a pillar of the Northwest (US) traditional
> music scene and a regional historian, which I'm editing -- the most intense
> form of reading for me. It's not yet available, but when it is I imagine it
> will comprise multiple volumes. Vivian and her husband Phil's activities
> ranged so widely and together they initiated so many projects that are now
> major cultural institutions that it has been difficult to pare it down.
>
> Your test worked, Peter. :)
>
> Say more about how you became the editor for this book?
>
> Udhay
In answer to Udhay's question... I met Phil and Vivian Williams when I came
to the West Coast to go to school at Reed College. Because I played
traditional American music (folk, blues, bluegrass, swing) on acoustic
instruments a friend at Reed who knew Phil and Vivian felt we should meet so he
and I took a pilgrimage to Seattle to meet the Williams' and we hit it off
immediately; I spent a long weekend at their house and we created an imaginary
backwoods string band called the Krapp Family and created a fictitious Field
Recording called "Krapp's Last Tape" which had us in stitches for many years.
From that time on we were family. It didn't hurt that Phil and Vivian had also
attended Reed College about a decade before I did.
Vivian died in the last year of ALS. When the author of Vivian's
biography, Paul Schafer (not the bandleader), interviewed me for his book we
also hit it off and he offered to let me read one of the chapters that dealt
with a period in Vivian's life with which I was particuarly familiar. I have
to admit I inherited a bit of grammar nerdiness and copyeditor impulse from
both my parets, so when I read that chapter and sent it back to him with notes
about the musical issues I also had many suggestions about grammar, clarity,
and general copyediting suggestions. Apparently Paul liked my take on these
things so he asked me if I would be willing to read another chapter, and
bit-by-bit I ended up reading the entire (massive) book. I must say that I
found very few issues with the grammar; his was excellent, but having lived
through many of the years that he was talking about as a traditional music
(bluegrass, old-time, dance) musician I was able to provide context for many of
the stories and explain some of the terminology/jargon.
I had a wonderful time reading the huge amount of historical background
that Paul had found about Vivian's and Phil's families and I was also amazed to
learn of some of the work and research that they had done both as
ethnomusicological historians and as publishers of music (Smithsonian Folkways
recently bought the catalog of their music publishing company, Voyager
Records). So I was happy to get the chance to read it all ahead of publication
and I didn't mind putting in the many hours it took. I was flattered to learn
that I am to be listed as the editor, even though I know that other people,
including Vivian herself, have read and edited parts of the book.
Anyway, that's an idea of how I became the editor of this book; probably
more than anyone really wanted to know. . . (As Stan Freberg has King Ferdinand
say to Christopher Columbus: "Wait a minute! I ask a simple question, I get a
pageant!")
-=P=-
On Sun, Dec 20, 2020 at 7:05 AM Udhay Shankar N <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
> How did you find out about silklist? Share your stories.
Udhay and I were on a mailing list together many years ago (more than 26 I
believe) and I always enjoyed what he had to say. So, years later when I saw
his name go by as part of Silklist I asked to join, even though I didn't really
know what it was to be. It turned out to be an interesting bunch of people who
often meet in a place I've never been and sometimes talk about things that are
foreign (both ways) to me, but on balance it's almost always interesting and
civilized, so I'm glad he included me. Unfortunately I have too many email
addresses, so for years my From: address was not my Silklist subscription
address, so I couldn't post and I was too lazy to get that fixed. Recently
Udhay offered to fix that and he did. Thanks!
-=P=-
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